Developers raze ancient Peru pyramid

3 July 2013 Last updated at 17:32 ET

Authorities in Peru say an ancient pyramid at the oldest archaeological site near the capital, Lima, has been destroyed.

They are pressing criminal charges against two real-estate companies blamed for tearing down the structure, which was 6m (20-ft) high.

An archaeologist said those responsible had committed "irreparable damage".

The building was one of 12 pyramids found at the El Paraiso complex and is thought to be at least 4,000 years old.

The site, which dates back to the Late Preceramic (3500-1800 BC) period, is situated several kilometres north of Lima.

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We are not going to be able to know in what ways it was constructed, what materials were used in it and how the society in that part of the pyramid behaved"

End Quote Marco Guilen Director of excavation project, El Paraiso

According to Peru's tourism ministry, it was a religious and administrative centre long before the pre-Columbian Inca civilisation.

Rafael Varon, deputy minister of cultural patrimony, said the destruction had taken place over the weekend. He said company workers using heavy machinery had attempted to destroy three further pyramids, but had been stopped by onlookers.

Mr Varon said criminal complaints had been lodged against two companies.

Marco Guilen, director of an excavation project at El Paraiso, told Associated Press news agency the people who tore down the pyramid "have committed irreparable damage to a page of Peruvian history".

"We are not going to be able to know in what ways it was constructed, what materials were used in it and how the society in that part of the pyramid behaved."

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France apology in Bolivia jet row

3 July 2013 Last updated at 18:02 ET

France has apologised to Bolivia for refusing to allow President Evo Morales' jet into its airspace, blaming "conflicting information".

Bolivia accused France, Italy, Spain and Portugal of blocking the plane.

It said some wrongly believed US fugitive Edward Snowden was on board.

Speaking in Berlin, French President Francois Hollande said he granted permission as soon as he knew it was Mr Morales' plane.

President Morales was flying back to Bolivia from Moscow when the plane was forced to stop in Vienna.

Angry reactions

The French foreign ministry issued a statement on the incident.

Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said: "The foreign minister called his Bolivian counterpart to tell him about France's regrets after the incident caused by the late confirmation of permission for President Morales' plane to fly over [French] territory."

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Footage shows Bolivian President Evo Morales waiting inside Vienna airport, as Steve Rosenberg reports

The episode sparked angry reactions from heads of state across Latin America.

• Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner referred to "not only the humiliation of a sister country, but of the South American continent".
• Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said on Twitter: "I reaffirm all our solidarity with Evo [Morales] and from Venezuela, with dignity, we will respond to this dangerous, disproportionate, and unacceptable aggression"
• Ecuador's President Rafael Correa tweeted: "We express our solidarity with Evo [Morales] and the brave Bolivian people."
• A statement by Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff said: "The embarrassment to President Morales hits not only Bolivia, but all of Latin America."

Demonstrators marched on the French embassy in La Paz, burning the French flag and demanding the expulsion of the ambassador to Bolivia.

President Correa asked that the Unasur group of South American nations call an urgent meeting over the matter.

The secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel Insulza, expressed his "deep displeasure" with the "lack of respect" shown by the countries that denied airspace to Mr Morales' jet.

Bolivia's Vice-President Alvaro Garcia said a group of Latin American leaders would meet in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on Thursday over the case.

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• Rejected: India, Poland, Brazil
• Considering: Bolivia, Italy
• Has to be in the country for request to be considered: Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Spain, Ireland, Switzerland, Ecuador, Germany
• Unconfirmed: China, France, Venezuela
• Withdrawn: Russia
• Pending: Nicaragua, Cuba

Austrian officials said the airport authorities had searched the plane, but with Mr Morales's permission.

But the Bolivian government denied any search had taken place.

The plane took off from Vienna on Wednesday morning, having landed there late on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, France urged EU-US trade talks be delayed amid the fallout from secrets leaked by Mr Snowden.

The talks are due to begin on Monday but claims that the US bugged EU diplomatic offices in the US, and spied on internal computer networks, have upset transatlantic relations.

However, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Berlin did not back a delay to the talks, which correspondents say if successful will deliver the biggest trade deal in history.

Mr Snowden is still believed to be in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, from where he is seeking asylum in Bolivia and several other countries.

He is wanted by the US on charges of leaking secrets he gathered while working as a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), America's electronic spying agency.

