Jones was energized in November when he and others received a response from the national lab charged by Congress to determine why and how the towers collapsed. The letter contained the following phrase: "We are unable to provide a full explanation of the total collapse." "That," Jones said, "really was progress. It made me believe we could talk with them." It is striking. After producing a 10,000-page report, the National Institute of Standards and Technology can't explain the collapse. And on its Web site, NIST clearly states that nowhere in its report did it say that steel in the Twin Towers melted due to fires. In fact, the fires reached only 1,000 degrees Celsius. Steel melts at 1,500 degrees Celsius.

Microsoft may have inadvertently disclosed a potential Microsoft backdoor for law enforcement earlier this week. According to an article on PC World: “The software vendor is giving law enforcers access to a special tool that keeps tabs on botnets, using data compiled from the 450 million computer users who have installed the Malicious Software Removal tool that ships with Windows.” Not a big deal until you keep reading: “Although Microsoft is reluctant to give out details on its botnet buster — the company said that even revealing its name could give cyber criminals a clue on how to thwart it.”

Shore, 26, had faced a murder charge during his February court-matrial in the death of a detainee last June in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk. He testified that his platoon sergeant ordered him to finish off the wounded man, but he intentionally missed. Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales was acquitted of all charges last week in a separate court-martial.

The U.S. military on Saturday fired missiles at a target about 50 yards away from the general hospital in Baghdad's Sadr City district, wounding more than 20 people and destroying ambulances, hospital officials said.

The US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank united yesterday to open a new front in their battle to quell the persistent money market strains that are fuelling the global credit crunch.

The Labor Department reported Friday that the US economy lost a net total of 20,000 jobs in April, marking the fourth consecutive month of overall job losses. The employment report, combined with other data on economic growth, retail sales, consumer spending and wages, provides a picture of an economy sinking deeper into recession and a population in increasingly desperate financial straits.

How did a well-meaning 26-year-old woman from Virginia end up in Abu Ghraib, taking photographs of her colleagues as they tortured Iraqi prisoners? In a remarkable extract from their powerful new book, Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris explain how the reservist became numb to death and abuse