Man charged in airline bomb attempt back in court

DETROIT (AP) — A Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas is back in court without his four-member defense team.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is representing himself at a pretrial hearing today in Detroit federal court. He’s accompanied by standby counsel Anthony Chambers, who can give advice.

In September, the 24-year-old suggested he wanted to plead guilty to some charges.

He’s charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253, an Amsterdam-to-Detroit plane. Abdulmutallab is accused of trying to set off explosives hidden in his underwear.

He’s being held at a federal prison in Milan, Mich.