USA

Consumer confidence, which reached a four-year high in April, fell from 109.8 to 103.2 in May on the index kept by the Conference Board, the private research group said Tuesday. Still, the latest reading is above the 100.9 analysts had forecast.

President Bush signed into law the "Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act," a measure meant to keep insensitive protests from occurring within or near national cemeteries during military funerals. The act will restrict the displays of a Kansas church group, whose members claim that military deaths are God's punishment for America's tolerance of gays.

Two Marines whose unit is suspected of killing Iraqi civilians last November in Haditha have been traumatized by carrying out orders to photograph the corpses, the parents of LCpl. Andrew Wright and LCpl. Roel Ryan Briones told the Associated Press. Navy investigators have reportedly confiscated one camera used to snap the unpublished photos.

CBS news correspondent Kimberly Dozier remained in critical condition Tuesday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the day after a Baghdad car bomb detonated near her and two fellow journalists, a soundman and cameraman, both of whom were killed. An American soldier and an Iraqi soldier were also killed and six US soldiers injured.

Kinder Morgan Inc., which operates 43,000 miles of natural gas and oil pipelines, will go private if a $13.4 billion in-house buyout, announced Monday, is finalized by the Houston-based company's board of directors.