Speaking from Honolulu, Barack Obama made his first public statement about the Christmas Day terrorist attack, perpetrated by a Nigerian man whom Yemeni al Qaeda leaders have since identified as one of their own. "The American people should remain vigilant but also remain confident," he said. "We do not yet have all the answers about this latest attempt, but those who would slaughter innocent men, women, and children must know that the United States will do more than strengthen our defenses," he said, pledging to stop terrorists "anywhere," but specifically named "Afghanistan or Pak, Yemen or Somalia" as places where America would seek its enemies. The president named his confidants in the battle: Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and counterterrorism chief John Brennan. He concluded by briefly addressing the weekend's events in Iran, "strongly condemning the violence and unjust oppression." Nonetheless, Iran's struggle is "about the Iranian people and their aspirations for justice and for themselves," which is presumably his rationale—along with the rest of the international community's—for continuing to keep Iran at an arm's length.

Following al Qaeda's statement taking responsibility for the Christmas Day attack on Northwest Flight 253, ABC News reports that two of the bomb plot's masterminds were former Guantanamo Bay detainees, freed in November 2007 and sent back to their home nation of Saudi Arabia. Guantanamo prisoner No. 333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi (who has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi), and prisoner No. 372, Said Ali Shari, have since been described as al Qaeda commanders and appear in propaganda videos filmed in 2009. After their release, the former prisoners entered an "art therapy rehabilitation program" in Saudi Arabia, then are believed to have migrated to Yemen where they joined a growing hotbed of al Qaeda-networked terrorist organizations. One U.S. diplomat said Saudi Arabia's "so-called rehabilitation programs are a joke," and ABC News notes that a similar repatriation program in Yemen was abandoned after authorities concluded participants were funneling straight back into terrorism.

Several leaders of the Iranian opposition have been arrested in the wake of the most violent protests in Tehran since the country's disputed election in June. Among those detained were opposition politician Ebrahim Yazdi, senior cleric Mousavi Tebrizi, three aides to Mir Hossein Mousavi (whose nephew Seyed Mousavi was shot in the back during the demonstrations), two aides to reformist former President Mohammad Khatami, and journalist and human-rights-campaigner Emeddin Baghi. Mousavi's nephew's body was taken, government authorities say, "in order to complete forensic and police examinations and find more leads on this suspicious incident"—which will prevent the rapid burial called for in Islamic tradition. Opposition members said the body was taken in order to stall a funeral that would spark more protests. Ironically, preventing the funeral is a risky decision because it could enrage religious conservatives as well as the opposition. Tehran says security forces are not responsible for any deaths and that the demonstrators might have shot each other.

A woman and three men arrived at Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi's Tehran home Monday, and after searching the house seized her sister, Nushin Ebadi, and her computer. Shirin, an Iranian lawyer and human-rights activist honored with the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, said the Iranian intelligence officials "detained her so I stop my work," even though Nushin is "not involved in human-rights work, and she's never participated in any of the protests," she told CNN. Nushin and her husband are merely professors of dentistry at Azad University in Tehran, and own a private dental practice. The detainment occurred in the middle of a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests that has left several dead, and although Iranian officials contacted Nushin telling her to leave her apartment and not contact her sister, neither her nor Shirin adhered to the requests.

This settles the question of whether Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man who allegedly tried to bomb a Detroit-bound plane, was part of a larger terrorist network: Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing, saying that it was a response to a U.S. attack on the group in Yemen. According to ABC News, Abdulmutallab warned in his interrogation that there are more al Qaeda-trained men in Yemen preparing to blow up American planes. Abdulmutallab told investigators that he trained for a month with the terrorist group in Yemen, where he was given the underwear with 80 grams of explosives sewed in. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claims on its Web site to have manufactured Abdulmutallab's explosives. 

President Barack Obama ended a game of golf abruptly Monday when an ambulance arrived, lights on and speeding, at the first family’s compound in Honolulu. The Caucus reports that the son of Obama friend Dr. Eric Whitaker was injured on the three-house compound where the Obamas and Whitakers are residing for the holidays. The first family is uninjured and there was no security threat; the White House says they at first held back information out of concern for the privacy of the Whitakers.

A police affidavit released Monday confirmed TMZ's report that Charlie Sheen used a knife to threaten wife Brooke Mueller at a home in Aspen, Colorado. Mueller told a police officer that after telling Sheen she wanted a divorce, he grabbed her neck and held a medium-sized folding knife to her throat while saying, "You better be in fear. If you tell anybody, I'll kill you." Sheen was later taken to jail for second-degree assault—not the first time he was involved in a domestic-violence dispute—and although he was released on $8,500 bond late Christmas night, prosecutors will not decide his charges until his next court appearance February 8. Threatening a woman may not be unheard of for Sheen, but the actor still claims he did not push or strike her, and that her alleged alcohol problem is a likely explanation for her remarks to the police.

On Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano drew criticism when she said that the aviation security system worked the way that it was supposed to, despite Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's recent alleged attempt to bomb a Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit. However, on Today Monday, Napolitano argued that her words had been taken out of context. "Our system did not work in this instance," Napolitano said, adding that the Obama administration has ordered an investigation into why Abdulmutallab was able to board a U.S.-bound flight while on a terrorist watch list. A new security-screening device that uses so-called milimeter waves to create an image of a passenger's body underneath the clothing could have helped catch Abdulmutallab, but only 40 machines have been installed at 19 airports across the U.S. Privacy advocates are trying to slow the technology's introduction, and there is pending House legislation that would prohibit the equipment for routine passenger screening.

After publishing a black-and-white photo Monday morning that it claimed showed then-Senator John F. Kennedy on board a yacht with several naked women in 1956, TMZ now says that the color photo is a fake: It ran in Playboy in 1967. Apparently, the photo was part of a story titled, “Playboy’s Charter Yacht Party: How to Have a Ball on the Briny with an Able-Bodies Complement of Ship’s Belles.” Playboy says the photo was taken in the Grenadines. Hopefully, this will impact the business of the "forensic photo expert" who "confirmed" for TMZ that it was JFK. 

The battle lines are being drawn for 2010: Conservative activists are beginning to demand that Republican candidates in 2010 call for a full repeal of health-care reform, given that it passes. “This has an unusual ability to be repealed, and the public is on that side,” said the vice president for public policy of Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks. “The Republicans are going to have to prove that they are worthy of their votes.” Newt Gingrich said on Sunday that “I suspect that every Republican in 2010 and 2012 will run on an absolute pledge to repeal this bill.” At Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall points out, “Democrats started saying last week that they plan to run on the same platform—namely, that if you vote for Republicans they’ll repeal Health Care Reform.”

A pre-dawn apartment fire has killed nine people in Starkville, Mississippi, including at least six children. The fire was reported at 4 a.m. at an apartment complex. Starkville is home to Mississippi State University, whose students are currently on winter break.

Techno-heads are awaiting Apple's Jan. 26 event with bated breath as rumors fly that the company is finally ready to release a tablet computer, which bloggers have preemptively christened the iSlate after it became known that Apple registered the iSlate.com domain name. During previous Januaries, Apple has unveiled such products as the MacBook Air and iPhone. The new iSlate reportedly resembles a large iPhone and has no keyboard. The device is essentially a cross between the iPhone, Apple's TV service, and an iPod, and would allow users to watch TV, subscribe to the next generation in online newspapers and magazines, and surf the Web.

With nearly a week passing in 2009 without a single homicide, New York City is on its way to a record low year of murders. As of Monday, there were 461 murders—35 less than the current record low from 2007. The city has not seen such small numbers since 1962, when the New York Police Department first began tracking homicides. Despite the financial crisis, 12 of the 77 police precincts (mainly in Upper Manhattan and Park Slope, Brooklyn) counted just a single murder in 2009 as of Christmas Day. It’s good news for a metropolis with a $4.1 billion budget deficit that has already reduced its police force and may make more cuts. “The mantra of ‘Do more with less’ is certainly a very important principle in the Police Department,” said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. “And these numbers show it.” Homicides also decreased 10 percent nationwide according to FBI reports from the first half of the year, but no city’s as much as New York’s. One police historian says the numbers would further decrease “if the federal government would shut off the flow of illegal guns from other states to New York.”

Jude Law and Sienna Miller are apparently rekindling their romance. According to London’s Daily Mail, the two went on holiday in Barbados with Law’s three children just in time to celebrate their birthdays together (Miller turns 28 Monday, while Law turns 37 Tuesday). The pair split four years ago after Law had an affair with his children's nanny, but they reconnected while starring in a play together in New York in October. According to an unnamed source close to Law, "Jude told his parents, children, and his ex-wife over Christmas that he wants to make a real go of it with Sienna. He really wants it to work this time around." Law had spent Christmas with Sadie Frost, the mother of his children, who reportedly became irate when Law told her she'd have to pay her own way if she wanted to join him and the kids on holiday in the Caribbean.

The family of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound plane Christmas Day, issued a statement Monday promising full cooperation with authorities and stressing that Abdulmutallab’s actions only recently were cause for concern. The family says the 23-year-old broke contact with them weeks ago, prompting them to contact Nigerian and foreign security agencies, seeking to bring him home. “[F]rom very early childhood, Farouk, to the best of parental monitoring, had never shown any attitude, conduct or association that would give concern," the statement says. "As soon as concern arose, very recently, his parents, reported it and sought help … The family will continue to fully cooperate with local and international security agencies towards the investigation of this matter, while we await results of the full investigation.”

