US criticises Germany growth model

30 October 2013 Last updated at 22:31 ET

The US has criticised Germany's economic policies, saying that its export-led growth model is hurting the eurozone and the wider global economy.

In its bi-annual report, the US Treasury said that domestic demand growth in Germany had been "anaemic".

It also reiterated its view that the Chinese yuan continued to remain "significantly undervalued".

The report has criticised Chinese policy before, but criticism of German economic policy is rarer.

"Germany's anaemic pace of domestic demand growth and dependence on exports have hampered rebalancing at a time when many other euro-area countries have been under severe pressure to curb demand and compress imports in order to promote adjustment," the Treasury said.

"The net result has been a deflationary bias for the euro area as well as for the world economy."

'Bit strange'

Germany, the eurozone's largest economy, has been one of its key drivers of growth in recent years.

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It is better for eurozone to have a highly concentrated, efficient and skilled export powerhouse in Germany than not have any major engine of growth"

End Quote Tony Nash IHS

Its importance to the 17-nation bloc has only increased since the development of the region's debt crisis, which has affected other bigger economies such as Italy and Spain.

Germany has been one of Europe's stronger economic performers and its exports prowess is seen as one of its key strengths.

It narrowly avoided recession earlier this year, but GDP in the second quarter of 2013 was driven up by demand from both consumers and businesses.

Analysts said that while Germany could benefit from boosting domestic demand, the criticism levelled at its policies was unfair.

"I think this is a bit strange," Tony Nash, vice president at IHS, told the BBC. "The eurozone has to get growth from somewhere and Germany is the most likely place for that to happen."

"And it is better for the eurozone to have a highly concentrated, efficient and skilled export powerhouse in Germany than not have any major engine of growth," he added.

Yuan concerns

In recent years, the US and many other economies have alleged that China tries to keep the value of its currency artificially low.

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They say that, by doing so, Beijing gives an unfair advantage to its exporters, as an undervalued currency makes its good cheaper to foreign buyers.

For its part, China has been looking to loosen its grip on the currency as it looks to push for a more global role for the yuan.

But Beijing has maintained that a sudden and sharp appreciation in the value of the yuan will hurt its overall economy.

The yuan has risen nearly 12% against the US dollar since June 2010.

While the Treasury acknowledged that the yuan had been rising, it said the appreciation was "not as fast or by as much as is needed".

"On the other hand, the evidence that China has resumed large-scale purchases of foreign exchange this year, despite having accumulated reserves that are more than sufficient by any measure, is suggestive of actions that are impeding market determination and a currency that is significantly undervalued," it added.

However, the report did not label China as a currency manipulator.

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Decline in CO2 may be 'permanent'

31 October 2013 Last updated at 05:19 ET By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News

Global emissions of carbon dioxide may be showing the first signs of a "permanent slowdown" in the rate of increase.

According to a new report, emissions in 2012 increased at less than half the average over the past decade.

Key factors included the shift to shale gas for energy in the US while China increased its use of hydropower by 23%.

However the use of cheap coal continues to be an issue, with UK consumption up by almost a quarter.

The report on trends in global emissions has been produced annually by the Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency and the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.

It finds that emissions of carbon dioxide reached a new record in 2012 of 34.5bn tonnes.

But the rate of increase in CO2 was 1.4%, despite the global economy growing by 3.5%.

Breaking the link

This decoupling of emissions from economic growth is said to be down to the use of less fossil fuels, more renewable energy and increased energy savings.

The main emitters, accounting for 55% of the global total, were China, the US and the European Union. All three saw changes that were described as "remarkable" by the report's authors.

Emissions from China increased by 3% but this was a significant slowdown compared to annual increases of around 10% over the past decade.

There were two important factors in reducing China's CO2. The first was the ending of a large economic stimulus package. As a result electricity and energy prices increased at half the rate of GDP.

"They want to grow economically less fast," one of the authors, Dr Greet Maenhout, told BBC News.

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The rise of shale in the US pushed down the cost of coal, beleaguered European economies turned to it, in ever-increasing amounts.

