Telephone Surveillance Program

The US government's ability to review and analyze five years' worth of telephone records for the married couple blamed in the deadly shootings in California lapsed just four days earlier when the National Security Agency's controversial mass surveillance program was formally shut down.

Legislation ending the US government's bulk collection of telephone data is "a historic victory for the rights of every citizen," former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden said in a commentary Thursday.

The US Senate blocked a measure to extend spy agencies' bulk collection of Americans' telephone records early on Saturday, leaving the fate of the program uncertain days before its June 1 expiration.

Legislation to extend for two months a program in which spy agencies sweep up vast amounts of data about Americans' telephone calls was blocked in the US Senate early today, adding to uncertainty about the future of the program.

A secretive U.S. spy court has ruled again that the National Security Agency can keep collecting every American's telephone records every day, in the midst of dueling decisions in two other federal courts about whether the surveillance program is constitutional.

A White House-appointed panel on Wednesday proposed curbs on some key National Security Agency surveillance operations, recommending limits on a program to collect records of billions of telephone calls and new tests before Washington spies on foreign leaders.

The US National Security Agency has tested its ability to collect Americans' cellular telephone location data but does not have a program to collect that information, the NSA's director, General Keith Alexander, said on Wednesday.

The surveillance court that oversees the US government's massive collection of telephone data gave its fullest defense to date on Tuesday of why it considers the program lawful, despite the uproar after its existence was made public in June.

Russia rejected US pleas and granted American fugitive Edward Snowden a year's asylum on Thursday, letting the former spy agency contractor slip out of a Moscow airport after more than five weeks in limbo while angering the United States and putting in doubt a planned summit between the two nations' presidents.

The US House of Representatives narrowly beat back an effort to cut funding to National Security Agency programs that scoop up telephone data on millions of Americans.

The US government said on Friday a secret court that oversees intelligence activities granted its request to continue a telephone surveillance program - one of the two data collection efforts leaked by former security contractor Edward Snowden.

Britain has asked airlines worldwide to block American Edward Snowden, who leaked details of US government telephone and internet surveillance programs, from boarding any plane headed for the United Kingdom, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

The US government's ability to review and analyze five years' worth of telephone records for the married couple blamed in the deadly shootings in California lapsed just four days earlier when the National Security Agency's controversial mass surveillance program was formally shut down.

Legislation ending the US government's bulk collection of telephone data is "a historic victory for the rights of every citizen," former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden said in a commentary Thursday.

The US Senate blocked a measure to extend spy agencies' bulk collection of Americans' telephone records early on Saturday, leaving the fate of the program uncertain days before its June 1 expiration.

Legislation to extend for two months a program in which spy agencies sweep up vast amounts of data about Americans' telephone calls was blocked in the US Senate early today, adding to uncertainty about the future of the program.

A secretive U.S. spy court has ruled again that the National Security Agency can keep collecting every American's telephone records every day, in the midst of dueling decisions in two other federal courts about whether the surveillance program is constitutional.

A White House-appointed panel on Wednesday proposed curbs on some key National Security Agency surveillance operations, recommending limits on a program to collect records of billions of telephone calls and new tests before Washington spies on foreign leaders.

The US National Security Agency has tested its ability to collect Americans' cellular telephone location data but does not have a program to collect that information, the NSA's director, General Keith Alexander, said on Wednesday.

The surveillance court that oversees the US government's massive collection of telephone data gave its fullest defense to date on Tuesday of why it considers the program lawful, despite the uproar after its existence was made public in June.

Russia rejected US pleas and granted American fugitive Edward Snowden a year's asylum on Thursday, letting the former spy agency contractor slip out of a Moscow airport after more than five weeks in limbo while angering the United States and putting in doubt a planned summit between the two nations' presidents.

The US House of Representatives narrowly beat back an effort to cut funding to National Security Agency programs that scoop up telephone data on millions of Americans.

The US government said on Friday a secret court that oversees intelligence activities granted its request to continue a telephone surveillance program - one of the two data collection efforts leaked by former security contractor Edward Snowden.

Britain has asked airlines worldwide to block American Edward Snowden, who leaked details of US government telephone and internet surveillance programs, from boarding any plane headed for the United Kingdom, the Associated Press reported on Friday.