Russia on Wednesday accused the United States of "crude and clumsy" spying on its territory after a suspected CIA agent was caught in Moscow seeking to recruit an agent while disguised in a blonde wig. The foreign ministry issued an official protest to the US ambassador who it summoned to an early morning meeting, but signs also grew that neither side wanted the Cold War-style incident to develop into a full scale crisis.

More than 50 US media organizations joined a protest of the US government seizure of journalist phone records from the Associated Press, describing the action as "an overreaching dragnet." The action "calls into question the very integrity of Department of Justice policies toward the press and its ability to balance, on its own, its police powers against the First Amendment rights of the news media and the public's interest," said a letter released Tuesday by the coalition.

OLYMPIA, Wash. - The Washington state Administrative Office of the Courts was hacked sometime between last fall and February, and up to 160,000 Social Security numbers and 1 million driver's license numbers may have been accessed during the data breach of its public website, officials said Thursday. Court officials said they have only confirmed that 94 Social Security numbers were obtained and they don't believe the larger number was compromised, but they wanted to alert the public to the possibility as a precaution.

President Barack Obama on Tuesday defended the FBI from suggestions it might have prevented the Boston marathon bombing by acting on warnings about one of the suspects. Russia had warned the US authorities about Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the FBI probed and interviewed him, although he went on to carry out the bombing. "Based on what I've seen so far, the FBI performed its duties," Obama told a news conference, adding that Russia had been very cooperative in the post-bombing probe. col/dw/jm