Polio outbreak in Syria confirmed

29 October 2013 Last updated at 06:49 ET

The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed 10 cases of polio in Syria - the first outbreak in the country in 14 years.

The UN body says a further 12 cases are still being investigated. Most of the 22 people who have been tested are babies and toddlers.

Before Syria's civil war began in 2011, some 95% of children were vaccinated against the disease.

The UN now estimates 500,000 children have not been immunised.

'Regional risk'

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• Polio (poliomyelitis) mainly affects children aged under five
• It is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus which invades the nervous system
• Symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck, and limb pain
• One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis
• Between 5-10% of those who suffer paralysis die because their breathing muscles are immobilised
• Cases have fallen by over 99% since 1988, from around 350,000 then to 223 in 2012
• However polio remains endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan

Source: World Health Organization

The WHO said the suspected outbreak centres on the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

The highly contagious disease is most often spread by consuming food or liquid contaminated with faeces.

"Of course this is a communicable disease, with population movements it can travel to other areas. So the risk is high for [its] spread across the region," the Reuters news agency quotes WHO spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer as saying in Geneva.

"Immunisations have started in that area," he said.

There are more than 100,000 children, all under age five, now at risk of polio in Deir Ezzor province alone, which has been caught in fierce battles between Syrian government forces and opposition fighters.

The city of Deir Ezzor remains partially controlled by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, while the countryside is in the hands of the opposition.

More than four million Syrians have been displaced internally by the conflict and generally live in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions.

A further two millions have fled the country, many of them living in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon , Turkey and Egypt.

The WHO has already reported increases in cases of measles, typhoid and hepatitis A.

Since the first suspected case was reported 10 days ago, the Syria's Health Ministry has begun an immunisation drive and aid agencies have begun developing emergency immunisation plans at Syrian refugee camps.

Mr Rosenbauer said most victims were under two years old and were thought never to have been vaccinated against polio, Reuters reports.

"The next step will be to look genetically at these isolated viruses and where they came from. That should give some clarity on the origin," he said.

Polio has been largely eradicated in developed countries but remains endemic in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

There is no known cure, though a series of vaccinations can confer immunity.

Young children are particularly susceptible to paralytic polio, the most serious form of the disease.

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Tiananmen crash 'suspects' sought

29 October 2013 Last updated at 05:56 ET

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Police have named two suspects linked to a "major incident"

Police in China have named two suspects linked to a "major incident" in Beijing, after a deadly car crash in Tiananmen Square, state media report.

The vehicle crashed into a crowd and burst into flames, killing five people.

Police subsequently issued a notice to hotels in Beijing seeking information about two people from Xinjiang province, Chinese media said.

The note also described a vehicle and four number plates from Xinjiang, the scene of sporadic violent incidents.

State-run Xinhua news agency said of the five people who died on Monday, three people died inside the car.

A tourist from the Philippines and a tourist from Guangdong province were also killed. Another 38 people were injured, including three tourists from the Philippines and one from Japan, police said.

"We thought the jeep was heading for us, and my mother and I had no way to run from it. So we didn't move," said eyewitness Wang Dake, who was sent to hospital with shock and a knee injury.

"I thought that if the car was going to hit us, then we would die right there. But it hit the marble railing and didn't hit us," he added.

An unnamed tourist from Zhejiang province told China's state-controlled Global Times: "The vehicle ran very fast. I could hear people screaming all the way while the vehicle ploughed through the crowds."

Police cars were chasing the car before it crashed, she added.

Police shut down the scene of the incident - at the north end of the square at an entrance to the Forbidden City - shortly after it occurred, temporarily closing a subway station and a road.

A BBC crew attempting to record footage at the location were briefly detained, while on Chinese social media some pictures of the scene appeared to be quickly deleted and comments were heavily censored.

There has been no official statement on the cause of the incident.

Hotel notice

"A major incident has taken place on Monday," the police notice said, without specifying what. It named two residents from Xinjiang's Pishan and Shanshan counties as suspects.

The notice, unconfirmed images of which have been widely circulated on Chinese social media, also asked hotels to look out for "suspicious guests" and vehicles.

Global Times said it had confirmation from the Beijing police that the notice was genuine, although police did not comment on the "major incident" itself.

Zhao Fuzhou, a security official at Beijing's Xinjiang Dasha hotel, said that police had circulated a notice to hotels searching for information about two suspects with Uighur names, AP news agency reported.

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• Uighurs are ethnically Turkic Muslims
• They make up about 45% of the region's population; 40% are Han Chinese
• China re-established control in 1949 after crushing short-lived state of East Turkestan
• Since then, there was large-scale immigration of Han Chinese
• Uighurs fear erosion of traditional culture

Xinjiang is home to the minority Muslim Uighur group, some of whom complain of cultural and religious repression under Beijing's rule. There have been sporadic outbreaks of violence in Xinjiang, including in both Pishan and Shanshan counties. China says it grants the Uighurs wide-ranging freedoms.

In June, riots in Xingjian's Turpan prefecture, which is in Shanshan county, killed 27 people. State media said police opened fire after a mob armed with knives attacked police stations and a local government building.

In April another incident in the city of Kashgar left 21 people dead. The government said the violence was linked to terrorist activity, but local people told the BBC it involved a local family who had a longstanding dispute with officials over religious freedom.

One unconfirmed report said that the authorities suspected that Monday's incident was a suicide attack. Reuters news agency reported that an unnamed source with ties to the leadership had said that the crash looked "like a premeditated suicide attack".

On Tuesday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman declined to say whether the incident was a suicide attack. "The relevant Chinese departments and authorities are carrying out an investigation into the incident," she said.

"At the same time, we admit that there are cases of violence and terror in some specific areas of Xinjiang," she said, adding that the government was resolutely opposed to acts of violence and terror.

If evidence of a Uighur link to the car blaze is confirmed, it would be the first time that such groups have carried out an attack in Beijing, correspondents say.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says this would have serious repercussions for Xinjiang and the Chinese state, and would add to a sense that there really are serious troubles beneath the surface there.

Tiananmen Square is a highly sensitive site due to its link to China's 1989 pro-democracy protests, which were ended by a military crackdown.

The square is generally kept under very tight security both because of its proximity to key political institutions and so that is does not serve as a hub for protesters and petitioners, although incidents have nonetheless occurred there before.

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Major US surveillance review ordered

29 October 2013 Last updated at 06:08 ET

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President Obama says he wants to ''review'' the NSA's operations

The US Senate's intelligence committee has announced a major review of the country's surveillance operations.

The committee's chair, Diane Feinstein, said eavesdropping on leaders of friendly nations was wrong.

She said the White House had told her such surveillance would stop, but a senior administration official told the BBC there was no policy change so far.

Senior US intelligence agency officials are to testify before the House of Representatives later on Tuesday.

Correspondents say pressure is growing on the White House to explain why President Barack Obama apparently did not know about the extent of the intelligence gathering operations.

Mr Obama has spoken publicly of his intent to probe spying activities amid claims of eavesdropping on US allies.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

It is my understanding that President Obama was not aware Chancellor Merkel's communications were being collected since 2002. That is a big problem"

End Quote Dianne Feinstein Senate Intelligence Committee chair

In a US TV interview, the US president said that national security operations were being reassessed to make sure the National Security Agency's (NSA) growing technical spying capability was kept under control.

"We give them policy direction," he told ABC's Fusion network.

"But what we've seen over the last several years is their capacities continue to develop and expand, and that's why I'm initiating now, a review to make sure that what they're able to do, doesn't necessarily mean what they should be doing."

An EU delegate in Washington has described the row over intelligence gathering as "a breakdown of trust".

German media has reported that the US bugged German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone for more than a decade - and that the surveillance only ended a few months ago.

'Totally opposed'

Ms Feinstein, who chairs the Senate intelligence panel, called for a "total review" of US intelligence programmes in light of the Merkel revelations.

