
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 has emerged. Security services on both sides of the Atlantic are under scrutiny after it emerged Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was able to board the jet with explosives despite warnings of his extremism, including one from his millionaire father.

A Nigerian student reported to have links to al-Qaeda is being questioned after an attempted act of terrorism on a plane arriving in the city of Detroit, according to US officials.

United States Senate confirmed Thomas Shannon as the newly appointed US Ambassador to Brazil, after a long delay due to the veto of Republican national deputies, who have showed discontent towards US President Barack Obama's policies as regards Latin America.

US senators have passed the final Senate version of a historic healthcare reform bill. The bill aims to cover 31million uninsured Americans and could lead to the biggest change in US healthcare in decades.

The latest economic data shows the US economy grew more slowly than first thought. US Commerce Department reports that GDP expanded at a 2.2% annual rate from July to September, down from an earlier estimate of 2.8%.

Sejong Soloists, named after the 15th-century arts advocate Korean Emperor Sejong the Great, and hailed by CNN as one of the top ensembles of today, and having previously performed in New York City's venues at The Julliard School and Carnegie Hall, premiered their Tenth Annual Gala in New York's newly renovated Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center.

Top United States official remarks about the lack of “legal security” in Argentina echoed in Copenhagen’s climate conference where Foreign Secretary Jorge Taiana approached Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to about these “unfortunate statements”.

Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo A. Valenzuela visited Uruguay on Thursday where he met with president elect Jose Mujica and Vice-president Danilo Astori.

Ben Bernanke's nomination to a second term as head of the US Federal Reserve has been approved by a Senate panel. Members of the Senate Banking Committee voted on Thursday 16 to seven to back Mr Bernanke as head of the central bank.

The Federal Reserve has decided to keep US interest rates on hold at between 0% and 0.25%, --as had been widely expected--, and anticipated that most of the special liquidity facilities will expire on February 1, 2010.