National news briefs

Bomb suspect turns on Yemeni cleric

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Nigerian suspect in a failed Christmas Day airliner bombing turned against the cleric who claims to be his teacher and has helped the United States hunt for the radical preacher, a law enforcement official said Thursday.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian who faces terrorism charges in the Christmas bombing, has been cooperating with the FBI for days, providing information about his contacts in Yemen and the al-Qaida affiliate that operates there.

His cooperation talking about U.S.-born Yemeni radical Anwar al-Awlaki is significant because it could provide fresh clues for authorities trying to capture or kill him in the remote mountains of Yemen. Al-Awlaki has emerged as a prominent al-Qaida recruiter and has been tied to the 9/11 hijackers, Abdulmutallab and the suspect in November's deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.

Bases to require morning-after pill

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon for the first time is requiring military bases worldwide to offer emergency contraception or the so-called morning-after pill.

Defense Department spokeswoman Cynthia Smith says the decision follows a recommendation by an independent panel of doctors and pharmacists in November. It said emergency contraception should be added to the military's list of medications that must be stocked at each military facility.

Smith said she did not have additional details about when the implementation would begin.

Man exonerated in 1976 rape case

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A mentally ill New York man who spent nearly six years behind bars for a 1976 rape he insisted he didn't commit has been exonerated after DNA testing showed he was innocent.

The conviction of Freddie Peacock of Rochester, now 60, was based on a false confession police attributed to him just hours after the early morning rape of a 24-year-old woman who lived in the same apartment building.

The Innocence Project helped him clear his name some 28 years later.

Northern California has 5.9 earthquake

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Residents of northern California's Humboldt County were rocked by a magnitude-5.9 earthquake Thursday, but officials said there were no immediate reports of major injury or damage from the second large temblor to hit the area within a month.