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Jay Carney: "There has been extraordinary change... in the way we transmit and gather information"

"With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of US allies - including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany - let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed," she said in a statement.

"It is my understanding that President Obama was not aware Chancellor Merkel's communications were being collected since 2002. That is a big problem."

Senator Feinstein said the White House had told her that all surveillance of leaders of countries friendly to the US would stop.

However, the BBC's North America editor Mark Mardell says a senior administration official has told the BBC this is not accurate - and that while there have been individual changes - there have not been policy changes, such as terminating intelligence gathering aimed at allies.

Earlier, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that the administration "recognise[s] there needs to be additional constraints on how we gather and use intelligence".

Neither Mr Carney nor Mr Obama have commented on specific allegations that the US eavesdropped on international allies, including tapping the phones of foreign officials.

An across-the-board review of US intelligence resources is currently under way.

The head of the NSA, Gen Keith Alexander, and other experts are due to testify before the House of Representatives intelligence committee at 13:30 local time (17:30 GMT) on Tuesday.

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'Five Eyes' agreement

• Initially a top-secret deal signed between the US and UK in March 1946
• It committed both nations to sharing communications intelligence, continuing the practices of WWII
• Later referred to as the "UKUSA Agreement", it formed the basis for intelligence co-operation
• The agreement was later extended to cover Canada, Australia and New Zealand
• Other countries also reported to have joined the community
• The full text of the initial agreement was released by Britain's National Archives in 2005

The BBC's Jonny Dymond in Washington says tough questions can be expected from Congress as politicians of all stripes have been angered by the revelations of large scale intelligence gathering on both Americans and US allies.

The Associated Press quoted an unnamed administration official saying the Obama government was considering ending spying on allied heads of state.

The official said a final decision had still to be made, as the internal review was under way.

Spying pact

Earlier on Monday, representatives from the European Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs spoke to members of the US Congress about the alleged US spying on European leaders and citizens.

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What do people in Spain make of news 60 million calls were tracked?

The European delegation was reportedly unhappy with the "stock" responses from US officials on the issue.

Their visit coincided with reports that the US had monitored 60 million Spanish telephone calls in a month and asked the Japanese government to help it monitor fibre-optic cables carrying personal data through Japan, to the Asia-Pacific region.

According to Spain's El Mundo newspaper, the NSA tracked tens of millions of phone calls, texts and emails of Spanish citizens in December 2012 and January 2013.

The Japanese news agency Kyodo said Japan refused the NSA's request, citing legal restriction and staff shortages.

Mrs Merkel is also sending German intelligence officials to Washington.

The allegations of US surveillance on international allies stem from documents leaked by fugitive ex-US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, now living in Russia.

The US has had a "no spying pact", known as Five Eyes, with Britain since just after World War II, with Australia, New Zealand and Canada later joining.

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Soldiers jailed for Westgate looting

29 October 2013 Last updated at 07:12 ET

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Security camera footage which emerged shows Kenyan soldiers taking away white shopping bags, as the BBC's Rebecca Donovan reports

Two Kenyan soldiers have been sacked and jailed for looting during last month's attack on the Westgate shopping centre, the army chief has said.

Julius Karangi said that a third soldier was under investigation.

He has previously said that soldiers had only taken water during the four-day siege, despite CCTV footage seeming to show them helping themselves to goods in a supermarket.

Somali Islamist group al-Shabab says it was behind the attack, which killed 67.

At the same news conference, Police Criminal Investigation Department head Ndegwa Muhoro said that a phone call had been made to Norway during the siege.

One of the suspected attackers has been named as 23-year-old Somalia-born Norwegian national, Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow.

The Kenyan army has said that all four of the attackers died.

Mr Muhoro said that Interpol was helping to analyse the bodies to confirm their identities, reports the AFP news agency.

Officials had initially said there were 10-15 attackers.

Mr Muhoro said that five other people were in detention over the attack and would be charged soon.

Several shop-owners have said that their premises were looted during the siege.

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Staff at G4S SA prison accused

27 October 2013 Last updated at 23:19 ET

Staff at one of South Africa's most dangerous prisons, run by British firm G4S, have been accused of "shocking" abuses and of losing control.

The South African government has temporarily taken over the running of Mangaung prison from G4S and launched an official investigation.

It comes after inmates claimed they had been subjected to electric shocks and forced injections.

G4S says it has seen no evidence of abuse by its employees.

The BBC has obtained leaked footage filmed inside the high security prison, in which one can hear the click of electrified shields, and shrieking. It also shows a prisoner resisting a medication.

Researchers at the Wits Justice Project at Wits University in Johannesburg say they have collected accounts of electric shocks and beatings from almost 30 prisoners during a year-long investigation.

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Africa correspondent Andrew Harding: "S African authorities say the situation at the maximum security Mangaung Prison is shocking and out of control"

"Some said they would pass out when the shocks became too intense," said Ruth Hopkins, a journalist with the Wits Justice Project.

She said inmates also complained about suffering broken limbs and other serious injuries.

One former prisoner told the BBC electric shocks were used as "torture", while a sacked security guard said water was thrown over inmates to increase the impact of the charge.

Continue reading the main story

"If anything specific is brought to us that is a specific case you have my commitment... that we'll investigate fully and completely"

End Quote Andy Baker G4S for Africa

A lawyer for some of the prisoners has condemned a culture of impunity amongst prison staff, according to the BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding.

G4S has blamed an upsurge of violence at the prison on a labour dispute, our correspondent adds. More than 300 guards there were sacked this month after going on an unofficial strike.

Nontsikelelo Jolingana, the acting national commissioner of the Department of Correctional Services, told the BBC her department had launched a formal investigation into the claims of abuse.

The South African prison authorities announced last month they were temporarily taking over the running of the prison near Bloemfontein, in the central Free State province, after the private security contractor "lost effective control of the facility".

Andy Baker, regional president of G4S for Africa, said administering and prescribing injections was not the domain of G4S staff, but of a separate medical staff.

When asked about allegations of electric shocking and beatings, he told the BBC there had "never been an abuse of this type or nature" to his knowledge.

But he said: "If anything specific is brought to us that is a specific case you have my commitment and the rest of our organisation's commitment that we'll investigate fully and completely."

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China anti-corruption trio on trial

28 October 2013 Last updated at 05:55 ET

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As Damian Grammaticas reports, the activists were detained after taking photographs with banners urging officials to disclose their assets

China has put three anti-corruption campaigners on trial, in what is being seen as part of a crackdown on activists under President Xi Jinping.

The trial of Liu Ping, Wei Zhongping and Li Sihua, activists associated with the New Citizens' Movement, began in Xinyu, Jiangxi province, on Monday.

They were detained after taking photographs with banners urging officials to disclose their assets.

Mr Xi has called for a crackdown on corruption since taking office.

Ms Liu, Mr Wei and Mr Li were arrested in April.

Continue reading the main story

Xinyu, where this trial is taking place, is a gritty, polluted place - rows of grey concrete apartment blocks and giant factory chimneys. It is perhaps an apt setting. A year ago, when Xi Jinping took over as the head of the Communist Party, some hoped a new, younger leader might bring reforms to China, more tolerance of critics, more freedoms.

Instead, with this prosecution in this gritty city, those hopes for change have faded. Mr Xi appears to be overseeing an intensifying crackdown that goes beyond anything his predecessors did, designed to reinforce his authority and that of the party too.

It is no longer only human rights activists who are being targeted by the authorities. Lawyers, bloggers, businessmen and, as in this trial, even very low profile, local campaigners are being detained, some for doing little more than staging peaceful, public protests against corruption, calling for the rule of law, for more civil and political rights for ordinary people.

What worries observers is that under Mr Xi, China may be getting less tolerant, basic freedoms for people to gather and express their views are being violated, so too is the right to a fair trial. In this case, defence lawyers say police detained key defence witnesses ahead of the trial.

