World briefs 11/15/05

U.S. military may have had bomber in custody

AMMAN, Jordan -- The U.S. military announced Monday it arrested and later released an Iraqi whose name matches that of one of the Amman hotel suicide bombers, saying there was no "compelling evidence" that he posed a security threat. The American military command could not confirm if the man it arrested last year, identified as Safaa Mohammed Ali, was among the three al-Qaida in Iraq militants who carried out the attacks Wednesday on three hotels. The blasts killed 57 other people.

Two suicide car bombs hit Kabul, killing two

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Suicide bombers rammed cars filled with explosives into NATO peacekeepers in two attacks in the Afghan capital Monday, killing a German soldier and an Afghan child and wounding at least a dozen other people -- the first major assault on foreign troops in Kabul in more than a year. Troops thwarted a suspected third bombing by shooting dead three people in a car racing toward the scene of the blasts. Such seemingly coordinated attacks are unprecedented in Afghanistan, and reinforced fears that Taliban insurgents are copying tactics used in Iraq.

Teen accused of killing girl's parents captured

BELLEVILLE, Ind. -- A Pennsylvania teenager suspected of killing his girlfriend's parents in an argument over her curfew was captured in Indiana on Monday after a police chase that ended in a crash. The 14-year-old girl, who was in the car, was not hurt, authorities said. David Ludwig, 18, and Kara Beth Borden were taken into custody around midday after he crashed his parents' car head-on into a tree in Belleville, some 600 miles from where the killings took place. Police were questioning Ludwig.

Report: FDA decisions on morning-after pill 'unusual'

WASHINGTON -- Federal health officials took unusual steps in rejecting nonprescription sales of emergency contraception -- and some documents suggest the decision was made even before scientists finished reviewing the evidence, congressional investigators concluded. An independent audit made public Monday found the Food and Drug Administration's May 2004 rejection of the politically charged morning-after pill deviated from 10 years of agency practice in switching drugs from prescription to over-the-counter sales. Long-suspicious members of Congress immediately urged the FDA's boss to intervene to assure that a still-pending reconsideration of the pill's fate isn't based on ideology. But in a statement, the FDA stood by its rejection and said the independent Government Accountability Office "mischaracterizes facts."

-- From wire reports