US court extends NSA surveillance rules in current form

A U.S. secret court has extended the authorization of the National Security Agency to continue surveillance of phone records in its current form, after a reform bill ran into difficulties in the Senate.Besides stopping the NSA from collecting bulk phone records of Americans from phone companies, the USA Freedom Act aimed to restrict access of the NSA to these records by requiring the use of targeted selection terms.It also has a provision for the appointment of a special advocate tasked with