They were initially detained for subversion, but the charge was later changed to illegal assembly, activists and lawyers say.

Zhang Xuezhong, one of Ms Liu's lawyers, told Reuters news agency that "serious procedural problems" had been found in the case, and he was "not optimistic" about the trial.

Defence lawyer Pang Kun also told reporters that he had been detained by police on Sunday.

Tight security was in place for the trial, with lines of police blocking roads outside the court.

A number of Western diplomats who had attempted to attend the trial were blocked from entering the courthouse, AP news agency reported.

Liao Minyue, daughter of activist Liu Ping, told AP they were "still a little bit confident in this case".

UN criticism

Since Xi Jinping took over the leadership of the Communist Party a year ago, his government has launched its own anti-corruption drive, the BBC's Damian Grammaticas reports from outside the court in Xinyu.

But Mr Xi has also overseen the broadest crackdown China has seen in recent years, our correspondent adds.

Several activists in the New Citizens' Movement, which calls for more democracy and government transparency, have been detained.

In July, prominent lawyer Xu Zhiyong, one of the founders of the movement, was detained on suspicion of having "gathered crowds to disrupt public order".

Continue reading the main story

• A loose network of activists in China
• Campaigns for more civil and political rights in China, and educational rights for children
• Has urged officials to declare their assets to help combat corruption
• Members have organised mealtime gatherings to discuss social and legal issues

Earlier in October, wealthy Chinese businessman Wang Gongquan, who is considered a key supporter of the movement, was also formally arrested on similar charges.

"Liu, Wei, and Li are canaries in the coal mine for how the government intends to treat this influential group of anti-corruption activists," Sophie Richardson, China director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

"Anything short of acquittal will seriously undermine the credibility of the government's claims to be cracking down on corruption," she added.

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Tiananmen car blaze kills three

28 October 2013 Last updated at 06:57 ET

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The BBC's Celia Hatton: "We were quickly pulled over by the police and detained...for about 20 minutes"

Chinese state media say three people have died after a vehicle crashed in Tiananmen Square in the capital, Beijing.

Eleven other people, including tourists, were injured in the incident, Xinhua news agency said.

The square was evacuated after the vehicle "went into the crowd in front of the Tiananmen rostrum" at midday, the agency said.

Images posted online showed a vehicle in flames, amid barricades.

Other pictures on social media showed a column of smoke rising from the scene of the crash.

There has been no explanation so far about the cause of the crash.

Continue reading the main story

Celia Hatton BBC News, Beijing

---

Was it an accident or some sort of political protest?

That is the question that hangs in the air following Monday's deadly vehicle accident at the entrance to the Forbidden City, one of China's most popular tourist sites. The entrance to the Forbidden City borders the northern edge of Tiananmen Square, the location of 1989's crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners and an ongoing flashpoint for disgruntled citizens.

Users of weibo, China's version of Twitter, were quick to question the location of the crash. "Tiananmen is a political landmark… Fires in other places are local news but this is different," wrote one poster, Chaijuncat.

According to some, Tiananmen Square is the most heavily policed public area in the world. Monday's episode lends credence to that idea. Minutes after the incident, police evacuated the square. They were also quick to put up screens to shield the location where the jeep crashed into the bridge, which lies below the iconic portrait of Communist Party founder Mao Zedong.

Our BBC crew attempted to record video of the incident's location as we drove through the square and the police quickly forced us to pull over to the side of the road. We were detained for approximately 20 minutes inside one section of the Forbidden City while the police checked our journalist credentials before letting us go.

Minutes later, when we drove past the area again, it had returned to its uneasy status quo. The area had been cleaned. Crowds of tourists arriving at that moment would not have known that anything abnormal had taken place. Weibo had also been wiped clean. Questioning comments, like the one posted by Chaijuncat, had disappeared.

Tiananmen Square was the scene of the 1989 pro-democracy protests which were ended by a military crackdown.

The site is generally kept under very tight security both because of its proximity to key political institutions and so that is does not serve as a hub for protesters and petitioners.

Incidents do occur, nonetheless. In 2011, a man set himself on fire at Tiananmen Square following what officials said was a legal dispute, close to the square's portrait of Chairman Mao.

Two years before that, three people set themselves on fire in a car at a busy intersection near Tiananmen Square over what the authorities called personal grievances.

In 2000, several members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement were arrested for protesting at the square.

Fire extinguishers can be found at the site, and have been used when protestors set themselves on fire.

'Bursting into flames'

The incident took place at the north end of Tiananmen Square, near an entrance to the Forbidden City.

"A driver and two passengers were killed after a jeep crashed into a crowd of people and caught fire," Xinhua news agency said.

"Eleven tourists and police officers were also injured by the jeep, which crashed into a guardrail of Jinshui Bridge on the moat of the Forbidden City before bursting into flames at 12:05 pm," it said, citing police and emergency officials.

One unnamed eyewitness told AFP news agency: "I saw a car turn a bend and suddenly it was driving on the pavement, it happened fast but looked like it knocked people over."

"I heard an explosion and saw fire. The scene was very frightening," he added. "There were paramilitary police who told people to get back into their cars and stop taking pictures."

In a microblog post on its verified Sina Weibo account, Beijing police said that "the injured people were all sent to a nearby hospital".

"Police at the site immediately launched rescue efforts, and the fire was quickly extinguished... the situation is currently being investigated further," the police added.

A subway station close to the square was temporarily closed at the request of police, Beijing transport authorities said. Police also closed the road near the crash.

News of the incident first appeared on social media from those who were at the scene, but it appeared that some pictures were being quickly removed.

A BBC team that went to the site to gather footage said that they were detained for around 20 minutes before being released.

AFP news agency said that two of its reporters were also held close to the square, with images deleted from their cameras.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, when asked whether the government believed the incident was a terror attack, said that she did not know the specifics of the case and declined further comment, Reuters news agency reported.

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NSA 'monitored 60m Spanish calls'

28 October 2013 Last updated at 07:12 ET

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Demands are growing in Europe for explanations over US monitoring activities

The US National Security Agency (NSA) secretly monitored 60 million phone calls in Spain in one month, Spanish media say.

The reports say the latest allegations came from documents provided by the fugitive US analyst Edward Snowden.

They say the NSA collected the numbers and locations of the caller and the recipient, but not the calls' content.

This comes as an EU parliamentary delegation is due to meet US officials in Washington to convey concerns.

The officials from the European parliament's Civil Liberties Committee will speak to members of Congress to gather information.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Tom Burridge BBC News, Madrid

---

So far, it appears that the allegations that Spanish communications were intercepted en masse by the NSA have not caused the level of public anger in Spain that similar claims caused in Germany and France. And that lack of popular pressure to date manifested itself in the words of Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Reacting at last week's European summit, which was overshadowed by the European-US spying row, to more general allegations of US spying published in the Spanish media last week, Mr Rajoy said he had no proof that Washington had been spying on his government.

However, the latest, more explicit revelations in El Mundo newspaper, on the same day that the US ambassador to Madrid has been summoned by the government for talks on the issue, inevitably puts more pressure on the Spanish government, not only via the Spanish media, but also from Spain's European allies, to condemn the alleged spying.

It is not clear how the alleged surveillance was carried out, whether it was from monitoring fibre-optic cables, data (including metadata) obtained from telecoms companies, or other means.

Citizens

Meanwhile, a Japanese news agency says that the NSA asked the Japanese government in 2011 to help it monitor fibre-optic cables carrying personal data through Japan, to the Asia-Pacific region.

The reports, carried by the Kyodo news agency, say that this was intended to allow the US to spy on China - but Japan refused, citing legal restrictions and a shortage of personnel.

The White House has so far declined to comment on Monday's claims about US spying in Spain, published in the newspapers El Pais and El Mundo.

It is alleged that the NSA tracked millions of phone calls, texts and emails from Spanish citizens between 10 December 2012 and 8 January this year.