The UK leads the way with its biggest rise in coal use since 2006, up 24% in a year. A similar rise was seen in Spain, with France and Germany also showing increases. Ironically, Poland and the Czech Republic reduced their use by 4 and 8% respectively.

"Countries like Germany, the Netherlands and Italy have new coal plants and that is a decision for 40 years ahead - you can control particulates, it's not so much a problem. But for the CO2 it's quite dramatic," said Dr Maenhout.

"It is like a tiger that you have to keep under control, and you can also see in the CO2 trends, the growth is not so big."

China also achieved exceptional growth in the use of hydropower for the generation of electricity, increasing capacity and output by 23% in 2012. This alone had the effect of curbing the country's emissions by 1.5%.

In the US, the shale revolution continues to make waves. Overall emissions were down by 4% in the year mainly because of a continuing shift from coal to gas in the generation of electricity. Shale is now responsible for one third of US gas production and almost one quarter of total oil production.

"It is amazing, shale gas has been growing since 2007/8, I think it will continue but that is speculation," said Dr Maenhout.

"I think there is an economic benefit to further expansion, I am not expecting it to go down."

Off the road

The other major decline came in the European Union where economic recession in the 27 nation bloc saw emissions decline by 1.3%. This was down to a decrease in energy consumption of oil and gas, with a 4% decline in road transport.

Renewable energy also continued its upward trend, at accelerating speed. It took 15 years for the renewable global share to increase 0.5% to 1.1% - but it took only six years for it to double again, to 2.4% in 2012.

Looking ahead, the report suggests that if the push for shale continues in the US, if China sticks to its published plans and if renewables continue to grow - particularly in Europe - global emissions might slow down permanently.

"It is good news but still not sufficient," said Dr Maenhout.

"We are still having increases every year which are cumulative. Since CO2 lives for 100 years in the atmosphere, we will still not be able to cope with a 2C target for 2050."

The report was welcomed by green activist Bill McKibben, who is campaigning for a divestment from fossil fuel stocks and shares.

"It is good news but nowhere near good enough," he told BBC News.

"The solution we need here is dictated by physics, and at the moment the physics is busy melting the Arctic and acidifying the ocean.

"We can't just plateau or go up less, we have to very quickly try and get the planet off fossil fuels."

Follow Matt on Twitter.

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New York to raise cigarette sale age

30 October 2013 Last updated at 19:10 ET

New York City Council has voted to raise the minimum age for buying cigarettes from 18 to 21.

New York will now become by far the most populous place in the US to impose such a high age limit, the Associated Press reports.

The new age limit includes electronic vapour cigarettes.

Across the US there is a minimum age for smoking of 18. Some states have raised the limit to 19 and at least two other towns have raised it to 21.

The bill's sponsor, City Councilman James Gennaro, said it would "literally save many, many lives".

Mr Gennaro, whose mother and father died from tobacco-related illnesses, said: "I've lived with it, I've seen it... but I feel good today."

Critics of the measure have argued that young people may turn to the black market for cigarettes.

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who supported the bill, has 30 days to sign it into law. The measure would then come into effect after 180 days.

"We know that tobacco dependence can begin very soon after a young person first tries smoking so it's critical that we stop young people from smoking before they ever start," Mr Bloomberg said in a statement.

A plan by Mr Bloomberg to make shops keep cigarettes out of public view was shelved earlier this year.

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Google outrage at 'NSA hacking'

31 October 2013 Last updated at 01:09 ET

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A summary of US spying allegations brought about by Edward Snowden's leak of classified documents

Google has expressed outrage following a report that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has hacked its data links.

An executive at Google said it was not aware of the alleged activity, adding there was an "urgent need for reform".

The comments follow a Washington Post report based on leaks from Edward Snowden claiming that the NSA hacked links connecting data centres operated by Google and Yahoo.

The NSA's director said it had not had access to the companies' computers.

Gen Keith Alexander told Bloomberg TV: "We are not authorised to go into a US company's servers and take data."

But correspondents say this is not a direct denial of the latest claims.

