e Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that two years ago, Justice Scalia went pheasant hunting as a guest of the dean of the University of Kansas Law School. Two weeks later, the dean appeared before the Supreme Court, representing the State of Kansas in a prison case.

Under the new plan, officials say, the 11,000 American forces in Afghanistan are changing their tactics. Rather than carrying out raids and returning to their bases, small groups will now remain in Afghan villages for days at a time, handing out various forms of aid and conducting patrols. By becoming a more permanent, familiar presence, American officials say, they hope to be able to receive and act on intelligence within hours. Such a technique helped them to capture Mr. Hussein.
The assassination attempts, officials say, made it clear to General Musharraf that he had to crush Mr. bin Laden's support group, even if they retained a strong constituency in Pakistan and in the Pakistani intelligence services.

Eleven people were killed and six wounded when Pakistani troops opened fire on two vehicles when they failed to stop at a checkpoint in South Waziristan, a remote tribal area straddling the Afghan border,

The informant who helped lead the U.S. military to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s two sons has been paid most of a $30 million reward for the tip-off, the State Department said on Saturday.
Saddam surrendered to American forces in December and is being held U.S. custody. No reward is expected to paid for Saddam's capture because he was located by the U.S. military.

The United States is rounding up and questioning the relatives of fugitive al-Qaida leaders to generate information on the possible whereabouts of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and his top deputies. This tactic helped lead to Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s capture.
A U.S. defense official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Pakistani forces have killed or captured more al-Qaida members than any other U.S. ally.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear the case of a South Florida man whose legal status is being kept in near complete secrecy as part of the government's war on terrorism.