Denmark�s second largest newspaper, Politiken, reported in its Sunday editions that the Danish intelligence services knew the 28-year-old Somalia-born man was held in Kenya on terrorism related charges last September.

But Denmark�s ambassador to Kenya, Bo Jensen, told the news agency Ritzau the man was arrested in Kenya for immigration offences. He said Kenyan authorities never told the embassy he was suspected in anyterror plot.

Danish police are investigating reports that the man, who was shot twice after entering the home of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard while armed with an axe, was deported from Kenya last September shortly after Mrs Clinton�s visit for the Agoa conference.

The suspect was on Saturday charged with attempted murder, wheeled into the Aarhus court on a stretcher, covered with white hospital blankets and with a towel around his head to prevent him from being recognised. Remand judge Kristian Richter has issued an injunction against naming the man and has remanded him in custody for four weeks, two of which are to be in isolation.

According to politiken.dk�s reporter at the scene, the 28-year-old was weak and pleaded not guilty to the two counts of attempted manslaughter brought against him. He is described as having a crew-cut and with a small goatee. His arm was in a thick bandage and his leg in a splint.

Special safe

Westergaard told his employer, the Jyllands-Posten daily, that he had locked himself and the grandchild in a special safe room as the intruder shouted �revenge� and �blood� and tried to smash his way into the house. �My grandchild did fine,� he told the newspaper. �It was scary. It was close. Really close. But we did it.�

Mr Westergaard incited widespread outrage in the Islamic community after publishing cartoons considered derogatory to the religion. He has since had to live under police escort.

Politiken reported operatives in the Danish Security and Intelligence services had confirmed that the suspect is the same man who was arrested in Kenya by Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU) detectives on suspicion of a plot against Mrs Clinton.

He was reportedly sent back to Denmark after the ATPU detectives did not find evidence to charge him in court. According to the man�s passport, he was in the country on a two-month tourist visa and had been on holiday in Nairobi and Mombasa before he was arrested and detained briefly.

SANAA, Sunday

The United States and Britain closed their embassies in Yemen on Sunday over security concerns about possible militant attacks after the failed bombing of a US-bound plane on Christmas Day.

The US Embassy said it had received a threat by al Qaeda, which U.S. intelligence agencies believe has a growing presence in the poor Arab country. A British Foreign Office spokeswoman cited security reasons for the embassy�s closure but declined to say if any specific threat had been made.

Yemen has already tightened security on its coastline to stop Islamist militants infiltrating from Somalia and held talks with a US general on strengthening cooperation. But Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi said his government was not coordinating strikes against al Qaeda with the United States.

Western allies have sought to bolster Yemen�s government, which faces facing a Shi�ite rebellion in the north and a separatist movement in the south, for fear that al Qaeda might exploit its instability to launch more attacks across the globe.

A Nigerian man, charged with trying to bomb a Detroit-bound passenger plane on Christmas Day, is believed to have received training from the militant group in Yemen.

Al Qaeda said the attempt was in retaliation for US involvement in Yemen. The US Embassy told its Yemeni staff to stay in their homes on Sunday.

�The US Embassy in Sana�a is closed today, January 3, 2010, in response to ongoing threats by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to attack American interests in Yemen,� a statement on the embassy website said.