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David Cameron has chaired an emergency Cobra meeting to determine the UK’s response to the Brussels attacks.

The prime minister said UK security had been stepped up in the wake of “a very real terror threat” across Europe. Two Britons were injured in the blasts at the city’s airport and metro on Tuesday which left 34 people dead.

There are also concerns for David Dixon, an IT programmer from Nottingham, whose family said he had not been seen since the attacks. Home Secretary Theresa May will make a statement to the Commons on the UK response at about 12:30 GMT, following Prime Minister’s Questions.

Mr Dixon had lived in Brussels for 10 years with his partner and their young son, and travelled to work every day on the city’s metro. according to friends. He has not answered his phone or made contact since the explosions, and his partner Charlotte Sutcliffe has been driving from hospital to hospital in Brussels trying to find him. Her sister Marie Sutcliffe told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Charlotte had struggled to get information because phone networks were disrupted and much of the city locked down following the attacks. “Understandably, she is very, very distressed. Not everybody has been identified yet of the injured so it’s just waiting for that process to happen,” she said. “It’s just waiting, which is heartbreaking and very worrying.”

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A US air strike has killed dozens of fighters from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in a mountainous region of Yemen, the Pentagon says.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the target was an al-Qaeda training camp that was being used by more than 70 fighters. Tuesday’s air strike was the most recent US attack on AQAP in Yemen.

Last year, the US military killed several of the militant group’s leaders with drone strikes. Since late January 2015, AQAP has lost a number of high-profile figures in US drone strikes – including leader Nasser al-Wuhayshi, religious official Harith al-Nadhari, ideologue and spokesman Ibrahim al-Rubaish along with lower ranking figures.

Mr Cook said the attack demonstrates the US military’s “commitment to defeating al-Qaeda and denying it safe haven”. The Pentagon did not disclose the location of the camp. However, Yemeni security officials told the Associated Press that the air strike hit a former military base that had been taken over by al-Qaida militants in the southwest part of the county near AQAP’s stronghold city of Mukalla.

In Yemen, resurgent al-Qaeda militants have seized territory and infrastructure – indirectly assisted by Saudi-led air strikes on the rebel Houthi movement, their Shia Muslim foes.

At least 6,000 people have been killed in Yemen since March 2015, when a coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched a military campaign to defeat the Houthis and allied army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and restore the government.

The coalition’s member states consider al-Qaeda a terrorist organisation, and the jihadist network’s local affiliates have attacked coalition forces and Yemeni government personnel.

A Sydney girl, 16, has appeared in court on terror financing charges which carry a maximum term of 25 years’ jail.

She is accused of sending thousands of dollars to the so-called Islamic State group in Syria through a Western Union money transfer, reports say. The girl and a male accomplice, 20, who allegedly gave her the money were arrested in raids on Tuesday.

The pair allegedly met in a park on Tuesday to discuss a plan to send money to Syria that day, reports said. They had reportedly developed a “sophisticated facilitation path” of wiring funds and had completed successful transfers before. The man, named by media as Milad Atai, was also arrested during Australia’s biggest counter-terror raids in September 2014.

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Prosecutors in the UAE have reportedly dropped terrorism charges against two Libyan-Americans and a Libyan-Canadian who have been detained for 18 months.

Kamal and Mohamed al-Darrat and Salim Alaradi were informed of the decision on Monday, Mr Alaradi’s lawyer said. However, the men will now face lesser charges of providing supplies to groups in a foreign country and collecting donations without official permission. UN experts said last month that they were being arbitrarily detained.

There was evidence the three men and two other Libyans, Adel Rajab Nasef and Moad al-Hashmi, had been tortured and forced to sign confessions, they added.

Playing Games

All five men were arrested in August 2014, after which they were allegedly held incommunicado in secret detention locations and in solitary confinement for prolonged periods of time. It was not until late 2015 that Mr Nasef and Mr Hashmi went on trial on the charge of funding, supporting and co-operating with terrorist organisations, while Mr Alaradi and Kamal and Mohamed al-Darrat were charged only in January 2016.

The alleged terrorist organisations were said to be Islamist militias that emerged during the 2011 revolution in Libya, including Libya Dawn and Ansar al-Sharia.

Last week, Mr Nasef and Mr Hashmi were acquitted by the Federal Supreme Court in Abu Dhabi, a verdict that Mr Alaradi’s brother said had given him hope. But following Monday’s announcement, Mohamed Alaradi – who was detained alongside his brother for four months – told AP news agency that state prosecutors had “fabricated” the new charges to ensure a guilty verdict.

This showed the UAE’s state security department was “playing games”, he said. Kamal al-Darrat’s daughter, Amal, called the new charges, which carry a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment, “deeply concerning”. Mr Alaradi and Kamal and Mohamed al-Darrat would remain in custody until 11 April, when their trial was scheduled to resume, Mr Alaradi’s lawyer said.

Two MEPs have spoken of the chaos in Brussels after explosions struck the city’s airport and metro system, with reports of at least 13 dead.

Two blasts tore through the departures area of Zaventem airport shortly after 08:00 local time (07:00 GMT).An hour later, an explosion hit Maalbeek metro station, close to the EU institutions.

Sinn Féin’s Matt Carthy and Ulster Unionist Jim Nicholson were in the European parliament during the blasts.Mr Carthy said a Sinn Féin delegation was flying to the city for an event relating to the 1916 Easter Rising at the time. Their plane was diverted.”There’s still a lot of confusion,” he said.”Our first concern was to make sure our own staff were safe.”Most of them had made it to the parliament by the time the news filtered through.”We had 120 visitors arriving from all over Ireland, including 88 who were in a flight above Brussels when the first explosions went off.”They’ve been diverted to Amsterdam and as far as we’re aware everybody is safe.”

The Republic of Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Enda Kenny, tweeted: “Once again Europe is under attack.”We stand with Belgium. Those using death and violence must and will be defeated.
All flights at Zaventem airport are cancelled.

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