The leaking of thousands of classified intelligence documents prompted revelations that the US has been systematically seizing vast amounts of phone and web data.

China, Russia and several European countries have expressed anger with the US over the apparent scale of its surveillance programme.

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Portugal battles to defuse crisis

4 July 2013 Last updated at 04:53 ET

Portugal's prime minister faces a day of talks aimed at shoring up his coalition, reeling after the resignations of two senior ministers.

Pedro Passos Coelho is anxious to keep his conservative partners on board, to defuse a political crisis and avoid the turmoil of an early election.

His coalition is under intense pressure to stick to the tough austerity targets dictated by Portugal's bailout.

But the interest rate on Portuguese bonds has dropped back below 8%.

Yields on 10-year Portuguese bonds fell to 7.26% on Thursday. The sharp spike - topping 8% on Wednesday - had revived market jitters about instability in the eurozone.

President Anibal Cavaco Silva will meet Mr Passos Coelho and other political leaders later on Thursday. The president is known to be keen to avoid calling early elections, the BBC's Alison Roberts reports from Lisbon.

Left-wing opposition parties are demanding early elections, and opinion polls suggest the ruling conservatives would do badly. The Communist Party held a big anti-government rally in central Lisbon on Wednesday.

Political storm

The crisis began on Monday with the resignation of Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar, who for two years had overseen the unpopular austerity policies.

The prime minister's choice to replace him, the former treasury secretary Maria Luis Albuquerque, is seen as just as wedded to austerity, says our Lisbon correspondent.

It was that fact that the foreign minister and junior coalition leader, Paulo Portas, cited in tendering his resignation on Tuesday.

Our correspondent says Portugal's president is clearly putting pressure on the coalition to patch things up, given the very adverse reaction to the crisis in the markets.

The European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, said he was following the situation "with concern".

Portugal received a bailout worth more than 78bn euros ($102bn; £67bn) in May 2011, on the condition it implemented austerity measures.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets in recent days to protest against planned austerity reforms.

Portugal has been in recession for two years and the economy is expected to contract by 2.3% this year.

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Egypt swears in new interim leader

4 July 2013 Last updated at 06:34 ET

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Mr Mansour praised the armed forces and the Egyptian people

The top judge of Egypt's Constitutional Court, Adly Mahmud Mansour, has been sworn in as interim leader, hours after the army ousted President Mohammed Morsi and put him under house arrest.

Mr Mansour said fresh elections were "the only way" forward, but gave no indication of when they would be held.

Mr Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, is under house arrest after what he says was a military coup.

The army said he had "failed to meet the demands of the people".

The upheaval comes after days of mass rallies against the Islamist president.

Protesters accused Mr Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood of pursuing an Islamist agenda and of failing to tackle Egypt's economic problems.

The health ministry says at least 10 people were killed and scores injured in clashes across the country. Some 50 people have died since the latest unrest began on Sunday.

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Mr Mansour was sworn in as chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court on Thursday morning, then shortly after, took the oath to become interim head of state.

He swore to "preserve the system of the republic, and respect the constitution and law, and guard the people's interests".

The time had come to "stop our industry of making tyrants", he said.

Elections would be held based on "the genuine people's will not a fraudulent one", he said. "This is the only way for a brighter future, a freer future, a more democratic one".

Mr Mansour also praised the military as "the conscience of the nation and the guarantor of its security and safety".

US concern

Mr Morsi's opponents had celebrated through the night in Cairo's Tahrir Square, after the army announced it had suspended the Islamist-backed constitution - approved by a referendum in 2012 - and pledged to hold new elections.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

What now needs to happen now in Egypt is for democracy to flourish and for a genuine democratic transition to take place"

End Quote David Cameron UK Prime Minister

Gehad el-Haddad, a spokesman for Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, told the BBC the ousted leader had been put under house arrest and the "entire presidential team" was in detention.

Mr Haddad's father, senior Morsi aide Essam el-Haddad, and Saad al-Katatni, head of the Brotherhood's political wing, are among those held.

The state-run al-Ahram newspaper reported that arrest warrants had been issued for 300 leaders and members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

US President Barack Obama has said he is "deeply concerned" by the latest turn of events and called for a swift return to civilian rule.

The removal of the president followed four days of mass protests against Mr Morsi and an ultimatum issued by the military, which expired on Wednesday afternoon.

