WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama asserted on Tuesday that the US government had enough information to foil the attempted bombing on a Christmas Day airline flight but intelligence agencies "failed to connect the dots."
Obama called that unacceptable and said, "I will not tolerate it." The accused attacker, a Nigerian man who claimed ties to al-Qaida, was subdued by other passengers and airline crew members after he allegedly attempted to detonate explosives hidden under his clothes. The president, speaking after meeting with his Cabinet and national security team, declared, "We have to do better and we will do better. And we will do it quickly."
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China has urged the United States to scrap a planned multi-billion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan - a move that defense experts said would once again likely scuttle ongoing military exchanges with the US.
The Foreign Ministry yesterday also demanded that Washington avoid arranging a meeting between US President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama.

The Washington Post said the meeting, and the arms sale, may take place early in the year, dealing a heavy blow to relations between the two world powers.

"Taiwan and Tibet are of great significance to China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. They are China's core interests," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said during a regular press briefing. Jiang was responding to a question on whether China-US relations were likely to deteriorate if the US administration went ahead with both plans.

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WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government has overhauled its terror watch list after a Nigerian whose name was on the list breached security check and brought an explosive device to a U.S. international flight on Christmas Day, said an official on Monday. "There's already been a rescrubbing of all the different lists, so safety and security measures are moving forward even as the review goes on," said White House Spokesman Bill Burton en route Andrews Air Force Base where President Barack Obama landed after avocation in Hawaii.

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BAGHDAD, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said his country would file a lawsuit in Iraqi and U.S. courts against a U.S. private security firm over the killing of Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007, his office said in a statement.
According to the statement obtained by Xinhua on Tuesday, Maliki rejected a U.S. judge's decision to drop charges against five of the U.S. Blackwater's security guards who were involved in killing unarmed civilians at a crowded intersection in western Baghdad two years ago. ...

SANAA, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. embassy in Yemen reopened on Tuesday, after a two-day closure prompted by al-Qaida threat against Western interests in the Arab country, the embassy said.
"The U.S. Embassy in Yemen re-opened for business on January 5, following a two-day closure prompted by credible information that pointed to the likelihood of imminent terrorist attacks in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa," said a press release posted on the website of the U.S. embassy.
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