HONOLULU (AP) - President Barack Obama was briefed Thursday on how a 23-year-old Nigerian with suspected terrorist ties almost succeeded in a Christmas Day airline bombing and how to prevent it from happening again. Obama received the preliminary assessment ahead of meetings in Washington next week on fixing the shortcomings and failures of the nation's anti-terrorism policy. Administration officials said the system to protect the nation's skies from terrorists was deeply flawed and, even then, the government failed to follow its own directives. Vacationing in Hawaii, Obama talked with the his national security team about progress they were making on...