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A man is seen covered in blood and clutching his groin after gunshots are heard
The prisoners are shown being cut down from the gallows in the grainy video
A disturbing video showing the violent protests following an attempt to hang two convicted bank robbers in Iran has made its way on to the internet.
Five people were killed and around 25 injured after protesters tried to rescue Esmail Fathi-Zadeh and Mohammad Esfandiarpoor in Sirjan last Tuesday.
What started as a seemingly innocent protest against the public execution quickly turned into a violent bloodbath, culminating in a shoot-out between the protesters and the officials attempting to carry out the hanging. A video of the dramatic scenes show Fathi-Zadeh and Esfandiarpoor being hanged from the gallows as protesters rush forward and hold their legs to stop them from choking, before someone else cuts the men down.
During the chaos gunshots can be heard and footage is shown of a man who has been shot in the groin in the gunfire exchange and is bleeding profusely.
A man who was reportedly shot by police during the protests is also shown in the video laying lifeless on the ground, apparently dead. Those wounded in the protests were taken to local hospitals in Kerman, the provincial capital of Sirjan, for treatment, but some are still said to be in a critical state.
A group of local residents and relatives of the prisoners due to be hanged are reported to have been arrested.
A local news agency confirmed both Fathi-Zadeh and Esfandiarpoor have since been executed.
Crimes including murder, adultery, armed robbery, rape and drug trafficking have all been punishable by death since the 1979 Islamic revolution, when Iran's sharia law was introduced.
Iran is said to be second only to China in terms of the amount of people it has sentenced to execution - putting to death at least 346 people last year, according to figures released by Amnesty International.
While hangings are usually carried out inside prisons in Iran, they are sometimes held in public.
The St James Park issued a distress call on Monday night saying it had been attacked by pirates
Somali pirates have captured two ships with 45 crew off the East African coast, officials say.
A UK-flagged chemical tanker, the St James Park, was reportedly captured in the Gulf of Aden on Monday while on its way to Thailand from Spain.
Its 26 crew hail from Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Georgia, India, Turkey and the Philippines.
The Navios Apollon, a Panamanian-flagged Greek cargo ship with 19 crew, was hijacked north of the Seychelles.
The 50,000-tonne carrier - which had been sailing from the US state of Florida to India - was boarded on Monday by 10 men in speedboats, according to the Greek coastguard.
Pirate attacks have been common off the Somali coast and international navies have been deployed to counter them.
'No contact'
The St James Park issued a distress call on Monday night saying it had been attacked by pirates, said the International Maritime Bureau
The tanker, which was carrying a cargo of chemicals used to make plastics, had changed course and was now heading towards the northern coast of Somalia, said Andrew Mwangura of the Seafarers Assistance Programme.
"It is expected to arrive there later this evening," Mr Mwangura told AFP news agency.
The ship's owner-operators told the BBC they were working for "the early and safe release of our crew members on board".
A spokesman for Zodiac Maritime Agencies said the company had had no contact with the St James Park or the pirates but was in contact with the European naval force in the area.
The waters around Somalia are among the most dangerous in the world.
Correspondents say the upsurge in piracy in the region is a consequence of the failure to find a solution to Somalia's continuing political disarray.
Executed: Akmal Shaikh was put to death this morning after being convicted of heroin smuggling
(left).Soohail Shaikh, left, and Nasir Shaikh, cousins of Akmal Shaikh, pictured together this morning in a street in Urumqi where the Briton was held
Supporters of British national Akmal Shaikh hold a vigil at the Chinese Embassy in London
Anger: Gordon Brown attacked Mr Shaikh's execution in the 'strongest' terms
Death prison: Shaikh was held and executed at Xishan detention centre in western China's Urumqi province
Father-of-three Mr Shaikh was arrested in Urumqi in September 2007 and charged with smuggling almost 9lbs of heroin
Gordon Brown today led condemnation of China for executing a mentally ill British man who had been convicted of drug smuggling.
Akmal Shaikh, 53, was put to death by lethal injection just after 4am at Xishan detention centre in the western Urumqi province.
The father-of-five was buried immediately. He was the first European citizen to be put to death in China for 50 years.
In a statement shortly after Mr Shaikh's death, the prime minister said he condemned the exeuction 'in the strongest terms'.
He said he was 'appalled and disappointed' that persistent requests for clemency have not been granted.
'I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken,' he said.
'At this time our thoughts are with Mr Shaikh's family and friends and I send them our sincere condolences.'
David Cameron has also attacked the execution, saying he found the decision deplorable.
The British government has made 27 representations to the Chinese authorities about Mr Shaikh's case in the past two years.
A last ditch appeal from Foreign Office minister Ivan Lewis also fell on deaf ears.
Beijing, however, remained defiant.
Spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry Jiang Yu said Britain's robust response risked souring diplomatic relations.
