Accused Underwear Bomber Fires Lawyer

The man accused of trying to blow up a passenger plane over Detroit with a bomb in his briefs has fired his lawyers and may be preparing to plead guilty. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, making his first court appearance since January, asked for and received permission to ditch his court-appointed lawyers and represent himself, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The federal judge presiding warned the 23-year-old Nigerian that he was making an unwise decision and postponed the trial date. Abdulmutallab signaled that he may be considering pleading guilty to some of the charges against him, which include attempted murder and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. "If I want to plead guilty to some counts, how would that work?” he asked the judge, who told him she couldn't provide him with legal advice. (More Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab stories.)