Airlines, Christmas Day Bombing | featured news

President Obama is announcing new measures Tuesday to beef up airline security after an alleged terrorist attempt to destroy ...

The president says an affiliate of the group trained and equipped Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He promises to hold U.S. security officials accountable for breakdowns in terrorism screening.

Officials say a Somali national tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month with powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that together could have caused an explosion. The hallmarks bear chilling similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner.

President Obama said a "mix of human and systemic human failure" allowed a terror suspect to board an airliner in the botched Christmas Day bombing attempt.

An attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. passenger jet has put a spotlight on what American spy agencies see as an emerging battlefield in Yemen against a rapidly growing hub for al Qaeda.