HOPE, British Columbia — Police said yesterday they have identified and are investigating a woman who allegedly helped a former reality television show contestant hide from authorities in his native Canada after his ex-wife was found dead in the U.S.

Sgt. Duncan Pound of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police did not release the identity of the woman who checked Ryan Jenkins into a remote motel in British Columbia days before he was found dead there Sunday, an apparent suicide.

Pound said police were investigating whether she would face charges for helping Jenkins. She is not in police custody, he said.

YOUNG GUANTANAMO INMATE RETURNS HOME

KABUL — One of the youngest people ever held at Guantanamo was welcomed home yesterday by Afghanistan's president and joyful relatives after almost seven years in prison — freed by a military judge who ruled he was coerced into confessing to wounding U.S. soldiers with a grenade.

Mohammed Jawad, now about 21, flew to the Afghan capital and was later released to family members. He was arrested in Kabul in December 2002 and accused of tossing a grenade at an unmarked vehicle in an attack that wounded two U.S. Special Forces and their interpreter. Afghan police delivered him into U.S. custody and about a month later he was sent to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A federal judge ordered Jawad released last month after a war crimes case against him unraveled over lack of evidence and concerns about his age.

N. KOREA REPORTEDLY INVITES U.S. ENVOYS

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has invited envoys of President Obama to visit the nation next month in what would be the first nuclear negotiations between the two countries under his presidency, a news report said today.

North Korea recently invited Stephen Bosworth, special envoy to North Korea, and chief nuclear negotiator Sung Kim to Pyongyang, and the U.S. government is considering sending them to the North next month, Seoul's JoongAng Ilbo daily reported, citing an unidentified high-level diplomatic source in Washington.

There was no immediate response to the report from U.S. officials.

AFGHAN OFFICIAL CLAIMS KARZAI VICTORY

KABUL — An Afghan Cabinet minister said yesterday that President Hamid Karzai won Thursday's presidential election with 68 percent of the vote. If confirmed, such a result would eliminate the need for a runoff election in October between Karzai and his top challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, but could raise questions about the vote's credibility.

Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwol, citing partial and unpublished vote tallies, said that support for Karzai was high enough across the nation to cancel out the problem of low voter turnout in the south. Insurgent violence there prevented many people from voting, and there have been widespread accusations of fraud.

Pre-election polls suggested that Karzai would win a high plurality of the vote but not reach the 50.1 percent required to win in the first round.

FDA INVESTIGATES WEIGHT-LOSS DRUG ALLI

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is investigating reports of liver damage in patients taking alli, the only nonprescription weight loss drug approved by the agency.

Regulators said yesterday they have received more than 30 reports of liver damage in patients taking alli and Xenical, the prescription version of the drug. The reports, submitted between 1999 and October 2008, included 27 hospitalized patients, and six who suffered liver failure.

The FDA says it has not established a direct relationship between the weight loss treatments and liver injury, and advised patients to continue using the drugs as directed.

THUNDERSTORMS DELAY SHUTTLE LAUNCH

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Thunderstorms have forced NASA to call off space shuttle Discovery's launch.

The storms popped up late yesterday all around the launch site, and lightning lit up the sky. A lightning strike was reported just five miles from the pad, and then it started to pour. The storms finally eased, but not fast enough.

NASA will try again early tomorrow to send Discovery and seven astronauts to the international space station.