In his televised speech, Gen Sisi said the armed forces could not ignore the call of the Egyptian masses.

He spoke of a new roadmap for the future, and said Mr Mansour would be given the task of "running the country's affairs during the transitional period until the election of a new president".

The army's roadmap for the post-Morsi era includes:

• Suspension of the constitution
• A civilian, transitional technocratic government
• Supreme Constitutional Court to prepare for presidential and parliamentary elections
• A "charter of honour" to be drawn up and followed by national media

Discontent

The army moved quickly after Gen Sisi's speech, with military vehicles seen fanning out across the capital.

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Egypt's revolution - key events

• 11 February 2011 - Hosni Mubarak resigns as president after two weeks of massive street protests and violent clashes
• January 2012 - Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party wins parliamentary elections with almost half of votes
• June 2012 - Mohammed Morsi becomes Egypt's first freely elected president
• 22 November 2012 - Mr Morsi issues a controversial decree granting himself extensive powers - after angry protests he eventually rescinds most of it
• 3 July 2013 - The army suspends the constitution and removes Mr Morsi from power

TV stations belonging to the Brotherhood went off air and state news agency Mena said managers at the movement's Misr25 channel had been arrested.

A notice on Mr Morsi's Facebook page condemned the "military coup".

The statement asked Egyptian citizens to "abide by the constitution and the law and not to respond to this coup".

Mr Morsi, who had pledged his life to defend constitutional legitimacy, accused the army of "taking only one side".

In Tahrir Square thousands of anti-Morsi protesters celebrated with fireworks and honking car horns.

One protester, Omar Sherif, told AFP news agency: "It's a new historical moment. We got rid of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood."

The BBC's Kevin Connolly in Cairo says no-one knows what will happen next. The danger, he says, is that both sides will try to settle differences by bringing supporters on to the streets.

The army has said it will not allow that to happen but, our correspondent says, it will not be easy to stop.

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General Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi makes the televised announcement

After Gen Sisi's address, both Pope Tawadros II - the head of the Coptic Church - and leading opposition figure Mohammed ElBaradei made short televised speeches about the new roadmap for Egypt's future which they had agreed with the army.

Mr ElBaradei said the roadmap aimed for national reconciliation and represented a fresh start to the January 2011 revolution.

Opposition leader and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa told AFP that consultations for a government and reconciliation "will start from now".

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

The fact is the Obama administration won't be tremendously disappointed by what has happened"

End Quote

Mr Morsi became Egypt's first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair following the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

However his term in office was marred by constant political unrest and a sinking economy.

The mass protests at the weekend that led to the army's intervention were called by the Tamarod (Rebel) movement, in response to worsening social and economic conditions.

But there has been a growing sense of discontent since last November, when Mr Morsi issued a controversial constitutional declaration granting himself extensive powers.

His moves to entrench Islamic laws and concentrate power in the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood also alienated liberals and secularists.

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Rescue after deadly Indonesia quake

3 July 2013 Last updated at 00:31 ET

Rescue operations are under way after a 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia's Aceh province, flattening houses and causing landslides.

Officials say at least 22 people were killed and more than 200 injured by the quake, which struck the western tip of Sumatra island on Tuesday.

One report said six children were killed and 14 trapped under debris when a mosque collapsed in Central Aceh.

Indonesia is located on one of the most seismically active regions on earth.

"So far 22 people died, 210 people were injured, and thousands of buildings and homes were damaged in the quake," disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

"Our search and rescue teams are struggling to evacuate an estimated 14 children still trapped under the rubble [of the mosque]," Subhan Sahara, a disaster management official in Central Aceh, told AFP news agency.

Power cut

Soldiers and police have been deployed in rescue operations, but have struggled to access some areas where roads were blocked by landslides, officials said.

The Indonesian air force has deployed a helicopter and a plane as part of the rescue efforts.

Officials say that the quake was felt for around 15 seconds, from Banda Aceh, the regional capital, to Bener Meriah, one of the worst-hit areas.

In Bener Meriah, around 300 people slept outdoors on Tuesday night as the area was hit by strong aftershocks and people were afraid to return to their homes, a local official told AFP.

"We have a power outage now and communications are unreliable," he added.

In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 quake off Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed some 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean.