'Extending encryption'

The revelations stem from documents leaked by ex-US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and is wanted in the US in connection with the unauthorised disclosures.

The documents say millions of records were gleaned daily from the internet giants' internal networks.

They suggest that the NSA intercepted the data at some point as it flowed through fibre-optic cables and other network equipment connecting the companies' data centres, rather than targeting the servers themselves.

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• Accessing internet company data
• Tapping fibre optic cables
• Eavesdropping on phones
• Targeted spying

The data was intercepted outside the US, the documents imply.

The data the agency obtained, which ranged from "metadata' to text, audio and video, were then sifted by an NSA programme called Muscular, operated with the NSA's British counterpart, GCHQ, the documents say.

The NSA already has "front-door" access to Google and Yahoo user accounts through a court-approved programme known as Prism.

Google's chief legal officer David Drummond said Google did not provide any government with access to its systems.

"We have long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping, which is why we have continued to extend encryption across more and more Google services and links, especially the links in the slide," Drummond said in a statement.

"We are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fibre networks, and it underscores the need for urgent reform."

A spokesperson for Yahoo said the company had "strict controls in place to protect the security of our data centres, and we have not given access to our data centres to the NSA or to any other government agency".

An NSA spokesperson denied a suggestion in the Washington Post article that the agency gathered "vast quantities of US persons' data from this type of collection".

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NSA Director Gen Keith Alexander: "We do not have access to Google servers, Yahoo servers"

The latest revelations came hours after a German delegation of intelligence officials arrived in Washington for talks at the White House following claims that the US monitored Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.

Two of Mrs Merkel's most important advisers, foreign policy adviser Christoph Heusgen, and intelligence coordinator Guenter Heiss were sent to take part in the talks - seen as a measure of how seriously Mrs Merkel takes the matter.

Next week, the heads of Germany's spying agencies will meet their opposite numbers in Washington.

'Inappropriate and unacceptable'

The head of US intelligence has defended the monitoring of foreign leaders as a key goal of operations but the US is facing growing anger over reports it spied on its allies abroad.

It has also been reported that the NSA monitored French diplomats in Washington and at the UN, and that it conducted surveillance on millions of French and Spanish telephone calls, among other operations against US allies.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said that if Spain had been a target of the NSA, this would be "inappropriate and unacceptable between partners".

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James Clapper said knowing what foreign leaders were thinking was critical to US policymaking

However, Gen Alexander has said "the assertions... that NSA collected tens of millions of phone calls [in Europe] are completely false".

On Wednesday, the agency denied Italian media reports that it had targeted communications at the Vatican.

The UN said it had received assurances that its communications "are not and will not be monitored" by American intelligence agencies, but refused to clarify whether they had been in the past.

On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified before the intelligence panel of the House of Representatives that much of the data cited by non-US news outlets was actually collected by European intelligence services and later shared with the NSA.

He said foreign allies spied on US officials and intelligence agencies as a matter of routine.

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Boston Red Sox win World Series

By Richard Warry BBC News

Boston Red Sox won the 2013 World Series with a 6-1 victory over St Louis Cardinals in Game 6 at Fenway Park.

Winning the series 4-2, they clinched the title in front of their own fans for the first time in 95 years.

Boston have now landed three Major League titles in 10 seasons, following an 86-year drought which ended in 2004 when they also beat the Cardinals.

The last time Red Sox won the World Series at home, their pitching staff included the legendary Babe Ruth.

The subsequent sale of Ruth, baseball's greatest star, to the rival New York Yankees was said to have initiated the infamous Curse of the Bambino which Boston took more than eight decades to break.

"I knew this was going to be a special year," said Boston slugger David Ortiz, the outstanding player of the best-of-seven series.

"When we started rolling, nobody ever stopped the train."

Michael Wacha, the 22-year-old rookie Cardinals pitcher, came into Wednesday's game with an outstanding record in this season's play-offs, but lasted only three completed innings.

The Red Sox took a 3-0 lead in the third inning when a double by right fielder Shane Victorino scored centre fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, designated hitter Ortiz and left fielder Jonny Gomes.

