The US National Security Agency, during the Barack Obama administration has pursued wide-scale monitoring of the telephone records of millions of Americans.
Growing speculation that the Syrian regime is using chemical weapons is turning up the heat on President Barack Obama, who has warned such a move would be a game changer.
International observers have fanned out across some 40 US states to monitor next week's elections, a State Department official said Friday, adding problems with some states were being ironed out.
The southern US state of Texas has warned it could prosecute election observers from the OSCE, a global body that regularly monitors voting around the world, if they try to visit polling stations next month.
Government radiation monitoring in areas near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is unreliable, Greenpeace charged on Tuesday, with heavily populated areas exposed to 13 times the legal limit.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his rival Henrique Capriles are satisfied with logistical preparations ahead of the arrival of election monitors from the Union of South American Nations.