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AP sources: Obama expected to back changes to NSA surveillance with Congress handling details
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is expected to endorse changes to the way the government collects millions of Americans' phone records for possible future surveillance, but he'll leave many of the specific adjustments for Congress to sort out, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the White House intelligence review.
• That move would thrust much of the decision-making on Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act toward a branch of government that is deeply divided over the future of the surveillance apparatus. And members of Congress are in no hurry to settle their differences and quickly enact broad changes.
• Obama will speak about the bulk collections and other surveillance programs in a highly anticipated speech Friday at the Justice Department. The speech marks the culmination of a monthslong review sparked by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden, who leaked a trove of classified documents about the secret surveillance programs last year.
• In another revelation about NSA activities, The New York Times reported Tuesday that the agency has implanted software in nearly 100,000 computers around the world -- but not in the United States -- that allows the U.S. to conduct surveillance on those machines.
• The NSA calls the effort an "active defense" and has used the technology to monitor units of China's Army, the Russian military, drug cartels, trade institutions inside the European Union, and sometime U.S. partners against terrorism like Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan, the Times reported.
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Bombings across Iraq striking busy markets, funeral north of Baghdad, kill at least 41 people
• BAGHDAD (AP) -- A wave of bombings across Iraq striking busy markets and a funeral north of Baghdad killed at least 41 people Wednesday, authorities said, as the country remains gripped by violence after al-Qaida-linked militants took control of two cities in western Anbar province.
• There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. Insurgent groups, mainly al-Qaida's local branch and other Sunni militants, frequently target civilians in (Continued on page 25)
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