Wacha was removed from the game with nobody out in the fourth inning after a solo home run by shortstop Stephen Drew extended the lead to 4-0.

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Boston Red Sox fans celebrate their "amazing" win

A single by first baseman Mike Napoli scored Ellsbury, and another hit by Victorino with the bases loaded put the Red Sox up by six unanswered runs with the game still in the fourth inning.

Veteran John Lackey, the Red Sox starting pitcher, produced a solid performance, leaving to a standing ovation from an ecstatic home crowd after six and two-third innings.

Cardinals slugger Carlos Beltran scored shortstop Daniel Descalso on a single in the seventh inning, but St Louis left three batters on base when they had a chance to put real pressure on the Red Sox, whose relief pitcher Junichi Tazawa got the crucial out.

Another reliever, Brandon Workman, closed down the Cardinals in the eighth, and closing pitcher Koji Uehara completed the job in the ninth, sparking scenes of jubilation.

"Big Papi" Ortiz, the only member of the 2004 team still playing for the Red Sox, was named as the World Series' most valuable player.

He had a quiet game on Wednesday, but was walked to first base four times, three times intentionally, meaning he successfully reached base 19 times during the World Series. His batting average during the series, .688 meant he recorded a hit nearly seven times out of every 10 "at bats"  - when an average of .300 over a season is considered excellent.

"I knew this was going to be a special year. When we started rolling, nobody ever stopped the train"

David Ortiz Boston Red Sox designated hitter

Gomes, who spoke articulately following the Boston marathon bombing in April, said: "This is so much more than a World Series championship for this team."

Victorino added: "it's been a fun year, and an enjoyable ride. It's been a special group of guys all year long."

Boston's victory represents a remarkable turnaround from 12 months ago when they finished bottom of the American League East division, with their worst regular season record since 1965.

General manager Ben Cherington faced a daunting task when he took over from Theo Epstein, the man who oversaw Boston's World Series wins in 2004 and 2007, in part by applying the emerging statistical analysis known as sabermetrics highlighted in the book and film Moneyball.

Initially, Cherington struggled. His first team manager Bobby Valentine, who succeeded the much-loved Terry Francona, proved little short of a disaster.

But Cherington has since been more sure-footed, and successfully refashioned the team in little over a year.

He began by shipping out expensive and under-performing stars such as Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and one-time pitching ace Josh Beckett, who fell out with the fans amid questions over his commitment.

They were replaced by cheaper alternatives, including Napoli, Victorino, Gomes and Uehara, all of whom played a key part in the successful 2013 campaign.

They have been moulded into a formidable unit by new manager John Farrell, who spent four years as Boston's pitching coach under Francona before cutting his teeth as a manager at the Toronto Blue Jays.

There is no doubt that Ortiz will go down as one of the all-time greats in Red Sox history, but the team of 2013 will primarily remembered as exactly that: a tight-knit team, not a collection of egos.

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Scores of dead Sahara migrants found

31 October 2013 Last updated at 06:19 ET

Rescue workers in Niger say they have found the bodies of 87 people who died of thirst after their vehicles broke down as they tried to cross the Sahara.

Rescue worker Almoustapha Alhacen said the corpses were in a severe state of decomposition and had been partly eaten, probably by jackals.

Those found are thought to be migrant workers and their families. Most were women and children.

Niger lies on a major migrant route between sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.

But among those who make it across the desert, many end up working in North African countries.

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Analysis

Thousands attempt to cross this stretch of Sahara desert to reach the coasts of North Africa, and from there Europe. I remember the exhaustion of migrants whom I met in Agadez in 2011.

Most were in their 20s and determined to continue their journey - despite the war in Libya at the time. "In our country, our talent is useless," one young Nigerian said. "But in Europe, we'll be able to thrive on it," he added.

Agadez is still several hundred kilometres from either Libya or Algeria. There is nothing in between but sand - a perilous desert where the extreme heat can kill. Traffickers extort large sums of money from migrants seeking a one-way ticket for a better life. They all know that death may be on the way, but they're ready to risk it, clinging onto hope.