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

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Bone marrow 'frees men of HIV drugs'

3 July 2013 Last updated at 04:32 ET By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News

Two patients have been taken off their HIV drugs after bone-marrow transplants seemed to clear the virus from their bodies, doctors report.

One of the patients has spent nearly four months without taking medication with no sign of the virus returning.

The team at Brigham and Women's Hospital, in the US, caution that it is far too soon to talk about a cure as the virus could return at any point.

The findings were presented at the International Aids Society Conference.

It is difficult to get rid of an HIV infection because it hides inside human DNA, forming untouchable "reservoirs" in body.

Anti-retroviral drugs keep the virus in check within the bloodstream - but when the drugs stop, the virus comes back.

HIV gone?

The two men, who have not been identified, had lived with HIV for about 30 years.

They both developed a cancer, lymphoma, which required a bone-marrow transplant.

Bone marrow is where new blood cells are made and it is thought to be a major reservoir for HIV.

After the transplant, there was no detectable HIV in the blood for two years in one patient and four in the other.

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It is far too early to call this a cure for HIV. And even if it was a cure, it wouldn't be a very good one.

It is very expensive and often leads to "graft-v-host" disease. There is a 15-20% mortality rate within the first few years after the transplant.

This occurs when new immune cells produced by the graft treat the rest of the body as foreign and attack it.

The two patients in this study have replaced their regimen of anti-retroviral drugs, with those to suppress the immune system.

The procedure was carried out in these patients only because they had cancer that needed to be treated.

The real value of this research for the majority of people with HIV will come from a deeper understanding of the virus and HIV reservoirs.

The pair came off their anti-retroviral drugs earlier this year.

One has gone 15 weeks, and the other seven, since stopping treatment, and no signs of the virus have been detected so far.

Dr Timothy Henrich told the BBC the results were exciting. But he added: "We have not demonstrated cure, we're going to need longer follow-up.

"What we can say is if the virus does stay away for a year or even two years after we stopped the treatment, that the chances of the virus rebounding are going to be extremely low.

"It's much too early at this point to use the C-word [cure]."

It is thought that the transplanted bone marrow was initially protected from infection by the course of anti-retrovirals. Meanwhile the transplant also attacked the remaining bone marrow, which was harbouring the virus.

However Dr Henrich cautioned that the virus could be still be hiding inside brain tissue or the gastrointestinal track.

"If [the] virus does return, it would suggest that these other sites are an important reservoir of infectious virus and new approaches to measuring the reservoir at relevant sites will be needed to guide the development of HIV curative strategies," he said.

Berlin patient

Timothy Brown, also known as the "Berlin patient" is thought to be the first person cured of Aids. He had a bone marrow transplant from a rare donor who was resistant to HIV.

The two US cases both received bone marrow from normal donors.

There was also a report of an HIV cure in a baby born in Mississippi, US. She was treated with anti-retroviral drugs at birth so it is thought the virus was cleared from the body before reservoirs were established.

Dr Michael Brady, the medical director of the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "It is too early to know whether HIV has been eradicated from these men's bodies or whether it might return.

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Doctors say it is far too soon to talk about a cure for HIV, as James Gallagher reports

"However, the case suggests that what happened to Timothy Brown, the Berlin Patient was perhaps not a one-off.

"A bone marrow transplant is a complex and expensive procedure, which comes with significant risks.

"For most people with HIV, it would be more dangerous to undergo a transplant than to continue managing the virus with daily medication.

"So while this is by no means a workable cure, it does give researchers another signpost in the direction of one."

The head of the Foundation for AIDS Research, Kevin Frost, said: "These findings clearly provide important new information that might well alter the current thinking about HIV and gene therapy.

"While stem-cell transplantation is not a viable option for people with HIV on a broad scale because of its costs and complexity, these new cases could lead us to new approaches to treating, and ultimately even eradicating, HIV."

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Egypt tense as army deadline looms

3 July 2013 Last updated at 06:43 ET

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In a late-night appeal for calm, Mr Morsi said he would give his life for Egypt

Tensions are high in Egypt as an army deadline for President Mohammed Morsi to resolve deadly unrest approaches.

Clashes broke out at rival protests across the country overnight, with at least 16 pro-Morsi protesters killed at a demonstration at Cairo University.

Senior army officials are in crisis talks, after saying they would shed their blood to defend Egypt against "any terrorist, radical or fool".

