USA

The Supreme Court turned down an appeal by the lawyers for Mohamed Kamel Bellahouel, who was held and eventually released after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The justices did not comment in rejecting an effort to overturn lower-court decisions that permitted his case to be shrouded in secrecy by the government. Bellahouel worked as a waiter in a South Florida restaurant where two Sept. 11 hijackers, including suspected ringleader Mohammad Atta, dined in the weeks before the attacks. Bellahouel was never charged with terrorism. In another security-related development, a congressional committee said that identical technology has been showing up in bombs in different parts of the world.

President Bush's reelection staff announced a "new period" of aggressive campaigning aimed at countering mounting criticism of his administration in the Democratic primaries. In a speech to be delivered at Monday night's Republican Governors Association meeting in Washington, the president was to lay out two major themes of his campaign: a commitment to tax relief and a clear-cut strategy for countering terrorism. Meanwhile, John Kerry and John Edwards kept the heat on the White House as they campaigned for their March 2 "Super Tuesday" showdown in 10 states. Kerry, who hopes to mathematically eliminate Edwards, plans to spend time and money in all 10 states. Edwards has concentrated his efforts in New York, Georgia, and other selected states.

The conspiracy and fraud case of Adelphia Communications founder John Rigas and his two sons was to begin Monday in New York with jury selection. The Rigases, who built their company into the nation's sixth-largest cable-TV provider, have been accused of hiding more than $2 billion in debt to their personal benefit and driving the company to bankruptcy.

In a first for the International Space Station, ground controllers will fly the craft Thursday while its two astronauts are outside deploying and collecting science experiments, according to a Washington Post report based on NASA documents.

While meeting in Washington, the governors raised questions about the greater manpower demands being placed on the National Guard, which, with reserve units from the various services, is supplying 22 percent of US forces in Iraq. The governors rely on the guard to help meet emergeniecies in their states.