Obama's surveillance vote spurs blogging backlash

By Scott J. Anderson
CNN.com Senior Political Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama's vote for a federal surveillance law that he had previously opposed has sparked a backlash from his online advocates, who had energized his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Sen. Barack Obama said he voted for the surveillance bill because it will help protect the nation.

In October, Obama had vowed to help filibuster an update of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that gave telecommunication companies that had cooperated with President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program immunity from lawsuits.

After 9/11, Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop, without the mandated warrant from a federal court, on electronic communication involving terrorist suspects.

Critics said Bush's Terrorist Surveillance Program was a violation of civil liberties.

The Senate voted Wednesday on the bill updating FISA -- which had a provision to shield telecommunications companies that had cooperated in the surveillance. Obama joined the 68 other senators who voted to send the bill to the president's desk.

Obama did vote for an amendment offered before the final vote by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, that would have stripped the immunity provisions from the bill, but the amendment failed.

Bush signed the bill into law on Thursday, saying the bill "will help us meet our most solemn responsibility: to stop another attack."

The bill does not grant the telecommunication companies direct immunity, but it does contain a provision that allows a federal judge to dismiss the suits if the companies can present a letter from the government stating that the program was legal.

Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, testified before Congress that all the companies received such letters.

NATO: Insurgents try to pit Afghanistan against Pakistan

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Insurgents fired simultaneously on Pakistan and Afghanistan positions Thursday night in hopes of provoking a battle between the two military forces, NATO officials said Friday.

A U.S. Marine jokes with an Afghan Border police officer near Helmand Province on Friday.

U.S. forces were called into action on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border after Afghan security forces came under fire from insurgents inside Pakistan, NATO said. Meanwhile, two Pakistani border outposts also had come under fire.

Six mortar rounds hit one Pakistani outpost, and troops there returned fire, according to Pakistan military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas.

Six Pakistani security personnel were injured in the exchange along the South Waziristan border, and a number of casualties were "observed/reported" on the other side of the border, he said.

NATO said it had reports that four Afghan border police officers and eight Pakistani military members were wounded in the four-hour firefight.

International Security Assistance Force officials "suspect that the insurgents' dual attack was specifically intended to spark a border incident," the statement said. ISAF is the NATO contingent in Afghanistan.

Israeli police widen Olmert probe

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli investigators say they suspect Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked multiple public organizations to cover single expense claims and pocketed the extra money when he was Jerusalem mayor and a government minister.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has repeatedly denied any corruption.

Israeli police and the Justice Ministry released a statement Friday saying they suspect Olmert received funding for trips "from a number of bodies that engage in public activity at the same time, including the state, when each body was asked separately to finance the same flight," and that "significant sums" ended up in a private account for Olmert.

The allegations are part of an ongoing corruption probe, the latest in a series of investigations focusing on Olmert. While corruption allegations have damaged his political support, he has never been convicted of wrongdoing.

Olmert had no immediate response to Friday's statement, but has repeatedly denied any corruption.

Investigators interrogated Olmert again Friday, and included the latest allegations, according to the statement from police and the justice ministry.

N Korea agrees to nuclear checks

Negotiators from six-nation talks in China have agreed steps to verify North Korea's nuclear disarmament.

Officials from China, the US, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas, agreed Pyongyang would finish disabling its main nuclear facility by October.

The other nations will complete deliveries of fuel and economic aid ahead of visits by verification teams.

The deal comes after South Korea's leader proposed reviving direct talks with the North in a major policy shift.

President Lee Myung-bak told parliament on Friday he was willing to carry out previous bilateral summit accords and provide the impoverished North with food aid.

Last month, North Korea demolished the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, in a symbol of its commitment to talks on ending its nuclear programme.

The reactor was shut a year ago as part of a six-party agreement reached 16 months ago, when the North said it would scrap its nuclear ambitions in return for aid and diplomatic concessions.

The BBC's James Reynolds, in Beijing, says the latest agreement that could allow outside monitors into the country is an important issue for the US.

He says the Bush administration does not trust North Korea enough to take it as its word and will only be satisfied with proper independent verification.

BY-BBC NEWS

Fury as Zimbabwe sanctions vetoed

Britain and the US have condemned Russia and China for vetoing a draft UN Security Council resolution to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe's leaders.

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said their veto was incomprehensible, especially as Russia had earlier suggested it backed tougher action.

The measures had included an arms embargo and a travel ban for Robert Mugabe and 13 of his key allies.

Zimbabwe's UN ambassador said the UK and US had come up with flimsy reasons.

Boniface Chidyausiku said he was happy to see what he called the machinations of the two failing.

BY-BBC NEWS