Mr Morsi insists he is Egypt's legitimate leader and will not resign.

In a defiant televised speech on Tuesday evening, he too said he would give his life to defend constitutional legitimacy, and blamed the unrest on corruption and remnants of the ousted regime of Hosni Mubarak.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

Mr Morsi's defiant speech shows that just like his predecessor, he has not been open to American cajoling"

End Quote

Calling for protesters to respect the rule of law, he urged the establishment of a committee of reconciliation as well as a charter of ethics for the media, and said he was prepared to meet all groups and individuals as part of a national dialogue process.

'Terrorists and fools'

The army has given a deadline of about 16:30 local time (14:30 GMT) on Wednesday for the crisis to be dealt with.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page after Mr Morsi's speech was broadcast - under the title, "Final Hours" - it said: "We swear to God that we will sacrifice even our blood for Egypt and its people, to defend them against any terrorist, radical or fool."

Continue reading the main story

At the scene

Some are busily going about their normal day today, others will be protesting again - but many will be holding their breath.

Some of the headlines in the morning papers reflect the overwhelming mood here, with bold lines like "The collapse of the Brotherhood" and "The return of Egypt in a few hours". Others wonder what will happen next: "Army Deadline Ticking Down as Hopes Dim for Way Out" says the Egyptian Gazette.

President Morsi, the wider Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters are up against two formidable opponents - the wider public still taking to the streets in large numbers and the army.

The military's deadline is fast approaching. How the army handles this is key to how it will all play out as both sides dig in their heels with no signs of a compromise on the horizon.

Media reports say the army's plan includes the outline for new presidential elections, the suspension of the new constitution and the dissolution of parliament.

However one military source told Reuters news agency those reports were not true, and that the deadline would mark the beginning of talks about what should be done next.

On Wednesday, a defence ministry official said army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi - who had held talks with Mr Morsi earlier in the week - was meeting his top commanders as the deadline approached.

But a spokesman for Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood party said the army had no right to offer a roadmap.

"A roadmap is something that the constitution outlines and the president directs. It's not the role of the military," said Gehad el-Haddad.

He said the Brotherhood was open to any solution, but that it had to be through "representatives of the people", and proposed speeding through parliamentary elections.

"If the protests on the street prove anything they prove the people of Egypt are ready to have their say. They can sweep the parliamentary election, impeach the president, change the constitution and set the roadmap that they want, but it has to be the right of the people."

Military sources earlier told the BBC the president's position was becoming "weaker" with every passing minute and suggested that, under the draft plan, he could be replaced by a council of cross-party civilians and technocrats ahead of new elections.

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Egypt in 90 seconds: How did we get here?

The president was put under further pressure by the resignation of six ministers from his government on Monday, including Foreign Minister Kamel Amr.

Mr Morsi became Egypt's first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair following the 2011 revolution that toppled Mubarak.

Continue reading the main story

Tamarod (Rebel)

The Tamarod movement says more than 22 million people have signed a petition complaining that:

• Security has not been restored since the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak
• The poor "have no place" in society
• The government has had to "beg" the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $4.8bn (£3.17bn) loan to help shore up the public finances
• There has been "no justice" for people killed by security forces during the uprising and at anti-government protests since then
• "No dignity is left" for Egyptians or their country
• The economy has "collapsed", with growth poor and inflation high
• Egypt is "following in the footsteps" of the US

But dissent has been growing, with protesters angry at the lack of development in post-revolution Egypt and accusing the Brotherhood of trying to protect its own interests and pushing an Islamist agenda.

"This is a president threatening his own people. We don't consider him the president of Egypt," said Mohammed Abdelaziz, a leader of the Tamarod (Rebel) campaign, a rapidly growing anti-Morsi opposition movement.

However, Mr Morsi and the Brotherhood still have significant public support, and both sides have drawn huge numbers to rallies in recent days.

Thousands gathered in Tahrir Square in central Cairo on Tuesday afternoon to demand Mr Morsi step down. There were outbreaks of violence in several parts of the capital, with casualties reported at hospitals in the north, south and centre of Cairo.

In the largest bout of unrest, at least 16 people were killed and about 200 wounded at Cairo University in Giza. Eyewitness Mostafa Abdelnasser told AFP that Morsi supporters had come under attack from unidentified men carrying firearms.

