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Hundreds of identical letters have been sent to newspapers from U.S. soldiers in Iraq, extolling the successes of American forces there. The U.S. military says the letters are part of a spontaneous grassroots campaign, but many soldiers say they didn't write the missives that bear their names. NPR's Adam Hochberg reports.

The House approves President Bush's $87 billion request for new spending in Afghanistan and Iraq. The funds, aimed mostly at supporting U.S. troops in those countries, are likely to pass in the Senate Friday night. The lopsided vote in favor of the aid request belies weeks of debate over the spending measure and the U.S. presence in Iraq. NPR's David Welna reports.

Rev. William Sloane Coffin has died. Coffin, a former chaplin at Yale University, was best known for his peace and civil rights activism during the Vietnam War. He was immortalized as the Rev. Sloane in the Doonesbury comic strip. Coffin, who was 81, had suffered from congestive heart failure.

Polls taken immediately after a USA Today story about the NSA's effort to analyze domestic phone call records show overall support for the program. Americans have gotten a bit more information though the confirmation hearings of CIA director nominee Michael Hayden.

New technology that helps phone companies streamline their service could also be used to track customers, industry observers say. Telecom companies use the technology to bill customers and manage demands on their networks. But experts say the firms can't routinely track the content of phone conversations.

The former deputy president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, has been acquitted of rape. A judge in Johannesburg declared that the alleged victim's version of what happened on the night of Nov. 2 last year was not credible.

Since Americans first debated government regulation of the fuel efficiency of passenger cars, it has always come down to safety vs. efficiency: lighter cars get better mileage, the conventional wisdom goes -- but they're not as safe as heavier cars. Does that argument still hold water?

The fate of Somalia stands at a crossroads, as Islamists who have taken control of the capital offer a new chance to move beyond the violence brought by competing warlords. But security analysts fear the country may become a safe harbor for al-Qaeda, duplicating the role of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the 1990s.

Prosecutors challenge Enron founder Kenneth Lay's testimony that short-sellers were partly to blame for the company's collapse in 2001. As proof, lawyers showed that Lay's own son bet Enron's stock would drop. Lay has contended that short-sellers mounted a concerted attack on Enron stock.

The jury has recessed for the weekend without a verdict in the Zacarias Moussaoui sentencing trial. The judge questioned the jury briefly before Friday's session after a juror told the judge that another juror had looked up the word "aggravating" at an online dictionary site.