'It was horrible'

According to Mr Alhacen, one of the vehicles that the migrants were travelling in broke down some time after they left Arlit at the end of September or beginning of October.

Security officials have said the second vehicle broke down as it was on its way back to Arlit to get spare parts.

It appears that some of the group set out on foot, including up to 10 people who made it back to Arlit and raised the alarm, he said.

It was reported on Monday that five bodies had been found.

On Wednesday, volunteers and soldiers working in searing heat found other corpses about 10km (six miles) from the Algerian border.

Speaking from Arlit, a centre for uranium mining north of Agadez, Mr Alhacen said he had experienced the worst day of his life when he found the bodies.

"The corpses were decomposed; it was horrible," he said.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

My guess is that the children were madrassa [Islamic school] children, being taken to Algeria to work"

End Quote Almoustapha Alhacen Rescue worker

"We found bodies across a wide area. We had no idea what to expect because we didn't know how many people had been in the vehicles."

They were given Muslim burials where they were found, Mr Alhacen said.

''What was shocking was that they were small. There was a dead woman holding her baby," he added.

Given that at least 48 of those found were children or teenagers, Mr Alhacen said it was possible they were on their way to low-paid jobs in neighbouring Algeria.

It is not clear which countries the migrants came from.

"There were no clues. My guess is that the children were madrassa [Islamic school] children, being taken to Algeria to work. That is the only explanation that I and others can find for such a large number of children having travelled together,'' Mr Alhacen said.

About 80,000 migrants cross the Sahara desert through Niger, according to John Ging, director of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"They are basically economic migrants. They are in search of work. They are so impoverished that they have to make these hazardous journeys," he told the BBC's Newsday programme.

Niger is one of the world's poorest countries and frequently suffers from drought and food crises.

Migration routes across the Sahara desert

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Kenyans march for gang-rape justice

31 October 2013 Last updated at 06:40 ET

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The BBC's Anne Soy was at the protest

Hundreds of protesters in Kenya have handed over a petition to police demanding justice for a teenager who was gang-raped.

The 16-year-old was gang-raped and then thrown in a pit latrine breaking her back.

The three men accused of gang-raping her were ordered by police to cut grass as punishment.

The petition signed by 1.2 million people calls for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the alleged rapists.

'Shameful response'

The BBC's Anne Soy said about 300 people walked from Uhuru Park in the capital, Nairobi, to the police headquarters to hand over the petition, which was carried in cardboard boxes.

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The men that raped Liz must be arrested and the police officers who let them walk free must be held to account "

End Quote Nebila Abdulmelik Petition intiator

David Kimaiyo, the inspector general of police, was not present to receive it, but sent a representative on his behalf, she says.

The girl, referred to as Liz to protect her identity, was attacked and repeatedly raped after returning from a grandfather's funeral in the village of Busia in western Kenya.

Her unconscious body was thrown into a pit latrine and she is now in a wheelchair.

She had recognised her attackers and afterwards identified them to the police, who chose not to officially prosecute them.

Instead they were ordered them to cut grass around a police station in Busia, near Lake Victoria.

This spurred some journalists and activists to use social media to raise awareness of the case, using the hashtag #Justice4Liz.

An online petition was then set up by activist Nebila Abdulmelik on the Avaaz petition hosting website, which started to gain international attention.

"It's incredible that more one million people have backed the campaign calling for action on the rape of Liz," she said in statement released by Avaaz.

"Rather than deleting tweets, Inspector Kimaiyo has to take action in what has been a shameful response by Kenya's police.

"The men that raped Liz must be arrested and the police officers who let them walk free must be held to account - this case has to be the moment when the culture of violence and impunity ends."

Our reporter says the protesters carried placards - some reading "Justice for Liz" and "One in three of us will be violated in our lifetime" - which they left outside the police headquarters.

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Syria chemical equipment destroyed

31 October 2013 Last updated at 08:08 ET

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Jerry Smith, OPCW: "We have personally observed all of the destruction activities"

Syria's declared equipment for producing, mixing and filling chemical weapons has been destroyed, the international watchdog says.