'No one has the right to to comment on China's judicial sovereignty,' she said.
'It is the common wish of people around the world to strike against the crime of drug trafficking.
'We express our strong dissatisfaction and opposition to the British Government's unreasonable criticism of the case.
'We urge the British to correct their mistake in order to avoid harming China-UK relations.' The Chinese embassy in London said Mr Shaikh had 'no previous medical record' of mental illness and that his rights and interests had been properly respected.
In a statement, officials said the Briton had been convicted of 'serious' drug trafficking, adding: 'The amount of heroin he brought into China was 4,030g, enough to cause 26,800 deaths, threatening numerous families.' Mr Shaikh, from Kentish Town, North London, was arrested in September 2007 and convicted of trying to smuggle 9lb of heroin, worth £250,000, into the remote western Chinese city of Urumqi, 2,000 miles from Beijing.
He insisted he was tricked into carrying the drug but was convicted in 2008 after a half-hour trial.
Despite being sentenced to death, Mr Shaikh was not told about his impending execution by the Chinese authorities. Instead, his cousins Suhail and Nasir Shaikh had to break the news yesterday when they visited him in prison.
In a statement after Mr Shaikh's execution, they said: 'We are deeply saddened, stunned and disappointed at the news of the execution of our beloved cousin, Akmal,' they said.
'This was carried out this morning despite repeated requests for clemency and a proper appraisal of Akmal's mental state.
'We are astonished at suggestions that Akmal himself should have provided evidence of his own fragile state of mind.
'We find it ludicrous that any mentally ill person should be expected to provide this, especially when this was apparently bipolar disorder, in which we understand the sufferer has a distorted view of the world, including his own condition.
'That this was regarded as sufficient grounds for refusal by the judicial authorities to order any mental health assessment is shocking to us.
'Despite our own and other pleas, the Chinese authorities have maintained their refusal to investigate Akmal's mental health.
'We are comforted that the authorities have confirmed that Akmal has been buried in accordance with his own and his family's wishes.'
His daughter Leilla Horsnell added: 'I am shocked and disappointed that the execution went ahead with no regards to my dad's mental health problems, and I struggle to understand how this is justice.'
The Chinese have also ignored repeated pleas from British-based prison charity Reprieve, who had worked on behalf of Mr Shaikh.
Speaking after his execution, the organisation's director Clive Stafford Smith said: 'Sad to say, I have watched six people die in execution chambers, and it is as ghastly as it is pointless.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1238454/A'Is the world somehow a better place today because China refused to show compassion for an obviously ill man?
'Of course not. China's refusal to even allow a proper medical evaluation is simply disgusting.'
Reprieve's legal director Sally Rowen had described Mr Shaikh as a 'gentle man who suffering from a tormenting illness.
'He fell through the cracks... as many people with mental illness do,' she added.
Mr Shaikh's case attracted support from mental health campaigners as well as those opposed to the death penalty.
'At this time our thoughts are with Mr Shaikh's family and friends and I send them our sincere condolences.'
Robert Westhead, spokesman for MDF, the Bipolar Organisation, described the execution as 'medieval rough justice' and an 'absolute tragedy'. 'How a society treats people affected by mental illness is always a good indicator of how civilised it is.
'The way the Chinese authorities have stubbornly failed to take account of this poor man's severe mental illness shows that China is still stuck in the dark ages.
'This execution is medieval rough justice gone badly wrong.'
Mr Shaikh's cousins visited him in jail for the last time yesterday.
Speaking exclusively to the Mail, Suhail said: ‘Akmal had lost some weight but he was in high spirits when we first met him because he still believed he could appeal one more time and have his sentence overturned and be saved.
‘He did not know a date had been set for his execution, and he said he was still waiting for an imminent change of heart from the Chinese who would overturn his death sentence and pardon him.’
'We had to break the news to him and tell him that he was to be executed within 24 hours.
‘He did not seem to believe us but we told him the final decision had been passed, and that we had done all we could as a tight-knit, heartbroken family to save him.
‘It was apparent to us that he was suffering from a mental illness. The things he was saying were not the things you’d expect a normal person facing the death sentence to say.
'He was a little tearful at the end. He said he appreciated us being there. We had to be strong for him. We said we had not given up hope.’
The brothers looked solemn as they emerged from the prison hospital into falling snow. They were carrying Mr Shaikh's personal effects in a plastic bag.
As night fell in London, supporters held a candlelit vigil outside the Chinese embassy.
Tom Scott, a freelance theatre director from Catford, said he had become aware of the case through a Facebook group called Stop the Execution of Akmal Shaikh.
He said: 'I am appalled by this case. I am against the death penalty any way in all circumstances but I think this is a particularly bad case - where a man who from all reports, clearly is mentally ill and suffers from delusions was duped by a drugs gang into taking a case which contained heroin into China.
