A note to our readers  —  On May 11, USA TODAY reported that the National Security Agency, with the cooperation of several of America's leading telecommunications companies, had compiled a database of domestic phone call records in an effort to monitor terrorist activity.

Did Bush commit war crimes?  —  Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld could expose officials to prosecution.  —  THE SUPREME Court on Thursday dealt the Bush administration a stinging rebuke, declaring in Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld that military commissions for trying terrorist suspects violate …

5 wrong justices  —  By putting on hold military commissions to try terrorists for war crimes, five Supreme Court justices have made the legal system part of the problem, rather than part of the solution to the challenges of the war on terrorism.  They tossed aside centuries of American history …

Sulzberger Responds to 'WSJ' Editorial Slamming the 'NYT'  —  NEW YORK After remaining mum for the past week, even as controversy swirled around newspapers' revealing the banking records surveillance program, the Wall Street Journal editoral page weighed in today.

06/29/06 FOX News Poll: Bush Approval Holding  —  NEW YORK — A new FOX News poll finds that President George W. Bush is holding onto the gains he made earlier in the month as his approval rating comes in at 41 percent.  Most Americans support the government program to track possible terrorist funding …

SIEGEL V. BASEBALL CAPS:  —  There are few places on earth, as far as I'm concerned, where the light, especially in late afternoon, in summer, is more beautiful than on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.  It's a river light, soft and gently diffused.  It gets delicately soaked into the sides of buildings …

Senate to Consider Stem Cell Proposals  —  Fertility Patients Could Donate Embryos  —  Senate leaders from both parties agreed yesterday to schedule a vote on a package of bills that would loosen President Bush's five-year-old restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research.

Guardian finds Afghan witnesses US couldn't  —  Declan Walsh in Gardez  —  The US government said it could not find the men that Guantánamo detainee Abdullah Mujahid believes could help set him free.  The Guardian found them in three days.  —  Two years ago the US military invited Mr Mujahid …

Superman eschews longtime patriot act  —  Nevermind Superman's sexual orientation.  Here's another identity-related question that is likely to spark controversy as the Man of Steel soars into theaters nationwide this Fourth of July weekend in Warner Bros.  Pictures' "Superman Returns": Is Superman still American?

Comeback talk creates Lott buzz  —  The prospect of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) returning to leadership next year is creating more and more buzz on and off Capitol Hill, Republican insiders say.  —  The higher volume of talk has been fueled partly by his former aides …

U.S. troops accused of killing Iraq family  —  BEIJI, Iraq - Five U.S. Army soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a young woman, then killing her and three members of her family in Iraq, a U.S. military official said Friday.  —  The soldiers also allegedly burned the body …

A Secret the Terrorists Already Knew  —  COUNTERTERRORISM has become a source of continuing domestic and international political controversy.  Much of it, like the role of the Iraq war in inspiring new terrorists, deserves analysis and debate.  Increasingly, however, many of the political …

A Spat Over Iraq Revealed On Tape  —  Rice and Russian Caught Bickering At Private Lunch  —  MOSCOW, June 29 — The official State Department version is that "there was absolutely no friction whatsoever" between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during …

Sensitive Subject In The Senate  —  Lieberman's Colleagues In Awkward Position  —  WASHINGTON — Want to see a Democratic senator squirm?  Don't ask about Iraq or gasoline prices.  Ask about Joe Lieberman.  —  They edge toward the door, duck into the elevator, scoot down the hall to avoid the question …

US, Iraqi forces clash with Shi'ite militia  —  BAQUBA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi and U.S. troops battled Shi'ite militiamen in a village northeast of Baghdad on Thursday, and witnesses and police said U.S. helicopters bombed orchards to flush out gunmen hiding there.

Bin Laden Hails Slain Zarqawi As 'Lion'  —  Osama bin Laden praised slain al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al- Zarqawi as the "lion of holy war" in a new videotape posted on the Internet on Friday.  —  The 19-minute message shows an old still photo of bin Laden in a split-screen next …

Report: Mubarak demands Hamas be expelled from Syria  —  Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak demanded from his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad to deport the Syrian-based Hamas leadership unless it agrees to release kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit, Palestinian sources said on Friday.