It is the first time the court has intervened in the way abortions are carried out, as opposed to just over abortion itself.

The decision was viewed by both pro and anti-abortionists as an indication of a changing mood in the court towards a more conservative position.

"We're moving beyond putting roadblocks in front of abortions to actually prohibiting them," said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, a national anti-abortion group.

He and other strategists said they hoped to introduce bills in a number of states that would:

- Ban all abortion of viable foetuses, unless the mother's life is endangered.
- Ban mid and late-term abortion for foetal abnormality, such as Down syndrome or a malformed brain.
- Require doctors to tell patients explicitly what an abortion will involve and show them ultrasound images of the foetus.
- Lengthen abortion waiting periods so women must reflect on such counselling.

It is far from certain that the Supreme Court would uphold all these proposals, but anti-abortion activists feel momentum is on their side.

For more than 30 years, since the Roe v Wade case in 1973 established abortion as a constitutional right, the court has tended to reject any attempt to restrict access to terminations.

What appears to have been crucial in tipping the court's attitude was the retirement last year of Sandra Day O'Connor from the nine-member panel, and her replacement, at President George Bush's instigation, by the more conservative Samuel Alito.

Abortion-rights lawyer Katherine Grainger predicted the ruling would "open the floodgates" in state after state.

"The state's interest in the foetus has now been elevated above the woman's health," said Ms Grainger, who directs state policy for the Centre for Reproductive Rights. "States are going to push the boundaries and try to restrict access on all fronts."

The procedure that was challenged involves doctors partially removing the foetus from a woman's uterus and then crushing or cutting into its skull while it is still in the woman's body. Partial-birth abortions are allowed only for medical reasons and are applied to terminations after 12 weeks.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, said the U.S. Department of Justice is experiencing an unparalleled crisis of leadership. He said Gonzales has undercut the credibility of the rule of law in the United States.

Gonzales is trying to explain the different explanations he has given about his involvement in the firings. Other Department of Justice officials also have given contradictory reasons for the firings, at first saying they were performance-related, and then backing away from that rationale.

Critics say they believe the firings were politically motivated and that President Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, was deeply involved.

The Bush administration has defended the firings, saying the prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the president.

In prepared testimony released Sunday, Gonzales apologized for mishandling the matter, and says he was "less than precise" in his statements.

Committee Democrats are focusing many of their questions on the role Gonzales and the White House played in the firings of two prosecutors in the western states of California and New Mexico.

Gonzales has said that the prosecutors were dismissed as part of a management review designed to improve leadership in the Justice Department.

The MySpace News service scouts the Internet for news ranging from gossip in online journals known as blogs to stories from media conglomerates such as News Corporation, the Rupert Murdoch headed company that owns MySpace.

Placement of items on MySpace News web pages will be dictated by feedback from members, who get to rank stories on a scaled of "loved it to hated it," according to the firm.

"MySpace News is designed to let users decide what's most relevant to them," said MySpace president Tom Anderson.

"We're putting it to the community to be the editorial engine driving our news service."

MySpace News uses a search algorithm to scan websites and blogs as well as online newspapers and magazines. Items are organized into categories such as politics, sports, technology and style.

Democratic proponents of the legislation argued that government involvement in drug pricing negotiations would result in lower health care costs for the elderly and taxpayers. Republicans countered that the Medicare program is already achieving lower-than-expected drug costs for seniors through the use of private insurance companies and government intervention would result in a disruptive "takeover" of the price negotiation process.

The co-owner of a payroll company pleaded guilty Wednesday to a scheme to defraud business clients of more than $4 million by diverting employee taxes to his personal use, federal officials said.

Stephen E. Taylor, 34, of Canton pleaded guilty to wire fraud and could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison and fined $250,000 at sentencing June 27 in U.S. District Court, officials said.

U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said Taylor was co-owner of 20/20 Payroll Solutions, with offices in Georgia, Texas and Alabama.

"This defendant took advantage of more than 100 innocent business owners, including many mom-and-pop operations," Nahmias said. "He took the funds clients entrusted him with to pay their employees' taxes and used the funds instead for his own personal benefit.

'When his scheme spiraled out of control, he began using the funds of one client to pay for the taxes owed by other clients. In less than two years, he cheated his clients out of more than $4 million dollars," the prosecutor said

The Internal Revenue Service today gave TurboTax customers who were unable to file electronically Tuesday an extension until midnight Thursday.

Intuit, the company that makes the popular tax software, reported that its electronic-filing back-end system was overloaded on Tuesday, making it impossible for an unknown number of users of all the company's tax software products to meet the government's April 17 deadline for filing 2006 returns.

"Intuit product users who were unable to file their returns through the company's servers Tuesday should e-file as soon as possible," the IRS said in a news release posted on its Web site this afternoon. "The IRS will not apply late filing penalties to taxpayers who were affected by this problem."

It's the second extension the IRS has announced today. Earlier, the agency said taxpayers affected by the major storm that hit the northeast on Monday would have until April 26 to file. The agency had initially given storm victims until the 19th, but decided to grant an additional week because storm-related power outages and public transportation problems were making it impossible for some taxpayers and accountants to make the new deadline.

Six more former workers arrested during a raid of the Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in Cactus pleaded guilty to federal charges this week and could go to prison.

The six entered pleas in federal court in Amarillo on Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release issued Wednesday.

Charges against them stem from a December immigration raid at the Swift plant in the Panhandle conducted as part of an investigation into the use of Social Security numbers by illegal immigrants to gain employment.

Four of the defendants -- Jesus Gutierrez-Ramos, Domingo Velasquez-Gutierrez, Manuel Castro-Pablo and Cristino Pablo-Alonzo -- each pleaded guilty to one count of fraud in connection with an immigration document. They face a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Two others pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of unlawful entry by an illegal immigrant. They face a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Raids at Swift & Co. plants in six states led to the arrests of more than 1,200 immigrant workers. All 53 people charged in the Northern District of Texas have pleaded guilty. Sentencing has not yet been set.

No charges were filed against Swift, which bills itself as the world's second-largest beef and pork processor.