Maya Farr, an 18-year-old customer services representative was also present at the vigil. She said 1,600 people had signalled their support for the Facebook campaign.
'I am personally against the death penalty, but there are so many aspects to this case which we are really opposed to. His mental history has not been assessed.' Reprieve said new witnesses had emerged following publicity about the case who backed up the defence claim about his mental illness.
Mr Shaikh was obsessed with recording a song that would usher in world peace, the organisation said.
Two British men, Paul Newberry and Gareth Saunders, both quoted by the organisation, said they had helped Mr Shaikh record a song in Poland and that it was clear that he was mentally ill.
Mr Newberry, a British national who lives in Poland, told Reprieve that Mr Shaikh was a 'very, very ill' person.
He said in a statement issued by the organisation: 'I was probably one of the last people who saw Akmal before he left Poland in August 2007.
'I met Akmal in spring 2007 when he started hanging around the tent city that protesting nurses had set up outside the Polish prime minister's offices in Warsaw. The protest attracted a range of 'colourful' characters and he was one of them.
'As I was British and was with a British friend, Akmal latched on to us. Immediately it was clear that he was mentally ill, although he was a very likeable person, friendly and very open.
'However, he was clearly suffering from delusions and it seemed to me he was a particularly severe case of manic depressive.
'I told him a number of times that he should see a doctor, that he was ill, but he just laughed.
'Any person would have been offended had he been a normal person not in the middle of a psychosis.'
He said Mr Shaikh had shown them lyrics to the song 'Run Little Rabbit' written on a paper napkin and tried to convince them it would be a hit.
He said: 'For a few weeks he pestered us until finally we agreed to record it with him.
'I have no idea who paid for the recording studio but I think he used his charm and persistence to persuade the owner to let him record the song.
'I can't imagine anyone singing worse than he did on that recording and we told him so, but he was on such a high, convinced that he would have a huge hit.
'We told him that he was crazy, that it was the worst thing we had ever heard, but he just laughed in our face and repeated that it would be huge.'
CHINA'S DEADLY RECORD
China accounts for nearly three quarters of the world's executions every year, according to human rights campaigners.
Figures from Amnesty International show a minimum of 7,000 death sentences were handed down in China in 2008, with 1,700 executions taking place.
Amnesty International said the Chinese authorities refused to make public national statistics on death sentences and executions and the real figure was 'undoubtedly higher'.
Steve Ballinger, a spokesman for Amnesty International, said: 'China accounts for 72% of the world's executions and China executes far more than any other country by an awfully long way.'
Under Chinese criminal law, a mental patient who commits a crime, and has not completely lost the ability to recognise or control his own conduct at the time, still has criminal responsibility but may be given a lighter punishment.
Mr Ballinger said Amnesty, which campaigns against the use of the death penalty, was concerned that trials in China fall below international fair trial standards.
He said Akmal Shaikh was 'very unlikely' to have received a fair trial.
Other areas of concern to Amnesty in China include restrictions on freedom of expression, and the frequent use of torture in custody - although he said there was no evidence that Shaikh had suffered this.
Although there was still a 'long way to go', he said there had been some gradual improvement, with China earlier this year stating that the Supreme People's Court had to review all death penalty cases.
According to Amnesty International, the Chinese authorities stated their intention in 2008 to increase the use of lethal injection as a 'more humane' method of execution than firing squad.
The organisation said China voted in December 2008 against a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions.
Fears over airport security could leave millions of passengers facing the indignity of a 'naked' body scan and paying higher fares to fund it.
Hi-tech body scanners can see through clothes to detect hidden weapons or explosives such as those used in the failed Christmas Day plot.
They produce an anatomical image of passengers' bodies, including breasts and genitalia, and have been attacked as too intrusive. Critics have described them as a 'virtual strip search'.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the Government was looking at the use of the full body scanners, but admitted there were cost and privacy issues.
The scanners are on a year's trial at Manchester Airport, where security officers have already been banned from using them on children following warnings that the images could break child pornography laws which outlaw the creation of images of youngsters.
The machines cost £80,000 each, meaning it would cost millions to install them in all of Britain's airports. Inevitably the cost would be handed on to passengers through higher air fares.
But security experts have said they would speed up safety checks by quickly revealing any concealed weapons or explosives. Dutch airport authorities said yesterday that they would make the new scanners mandatory after syringe bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was able to board his flight from Amsterdam to Detroit without the explosive sewn into his underwear being detected.
Heightened security ordered by the U.S. in the wake of the failed bomb plot has caused massive delays on both sides of the Atlantic, as airports struggle to cope with the new measures.
The machines would speed up checks as they eliminate the need for passengers to take off their shoes, belts, coats and scarves and would reduce the number who were then subjected to 'pat-down' searches.
