World/Nation

• Suicide bomber in Syria was an American citizen

WASHINGTON - An American from Florida launched a suicide bombing against Syrian government troops earlier this week in what is believed to be the first time a U.S. citizen has been involved in such attacks since the start of the Syrian civil war, U.S. officials said Friday.

The man's name is Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement that provided no other details about him. Abu-Salha was thought to be the first U.S. citizen to be involved in a suicide bombing in Syria's three-year civil war, she said earlier.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., told reporters in Miami that the American suicide bomber was from Florida.

At least 160,000 have died in the fighting between government forces and opposition forces seeking the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Opposition forces had identified the man who carried out a May 25 truck bombing outside a restaurant in the government-held northwestern city of Idlib as Abu Hurayra al-Amriki and said he was a U.S. citizen. The name al-Amriki means "the American."

• Police officers fired over Indian gang-rape case

LUCKNOW, India - Facing relentless media attention and growing criticism for a series of rapes, state officials in north India have fired two police officers for failing to investigate the disappearance of two teenage cousins, who were gang-raped and later found hanging from a tree.

But in a country with a long history of tolerance for sexual violence, the firings Friday also came as the state's top official mocked journalists for asking about the attack.

"Aren't you safe? You're not facing any danger, are you?" Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said in Lucknow, the state capital. "Then why are you worried? What's it to you?"

The gang rape, with video of the girls' corpses hanging from a mango tree and swaying gently in a breeze, was the top story Friday on India's relentless 24-hour news stations. But in just the past few days, Uttar Pradesh has also seen the mother of a rape victim brutally attacked and a 17-year-old girl gang-raped by four men.

Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state, with nearly 200 million people.

• Police knew of murderer's disturbing videos

LOS ANGELES - Law enforcement officers who visited Elliot Rodger three weeks before he went on a deadly rampage in a California college town knew he had posted disturbing videos but didn't check them out because, when they visited him at his apartment, he seemed to be OK.

And even if they had watched them, experts say it's unlikely they would have been able to do anything.

"There are a lot of videos that might seem disturbing or offensive depending on who views them," said Tom Mahoney, who co-chairs the Justice Studies department at Santa Barbara City College.

Only in hindsight is it clear that Rodgers, 22, was an extremely dangerous young man who would go on to kill six students, himself, and injure 13 more last Friday night.

Rodgers had posted at least 22 videos prior to the attack, but none were overtly suicidal or violent until his final "retribution" video the night of the attack. Many featured him driving in silence with 80s pop music - Whitney Houston, Steve Perry, George Michael and others - playing in the background, while in others he talked straight into the camera about his loneliness and despair.

• Hillary Clinton challenges GOP on Benghazi

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton dismisses her critics and defends her handling of the deadly 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, in her new book, offering fellow Democrats a guide for how to talk about the fraught issue through the 2016 presidential race.

The former secretary of state's "Hard Choices" is a rebuke to Republicans who have seized upon the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Should Clinton run for president in 2016, her four years as secretary of state and the Benghazi attack in particular are certain to be the subject of driving criticism from Republicans. She's already trying to blunt the issue.

Republicans have accused the Obama administration of stonewalling congressional investigators and misleading the public about the nature of the attack in the weeks before the presidential election. Republicans used the attack to try to undermine President Barack Obama's re-election and, now, to tarnish the still-uncertain Clinton bid to replace him in early 2017.

"Those who exploit this tragedy over and over as a political tool minimize the sacrifice of those who served our country," Clinton writes in a 34-page chapter, obtained by Politico.

- The Associated Press