USA

Although the FBI continues to investigate the Sept. 16 shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, The New York Times reported Wednesday that its sources indicate the bureau has found that Blackwater security guards violated the rules of deadly force in killing at least 14 of the civilians. The contractor is withholding comment until it sees the findings.

Faced with overwhelming public opposition, Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) of New York said Wednesday he will abandon a plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

More than 30,000 Medicaid providers, including doctors and hospitals, owe at least $1 billion in back taxes and still receive federal payments for their services, the Government Accountability Office reported Wednesday.

Seeking to protect abortion- clinic patients from harassment, Massachusetts passed the nation's toughest restrictions on protesters, forcing them to stay 35 feet away from clinic users within a buffer zone.

The Coast Guard defended its response on Tuesday to last week's San Francisco Bay oil spill but said it may consider restricting the movement of ships in heavy fog.

Nancy Frye, whose son is serving in the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade, is shipping more than 70 quilts she and several friends have made to troops coping with the cold nights on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported. The project started after Matthew Frye told his mother how much soldiers longed to have a comforter like one she'd sent him.