Instead, the fully-clothed passenger steps between two screens and is instructed to stand with fingers touching the sides of the head, to provide a clear image of the body.
The machine performs a simultaneous front and back scan using electromagnetic waves, similar to a low-level X-ray.
According to the manufacturer, Rapiscan, passengers can be scanned safely up to 5,000 times a year. They say a dental X-ray produces 20,000 times more radiation.
The scans show every contour of the body, including intimate areas, and also reveal body piercings, colostomy bags, false limbs and even breast enlargements.
Airport security officers inspect the images in a separate office, away from the scanner, to reduce the potential embarrassment for passengers.
If the scan is clear the whole process should take around 20 seconds, and the image is then deleted. If security officers see anything suspect, the passenger is searched.
Officials have said the images cannot be stored or captured, but the scheme has led to fears that scans of celebrities could be leaked on to the internet.
Civil rights campaigners have expressed fears that the scans are too intrusive and could prove offensive, particularly for Muslim women. Security officers at Manchester have been warned not to scan under-18s over fears that the legislation could lead to them facing criminal charges.
There have been no known terrorism arrests at Manchester since the trial began in October. It is not known if the machines have been used to detect other offences at the airport.
When the trial ends in ten months, the Government will decide if the scanners should be used nationwide.
In the scheme, passengers can opt not to have a full body scan and to go through a traditional metal detector and 'pat-down' search instead.
But critics have questioned how useful an 'optional' search is, and whether it would be feasible if the scanners are installed permanently.
The Home Secretary said the Government would weigh the privacy and cost issues against national security.
The southern Pakistani city of Karachi shut down in mourning on Tuesday as the death toll from Monday's suicide bomb attack on Shiite Muslims procession rose to 43.
Chief Minister of Sindh Province Syed Qaim Ali Shah has declared Tuesday a province-wide public holiday. All government and private offices are closed and transport off the roads in the provincial capital of Karachi.
The deadly violence also impacted the stock market in the financial hub, with the benchmark KSE-100 Index opening down 1.5 percent Tuesday but recovering in the early afternoon.
Sindh Secretary Hashim Raza Zaidi said that several more injured died of wounds in hospitals, adding that up to 90 people were injured and some of them in critical condition in the most deadly attack in Karachi in two years.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Altaf Hussain, leader of the Mutahida Qaumi Movement said that it was handiwork of the Taliban militants.
Angry protesters attacked government buildings and set markets, banks and vehicles on fire in different parts of Karachi after the attack.
Pictures taken by Xinhua photographer Anwar Abbas show the panicked people and burning police vehicles on the busy Jinnah road in Karachi. Abbas was injured in the riot.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik visited Karachi on Tuesday and set up an investigation committee.
It was the third bomb blast in Karachi in three days as the worshippers have been commemorating Ashura, the holy event on the Shiite Muslim calendar, and the parade in Karachi was the biggest in Pakistan.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, political and religious leaders called for calm and restraint after the "most reprehensible act of terror".
A suicide bomber has killed 30 and wounded 60 more in an attack on a religious procession in Pakistan.
The bomber targeted Shia Muslims celebrating the holy day of Ashoura.
In the wake of the blast in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, Shias attacked the security forces who had been guarding the march for their failure to prevent the blast.
The marchers also clashed with Sunni protesters who tried to stop their procession. Police cars and ambulances were damaged in the rioting. Television pictures showed a big cloud of smoke over the scene and reporters said angry worshippers attacked journalists and police and set fire to shops and vehicles.
Karachi has a long history of ethnic and factional violence, although it has been spared the brunt of Taliban attacks over the past couple of years.
Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmed appealed for calm. He said the severed head of the suicide bomber had been found.
'I was walking in front rows when the blast went off about 50 metres away and thick cloud of smoke immediately engulfed the entire spot,' said witness Moin Rizvi.
Ashura falls on the 10th day of a 40-day mourning period during the Islamic calendar's first month, Moharram, which commemorates the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad, who was killed in battle in 680 AD in the Iraqi city of Kerbala.
Processions by minority Shi'ite Muslims in Pakistan are often attacked by majority Sunni Muslim militants. Embattled Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has vowed to end the bloodshed. But militants have struck back with bombings in several cities since the army launched a major offensive in their stronghold of South Waziristan in mid-October.
The United States says Pakistan must crack down harder on militants along the border who cross into Afghanistan and attack U.S.-led troops fighting the Taliban.
But Pakistan, which nurtured militants fighting Soviet occupation troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s, sees the Afghan Taliban as leverage against enemy India's influence in the country.
Pakistan's military is focused on battling its homegrown Taliban who have extended their reach, as shown by a Dec. 4 suicide and gun attack on a mosque near army headquarters.
