An Irish Muslim threatened to put a bullet in the head of an American lawyer who organised a rally against Islamic terrorism in the US, a court has heard.

For hours after allegedly trying to use a bomb hidden in his underwear to blow up a Christmas Day flight to Detroit, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab talked and talked – to US Customs officers, medical personnel, and FBI agents.

Al-Qaida warned of a terror attack just days before a former British student allegedly attempted to blow up a transatlantic airliner carrying 278 passengers, it was revealed tonight.