In the Nation

WASHINGTON - Senate intelligence committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein yesterday disputed a newspaper report that the National Security Agency conducted more widespread intercepts of private U.S. conversations in 2008 and early this year than has been acknowledged.

Feinstein (D., Calif.) said that as far as she knew, the NSA had not committed flagrant violations of the rules governing surveillance of U.S. e-mail and calls.

The New York Times quoted Rep. Rush Holt (D., N.J.), who chairs the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, as being concerned about the extent that conversations were overcollected and voicing doubt that violations reported in April were accidental. "Some actions are so flagrant that they can't be accidental," Holt told the Times. The Times said it stood by its story. - AP

MIAMI - More than 100 children - all U.S. citizens whose immigrant parents face deportation - are suing President Obama, asking a court to halt the deportations until Congress overhauls U.S. immigration laws.

The children, who gathered yesterday at the Miami nonprofit American Fraternity to draw attention to their cause, say their constitutional rights are being violated because they will probably have to leave the country if their parents are forced to go.

Some children said their families didn't have enough money to pay for school supplies because the breadwinning parent had been deported, and some are at risk of losing their homes.

Fraternity head Nora Sandigo brought the case against the Bush administration. She refiled it in January and a hearing is set for August. She said she was frustrated the Obama administration had not done more to address immigration reform. - AP

WASHINGTON - A federal judge will decide whether to release two jailed retirees accused of spying for 30 years for Cuba - who say they will stay away from their sailboat and give up their passports and "maps or other navigational equipment related to Cuba's navigable waters" if they can be detained at home.

Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and Gwendolyn Myers, 71, say they are also prepared to stay away from Cuba's equivalent of an embassy in Washington if U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton grants their request.

The couple filed the petition before a hearing yesterday. Walton said he would consider the request. A federal magistrate last week ordered the couple jailed, declaring them a flight risk. The couple have pleaded not guilty. - McClatchy Newspapers

Mia Farrow's brother, Patrick Farrow, 66, a sculptor and local fixture in the college town of Castleton, Vt., fatally shot himself at his art gallery, state police and a spokeswoman for the actress said yesterday.

A New York man, Thomas Parkin, 49, was ordered held on $1 million bail after being accused of impersonating his dead mother - including showing up in drag at the motor-vehicles agency in Brooklyn to renew her driver's license - so he could collect $117,000 in government benefits.