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indoor sports arena.
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Foes of surveillance program vow to fight on after close loss in House
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Opponents of the National Security Agency's collection of hundreds of millions of Americans' phone records insist they will press ahead with their challenge to the massive surveillance program after a narrow defeat in the House.
• Furious lobbying and last-minute pleas to lawmakers ensured victory for the Obama administration as the House voted 217-205 Wednesday to spare the NSA program. Unbowed, the libertarian-leaning conservatives, tea partyers and liberal Democrats who led the fight said they will try to undo a program they called an unconstitutional intrusion on civil liberties.
• Rep. Justin Amash, a 33-year-old Michigan Republican, made his intentions clear through the social media of Twitter: "We came close (205-217). If just 7 Reps had switched their votes, we would have succeeded. Thank YOU for making a difference. We fight on."
• The other sponsor of the effort, 84-year-old Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, said the vote's slim margin ensures that vigorous debate on the NSA's programs will continue.
• "This discussion is going to be examined continually ... as long as we have this many members in the House of Representatives that are saying it's OK to collect all records you want just as long as you make sure you don't let it go anywhere else,'" said Conyers, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. "That is the beginning of the wrong direction in a democratic society."
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North Korea unveiling its greatest Cold War prize: captured US Navy spy ship USS Pueblo
• PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- If there was ever any doubt about what happened to the only U.S. Navy ship that is being held by a foreign government, North Korea has cleared it up. It's in Pyongyang. And it looks like it's here to stay.
• With a fresh coat of paint and a new home along the Pothong River, the USS Pueblo, a spy ship seized off North Korea's east coast in the late 1960s, is expected to be unveiled this week as the centerpiece of a renovated war museum to commemorate what North Korea calls "Victory Day," the 60th anniversary (Continued on page 19)
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