The US ambassador to Madrid has been summoned to meet a Spanish foreign ministry official later on Monday to discuss earlier allegations about US spying on Spanish citizens and politicians.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

It's about scale and proportionality"

End Quote Claude Moraes Head of the EU delegation

It follows German media reports that the US was bugging Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone for more than a decade - and that the surveillance only ended a few months ago.

Mrs Merkel is sending her country's top intelligence chiefs to Washington this week to "push forward" an investigation into the spying allegations, which have caused outrage in Germany.

Mass surveillance

Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Friday that the NSA had monitored the phones of 35 world leaders. Again Mr Snowden was the source of the report.

Continue reading the main story

What is metadata?

• In emails, it is generally used to mean the sender and recipient email addresses, their IP addresses, the message file size, and sometimes the top or subject line of the message
• With phones, it means the numbers of the two parties to the call, its duration, time, date and location (for mobiles, determined by which mobile signal towers relayed the call or text)
• The contents of the conversation itself, however, are not covered, US intelligence officials say. The NSA has suggested it does not usually store the geo-locational information for mobile phone calls

The head of the European parliament delegation, British MEP Claude Moraes, told the BBC it was the scale of the NSA's alleged surveillance that was worrying.

"The headline news, that 35 leaders had their phones tapped, is not the real crux of the issue," he said.

"It really is the El Mundo type story, that millions of citizens of countries... had their landlines and other communications tapped. So it's about mass surveillance. It's about scale and proportionality."

He said a priority of the European mission was to discuss the impact of American spying on EU citizens' fundamental right to privacy.

The BBC's Europe correspondent Chris Morris says that with every new allegation, demands are growing in Europe - and in Germany in particular - for explanations and for guarantees of a change in culture.

EU leaders have said that distrust of the US over spying could harm the fight against terrorism.

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China paper 'sorry' for Chen reports

27 October 2013 Last updated at 02:01 ET

A Chinese newspaper, which made front-page appeals for the release of one its journalists, has issued an apology.

The Guangdong-based New Express said a preliminary police investigation found that Chen Yongzhou had accepted money to publish numerous false reports.

He was arrested over claims he defamed a partly state-owned firm in articles exposing alleged corruption.

The paper's front-page apology came after the journalist confessed to wrongdoing on state TV.

"I'm willing to admit my guilt and to show repentance," Mr Chen said in a statement broadcast on Saturday.

'Harming trust'

The New Express had previously backed him with unusually bold front-page appeals for his release.

But in a statement on Sunday's front page, it said it had failed to properly check his reports.

"This newspaper was not strict enough about thoroughly fact-checking the draft of the report," it said.

"After the incident occurred the newspaper took inappropriate measures, seriously harming the public trust of the media."

It promised to better ensure that its reporters and editors "comply with professional journalistic ethics and regulations".

The turn-around came one day after Mr Chen appeared on state television in a green prison uniform to confess to writing false stories for money.

Several high-profile suspects have made televised confessions recently.

Experts say confessions are still routinely coerced, despite a change in the law earlier this year banning the authorities from forcing anyone to incriminate themselves.

Mr Chen wrote several articles for the New Express alleging financial irregularities at a construction-equipment company called Zoomlion. The company denies the allegations.

"In this case I've caused damages to Zoomlion and also the whole news media industry and its ability to earn the public's trust," he told state broadcaster CCTV.

"I did this mainly because I hankered after money and fame. I've been used. I've realised my wrongdoing."

State media said he had confessed to taking bribes, but did not report who might have paid the bribes.

His case attracted huge attention after the New Express twice used its front page to call for his release.

Media monitoring group China Digital Times reported that the Communist Party's propaganda department had barred newspapers from reporting the story.

But many newspapers have continued to cover it.

China's newspaper industry is tightly controlled by a system of local censors carrying out party directives.

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Bangladesh strike marred by deaths

27 October 2013 Last updated at 06:34 ET

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The BBC's Mahfuz Sadique says Bangladeshis fear further violence

At least three people have died in clashes on the first day of a three-day opposition strike in Bangladesh, aimed at forcing the government to quit.

Protesters clashed with police in some areas, and with government supporters in other areas.

The opposition says Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina must install a neutral caretaker administration to oversee the general election, due in January.

But she disagrees and wants a coalition involving all parties.

Reporters of violence first emerged from Faridpur district, about 130km (80 miles) west of the capital, Dhaka.

The police said they were forced to open fire because protesters pelted them with stones and blocked a main road.

Activists said a 22-year-old opposition supporter was shot dead by police.

And in the western town of Ishwardia, a 28-year-old opposition activist was killed in clashes with government supporters.

Further south in Jessore a government activist was reportedly hacked to death by a crowd of protesters.

Rare phone call

The strike began at 06:00 (00:00 GMT), with the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islam hoping to bring the country to a standstill.

They want to force the prime minister to allow a neutral caretaker administration to oversee the election process.

But Ms Hasina, who heads the Awami League, has rejected such a plan saying there is no scope for unelected people to supervise the vote.

BNP leader Khaleda Zia announced that the national shutdown would be going ahead from Sunday, despite a rare phone call with Ms Hasina in which the the prime minister asked her to call off the strike.

It is thought to be the first time the bitter rivals have spoken directly for a decade.

The BNP and its allies are refusing to participate in elections under current constitutional provisions, which do not allow for a neutral, caretaker government, or require the incumbent prime minister to step down during the interim period.

The opposition fears the government will rig the polls if it remains in power.

Sabir Mustafa of the BBC's Bengali Service says there is great deal of concern among the public about what might happen in the days ahead, especially if the opposition and government supporters come face-to-face in the street.

On Friday, at least six people were killed as security officials opened fire on opposition supporters trying to defy a ban on protests.

A series of rulings against Jamaat have led to violent protests across Bangladesh, with more than 150 people killed in clashes with police since the beginning of this year.

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US 'bugged Merkel's phone from 2002'

27 October 2013 Last updated at 06:42 ET

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Emily Thomas reports on protests in Washington

The US has been spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone since 2002, according to a report in Der Spiegel magazine.

The German publication claims to have seen secret documents from the National Security Agency which show Mrs Merkel's number on a list dating from 2002 - before she became chancellor.

Another report says Mr Obama was told in 2010 about the surveillance.

Meanwhile Washington has seen a protest against the NSA's spying programme.

Several thousand protesters marched to the US Capitol to demand a limit to the surveillance. Some of them held banners in support of the fugitive former contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed the extent of the NSA's activities.

'No-spy deal'

The nature of the monitoring of Mrs Merkel's mobile phone is not clear from the files, Der Spiegel says.

For example, it is possible that the chancellor's conversations were recorded, or that her contacts were simply assessed.

Germany is sending its top intelligence chiefs to Washington in the coming week to "push forward" an investigation into the spying allegations, which have caused outrage in Germany.

Mrs Merkel phoned the US president when she first heard of the spying allegations on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama apologised to the German chancellor and promised Mrs Merkel he knew nothing of the alleged phone monitoring and would have stopped it if he had, Der Spiegel reports.

But on Sunday Bild newspaper quoted US intelligence sources as saying NSA head Keith Alexander personally briefed the president about the covert operation targeting Mrs Merkel in 2010.

"Obama did not halt the operation but rather let it continue," the newspaper quoted a senior NSA official as saying.

Her number was still on a surveillance list in 2013.

On Friday, Germany and France said they wanted the US to sign a no-spy deal by the end of the year.

As well as the bugging of Mrs Merkel's phone, there are claims the NSA has monitored millions of telephone calls made by German and French citizens.

Shocked

Continue reading the main story

Damien McGuinness BBC News, Berlin

---

This scandal has caused the biggest diplomatic rift between Germany and the US in living memory.

A close ally of Mrs Merkel told the BBC that she was personally very hurt by the idea of being spied on by American friends.

The chancellor is said to be shocked that Washington may have engaged in the sort of spying that she had to deal with while growing up in Communist East Germany.

