London: The National Security Agency secretly tapped into the overseas phone calls of prominent critics of the Vietnam War, including Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali and two actively serving US senators, newly declassified material has revealed.
The NSA has been forced to disclose previously secret passages in its own official four-volume history of its Cold War snooping activities.
The newly-released material reveals the breathtaking — and probably illegal — lengths the agency went to in the late 1960s and 70s, in an attempt to try to hold back the rising tide of anti-Vietnam war sentiment.
That included tapping into the phone calls and cable communications of two serving senators - the Idaho Democrat Frank Church and Howard Baker, a Republican from Tennessee who, puzzlingly, was a firm supporter of the war effort in Vietnam.
Human remains found near cruise ship site
ROME: Italian divers looking for two bodies missing from last year’s Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster which claimed 32 lives found human remains yesterday, the government agency overseeing the vessel’s salvage said.
“During a search in the water near the central part of the ship, coast guard and police divers found remains which still have to be identified with DNA,” the civil protection agency said. The agency’s head, Franco Gabrielli, told SkyTG24 news channel that he was sure they were human remains.
Political cloud over Berlusconi threats
ROME: Centre-right deputies supporting Silvio Berlusconi renewed threats to resign if their leader is expelled from parliament and the left demanded an end to their “blackmail”, deepening uncertainty in Italy’s fragile ruling coalition.
Italy has been close to crisis since Berlusconi, a partner in the coalition government, was sentenced to four years in prison, commuted to a year under house arrest for tax fraud. Berlusconi’s allies made their latest pledge to bring down the government, saying they would resign if a special Senate committee meeting voted to strip Berlusconi of his seat. Agencies