This comes a day before the deadline set by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The weapons have been placed under seal, an OPCW spokesman said.

Inspectors were sent to Syria following allegations, denied by the government, that its forces had used chemical weapons in civilian areas.

The inspections were agreed between Russia and the US after Washington threatened to use force in Syria.

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Analysis

The achievement of this crucial initial target is an important moment for the chemical weapons destruction effort in Syria.

The inspectors' first task was to move swiftly to prevent the government from producing any more chemical agent and to destroy facilities and equipment used for mixing agents and filling munitions.

Production facilities will be closely monitored to ensure that there are no moves to repair them. The next deadline is mid-November, by which time the OPCW and the Syrians must agree a detailed plan to destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.

All sorts of questions are raised. Where will this destruction be carried out ? Who will provide the necessary equipment and so on?

Western intelligence agencies will be studying Syria's declarations carefully. They will be eager to direct inspectors to additional locations if there are any grounds to believe that Damascus has been less than frank in its disclosures.

Arsenal

Now that the equipment has been put beyond use, Syria has until mid-2014 to destroy the chemical weapons themselves.

Its arsenal is believed to include more than 1,000 tonnes of the nerve gas sarin, the blister agent sulphur mustard and other banned chemicals, stored at dozens of sites.

In a separate development, a large explosion at a Syrian army base has been reported outside the coastal city of Latakia.

Local media say the base was targeted by Israeli forces but this has not been confirmed.

Israel is believed to have targeted the same base in July and is concerned that some weapons in Syria are being moved to Hezbollah militants in neighbouring Lebanon.

OPCW head of field operations Jerry Smith told the BBC that his team had "personally observed all the destruction activities".

"They are not now in a position to conduct any further production or mixing of chemical weapons," he said.

In a statement, the OPCW said its teams had inspected 21 of the 23 chemical weapons sites in Syria.

The other two were too dangerous to visit but the equipment had already been moved to some of the other sites, it said.

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Syria's chemical weapons

• Syria believed to possess more than 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents and pre-cursor chemicals, including blister agent, sulphur mustard, and sarin nerve agent; also thought to have produced most potent nerve agent, VX
• US believes Syria's arsenal can be "delivered by aircraft, ballistic missile, and artillery rockets"
• Syria acceded to Chemical Weapons Convention on 14 September; it signed Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in 1972 but never ratified

Mr Smith said that verifying the destruction of Syria's weapons production capability had been a "particularly challenging job" because it had to be done in the midst of a conflict, with a tight deadline.

The OPCW earlier this month won the Nobel Peace Prize but Mr Smith said his team had been too busy to celebrate because of their work in Syria.

"All stocks of chemical weapons and agents have been placed under seals that are impossible to break," OPCW spokesman Christian Chartier told the AFP news agency.

"These are 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents [which can be used to make weapons] and 290 tonnes of chemical weapons," he said.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says the OPCW's task is far from finished.

More than 1,000 tonnes of chemical precursors - the raw materials - remain to be removed and destroyed by the middle of next year, which our correspondent says will be a delicate and difficult process.

The first step is for the weapons watchdog and the Syrian government to agree a timetable for the destruction of the chemical weapons stockpile - this should be done within the next two weeks.

The US says more than 1,400 people were killed when government forces used a nerve agent to attack Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus on 21 August.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies have said rebel groups were responsible.

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Shortly after the Ghouta attack, Bridget Kendall looked at how it unfolded, mainly through extremely distressing videos posted online

The OPCW announcement comes as human rights group Amnesty International says that hundreds of Syrian refugees are being turned away at the borders of Jordan and other countries.

Jordan has denied the accusation, saying its border is open to Syrian refugees.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in the fighting that has ravaged Syria for two-and-a-half years, according to the UN.

A further two million people have fled Syria and some 4.5 million have been displaced internally.

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Egypt arrests senior Islamist leader

30 October 2013 Last updated at 04:05 ET

A fugitive senior Muslim Brotherhood leader, Essam al-Erian, has been detained by the Egyptian authorities.