The documents seen by Der Spiegel give further details of the NSA's targeting of European governments.

A unit called Special Collection Services, based in the US embassy in Pariser Platz in Berlin, was responsible for monitoring communications in the German capital's government quarter.

If the existence of listening stations in US embassies were known, there would be "severe damage for the US's relations with a foreign government," the documents said.

Similar units were based in around 80 locations worldwide, according to the documents seen by Der Spiegel, 19 of them in European cities.

The US government had a second German spy base in Frankfurt am Main, the magazine reports.

The scandal has caused the biggest diplomatic rift between Germany and the US in living memory, reports the BBC's Damien McGuinness in Berlin.

Mrs Merkel - an Americophile who was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 - is said to be shocked that Washington may have engaged in the sort of spying she had to endure growing up in Communist East Germany.

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Car bombs cause Baghdad carnage

27 October 2013 Last updated at 06:58 ET

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The BBC's Ahmed Maher says Iraqis are increasingly concerned about another sectarian conflict

Several car bombs have exploded around the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing at least 38 people, officials say.

The bombs were placed in parked cars and detonated over a 30-minute period in busy streets, mainly in Shia areas.

Separately, a bomber blew himself up in the northern city of Mosul near troops queuing at a bank, killing 12 people.

Countrywide violence, often fuelled by sectarian divisions between Shia and Sunni Muslims, has reached its highest level since 2008.

Almost 1,000 people were killed and more than 2,000 wounded in September alone, according to the UN.

Hundreds more have been killed in October.

Sunni militants, including the local offshoot of al-Qaeda, are often blamed for the attacks, which usually target Shia areas.

The Shia-led government has been accused of failing to address grievances among the Sunni Arab minority, including allegations of abuses by security forces.

The wave of attacks in and around Baghdad on Sunday targeted areas including markets and bus stations.

As well as those killed, at least 100 people were injured in the attacks.

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Saudi Arabia warns women drivers

25 October 2013 Last updated at 23:44 ET By Sebastian Usher BBC News

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Sebastian Usher reports on the protest plans

The authorities in Saudi Arabia have stepped up warnings to women not to defy a ban on female drivers by taking part in a mass driving protest.

The interior ministry has reiterated that anyone flouting the ban is likely to face unspecified punishment.

Saturday's planned protest is the third of its kind since 1990.

About 17,000 people signed a petition calling either for women to be allowed to drive or for an explanation of why the prohibition should remain in force.

Campaigners are encouraging women to take to the wheel in defiance of the ban.

After the 1990 protest, a number of women were arrested or lost their jobs.

An interior ministry spokesman, Mansour al-Turki, considerably toughened the Saudi government line on the women drivers' campaign on Thursday.

A previous statement on Wednesday was confusing, with both those pro- and anti- the campaign believing it favoured them.

'Mood changing'

But Mr Turki explicitly restated that women were prohibited from driving, with violators - and their supporters - likely to face unspecified measures.

A campaign activist, Zaki Safar, said that this was an unusually explicit statement of the ban, which is informal rather than enshrined in Saudi law.

"It is no longer an issue of a social choice - that the government does not itself support the ban," Mr Safar told the BBC.

"No, the spokesman was very clear. And any woman who drives on the 26th will face punishment."

But Mr Safar believes the government is still sending mixed messages, as it is itself divided over whether to lift the ban.

Earlier this week, about 100 conservative clerics asked for an audience at the royal court in the capital, Riyadh, to denounce the campaign as a conspiracy by women and a threat to the country.

But there have been indications of a less hardline attitude by the authorities than back in 1990, and at the second protest in 2011.

As part of the latest campaign, dozens of women have posted online videos of themselves driving in different Saudi cities. None of them has been arrested.

The activists behind the campaign believe the public mood is changing, with many more people - including an increasing number of men - publicly supporting the lifting of the ban.

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China reporter 'confesses on TV'

26 October 2013 Last updated at 05:35 ET

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Michael Bristow explains the twist in the tale of Chen Yongzhou's confession

An imprisoned Chinese journalist whose newspaper has made front-page appeals for his release has confessed to wrongdoing on state TV.

"I'm willing to admit my guilt and to show repentance," said reporter Chen Yongzhou. He was arrested over claims he defamed a partly state-owned firm in articles exposing alleged corruption.

State media said he had admitted writing false stories for money.

Several high-profile suspects have made televised confessions recently.

Public confessions have long been a part of China's criminal law.

The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says it is impossible to know whether the admission was forced out of him.

Experts say confessions are still routinely coerced, despite an amendment to the criminal procedure law earlier this year forbidding the authorities from forcing anyone to incriminate themselves.

'Hankered after money'

Mr Chen wrote several articles for the Guangdong-based New Express newspaper alleging financial irregularities at a construction-equipment company called Zoomlion. The companies denies the allegations.

"In this case I've caused damages to Zoomlion and also the whole news media industry and its ability to earn the public's trust," he told state broadcaster CCTV.

"I did this mainly because I hankered after money and fame. I've been used. I've realised my wrongdoing."

State media said he had confessed to taking bribes, but did not report who might have paid the bribes.

His case attracted huge attention after the New Express twice used its front page to call for his release.

The newspaper has not yet commented on the confession.

Censorship rows

Media monitoring group China Digital Times reported that the Communist Party's propaganda department had barred newspapers from reporting the story.

An instruction from the department also warned papers to monitor reporters' individual social-media accounts.

But many newspapers have continued to cover the story.

The Southern Metropolis Daily published an editorial accusing officials in Zoomlion's hometown of Changsha of abuse of power over the case.

According to the Hong Kong-based China Media Project, the paper had to pull an earlier editorial under pressure from censors.

China's newspaper industry is tightly controlled by a system of local censors carrying out party directives.

But there have been several high-profile rows over censorship.

Earlier this year staff at the Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly paper went on strike after a new-year editorial calling for reform was censored.

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Iran 'hangs 16 rebels' in reprisal

26 October 2013 Last updated at 06:27 ET

Sixteen rebels have been hanged in Iran in retaliation for the deaths of at least 14 border guards in an ambush, say Iranian news agencies.

The rebels were "linked to groups hostile to the regime", the attorney general of Sistan-Baluchistan province was quoted as saying.

They were hanged in prison in Zahedan, north-east of Saravan, where the border deaths took place overnight.

It is not clear what link, if any, those hanged had to the border attack.

One report suggests they may already have been tried and convicted, but their executions brought forward following the ambush.

Friday night's attack in a mountainous region outside Saravan, on the south-eastern border with Pakistan, was blamed by Saravan's member of parliament, Hedayatollah Mirmoradzehi, on "anti-revolution guerrillas".

But reports that a rebel group called Jeish Al-Adl had claimed responsibility for the ambush were "not confirmed", Mr Mirmoradzehi told local Tasnim news agency.

A parliamentary committee on national security will look into the attack on Sunday, meeting relevant officials, a committee member was quoted as saying.

An armed Sunni group, called Jundallah, has carried out a number of attacks against the state in recent years.

The Sunni Muslim population in Sistan-Baluchistan complains of discrimination by Iran's Shia establishment.

"Sixteen rebels linked to groups hostile to the regime were hanged this morning in the prison of Zahedan in response to the death of border guards in Saravan," Mohammad Marzieh, the provincial attorney general of Sistan-Baluchistan province, was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.

The hangings were also reported by the Iranian Students News Agency (Isna).

At least 14 guards were killed in the ambush, reports now say, though 17 were previously reported to have died. A number were also wounded, reports said.

Fars has quoted the province's deputy governor-general, Rajabali Sheikhzadeh, as saying the culprits fled to Pakistan following the border attack.

The region has experienced frequent deadly clashes in recent years.

Iran lies on a major drug trafficking route between Afghanistan and Europe.

AFP news agency quotes officials as saying more than 4,000 police officers and soldiers have been killed in the past three decades in fighting with traffickers.