Violence has intensified since July 2007, when the army cleared out militants from a radical mosque in Islamabad, and victims have included former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in a suicide bomb and gun attack after returning home from self-imposed exile in December 2007.
The attack was the latest in a wave of violence to hit Pakistan since the army started taking on Islamic militants allied with Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Around 500 have died in terrorist strikes since October.
The Taliban, who reject any ties with the United States and other Western power, are determined to impose their version of Islam, including public whippings and hangings for those who violate their rules.
The International Monetary Fund last week issued a vote of confidence in Pakistan's economy -- in virtual recession -- by approving a $1.2 billion loan payment. That could ease some of the pressure on Zardari, Bhutto's widower, at least on one front.
Investors have factored in violence across the northwest in their trading but analysts have said trouble in Karachi could hurt equities.
Financial markets were closed on Monday for Ashura.
A photo journalist runs from the site of a suicide bomb attack after an angry mob started to burn vehicles and beat journalists in Karachi December 28, 2009.
An angry mob charges towards police after setting ablaze shops and vehicles at the site of a suicide bomb attack
A man yells at the site of suicide bomb attack on a procession of Shit'ite Muslims commemorating Ashura in Karachi
A rescue worker yells for assistance at the site of a suicide bomb attack on a procession of Shit'ite Muslims
Pakistanis gather at the site of the bomb blast earlier today in Karachi
Pakistani Shiite Muslims march during the religious procession on Ashura before the bomb blast
A suicide bomb attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body targeting a mourning procession of Shia Muslims
Terror suspect: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in 2002 at his year 11 graduation ceremony
The explosive would have been picked up on a full-body scanner like this one at Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington DC
A TSA officer screens an airline passenger in Terminal C at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Pre-flight screenings were stepped up after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight
The explosive device used by the would-be Detroit bomber contained a widely available - and easily detected - chemical that has a long history of terrorist use, according to experts.
The chemical - PETN - is small, powerful and appealing to terrorists.
The Saudi government said it was used in an assassination attempt on the country's counterterrorism operations chief in August.
It was also a component of the explosive that Richard Reid, the convicted 'shoe bomber,' used in his 2001 attempt to down an airliner.
PETN was widely used in the plastic explosives terrorists used to blow up airplanes in the 1970s and 1980s.
Investigators say Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab hid an explosive device on his body when he traveled from Amsterdam to Detroit.
They say PETN was hidden in a condom or condom-like bag just below his torso.
Abdulmutallab also had a syringe filled with liquid.
One law enforcement official said the second part of the explosive concoction used in the Christmas Day incident is still being tested but appears to be a glycol-based liquid explosive.
PETN is the primary ingredient in detonating cords used for industrial explosions and can be collected by scraping the insides of the wire, said James Crippin, a Colorado explosives expert.
It is also used in military devices and found in blasting caps. PETN is the high explosive of choice because it is stable and safe to handle, but it requires a primary explosive to detonate it.
Crippin and law enforcement officials said modern airport screening machines could have detected the chemical.
Airport 'puffer' machines - the devices that blow air on to a passenger to collect and analyse residues - would probably have detected the powder, as would bomb-sniffing dogs or a hands-on search using a swab.However, most passengers in airports only go through magnetometers, which detect metal rather than explosives.
Hidden in Abdulmutallab's clothing, the explosive might have also been detected by the full-body imaging scanners now making their way into airports. But Abdulmutallab did not go through full-body imaging machines in Nigeria or Amsterdam, said U.S. Rep. Peter King, the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee.
Both airports have body scanners.
The Amsterdam airport has had a long reputation for good security, King said, while Nigeria's airports have been more of a concern. The U.S. provided full-body scanners to all four international airports in Nigeria, according to the State Department.
The scanners were installed in March, May and June of 2008.
Abdulmutallab was on a broad U.S. terrorist watch list but he was not designated for special screening measures or placed on a no-fly list because of a dearth of specific information about his activities, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.
She added that he was properly screened before getting on the aircraft in Amsterdam.
Abdulmutallab has claimed to law enforcement officials that he received training and instructions from al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen.
The Saudi Arabia assassination attempt was carried out by a Saudi who was on the country's list of 85 most wanted terrorists.
The bomber was believed to have traveled to Yemen to connect with the al-Qaeda group there.
He died in the explosion and is believed to have attached the explosives to his groin or inserted them inside himself.
Under arrest: The moment the bomber was secured by officers was captured by passenger Jasper Schuringa
'He went in bravely without fear of death': Abdulmutallab pictured by Al Qaeda alongside its statement
Caught: Abdulmutallab in custody Bomb plot: Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's charred underwear where he hid explosives
Detonator: The remains of a syringe full of chemicals which was injected into the explosive
Device: The packet of PETN explosive powder which failed to detonate properly
* Images show bomber hid explosives in his underpants * Al Qaeda say they were behind Christmas Day plot * Passengers suggest Abdulmutallab had accomplices * Obama: We won't rest until we have all those involved
These are the first pictures of the explosives sewn into the underwear of the Christmas Day plane bomber.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab smuggled a packet of explosives on board the Amsterdam-Detroit plane by sewing it into the crotch of his underpants.
