What Caught My Eye Today

FBI - The nation's top two law enforcement officials acknowledged Friday the FBI broke the law to secretly pry out personal information about Americans. They apologized and vowed to prevent further illegal intrusions. The FBI's transgressions were spelled out in a damning 126-page audit by Justice Department Inspector General. The report found that agents sometimes demanded personal data on people without official authorization, and in other cases improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances and also concluded that the FBI for three years underreported to Congress how often it used national security letters to ask businesses to turn over customer data. The American Civil Liberties Union said the audit proves Congress must amend the Patriot Act to require judicial approval anytime the FBI wants access to sensitive personal information. All those conspiracy theories and jokes about 'big brother is watching you' don't seem all that crazy anymore, do they?

Al Qaeda - The leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida-inspired group that challenged the authority of Iraq's government, was captured Friday in a raid on the western outskirts of Baghdad. Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was arrested along with several other insurgents in a raid in the town of Abu Ghraib. The arrest of al-Baghdadi would be a major victory for U.S. and Iraqi forces in their fight against Sunni insurgents, especially the hardcore religious extremists who have shown no interest in negotiating an end to their struggle. I don't want to diminish the importance of this, such as it is, but what about that guy Osama? We've been hunting him down for years.

Iraq - U.S. officials will sit down with their Iranian and Syrian counterparts on Saturday at a conference in Baghdad aimed at stopping sectarian fighting in Iraq before the conflict spreads throughout the oil-rich region. Iraq called the meeting to enlist regional support to stop the violence that has racked Baghdad and other parts of the country since the U.S.-led invasion four years ago. Attention is likely to be focused on the United States sitting down with Syria and Iran, both accused by Washington of fuelling the Iraq war by supporting either Sunni insurgents or Shi'ite militias. Iran and Syria deny the charges. So basically, we've got two sides barely speaking to each other trying to end the violence in Iraq. On the bright side, we really don't have much more to lose than we already have.

South America - Here's a shocker. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez launched another verbal assault on President Bush Friday as he led some 20,000 supporters in Buenos Aires, Argentina in an anti-American rally, calling the U.S. leader a "political cadaver" and blasting his policies as "imperialist." Chavez said Bush's five-nation swing would fail to improve America's image and dismissed his pledges of U.S. aid as a cynical attempt to "confuse" Latin Americans. Now, now Hugo. Are you sure that you haven't been dipping into a little 'something, something' before you got up on stage?

American Idol - Newly eliminated "American Idol" contestant Antonella Barba said on Friday the racy photographs that made her an Internet sensation were taken for personal use only and released without her consent. "The pictures that have been released of me, the ones that actually are me, they were very personal, and that is not how I intended to portray myself," she said. "I'd rather promote myself in a more classy way." For now, Barba said she planned to stay in Los Angeles to pursue a singing career. She denied being approached about posing for Playboy magazine and said she would not do it if asked. Pressed on whether she absolutely would rule out a Playboy shoot, Barba replied: "Well, you know what? Right now, I want to look at all the offers that I get and sort out what's best for me." Yeah, sure. I'm thinking Miss July or Miss August.

Baseball - Bonds hit his first home run of spring training, connecting in the fourth inning on Friday in the San Francisco Giants' 5-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics. Bonds is hoping to get off to a faster start this season as he closes in on Hank Aaron's record of 755 career home runs. Bonds needs 22 homers to break the mark.

Basketball - Conference championships are in full swing. Today, the games started at 9:00am PT and are expected to wrap up around 13 hours later. And it gets better...March Madness starts next Thursday.