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Serbia state funeral for Tito widow

26 October 2013 Last updated at 06:47 ET

The widow of former Yugoslav leader Marshal Tito is being honoured in a state funeral in Belgrade.

Jovanka Broz, who died of heart failure at the age of 88 last weekend, is due to be buried next to her husband in the elaborate House of Flowers mausoleum.

She received full military honours in line with her status as a decorated member of the anti-Nazi partisans who fought in World War II, officials said.

Mrs Broz lived as a recluse after the death of her husband in 1980.

She was accused of plotting a coup, was placed under house arrest for a time, and had her identity papers taken away.

She lived in seclusion in the Belgrade suburb of Dedinje and rarely gave interviews.

However, in 2009 she spoke to the Politika daily about the period after her husband's death.

"They chased me out ... in my nightgown, without anything, not allowing me even to take a photo of the two of us, or a letter, a book," she said.

"I was in isolation and treated like a criminal... I could not leave the house without armed guards."

Serbia's Prime Minister Ivica Dacic led the tributes at the funeral ceremony.

Mrs Broz had been admitted to hospital in August in a serious condition, suffering from heart problems.

Her last wish was to be buried in the House of Flowers in Belgrade, next to Marshal Tito.

Jovanka Budisavljevic, an ethnic Serb, was born into a farming family in what is now Croatia on 7 December 1924.

She joined the partisans when she was just 17, remaining with them until the end of the war in 1945.

After her marriage to Yugoslavia's authoritarian leader Josip Broz, known as Tito, she spent nearly three decades as first lady.

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These archive pictures show Jovanka Broz, who was Yugoslavia's first lady for nearly three decades

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North Korea returns six S Koreans

25 October 2013 Last updated at 04:58 ET

North Korea has returned six South Korean men to their homeland, South Korean officials say, in a rare move.

The men, between the ages of 27 and 67, were handed over on Friday at the truce village of Panmunjom, on the border between the two countries.

Their names were not released and details surrounding their detention in the North remain unclear.

The two Koreas remain technically at war, as the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.

Pyongyang's Red Cross informed Seoul that the men would be handed back via Panmunjom on Thursday, a statement from South Korea's Unification Ministry said.

Officials said the group would be taken to South Korea's spy agency to face questions over their presence in North Korea.

The South Korean government said that at first glance, the men were not on the list of those abducted by the North.

One possibility is that they may have crossed into North Korea illegally from China, the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul says. Unofficial travel to North Korea by private citizens from South Korea is illegal,

Pyongyang's state news agency announced the detention of several unnamed South Korean nationals in 2010 and there is speculation that they may be among those returned, our correspondent adds.

The move by North Korea is seen as a gesture of reconciliation following the cancellation of reunions for families split by the division of the Korean peninsula at the end of the Korean War which were planned for last month.

Tensions between the two Koreas rose earlier this year, after North Korea's third nuclear test in February.

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Women gain as gender gap 'narrows'

24 October 2013 Last updated at 18:11 ET

The gap between men and women has narrowed slightly in the past year in most countries, according to a World Economic Forum (WEF) report.

Iceland, Finland and Norway top the list of 136 nations, based on political participation, economic equality and rights like education and health.

The Middle East and North Africa were the only regions not to improve in the past year, with Yemen at the bottom.

The Philippines and Nicaragua both feature in the top 10.

The WEF has produced the report annually for the past eight years.

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Report Saadia Zahidi on the importance of measuring inequalities

The release of this year's edition comes as the BBC rounds off a month-long focus on women and gender around the world with a major event at Broadcasting House in London.

One hundred women from all around the world are gathering for a day of debate and discussion as the 100 Women season comes to an end.

Yemen's challenge

Iceland's position at the top of the WEF rankings was the fifth year in a row the country has been named the world's most equal.

Report founder and co-author Saadia Zahidi told the BBC that since the WEF began compiling the index in 2006, 80% of countries had made progress.

"What's worrying though is that 20% of countries have made no progress or are falling behind," she said.

Continue reading the main story

View from the Philippines (ranked 5th)

Marites Vitug Editor and author

---

We're a matriarchal society. Mothers are dominant - generally, they influence their children to a large extent.

Women usually hold the purse. Even if they are not the major breadwinners, they do the budget, decide how money is spent. Thus, men don't have a dismissive attitude toward women.

It's a very liberal work atmosphere we have here. We're not stifled by men. But there was - and is - one important thing going for women here: we have a fantastic support network, from household help to extended families.

I was a beat reporter for a daily newspaper while raising a kid. If we didn't have a full-time, home-based babysitter, I wouldn't have managed.

She singled out the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as countries that had invested in education and health, but had not integrated women into the economy.

Nadia al-Sakkaf, editor of the English-language Yemen Times, in London for the 100 Women conference, told the BBC that she had stopped counting the years her country had languished at the bottom of the equality list.

"It comes down to everyday life. We had three women running for president in 2006. We have lots of women in senior positions," she said.

"But our levels of maternal mortality are very high, and 35% of girls aged 6-14 years old are not in school."

Human capital

Saadia Zahidi of the WEF said that by contrast many sub-Saharan countries had not invested in women, but through necessity they played a major role in the economy.

Nordic countries continued to lead the way because they had a long history of investing in people, she said.

"They are small economies with small populations; they recognise that talent matters, and that talent has to be men and women.

Overall, the report, entitled Global Gender Gap Report 2013, found Iceland to be the most advanced country in the world in terms of gender equality for the fifth year running.

Continue reading the main story

THE TOP 20 COUNTRIES
	2013	2012
Iceland	1	1
Finland	2	2
Norway	3	3
Sweden	4	4
Philippines	5	8
Ireland	6	5
New Zealand	7	6
Denmark	8	7
Switzerland	9	10
Nicaragua	10	9
Belgium	11	12
Latvia	12	15
Netherlands	13	11
Germany	14	13
Cuba	15	19
Lesotho	16	14
South Africa	17	16
UK	18	18
Austria	19	20
Canada	20	21

Iceland, Finland (second), Norway (third) and Sweden (fourth) had all closed over 80% of the gender gap, where 100% would represent full equality.

The highest-ranked Asian nation was the Philippines (fifth), praised for its success in health, education and economic participation.

Asia's major economies performed poorly, with China in 69th place and Japan 105th.

Nicaragua in 10th place was the highest positioned country in North and South America, and was praised for a "strong performance" in terms of political empowerment.

Among major world economies Germany ranked 14th (down one), the UK held its position at 18, with Canada at 20 and the United States 23rd.

On matters of health and survival, the report finds that 96% of the gap has now closed.

In terms of education, the global gender gap is 93% closed, with 25 countries now judged to deliver equal treatment to boys and girls at school.

It is a different picture on the core issue of economic equality, where the gender gap has closed by 60%.

In developing and developed countries alike, women's presence in economic leadership positions is limited.

And while women have made small gains in political representation - 2% this year - only 21% of that global gender gap has closed

Ms Zahidi said the idea of the report was not to remind poor countries that they had fewer opportunities than rich countries, but to give them a tool to improve the situation.

"Women make up one half of the human capital available to any economy and any company; if that talent isn't integrated, that is going to be a loss for both women and men," she said.

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ICC rules against Kenya's Ruto

25 October 2013 Last updated at 04:31 ET

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The BBC's Anna Holligan says there had been jokes in court that people could see Mr Ruto's "airline ticket in his pocket"

The International Criminal Court has told Kenya's Deputy President William Ruto he must attend most of his trial on charges of crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors had appealed against an earlier decision which would have let him spend most of his time in Kenya.

While he must appear at most of his trial, the court ruled he can be excused on a "case by case" basis.

Mr Ruto's lawyers argued he was needed in Kenya after the attack by Islamist militants on the Westgate centre.

He denies responsibility for post-election violence in 2007 and 2008. An estimated 1,200 people were killed in the ethnic bloodshed and about 600,000 fled their homes.

