Underwear bomber to get life term

A Detroit federal judge is refusing to set aside a federal law which demands a mandatory life sentence for a Nigerian who pleaded guilty to trying to blow up an international flight bound for Detroit on Christmas 2009.

US District Judge Nancy Edmunds made her decision as the sentencing hearing began for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 with a bomb in his underwear. It failed and he was badly burned.