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Underwear Bomb Suspect Due In Court

DETROIT (AP) - The man accused of trying to blow up a jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 will be in federal court Thursday.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is scheduled to represent himself in the proceeding, but his legal advisor Anthony Chambers is the one who filed the papers with the court asking for more time to mount a proper defense in the case which is scheduled to go to trial October 4. Chambers also seeks a new deadline to challenge evidence. The government has said there is as many as 400 witnesses in the case.

Abdulmutallab is a Nigerian national accused of trying to set off explosives that were hidden in his underwear while he was onboard Northwest Airlines flight 253 as it approached Detroit Metropolitan Airport from Amsterdam on Christmas Day 2009. Authorities say Abdulmutallab is an al-Qaeda operative who was trained in Yemen for the alleged suicide mission.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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