Briefs

Suspect kills Miss. detective, self in headquarters

A murder suspect in Jackson, Miss., wrestled a gun away from the detective interrogating him at police headquarters, then fatally shot the officer before killing himself, authorities said Friday.

Authorities said Jeremy Powell, 23, seized the gun from Jackson Police detective Eric Smith in a third-floor interrogation room while he was being questioned about a stabbing death earlier this week.

Smith, 40, had been with the agency nearly 20 years, was physically fit and was praised for his work leading numerous high-profile murder investigations, officials said.

"Eric was killed with his own gun," Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain said.

Judge: Make morning-after pill available to all

The Food and Drug Administration must make emergency contraceptives - a/k/a the morning-after pill - available to girls of all ages within 30 days, a federal judge in Brooklyn has ruled, saying the agency's decisions regarding the morning-after pill were "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable."

The Center for Reproductive Rights and other groups have argued that contraceptives are being held to a different and nonscientific standard and that politics has played a role in decision making. Social conservatives have said the pill is tantamount to abortion.

F. Franklin Amanat, a lawyer for the government, said the Department of Justice has no immediate comment.

Obama hopes budget is seen as compromise

President Obama will unveil a spending plan Wednesday that he hopes will provide a compromise to the two feuding parties on Capitol Hill, offering Republican-friendly proposals - including those that cut Social Security and Medicare - tied to tax increases on the wealthiest Americans.

White House officials say Obama is willing to offer a compromise in order to cut the deficit by $1.8 trillion over 10 years. Republicans say that number is less than half - $600 billion - because the president wants to restore across-the-board spending cuts that took effect in March.

- Daily News wire services