Clashes were also reported in Alexandria, Egypt's second city, on Tuesday.

Crowds began gathering in Tahrir Square again on Wednesday morning, with numbers expected to rise throughout the day.

On Monday, eight people died as activists stormed and ransacked the Muslim Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters.

In the wake of the latest unrest, the UK Foreign Office has changed its travel advice for Egypt, recommending against all but essential travel to the country except for resorts on the Red Sea in South Sinai and in the Red Sea governorate.

The instability has also hit global oil prices, sending US light crude above $100 a barrel for the first time since September last year, amid concerns supply routes through the Suez Canal could be affected.

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Bolivia anger over jet 'aggression'

3 July 2013 Last updated at 06:59 ET

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Footage shows the Bolivian President Evo Morales waiting inside Vienna airport, as Steve Rosenberg reports

Bolivia has accused European countries of an "act of aggression" for refusing to allow its presidential jet into their airspace, amid suggestions US fugitive Edward Snowden was on board.

Bolivia said France, Portugal, Spain and Italy had blocked the plane from flying over their territory.

President Evo Morales was flying back to Bolivia from Moscow when the plane was diverted to Vienna.

The jet was reportedly searched for Mr Snowden, wanted for leaking US secrets.

He was apparently not on board and is still believed to be in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, from where he is seeking asylum in Bolivia and several other countries.

Bolivia's UN envoy Sacha Llorenti told reporters in Geneva that he would complain to the UN about the European countries' actions.

"The decisions of these countries violated international law. We are already making procedures to denounce this to the UN secretary general," he said.

But France denied refusing the plane permission, and Spain subsequently said its airspace was open to the jet.

And a further row broke out about whether the plane had been searched.

Austrian officials said the airport authorities had searched the plane, but Mr Llorenti and other Bolivian officials denied there was any search.

The plane took off from Vienna on Wednesday morning.

'Offence against Latin America'

Mr Morales said presidents should have the right to travel anywhere in the world.

"It's not an offence against the president, it is an offence against the country, against the whole of the Latin American region," he said before taking off.

Mr Snowden is wanted by the US on charges of leaking secrets he gathered while working as a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), America's electronic spying agency.

The leaking of thousands of classified intelligence documents prompted revelations that the US has been systematically seizing vast amounts of phone and web data.

National Intelligence Director James Clapper apologised on Tuesday for telling Congress in March that the NSA did not have a policy of gathering data on millions of Americans.

He said in a letter to the Senate intelligence committee that his answer had been "clearly erroneous".

China, Russia and several European countries have expressed anger with the US over the apparent scale of its surveillance programme.

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Morsi criticises army ultimatum

2 July 2013 Last updated at 05:30 ET

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Noisy celebrations erupted in Cairo as the army delivered its ultimatum

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi says he was not consulted by the army before it set a 48-hour ultimatum to resolve the country's deadly crisis.

Mr Morsi said a part of the statement "may cause confusion in the complex national scene". He vowed to stick to his "national reconciliation" plan.

The army has warned it will intervene if the government and its opponents fail to heed "the will of the people".

However, it denies that the ultimatum amounts to a coup.

Meanwhile, Egypt's state news agency Mena reported early on Tuesday that Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr had submitted his resignation.

If accepted, he would join at least five other ministers who have already reportedly resigned over the political crisis.

On Sunday, millions rallied nationwide, urging the president to step down.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

The statement by the minister of defence and army chief, Gen al-Sisi, was worded carefully.

It did not say the president must go. The army, with troops in strategic positions across Cairo, is saying the government and opposition have 48 hours to agree a way forward or it will intervene with its own plan.

The Egyptian military has been both hero and villain for the people involved in the ousting of President Mubarak in 2011.

Heroes, first of all, when they put themselves between protesters and the Mubarak regime's enforcers. But later they were widely criticised for holding onto power for too long.

The reality is they have never given up their critical role behind the scenes, which includes huge economic power.

No matter which way Egypt goes - and there could be some very rough days ahead - the army will never want its own power diluted.

Large protests continued on Monday with activists storming and ransacking Cairo's Muslim Brotherhood headquarters - the group from which the president hails.

President Morsi's opponents accuse him of putting the Brotherhood's interests ahead of the country's as a whole.

He became Egypt's first Islamist president on 30 June 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair following the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

US President Barack Obama - currently on a tour of Africa - called Mr Morsi to encourage him to respond to the protesters' concerns.

