Latest development

Gunmen shot dead two Yemeni soldiers in an attack on a police station in Aden, the former capital of south Yemen, witnesses and security sources said yesterday. The gunmen were believed to be suspects wanted in criminal cases, an independent Yemeni news website reported.

Yemen's deputy prime minister says the Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a US passenger jet on Christmas met in Sana'a with a radical American-Yemeni cleric linked to Al-Qaida and the alleged Fort Hood shooter.

Rashad al-Alimi says Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab met with cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, and other Al-Qaida leaders in Yemen.