As the transatlantic flight neared its close, the 23-year-old attempted to detonate the bomb by injecting the packet with a chemical-filled syringe.
But it failed to work properly, setting on fire and leaving the young Nigerian with severe burns to his groin after he was brought under control by passengers and police.
The pictures show the singed underwear and the packet of explosive powder, as well as the plastic syringe which Abdulmutallab used to inject the chemicals.
They were released by ABC News after Al Qaeda announced last night that it was behind the jet bomb plot.
The terrorist group said it provided Abdulmutallab with a 'technically advanced device' but it had failed to detonate because of a fault.
A statement posted on Islamist websites said the attack was a response to U.S. attacks on the group in Yemen. It showed a picture of Abdulmutallab referring to him as Umar Farouk al-Nigiri - the Nigerian.
'He managed to penetrate all devices and modern advanced technology and security checkpoints in international airports bravely without fear of death,' said the statement.
'Relying on God and defying the large myth of American and international intelligence, and exposing how fragile they are, bringing their nose to the ground, and making them regret all they spent on security technology.' Abdulmutallab was overpowered by passengers and then arrested aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.
He has told the FBI he was tutored in terrorism while living for a month with a senior Al Qaeda commander in Yemen.
He is said to have warned that other young men are being trained there to bring down U.S. airlines, boasting: 'There are plenty more like me.' *
In an extraordinary twist which will increase concerns over security failures, an American lawyer claimed he had watched at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport as Abdulmutallab was assisted by a 'second man' as he tried to board without a passport.
Kurt Haskell, who was standing in line with his wife Lori on Christmas morning, said the Nigerian was with a man aged about 50 of Indian appearance in an expensive suit talking with the ticket agent.
Mr Haskell said the second man claimed Abdulmutallab was from Sudan and had no passport. The ticket agent referred the men to her manager down the hall, and Mr Haskell did not see Abdulmutallab again until after the failed bombing.
If true, the claim would represent an astonishing breach of security at a major international airport and a flagrant disregard of both U.S. government and airline policy.
U.S. authorities did not comment on Mr Haskell's claims but Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano admitted on U.S. television that the aviation security system had 'failed'.
A Dutch military police spokesman said: 'At this moment we have no information on whether there was another guy. We are checking all clues and information we get.' He said the Dutch counter-terrorism agency was reviewing CCTV recordings to check out the accomplice story.
Further suggestions of an accomplice came from another passenger, Patricia Keepman, who says she saw a man calmly filming the whole flight - including the attempted detonation.
Mrs Keepman was travelling back from Ethiopia with her husband, daughter and two newly adopted children, and was sitting around 20 rows back from Abdulmutallab.
The other man 'sat up and videotaped the entire thing, very calmly. We do know that the FBI is looking for him intensely,' she said.
She described the sound when Abdulmutallab tried to detonate his bomb as like an 'electrical pop'.
'Everybody looked above their seats, kind of like startled, panicked. Shortly thereafter, we heard the screams,' she said.
The group were too far back to see what was happening and just clutched each other for comfort.
Mrs Keepman said: 'The holding hands gave us a real sense of peace. If it happened that point, it would happen. We were ready. We just weren't ready for it to happen for the kids.
'We just kept thinking "God didn't bring us this far, to go through all of this, to shorten these kids' lives" and sure enough, He didn't.'
President Barack Obama said last night: 'A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism. We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists.
'Those who would slaughter innocent men, women and children must know that the United States will do more than just strengthen our defences,' said Mr Obama.
'We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable. We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us, whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia, or anywhere.' In London, Home Secretary Alan Johnson revealed that Abdulmutallab had been placed on a UK watch list this year after authorities refused to renew his student visa.
He said police and MI5 were examining whether the deeply-religious son of one of Africa's richest men had been radicalised during three years studying engineering at University College London.
He also hinted at the involvement of others, adding: 'We don't know yet whether it was a single-handed plot or there were other people behind it - I suspect it's the latter rather than the former.'
Mr Johnson did not elaborate on his belief that Abdulmutallab had received help, but Scotland Yard detectives and MI5 have both been focused on the importance of his London links.
The 23-year-old appears to have been lonely and torn between extreme Islamic views and liberalism, according to internet posts he wrote a few years ago.
He posted hundreds of messages on Facebook and Islamic chatrooms between 2005 and 2007 asking for advice about loneliness, marriage and the Muslim faith, according to the Washington Post.
