Barack Obama, the US president, has admitted that there was a "systematic failure" in intelligence during the failed Christmas Day air bomb plot and that the buck stops with him. So where exactly did it go wrong and what must intelligence agencies do now? To find out Sir David is joined from Washington by Michael Chertoff, the former US secretary for homeland security under George Bush.

One year on from the war in Gaza and the Middle East 'peace process' is at a standstill. Mark Regev, the Israeli government spokesman, joins Sir David from Jerusalem to talk about the current state of relations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Described as one of Ireland's finest female singers, Camille O'Sullivan has been playing to packed houses in London's West End for the past month, following on from sell-out appearances in the US, Canada and Australia. But she is more than a talented singer: She also acts in films and on stage - and before all that she was an architect and artist.

Following the failed Christmas Eve air bomb plot, the gulf state of Yemen has been propelled onto our television screens. The poorest of Arab states, it is now portrayed as a hotbed of radicalisation and a training ground for al-Qaeda cells. Sir David talks to Ginny Hill, the director of the Yemen forum at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, about the situation on the ground.

Plus, Korn Chatikavanij, the Thai finance minister, talks about the global financial meltdown and how some countries - particularly in the developing world - have already emerged from the crisis and are looking forward to strong growth in 2010.