A Yemen-based al-Qaida group is calling for regional coordination with rebels in Somalia.  The governments of both countries are facing powerful insurgencies from Islamist forces. The deputy commander of the militant group known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, Said Ali al-Shihri, has issued an audio statement urging the Somali al-Shabab militants to join with his group in blocking U.S. maritime shipments to Israel. Yemen sits only 30 kilometers across the ocean from Somalia's smaller northern neighbor Djibouti.

A top Yemeni official confirms that the Nigerian man suspected of trying to blow up an airplane last month met with an extremist Muslim cleric linked to other violence in the U.S.  But the official says that although the suspect lived for a while in Yemen, he was radicalized in Britain.  Yemen's deputy prime minister for defense and security affairs says the suspect met with Anwar al-Awlaki, a cleric popular with extremist groups, late last year.   Rashad al-Alimi told reporters in Sana'a that Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is thought to have met with the American-Yemeni cleric in Sh

The United States and Britain are keeping their embassies in Yemen closed for a second day Monday because of threats from a local branch of the al-Qaida terrorist network.  It is not clear when they plan to reopen. France also closed its embassy in Yemen Monday.  The French foreign ministry made the announcement. U.S. President Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism aide, John Brennan, told CNN Sunday the U.S.

Authorities in Yemen say the Nigerian man accused of trying to destroy a U.S. jetliner last week lived in Yemen for months, and was in the country as recently as this month. The Yemeni Foreign Ministry says 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was in Yemen from early August to early December.  The ministry says he was granted a visa to study Arabic at an institute in the capital, Sanaa, where he had previously studied.