One written in January 2005 said: 'I feel depressed and lonely. I do not know what to do. And then I think this loneliness leads me to other problems.'
Writing under the name Farouk1986, he talked of Arabic language studies in Yemen, plans to apply to U.S. universities and his 'dilemma between liberalism and extremism' as a devout Muslim.
'How should one put the balance right? I strive to life my daily live (sic) according to the quran and sunnah to the best of my ability. I do almost everything, sports, TV, books,' he said.
Abdulmutallab is reported to have 'crossed the radar' of MI5 while in the UK officers are seeking to establish whether he had contact with extremists.
Throughout the weekend search teams combed the £2million flat in a mansion block in Mansfield Road, close to Oxford Street, where he lived in the capital with some of his 15 brothers and sisters.
Confirming that Abdulmutallab had been refused a new visa in May and placed on a watch list, Mr Johnson said it would have prevented him entering the UK but allowed him to pass through a British airport to another country. The U.S. authorities should have been informed of this, he added.
Abdulmutallab was also on a U.S. watch list, although it allowed him to travel on planes flying into the country.
HE LED UNIVERSITY'S EXTREME ISLAMIC SOCIETY
The syringe bomber was president of a notoriously extreme student Islamic Society while studying in Britain, it emerged last night.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is believed to have been radicalised during his time at University College London, swapped western clothing for a skull cap and Islamic robes during his final year of an engineering degree in 2007/8.
UCL Provost Malcolm Grant confirmed that Abdulmutallab was president of the university's Islamic Student Society in 2006/07 and had graduated in mechanical engineering.
He said today: 'The account I have had from his tutors is that he was a well-mannered student, quietly spoken, polite and able, and gave no indication at all of what his inclinations might be.
'We are very shocked by what has happened and we will be reflecting on it very carefully as further details emerge and reviewing all aspects of it, but - as presently advised - there was nothing about his conduct which gave his tutors any cause for concern.'
He added: 'We admit our students wholly on merit. We make no reference to their political, racial or religious background or beliefs. That is fundamental to what we do. So we can't vet students in any effective way at that point.'
A source at UCL said: 'When he started you wouldn't even have known that he was a Muslim, but then in the third year he started wearing the white flowing Islamic robes and skull cap.
'We were all very shocked when we saw that he was involved in trying to blow up a plane - it seemed completely out of character.'
The organisation last month provoked fury by inviting the extremist cleric Abu Usamah to address students.
The preacher has previously claimed that homosexuals and opponents of Islam should be killed, that women are mentally deficient and that Britain should become an Islamic state. The university called off the event after protests by human rights campaigners.
Prof. Grant said the invitation was swiftly withdrawn when it became apparent how dangerous the individual was.
He said: 'We are committed - as all proper universities must be - to securing academic freedom and freedom of speech on campus. We are obliged under Government legislation to secure freedom of speech on campus and that includes for visiting speakers.
'We walk a very narrow line between allowing that to occur but on the other hand ensuring that nothing occurs which would result in the incitement of racial hatred.'
MENACE OF THE Mushing BOGUS COLLEGES
The spread of a bogus college industry catering for fake students from abroad has long been a concern to those worried about illegal immigration.
But the past few months have proved that the network of well over 2,000 colleges suspected to have been immigration fronts has also provided cover for terrorists.
The exploitation of the student immigration racket by terror groups was confirmed in April in the arrest of 12 suspects in a botched police operation. Ten of them were in England-on student visas.
The fiasco of the arrests - made in a panic after Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick sauntered into a Downing Street with his documents on show to photographers - was followed by a failure to charge any of the suspects.
But an independent inquiry into the affair by Lord Carlile confirmed that intelligence evidence linked the group to a 'very significant international plot'.
He condemned the bogus colleges with 'non- existent courses' and called for 'a higher level of vigilance'.
An official contract was signed by a consortium led by South Korea's state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. shortly after a summit between Lee and UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said the deal will lead to a significant boost in ties between the countries as it also marked the largest energy deal ever contracted either by his country or the UAE.Korea is now a major player in exporting Light Water nuclear plants technology.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday in a push to win one of the world's biggest nuclear power contracts.
Both countries want to strengthen economic ties in "peaceful nuclear energy" among other areas such as renewable energies or reducing carbon emissions, the official UAE news agency WAM said after Lee's arrival.
The UAE is expected to award the contract estimated to be worth $40 billion to build several nuclear reactors "possibly early next week," industry sources said.
A South Korean consortium of Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Samsung C&T Corp, and Doosan Heavy Industries is in the running to win the largest-ever energy deal of the Middle East.
Other bidders include a consortium of General Electric Co and Westinghouse Electric, a subsidiary of Toshiba Corp, and a French consortium led by EDF and GDF Suez and including Areva and oil group Total.
Lee is scheduled to hold a summit meeting with UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan during his two-day visit, the South Korean presidential Blue House said in a statement.