Mr Obama "underscored that the current crisis can only be resolved through a political process," the White House said in a statement".

Coup in the making?

In an announcement read out on Egyptian TV, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, defence minister and head of the armed forces, described the protests as an "unprecedented" expression of the popular will.

If the people's demands were not met, he said, the military would have to take responsibility for a plan for the future.

But while he said the army would not get involved in politics or government, his words were seen by many as a coup in the making.

Noisy celebrations erupted in Cairo as protesters interpreted the army's ultimatum as spelling the end of Mr Morsi's rule.

Tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters of Tamarod (Rebel) - the opposition movement behind the protests - partied in Cairo's Tahrir Square late into the night.

Continue reading the main story

Tamarod (Rebel)

The Tamarod movement says more than 22 million people have signed a petition complaining that:

• Security has not been restored since the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak
• The poor "have no place" in society
• The government has had to "beg" the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $4.8bn loan to help shore up the public finances
• There has been "no justice" for people killed by security forces during the uprising and at anti-government protests since then
• "No dignity is left" for Egyptians or their country
• The economy has "collapsed", with growth poor and inflation high
• Egypt is "following in the footsteps" of the US

Meanwhile senior Brotherhood figure Muhammad al-Biltaji urged pro-Morsi supporters to "call their families in all Egyptian governorates and villages to be prepared to take to the streets and fill squares" to support their president.

"Any coup of any sort will only pass over our dead bodies," he said to a roar from thousands gathered outside the Rab'ah al-Adawiyah mosque in Cairo's Nasr district.

There were reports of gun clashes between rival factions in the city of Suez, east of the capital, on Monday night.

The army later issued a second statement on its Facebook page emphasising that it "does not aspire to rule and will not overstep its prescribed role".

According to Tuesday's presidential statement, President Morsi was not consulted ahead of the ultimatum announcement. It said that such action "may cause confusion in the complex national scene".

"The presidency asserts that the presidency is going on in its pre-planned path to hold a comprehensive national reconciliation," the presidency statement said.

Given the inability of politicians from all sides to agree until now, the 48-hour ultimatum makes it unlikely Mr Morsi can survive in power, says the BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Cairo.

The opposition movement had given Mr Morsi until Tuesday afternoon to step down and call fresh presidential elections, or else face a campaign of civil disobedience.

On Saturday, the group said it had collected more than 22 million signatures - more than a quarter of Egypt's population - in support.

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Amr Moussa: "We are really hoping to save Egypt from real collapse to ruins"

And on Monday the ministers of tourism, environment, communication, water utilities and legal affairs reportedly resigned in an act of "solidarity with the people's demand to overthrow the regime".

But Mr Morsi was defiant in an interview published on Sunday, rejecting calls for early presidential elections.

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Obama honours 1998 Tanzania dead

2 July 2013 Last updated at 05:43 ET

US President Barack Obama has laid a wreath for the victims of the 1998 US embassy bombing in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam.

Eleven Americans were killed in the al-Qaeda attack, which coincided with a bombing in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, which left hundreds dead.

The president was joined for the ceremony by predecessor George W Bush.

President Obama is on the last leg of his second Africa tour as president, which took in Senegal and South Africa.

In Tanzania, Mr Obama also visited a US-owned power plant, following his announcement over the weekend of a multi-billion-dollar electricity initiative.

The $7bn (£4.6bn) five-year initiative is intended to double access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa, in partnership with African countries and the private sector.

"We're starting with countries that are making progress already with reforms in the energy sector - Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Mozambique and Liberia," he told a business leaders forum in Dar es Salaam.

"And with a focus on cleaner energy, we will initially add 10,000 megawatts of new electricity generation, which expands electricity to 20 million homes and businesses."

At the same forum on Monday evening, Mr Obama launched a programme helping Africa's eastern nations of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda trade both with each other and with the US.

"We'll work with the countries involved to modernise customs, move to single more efficient border crossings, reduce bottlenecks, reduce the roadblocks that stymie the flow of goods to market," he said.

Mr Bush was in Dar es Salaam for a conference on African women sponsored by the George W Bush Institute.

As he and Mr Obama attended the ceremony at the US embassy memorial, their wives took part in the African First Ladies Summit.

President Obama and his family have now left for the US.

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