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over some NSA operations, did not learn about a new collection method until it had been in operation for many months. The court ruled it unconstitutional.
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Lebanese authorities say death toll from car bomb in south Beirut suburb rises to 22
• BEIRUT (AP) -- The death toll from a powerful car bomb that ripped through a southern suburb of Beirut has risen to 22, Lebanon's interior minister said Friday.
• The minister, Marwan Charbel, also said officials were conducting DNA tests on body parts discovered near the vehicle that blew up Thursday to try to determine whether the explosion was the work of a suicide bomber.
• The car bomb struck a bustling street in the Rweiss district in Beirut's southern suburbs, an overwhelmingly Shiite area and stronghold of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The explosion sent a massive plume of black smoke billowing into the sky, set several cars ablaze and blew out the fronts of buildings on the street.
• The bombing was the second in just over a month to hit one of the Shiite group's bastions of support, and the deadliest in decades. Many people in Lebanon see the attacks as retaliation for Hezbollah's armed support for President Bashar Assad in neighboring Syria's civil war.
• The group's fighters played a key role in a recent regime victory in the town of Qusair near the Lebanese border, and Syrian activists say Hezbollah guerrillas are now aiding a regime offensive in the besieged city of Homs.
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Facing rising violence, Iraq seeks help from a White House focused on other crises
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Security crises in Egypt, Syria and other countries are overshadowing rising death tolls and new fears of civil war in Iraq, once the top U.S. priority in the Mideast. However, the prospect that sectarian violence could fuel instability beyond Iraq's borders remains a concern for the Obama administration.
• Officials and experts say the White House's attention is focused elsewhere -- even as more than 1,000 people were killed in Iraq in July, the deadliest month since 2008. At Thursday's meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari, one of the main topics was flights of weapons from Iran across Iraqi airspace into Syria and back as well as the threat from al-Qaida fighters along the Iraqi-Syrian border.
• Surveys show a majority of Americans favor President Barack Obama's hands- (Continued on page 28)
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