christmas day

NBA Commissioner David Stern visited Dallas to start the lockout-shortened season on Christmas Day. The Mavericks were raising their banner from last season's championship.

But when Stern spoke, people booed. The lockout wasn't popular, and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban didn't like the settlement.

Stern won over the home crowd though, praising Cuban and turning boos to cheers.

In 2010, Phil Jackson, then the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, complained about the NBA's scheduling of games on Christmas Day.

It seemed, he said, that "Christian holidays don't mean anything" any longer. With its season shortened, the NBA can't afford to skip the holiday this year.

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Opening statements in the trial of the Christmas Day bomber begin in Detroit Tuesday. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is the young Nigerian man who is accused of attempting to bring down a U.S. airliner by trying to detonate explosives hidden in his underwear.

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Rumors and court filings have been circulating for months, but Kirk Ladendorf at The Statesman confirmed yesterday that Katz's Deli on West 6th Street will finally close for good at the close of business on January 2nd.

Owner Marc Katz told Ladendorf: "I just think it is time." In the meantime, the restaurant remains open, continuing their policy of serving patrons on Christmas Day.

Read the full story here.

Fifty-seven of the men had been approved to return home, or to third countries. Last year's failed Christmas Day plot, which was also traced to Yemen, forced the White House to suspend those plans.

Last week's bomb plot puts two strikes against the detainees.

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Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, accused in the attempted Christmas Day airliner attack, had contacts with at least two suspected terrorists while a student in London, investigators tell NPR.

Intelligence officials have linked him to a suspect in a 2006 plot against airliners and to a man implicated in a plan to behead a Muslim soldier.

A parade of Obama administration national security officials appeared before several Senate panels Wednesday.

They were explaining how a 23-year-old Nigerian man with explosives sewn into his underwear boarded a flight to Detroit on Christmas Day.

And while the White House was dealing with questions from Senators, they were confronted with a new issue.

They now have to find another nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration.

AP - President Barack Obama on Monday vow

AP - President Barack Obama said Monda