Obama said Tuesday that intelligence agencies 'had sufficient information,' but failed to act in airline bomb plot. After meeting with top officials, he also suspended the transfer of Guantánamo prisoners to Yemen.

A federal appeals court in Washington ruled against a cook who worked for an Al Qaeda-linked group and was challenging the legality of his detention. The ruling clarified the ground rules for future habeas corpus cases brought by Guantánamo detainees.

Critics say the US has put too much emphasis on large-scale military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yemen shows that Al Qaeda is too agile to be defeated by such a 'whack a mole' strategy, they say.

AP - President Barack Obama scolded 20 of his highest-level officials on Tuesday over the botched Christmas Day terror attack on an airliner bound for Detroit, taking them jointly to task for "a screw-up that could have been disastrous" and should have been avoided.

AP - Democratic Sens. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota won't seek re-election this fall, party officials say, bringing to four the number of open Senate seats Democrats must defend to protect their majority.

AP - President Barack Obama is prodding House and Senate Democrats to get him a final health care bill as soon as possible, encouraging them to bypass the usual negotiations between the two chambers in the interest of speed.