Portrait of the week | 9 January 2010

Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, called a meeting in London on Yemen at the end of the month after al-Qa’eda claimed that it was responsible for the attempted destruction of an airliner approaching Detroit on Christmas Day.

Mr Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, called a meeting in London on Yemen at the end of the month after al-Qa’eda claimed that it was responsible for the attempted destruction of an airliner approaching Detroit on Christmas Day. Charges were brought against Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian who had taken his degree at University College London and later spent a few months in Yemen allegedly learning how to set off a bomb hidden in his underpants. Full-body scanners are to be introduced at British airports, Mr Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary said, with the first reaching Heathrow in three weeks. Both Britain and the United States closed their embassies in Yemen for a couple of days, lest staff be attacked.