Prosecutors ordered Mr Erian's arrest in July, after the military ousted President Mohammed Morsi.

The arrest is the latest move in a crackdown by the interim government against the Islamist movement.

The state-run news agency Mena reported that Mr Erian was expected to stand trial next week along with Mr Morsi and a dozen other officials.

A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman told the BBC Mr Erian was arrested early on Wednesday at an apartment in the New Cairo area and taken to an undisclosed location.

"You can't escape your destiny," Mr Erian was quoted as saying at the time.

"I am confident I will be out of prison after putting an end to the coup."

An official photo posted on the interior ministry website showed a smiling Mr Erian standing next to two packed bags.

Mr Erian is vice chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Brotherhood's political wing.

The BBC's Orla Guerin in Cairo says that before going into hiding, Mr Erian was a very public face of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Judges step down

Mr Morsi is due to stand trial on 4 November, charged with inciting murder and violence in connection with clashes outside a presidential palace in Cairo in December 2012.

The former president's supporters announced on Monday that he had rejected the court's authority.

Separately, the three presiding judges at the trial of Mohammed Badie, the Brotherhood's general guide, and his deputy, Khairat al-Shatir, stepped down on Tuesday, halting proceedings.

Judge Mohammed Fahmy al-Qarmuty said he and his colleagues were retiring from the case for "reasons of conscience".

Mr Badie was a prominent figure at the Brotherhood's protest camps in Cairo, but went into hiding as the military-backed interim government increased its efforts to end the protests. He was arrested in August.

Mr Badie and Mr Shatir face charges of inciting violence and murder over the deaths of anti-Brotherhood protesters outside the movement's headquarters in Cairo on 30 June.

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China 'captures Tiananmen suspects'

30 October 2013 Last updated at 07:00 ET

Chinese officials have captured several suspects in connection with Monday's deadly car crash in Tiananmen Square, state media report.

Police have described the incident as a "terror attack" for the first time, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Police had been looking for at least eight people, mostly from the restive Xinjiang region, earlier reports said.

The incident, in which a vehicle crashed into a crowd and burst into flames, killed five.

"The arrests were made 10 hours after the incident, which has now been identified as a terrorist attack," CCTV said on its verified microblog account.

Continue reading the main story

• 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

At least five suspects in relation to the incident have been detained, says state-run Xinhua news agency.

On Wednesday, a number of news agency reports said a police notice was being circulated among hotels in Beijing, asking information about eight suspects.

Seven have names typical of the predominantly Muslim Uighur ethnic group from the far-western region of Xinjiang and the other, although seemingly from China's majority Han ethnicity, has an address in Xinjiang, reports say.

Xinhua said that of the five people who died on Monday, three people died inside the car. The three in the vehicle include a man, his wife and his mother in law, police said on Wednesday.

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.

"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.

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Police had named two suspects

"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.

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.

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Australian loses sex injury ruling

30 October 2013 Last updated at 00:53 ET

An Australian civil servant has lost a bid for compensation for an injury incurred while she was having sex during a work trip.

The woman was injured when a light fitting fell on her and a colleague while they were having sex in a motel.

The claimant initially won compensation from government insurer Comcare.

But the High Court overruled that judgement, saying the woman's employer had not encouraged her to engage in the activity that led to the injury.

Final ruling

The woman says she suffered damage to her nose, mouth and a tooth and psychological trauma after the light fitting was pulled from its mount.

But after a lengthy legal battle, four of the High Court judges ruled against the woman, with one judge dissenting.

"When the circumstances of an injury involve the employee engaging in an activity at the time of the injury, the relevant question is: did the employer induce or encourage the employee to engage in that activity?" the court said.

"On the facts of the respondent's case, the majority held that the answer to that question was 'no'."

The woman, who has not been named, has no further right to appeal.

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India bus fire kills at least 42

30 October 2013 Last updated at 02:13 ET

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The bus was travelling from Bangalore to Hyderabad, as Sanjoy Majumder reports

At least 42 people have died after the luxury bus they were travelling in caught fire in India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh, police said.

