US court upholds guilty plea by underwear bomber

A US appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Nigerian man who pleaded guilty to trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner with a bomb in his underwear.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab admitted he was outfitted with a bomb on behalf of Al-Qaeda. But he appealed his guilty plea, claiming a federal judge made a series of improper decisions.

In a 3-0 decision today, an appeals court affirmed the conviction and life sentence. The court says the judge did nothing wrong in declining to order a mental health exam.

The court says the complexity of Abdulmutallab's plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas 2009 shows he was competent to stand trial.
 

Abdulmutallab's explosive caused a fire but didn't destroy the plane.