OTTAWA - Refugee numbers around the world are at their highest level since 1994, the United Nations refugee agency reported Tuesday in a sobering look at global displacement. More than 45.2 million people either fled their own countries or were internally displaced in 2012, compared to 42.5 million the year before, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in its annual global trends report. War remained the dominant reason for displacement — 55 per cent of all refugees came from five war-affected countries: Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Sudan.

___ NSA director says plot against Wall Street foiled WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. foiled a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange because of the sweeping surveillance programs at the heart of a debate over national security and personal privacy, officials said Tuesday at a rare open hearing on intelligence — a set-piece for supporters of the spying.

By Mark Hosenball and Andrea Shalal-Esa (Reuters) - Industry executives and some corners of the U.S. intelligence community are pushing back against possible legislative moves to curb contractors' access to classified information. Following leaks by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, Senate Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein is working on legislation intended to restrict spy agencies from assigning contractors like Snowden to sensitive jobs.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Seeking to break a weeks-long impasse in efforts to fix the state's woefully underfunded pension system, Illinois will turn to a rarely used legislative conference committee in hopes of reaching a compromise solution, Governor Pat Quinn's office said on Tuesday.