His lawyers argued that justice could be met in his absence.

At least 67 people were killed when militants believed to be from the Somali al-Shabab group stormed the shopping centre last month.

Tensions

In their ruling on Friday, judges were critical of the initial decision to give the deputy president a "blanket excusal" before the trial had even commenced.

He will be allowed to apply to miss portions of the case but his absence will only be allowed when it is absolutely necessary.

The BBC's Anna Holligan in The Hague says that the ruling reinforces the power of the ICC to hold the most powerful to account.

However, Friday's ruling could deepen tensions between the court and African leaders who accuse it of unfairly targeting their continent, correspondents say.

Mr Ruto has, so far, attended much of his case.

Friday's judgement could also affect the trial of Kenyan President Uhuru, whose trial on similar charges is scheduled to start next month.

The prosecution is still considering whether to appeal against a decision to allow the president to miss parts of his trial.

Mr Kenyatta argued that attending the trial in The Hague would prevent him from governing the country.

Our correspondent says that Mr Ruto, Mr Kenyatta and journalist Joshua Sang comprise the "Big Three" accused of instigating and co-ordinating the post-election killings in which innocent people including women and children were shot and hacked to death.

But our correspondent says that was six years ago, and today Kenya is on the frontline of the battle against the global threat posed by al-Qaeda and its global affiliates.

Mr Ruto's trial began in September.

The deputy president is the first serving government official to stand trial in an international court.

Many experts in international law believe that his case reflects the apparently incompatible demands of historical restorative justice versus future global security.

Experts believe that the ICC is in an impossible position, fighting against the tide of international pressure to placate the government in Nairobi.

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US spying 'may harm terror fight'

25 October 2013 Last updated at 07:09 ET

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Angela Merkel: "Once the seeds of mistrust have been sown it doesn't facilitate our co-operation... it makes it more difficult"

EU leaders meeting in Brussels say distrust of the US over spying could harm the fight against terrorism.

A statement agreed by the leaders says that "a lack of trust could prejudice" intelligence-gathering co-operation.

France and Germany are pushing for talks with the US to find a new "understanding" by the year's end.

A number of allegations against US intelligence agents have surfaced this week, including the bugging of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone.

In addition there have been claims that the US National Security Agency (NSA) monitored millions of French telephone calls.

On Thursday, the UK's Guardian newspaper also reported that it had obtained a confidential memo from the NSA suggesting it had monitored the phones of 35 world leaders.

The latest revelations have been sourced to US whistleblower Edward Snowden, the former intelligence contractor who fled the country earlier this year and is now in Russia.

They have overshadowed other issues at the EU summit in Brussels, including the Mediterranean migration problem, which frames the agenda of Friday's talks.

Italian authorities said they had intercepted some 800 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean as the EU leaders prepared to meet.

'Vital element'

The statement of heads of state or government, released on Friday, reflects the EU leaders' conclusions following their talks on Thursday.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

In the end, pragmatism out-pointed outrage... but that should not disguise a very real sense of betrayal in parts of Europe"

End Quote

It says the recent intelligence issues had raised "deep concerns" among European citizens.

The statement says the leaders "underlined the close relationship between Europe and the USA and the value of that partnership".

It continues: "[The leaders] stressed that intelligence-gathering is a vital element in the fight against terrorism."

And it went on: "A lack of trust could prejudice the necessary cooperation in the field of intelligence-gathering."

Belgian Prime Minister Elio di Rupo said: "The objective must remain the same - to fight against terrorism but also respect privacy.

"Everyone can understand the need for exceptional measures given the danger of terrorism... but we are not in the position where we should spy on each other."

Continue reading the main story

'Five Eyes' agreement

• Initially a top-secret deal signed between the US and UK in March 1946
• It committed both nations to sharing communications intelligence, continuing the practices of WWII
• Later referred to as the "UKUSA Agreement", it formed the basis for intelligence co-operation
• The agreement was later extended to cover Canada, Australia and New Zealand
• Other countries also reported to have joined the community
• The full text of the initial agreement was released by Britain's National Archives in 2005 and can be seen online

Talks among the EU leaders had continued late into Thursday night.

Speaking afterwards, Mrs Merkel said: "We need trust among allies and partners. Such trust now has to be built anew.

"The United States of America and Europe face common challenges. We are allies. But such an alliance can only be built on trust. That's why I repeat again: spying among friends, that cannot be."

Germany and France said they were proposing talks with the US to settle the row by the end of the year.

The leaders' statement said: "The heads of state or government took note of the intention of France and Germany to seek bilateral talks with the USA with the aim of finding before the end of the year an understanding on mutual relations in that field.

"They noted that other EU countries are welcome to join this initiative."

French President Francois Hollande said on Friday; "What is at stake is preserving our relations with the United States."

BBC Europe editor Gavin Hewitt says the French and Germans are looking for a new set of rules with a "no spying pact" at the core.

He says this would mirror an arrangement the United States has had with Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada since just after World War II. That secret intelligence-sharing operation is known as Five Eyes.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy accepted the UK had "a special relationship" with the US, but said Britain was "completely on board with this text".

UK PM David Cameron has yet to comment.

But a number of other leaders have indicated their support for the French and German position.

Finnish PM Jyrki Katainen said: "We have to talk together with the Americans, and try to find some sort of code of conduct [on] how to cooperate on this kind of issue in the future."

Swedish PM Fredrik Reinfeldt said it was "completely unacceptable" to eavesdrop on the leader of an ally, a view echoed by Italian PM Enrico Letta, who added: "We want the truth."

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White House spokesman Jay Carney: "We will work to maintain the strongest possible ties with our closest allies"

But the BBC's Chris Morris in Brussels says that, despite the widespread anger about American spying, Mrs Merkel opposed a suggestion to suspend trade talks with the United States - and on that point, the UK will be relieved.

Other leaders signalled the need to move on.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said: "The main thing is that we look to the future. The trans-Atlantic partnership was, and is, important."

Mrs Merkel had raised her concerns with US President Barack Obama in a call on Wednesday.

White House spokesman Jay Carney later said Mr Obama had assured Mrs Merkel that her phone was not being listened to now and would not be in the future.

However, his statement left open the question of whether calls had been listened to in the past.

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'Little help' for Bangladesh victims

24 October 2013 Last updated at 04:34 ET

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Reshma Begum spent 17 days under rubble: "I still have nightmares"

Six months after a major clothing factory collapse in Bangladesh, 94% of the victims are still awaiting compensation, a charity says.

The charity, Action Aid, says many survivors have serious injuries that have prevented them returning to work.

More than 1,130 people died when the Rana Plaza building near Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, collapsed in April.

Action Aid, questioned nearly two-thirds of survivors and victims' relatives for its survey.

It found that 94% of those questioned said they had received no legal benefits from their employers, including sick pay or compensation.

It also found that 92% of survivors had not gone back to work, with 63% of those reporting physical injuries including amputations, paralysis and severe pain.

Of those surveyed, 92% said they were deeply traumatised.

'Mounting debts'

Until now, Primark is the only company that has provided financial support to victims - about £118 ($191) each to 3,300 people, according to Action Aid.

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Paul Lister, Associated British Foods: 'We would welcome increases in the minimum wage"

The company has said it will continue to pay wages to those affected for three more months.

The Action Aid survey found that survivors of the Rana Plaza disaster were facing severe financial difficulty. More than half said they had mounting debts, and more than 90% said they had no savings.

Retailers in the EU and the US have pledged since April to improve working conditions in factories they use in Bangladesh, but negotiations between trade unions and retailers over long-term compensation have yet to produce a deal.

On Tuesday, the Bangladeshi government and the International Labour Organization (ILO) launched a further initiative to improve the safety of buildings and prevent fires in the clothing industry.

The $24m (£15m), three-and-a-half-year plan is to be funded by the British and Dutch governments.