This ought to please Joe Lieberman: A day after the Connecticut senator called for preemptive action there, The New York Times writes “the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against al Qaeda in Yemen.” A year ago—well before the Christmas attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 by a Nigerian allegedly "trained and equipped" in al Qaeda in Yemen—the CIA sent several of its top counterterrorism operatives to the country, and Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics. Over the next 18 months, the Pentagon will spend more than $70 million in the country. In late summer, Gen. David Petraeus even made a secret visit to the country.

A day after opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi’s nephew died during a crackdown that reportedly killed nine others, the Iranian government is keeping up the pressure on Mousavi: On Monday, three of Mousavi’s senior aides were arrested in addition to four other opposition activists. The head of Mousavi’s election campaign, the head of his office, and a senior aide were arrested. On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of Iranians protested President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad’s regime.

The New York Jets beat the Indianapolis Colts 29-15 on Sunday, ending the Colts’ perfect season and, improbably, earning themselves a shot at the playoffs. The victory came after a curious coaching decision by Colts coach Jim Caldwell—he benched quarterback Peyton Manning in the third quarter and replaced him with third-string rookie quarterback Curtis Painter. On his second drive, Painter fumbled the ball deep in Colts territory, and the Jets recovered it for a touchdown. If the Jets beat the Cincinnati Bengals next week, they’ll earn a wild-card slot in the postseason.

New Yorkers hoping to add an iPhone to their holiday stockings may have been left wondering where all the smart phones disappeared to. Consumerist reports that AT&T has quietly pulled iPhones from shelves in the New York City area, in a surreptitious attempt to alleviate its overcrowded network. One customer attempting to purchase the coveted iPhone through AT&T was told by a representative that "New York is not ready for the iPhone" because of a paucity of towers. BGR has a slightly different story, and reports that iPhones are available in-store, just not online.

Calm your nerves, America: Two men were detained on a flight from Orlando, Florida to Phoenix, Arizona in what appears to be a case of mass hysteria. The men attracted the other passengers’ attention by “talking loudly to each other in a foreign language” and when one got out of his seat while the seatbelt sign was still lit. Also, one of the men was thought to be watching video of a suicide bombing; turns out that it was the 2007 Jamie Foxx movie The Kingdom. Nothing dangerous was found when the men and their possessions were searched; they were released after questioning.

With less than a week left until the end of the year, the U.S. stock market looks well-positioned to close on a high. Compared with last year's global financial fallout, the S&P 500 is "poised for what could be the best year since 2003." The S&P is up 66.5 percent since the economy bottomed out in March, whereas in 2008 it was down 38.5 percent. For 2009, the Dow is up 19.9 percent and the Nasdaq is up 45 percent. Analysts are optimistic that these gains mean that 2010 will have a solid start, and economic indicators show that there will be improvements in the housing and labor sectors. Other indicators to look out for in the upcoming weeks include the Conference Board's index of December consumer confidence, the October S&P/Case-Schiller home price index, and the government's weekly jobless claims.

Good news for the economy, bad news for people who like fire sales: Holiday sales rose 3.6 percent between November 1 and December 24, a small rebound that should help retailers avoid the disaster they faced last year after a 2.3 percent drop. Profits are expected to rise as well, since retailers had a whole year to plan their inventories to match consumer demand. Online sales, meanwhile, surged 15.5 percent, though they still make up less than 10 percent of all sales.

A day after he was run down by a car and shot, the body of Ali Mousavi, the nephew of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, has disappeared from the morgue to which it was brought by government officials. Ali’s brother, Reza, says that the body was taken overnight from a Tehran hospital and that nobody had taken responsibility for removing the corpse. Mousavi’s family was warned not to hold a funeral for Ali.

Brooke Mueller told police that Charlie Sheen used a knife to threaten her at a home in Aspen, Colorado, TMZ reports. Sheen landed in jail on Christmas Day for domestic abuse, including felony menacing, which involves a threat with a deadly weapon. According to TMZ, Mueller has recanted much of her story, and was legally drunk with a .13 blood alcohol level at the time of the incident. A judge has ordered Sheen to stay away from his wife until the legal case is resolved, a move that is mandatory in domestic violence cases filed in Colorado.

What if Richard Nixon had gotten his hands on this in 1960? TMZ has released a previously unpublished photo that appears to show John F. Kennedy tanning on a boat as two naked women jump off into the ocean, and two more tan in the nude on the upper deck. The photo, believed to be taken during a Mediterranean boat trip that then-senator JFK took with brother Ted Kennedy and Senator George Smathers in 1956, has been authenticated by multiple experts. At the time of the trip, Jackie Kennedy was pregnant, and had an emergency C-section that resulted in a stillborn child while JFK was on the boat. The picture could have, as TMZ put it, "torpedoed" Kennedy's presidential run if it had surfaced during the 1960 presidential election.