s eyes, he could be considered an informer. >> nick robertson reporting there. see more of the special report on the secrets of the i.r.a. later today, untolled story ri, cnn international. >>> in 20 minutes, my interview with the legendary neil diamond on his tour, new bride and why he's suddenly so fascinated with twitter. he's a tweeting machine. f sciene and the human element can solve anything. solutionism. the new optimism. >>> a look at stories making news. student protesters in montreal ignoring a law meant to stop students from demonstrating, they are planned over tuition hikes. 2500 people arrested sin the protests began three months ago. some arrested for violating the ban on masks. police don't want anyone to cover their faces during demonstrations. >>> emergency dispatcher in maryland on paid leave after falling asleep on the job. he was heard snoring for six minutes as a woman called 911 to get help for her husband, who turned out to be okay, luckily. supervisors say the veteran firefighter was 17 hours in a 24 hour shift, when he fell asleep. >>>

nick robertson, let's bring you in. barbara mentioned al-siri. why hasn't this guy been taken out? >> because he's hard to find. al qaeda through what's going on in yemen at the moment. the government fighting on three different fronts. al qaeda has taken control of three different provinces. that's large swaths of territory. the government is trying to fight rebels in the north of the country. it's guys trying to keep control of the capital. the president is struggling to unify the army. while all this is going on, al qaeda has taken advantage. al qaeda last week in one of their publications were bragging they have taken control. they have all the chemicals they need. and what the advantage is they have are that it is a large area. the disadvantage is that yemen is quite isolated from the rest of the world because of the trouble it's going through, therefore, it's hard for them to get bombs out of there. that seems to be where they have stumbled again this time. >> the fact that the saudis tipped off the cia. what does this tell us about the relationship between the u.s. and the s

nick robertson is with us live from london. first to chris lawrence.officials telling you about where this plot was taken down? >> u.s. officials saying the takedown happened outside the united states but they can't say specifically where because they have on going intelligence operations. although they do stress it was outside the united states and they can't be specific about where this intercept happened. a senior counter terrorist he official say it does bear the mark of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and it was a non-metallic bomb and that it was specifically designed for a suicide bomber to use on board an aircraft. john. >> chris, stand by for us. if you listen to chris's reporting and other reporting sounds similar to the underwear bombing plot christmas day of 2009 and the fingerprints of al qaeda, what are you learning? >> the fbi says it now has custody of this ied device and it is similar to those used by al qaeda and the arabian peninsula for targeting aircraft and targeted assassinations, the time the yemen or the saudi who now builds

nick -- nic robertson has looked them through. >> erin, the image created by the documents is of a ceo struggling to control his sprawling empire. under attack from drone strike in pakistan, trying to reel in recalcitrant commanders. and there are even petty jealousies in there. al qaeda rising star, bin laden diss one by saying this guy is no good for leadership because he hasn't served at the battle front. this billionaire son striving to get cash for al qaeda sending a senior level commander on to a dangerous mission to raise a quarter of a million dollars. under pressure from the inside and outside of his organization, erin. >> thanks, nic robertson. >>> now to greece and three days left until the parliamentary election. the opposition to the austerity measures can bring extreme fringe parties like the far right, anti-immigrant into the government for first time. i asked what role some of the smaller and more aggressive parties are going to play. >> erin, interesting shifts taking place in greece. parties who traditionally led this country seeing their popularity plummet. and those

robertson looked into petn. which is the name that's being used in this. it's nonmetallic. and petn was the explosive used by the underwear with bomber. i want to show you what nick discovered about what petn is capable of. take a look at this clip. >> here we go. >> explosive expert showed me the power of a tiny amount of petn. this really is a messy powder. >> then he agreed to replicate printer toner bombs. >> if this were explosive, bits of me would go around the room. >> 3, 2, 1 that is where the table was standing, you can see the blast effect. if that had been part of an airplane's fuselage, heaven help the airplane. it would have been a terminal event i'm afraid. >> how does somebody -- i don't want to say anything inappropriate. but is it easy for people to get or make petn? >> one of the things al qaeda in yemen, if the arabian peninsula has been boasting about in the inspire magazines, al qaeda's glossy magazines, about how to do your magazines, if you will, they printed a couple of those magazines last week, they were boasting there about the fact that they've taken control of the territory inside yemen, and they've taken control of la bore torys ther