high-profile

debate, shown on two private TV networks, was a chance for the two to confront each other – in a style that's new to the Arab world. Each was asked a wide range of questions, including how their powers should be limited as president to ensure they did not turn into a dictator. They were also allowed to challenge each other. Amr Moussa attacked the record of his rival as a former leading member of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, while Mr Aboul Fotouh called the former foreign minister a '

remnant

of the ousted regime'.

The polls have closed in Algeria's parliamentary elections. Dozens of new parties have been taking part, but the interior ministry has said just 35% of the electorate turned out to cast their ballots.

Reports in the United States suggest that an

undercover

agent who helped foil a bomb plot by

infiltrating

al-Qaeda in Yemen was a British man. The bomb was hidden in underwear and intended to be detonated on board a passenger plane flying to the US, but instead, the would-be suicide bomber gave the device to US intelligence. Here's Gordon Corera.

The official response from British sources is to neither confirm nor deny that the agent who infiltrated al-Qaeda in Yemen was a British national. US reports claimed that the individual was of Middle Eastern origin, but held a British passport. That person managed to convince al-Qaeda in Yemen that he was willing to carry out an attack using an underwear bomb, but instead, delivered the device to the US. When the story initially emerged, the US said that international partners had played a crucial role, and there have been indications that British intelligence was involved