Security tight for July 4th parties

Bigger Fourth of July crowds, more fervent displays of patriotism -- and tighter security -- are expected around the country on the first Independence Day since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The FBI has ordered its field offices to keep watch over holiday events because of the danger that terrorists might strike.

With more than 1-million people expected in Philadelphia, authorities will be on high alert, guarding such historic landmarks as Independence Hall. More than 500,000 people are expected in Boston, where access to events will be restricted and bags and coolers will be searched.

In the nation's capital, a double fence will be up around the Mall and the Capitol grounds, with checkpoints for searching people and their bags.

In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has lifted a fireworks ban put in place after Sept. 11 for a show called "A Time for Heroes." A lineup of celebrities will narrate, and the event will culminate in a barrage of 20,000 pyrotechnic shells fired from barges in the East River.

Washington, San Francisco and Chicago will remember the victims and the heroes of Sept. 11 with a fireworks salute called "The American Tribute."

"There will be a silent sky, and then a solitary spectacular burst of red, followed once the sky has cleared by a solitary spectacular burst of white, followed by a solitary spectacular burst of blue," said Jim Van Eerden, who came up with the idea with his family and wrote about it in a letter to President Bush. The tribute is planned as part of the Capitol's celebration and dozens of other events across the country.

House committee votes to allow guns in cockpit

WASHINGTON -- Ignoring Bush administration objections, the House Transportation Committee voted Wednesday to allow more than 1,000 pilots to carry guns for a two-year trial.

Committee chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, said the bill could come up before the full House for a vote the week lawmakers return from their Independence Day recess.

The legislation approved by voice vote would allow up to 1,400 pilots, 2 percent of the work force, to volunteer to undergo training and get permission to carry guns on board planes they are piloting. After two years, the Transportation Security Administration would decide whether to end the program, continue it or expand it.

No public defender for suspect, court says

WASHINGTON -- A federal court ruled on Wednesday in the case of Yaser Esam Hamdi, an American citizen in a Navy brig in Virginia, that a public defender could not represent him because they do not know each other.

The decision covered one extremely narrow aspect of a case that poses numerous constitutional questions about the reach of the president's authority over the rights of an American citizen in a time of war. The court, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., is expected to address those broader questions, which were argued Tuesday, in a later ruling.

Those questions include, for example, whether an American citizen who is alleged by the president to be an enemy combatant has a right to a lawyer and whether the United States can detain that person indefinitely without charging him with a crime.

Wednesday's ruling has little practical effect on the case in which it was brought.

Military court convicts Tunisian of terrorism

TUNIS, Tunisia -- A military court on Wednesday convicted a Tunisian of terrorist activities linked to al-Qaida and sentenced him to eight years in prison, attorneys said.

It was the second conviction for Jaber Trabelsi, sentenced in absentia to 20 years in prison at a January trial of 33 men, all said to be part of the so-called "Milan group" whom U.S. and European authorities believe provided support for al-Qaida in Europe.

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