From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.The Obama administration has partially declassified a court order that authorizes and sets the rules for the NSA's collections of US telephone information.NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports the disclosure came ahead of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the agency's surveillance programs.The director of national intelligence released something called a primary order,which lays out the rules for the NSA phone metadata program.The order came from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,and it restricts access to the information and says the metadata information can only be searched on a reasonable suspicion that there's a link to terrorism.The document didn't include details of what kind of evidence could link someone to terrorism,and the names of terrorist groups the program targets also appeared to have been redacted.The release of the order comes at a time when the NSA is under fire on Capitol Hill for its surveillance activities on Americans.Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News.Syria is allowing a UN team to inspect three sites where chemical weapons allegedly were used during the country's two-year-old civil war.Inspectors have already gone to Damascus but have not disclosed the other two locations.The House is expected to vote soon on bipartisan legislation that would reduce student loan rates at least in the short term.The measure was passed overwhelmingly by the Senate.NPR's Craig Windham reports backers of the bill say it would help 11 million students and save undergraduates an average of 1,500 dollars in interest charges.