"It remains unclear whether South Korea will win the final contract to build nuclear power plants and President Lee's visit to the UAE is part of summit diplomacy to win the final ticket in the bidding," Lee's office said.
The French consortium was initially seen as a front-runner for the deal but it recently appeared to be losing ground to the Korean.
On the Korea Exchange earlier this week, shares of Korea Power Engineering and Doosan Heavy Industries rallied on expectations for the deal, analysts said.
IBK Securities analyst Yoon Jin-il said the contract is expected to be split in three stages with the initial order to be worth about $5 billion, but the first-phase winner is likely to take home the remaining two.
Work is expected to begin in 2012, UAE state news agency WAM has said. The UAE is the world's third-largest oil exporter, but it is planning to build a number of nuclear reactors to meet an expected need for an additional 40,000 megawatts of power.
South Korea's commerce and energy ministry said on Monday that it would focus on the nuclear power sector in 2010 and step up work on a plan to develop nuclear reactors with indigenous technology, as it outlined next year's policy objectives.
A consortium led by KEPCO on Sunday won a US$40 billion deal to build and operate four nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates. It is the largest ever order won by the country, some six times the cost of a $6.3 billion canal project in Libya in the 1980s.
This is also the first time Korea is exporting its APR1400 light-water reactor since the country started operating its first nuclear power plant, Gori No. 1, with U.S. technology in 1978. With the contract, Korea has turned from an importer into an exporter of nuclear power technology.
President Lee Myung-bak helped clinch the deal in a meeting with his UAE counterpart Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the Emirates Palace Hotel Abu Dhabi. The two also agreed to develop the two countries' relationship into a strategic alliance.
The consortium also involves Doosan Heavy and Engineering Co., Hyundai Engineering and Construction, Samsung C&T Corp., Westinghouse Electric of the U.S., and Japan's Toshiba.
It landed the deal over a French consortium led by AREVA and a partnership of the U.S.' General Electric and Japan's Hitachi.
Under the deal, the KEPCO-led consortium will design and build four 1,400MW nuclear power units, one due for completion in 2017 and the other three by 2020. For the next 10 years, it will earn $20 billion for construction alone, the equivalent in money terms to exports of 1 million medium-sized cars or 180 300,000-ton oil tankers. By joining in the operation of the power plants during their 60-year life span, the consortium will make another $20 billion.
Eight years of uncertainty over the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden's closest family members has been blown open by a relative's admission that they are living in a secret compound in Iran.
One of the terror mastermind's wives, six of his children and 11 of his grandchildren are living in a high-security compound outside Tehran.
It exposes as false the repeated denials by the country's government that members of the family were living in Iran.Omar Ossama bin Laden, the fourth-eldest of Osama's sons, claims he was unaware of his brothers and sisters' location, or even whether they were still alive, until they phoned him in November.
He told the Times that he wants the group to be allowed to leave Iran, claiming they are the 'forgotten victims of 9/11'.
The 29-year-old said they told him they fled Afghanistan just before the September 11 attacks, walking to the Iran border. They were then taken to the compound, where guards told them they could not leave 'for their own safety'.
Omar's siblings Saad, Ossman, Muhammad, Fatma, Hamza, Iman and Bakr - aged between 20 and seven at the time - were among the group. There had been reports that Saad and Muhammad had engaged in terrorism before being killed, but relatives say Muhammad remains safe in the compound and Saad lived there until a year ago, when he ran away to try to find his mother.
A week after contacting Omar, Iman escaped during a rare outing and sought asylum in the Saudi Arabian embassy while she seeks permission to leave Iran.
Mr bin Laden said the group, who were joined by other Afghan families in the compound, lived as normal a life as possible, and some had married other residents of the makeshift community and had babies.
He said: 'The Iranian Government did not know what to do with this large group of people that nobody else wanted, so they just kept them safe.
'For that we owe them much gratitude and thank them from the depth of our heart.'
Mr bin Laden wants his family to be given permission to join his mother and other siblings in Syria or he and his wife in Qatar. 'They are all innocent victims, just the same as anyone else hurt by the dreadful events of 9/11 and 7/7,' he said.
'These babies and children have never had any education, never hurt a single soul, never trained with any weapons or ever been part of al-Qaeda. We just want to be together as a family.
'I have now got 11 nieces and nephews, born either in Afghanistan or Iran that I have never seen.
'Some may find this story unnerving, but the child can't be judged by the sins of the father.'
Osama's brothers Bakr, left and Ossman, right were both found in the hideaway
'Let them come to Qatar': Omar bin Laden with his English wife Jane Felix
Victims: Omar says his siblings, nieces and nephews should not suffer for sins they had no influence on
Bin Laden with his young son Ali, left, and his younger brother Mohammed