The ILO has been tasked with bringing together numerous measures aimed at improving working conditions, the BBC's Mahfuz Sadique reports from Dhaka.

But he says that a fire at a textile plant earlier this month has highlighted once more the dangers still faced by workers.

Bangladesh is reported to be the world's second largest exporter of ready-made clothes behind China. Latest government figures put the annual value of those exports at $21.5bn.

The Rana Plaza collapse was the worst industrial disaster in the country's history.

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Pakistan 'endorsed US drone strikes'

24 October 2013 Last updated at 04:53 ET

Secret US documents reveal that senior Pakistani government officials have for years known of and endorsed CIA drone strikes, an American newspaper reports.

The Washington Post obtained CIA documents and Pakistani diplomatic memos which indicate officials were routinely given classified briefings.

Analysts have long suspected Pakistan gave tacit consent for such strikes despite publicly condemning them.

Pakistan's PM Nawaz Sharif has urged US President Obama to halt such attacks.

"I also brought up the issue of drones in our meeting, emphasising the need for an end to such strikes," Mr Sharif said after they met on Wednesday.

The attacks by unmanned US aircraft have been a critical source of tension in the relationship between the countries and came up amid wide-ranging talks between the leaders in Washington.

They are also deeply unpopular with the Pakistani public and Pakistan has consistently stated that they violate its sovereignty. The Pakistani government is yet to comment on the report.

'Explicit arrangement'

The documents obtained by the newspaper focus on at least 65 drone strikes in Pakistan over the last few years and were labelled as "talking points" for regular CIA briefings.

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The Washington Post story tells us nothing experts didn't already suspect about the American drone programme and Pakistani complicity, but it does get hold of the smoking gun.

Significantly, the details come out when PM Nawaz Sharif is making a populist appeal for an end to the programme, which many believe is the centrepiece of American counter-terrorism strategy.

The revelation may take some of the wind out of Mr Sharif's sails. Earlier in April, Pakistan's former military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, had admitted in an interview that his government signed off on drone strikes, albeit "only on a few occasions".

In the Pakistani tribal areas, details of casualties in drone strikes have invariably been provided to the media by intelligence agents posted there. They often display considerable knowledge about the targeted buildings, and give precise numbers and identities of some of the people killed.

In the early days of the drone programme, when such strikes were practically unheard of, these agents actively prevented local journalists from publicising evidence about the attacks.

Although they are marked "top secret", they are cleared for release to Pakistan, the paper reports.

The Washington Post says the documents provide a detailed timeline of the CIA drone programme "tracing its evolution from a campaign aimed at a relatively short list of senior al-Qaeda operatives into a broader aerial assault against militant groups with no connection to the 11 September 2001 attacks".

A spokesman for the Pakistani embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment from the newspaper and the CIA also declined to comment.

Correspondents say the files expose the explicit nature of the arrangement between the countries in the period when neither acknowledged that any drone programme even existed.

In 2010 the controversial whistle-blowing site Wikileaks released numerous documents relating to Pakistan which showed the Pakistani military and other arms of the government had "quietly acquiesced" with drone strikes even though they publicly condemned them.

In August 2008 then Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is reported to have said: "I don't care if they do it as long as they get the right people. We'll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it."

But this latest cache includes documents which appear to refer to a direct Pakistani role in the selection of targets, with the newspaper referring to one 2010 entry describing hitting a location "at the request of your government".

There is also a reference to a "network of locations associated with a joint CIA-ISI targeting effort".

Civilian casualties

The number of civilian casualties in these drone strikes has long been a source of dispute.

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Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif: "I emphasised the need for an end to such [drone] strikes"

Local claims of civilian deaths are almost impossible to prove. One reason is the restricted media access in the region. The other is the militants' tendency to cordon off the targeted sites and conduct quick burials.

Earlier this week, Amnesty International released a report which said that CIA drone attacks in Pakistan are responsible for unlawful killings, some of which could amount to war crimes. The rights group named several victims who, it says, "posed no threat to life".

Amnesty said it reviewed nine of 45 recent drone strikes in the volatile tribal region of North Waziristan where many strikes have hit, and found a number of victims had been unarmed.

The US has defended its drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere. On Tuesday the White House said it takes "extraordinary care" to ensure they comply with international law and that they were a "course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life".

A recent UN report also found that US drone strikes had killed at least 400 civilians in Pakistan, far more than the US has ever acknowledged. Estimates by other groups such as the Bureau of Investigative Journalism calculate that between 407 and 926 civilians were killed in Pakistan.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that the general impression one gets from talking to elders and correspondents from the tribal area is that drone strikes are for the most part accurate, causing fewer civilian casualties than some reports suggest.

Relations between Islamabad and Washington nosedived more than two years ago, when US special forces killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in a raid on his hideout in Abbottabad in north-west Pakistan, without giving the Pakistani government advance warning.

But in their meeting on Wednesday, Mr Sharif said the US and Pakistan "have travelled together as friends and allies in defence of freedom and the pursuit of international peace and security".

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N Korea detainee reunion 'emotional'

24 October 2013 Last updated at 05:19 ET

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Myunghee Bae: "It was heavenly to see, hold and comfort Kenneth"

The mother of American Kenneth Bae, who is imprisoned in North Korea, told the BBC his health had improved following two months of medical treatment.

But Myunghee Bae said her worst fear was that he would get sent back to a labour camp.

The Korean-American was arrested last November and sentenced to 15 years' hard labour in May.

Mr Bae, described as a tour operator and Christian missionary, was accused of plotting sedition.

Mrs Bae was allowed to visit her son - who is reportedly suffering from a series of ailments including diabetes, an enlarged heart and back pain - on 11 October

'Very emotional'

In an interview with the BBC, Ms Bae said she was not initially worried when she first heard the news that her son was arrested.

"He always told me he was welcomed in North Korea. He brought tourism over there that helps the economy," she said, adding her son wanted to change the perception of North Korea to the outside world.

Kenneth Bae was transferred from a labour camp to hospital earlier this year as his health deteriorated.

Mrs Bae said she was trying to hold back tears when they met, and both of them were very emotional.

"But my heart was aching when I saw him in a hospital garment, confined in a small space," she says. "How can I describe my heartache to leave him behind as a prisoner over there?"

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• Eddie Jun Yong-su: Businessman detained for six months in 2011, freed after a visit led by US envoy Robert King
• Aijalon Mahli Gomes: Teacher and Christian jailed in 2010 for eight years over illegal entry via China - freed after ex-US President Jimmy Carter visited Pyongyang
• Robert Park: US activist crossed into North Korea via China in late 2009 - freed in 2010 by North Korea
• Laura Ling/Euna Lee: Jailed in 2009 for 12 years over illegal entry via the Chinese border - freed after ex-US President Bill Clinton met former NK leader Kim Jong-il

When asked if she had hope of seeing him released soon, she said: "That's really uncertain because as a family, we don't have any power to bring him home. We feel really helpless."

But she said her family had faith and hope that the US government would bring him home.

Known in North Korea as Pae Jun-ho, Mr Bae was arrested in November 2012 as he entered the north-eastern port city of Rason, a special economic zone near North Korea's border with China.

His trial and conviction came at a time of high tension between the US and North Korea, in the wake of the communist state's third nuclear test on 13 February.

Tensions have since eased somewhat. In August, North Korea issued and then revoked an invitation for US envoy Robert King to travel to Pyongyang to seek Mr Bae's release.

North Korea has arrested several US citizens in recent years, including journalists and Christians accused of proselytising.

They were released after visits to Pyongyang by high-profile officials, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

The US accuses North Korea of using detained citizens as bargaining chips.

Meanwhile, North Korea said on Thursday it would allow six detained South Koreans to return home on Friday.

The group will cross over at the truce village of Panmunjom, North Korea's Red Cross said in a statement.

The identities of the six are not clear, but it is possible four are are South Koreans that North Korea said it had detained for illegal entry in February 2010, officials said.

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