The bus, carrying more than 50 passengers, was travelling from Bangalore city to Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh's capital, when the incident happened early on Wednesday.

Seven people, including the driver, managed to escape the blaze.

Police say a collision with a culvert ignited the fuel tank of the vehicle.

The incident happened at Kothakota in Mahbubnagar district, 140km (86 miles) from Hyderabad, when the air-conditioned Volvo luxury bus hit a culvert, police said.

"The diesel tank burst and flames erupted. Before the passengers could realise what had happened, the blaze engulfed the entire bus," residents of the village were quoted as saying by The Hindu newspaper.

Most of the passengers were sleeping when the incident took place.

Seven people, including the driver and his assistant, broke the windows of the bus and managed to flee.

Local police spokesman Venkateshwarlu told the AFP news agency that the police had arrested the driver and his assistant who "tried to run [away]" after fleeing the blaze. Three other passengers were taken to a local hospital.

In 2008, more than 60 people died in a bus fire in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

The fire started when part of a faulty axle dropped on to the road and ruptured the bus's fuel tank.

More than 130,000 people died in road accidents in India in 2011, according to the government's National Crime Records Bureau.

Correspondents say that bus crashes are common in India and often caused by poorly maintained vehicles, overloading and reckless driving.

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Spain growth ends two-year recession

30 October 2013 Last updated at 05:24 ET

Spain has seen its first quarterly economic growth since 2011, according to data from the country's National Statistics agency INE.

The country's GDP grew 0.1% in the July-to-September period, after contracting for the previous nine quarters.

Its growth confirmed last week's estimates from the Bank of Spain.

Spain was one of the countries worst hit by the global economic crisis, with street riots and soaring unemployment.

The statistics mean Spain is officially out of recession.

The INE said an increasing number of exports supported the growth, with a boost to the tourist industry from holidaymakers avoiding northern Africa and the Middle East.

Ben May, economist at Capital Economics, said the growth was encouraging and cited business surveys that suggested there "may be more to come in the near term".

Mr May said: "However, domestic demand is still contracting and against that backdrop, it's hard to see a strong and sustained recovery."

Spain's economy has been ailing since its property bubble burst in 2008.

Its banks needed government bailouts from other European countries to survive, after they were left with hundreds of billions worth of euros in bad debts.

Since then, the country has endured Europe's highest level of unemployment, at 26%. There have been huge street protests in response to government austerity cuts and thousands of businesses have gone bust.

Spain's government recently predicted the end of its recession was near, saying its reforms and cuts were paying off.

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Fears for 'trapped' Syrian civilians

30 October 2013 Last updated at 05:39 ET

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The BBC's Lyse Doucet was there to witness thousands of Syrians fleeing their home after nine months under siege

There are fears many civilians may still be trapped in a besieged suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus, despite thousands being allowed to leave.

The BBC's Lyse Doucet, who witnessed the exodus, says the government believes only rebel fighters remain in the suburb of Muadhamiya.

But she says there are unconfirmed reports thousands more civilians are too frightened to leave.

At least three Damascus suburbs have been besieged by the army for months.

'Armed groups'

The civilians who left were allowed out through an evacuation negotiated between the government and opposition fighters who control the area.

The head of operations for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society, Khaled Arksoussi, told the BBC that 1,500 to 1,800 people left Muadhamiya on Tuesday.

They were given first aid and then were taken to a shelter.

Mr Arksoussi said that the men, who were initially separated from their families, began to arrive in the shelter by 1900 local (17: 00 GMT).

It is expected families could stay for as long as a month.

Some will join relatives elsewhere, others have no other place to go.

Continue reading the main story

A tide of people fled Muadhamiya on Tuesday - some on stretchers, some crying, all showing the severe strain of a life under siege.

"We didn't see a piece of bread for nine months," one woman told me. "We were eating leaves and grass."

A little girl in a pink dress showed me her trembling hands. "We are all sick," she said, as she and her little sister clutched pieces of bread distributed by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society.

Some 20 buses were waiting at the entrance to Muadhamiya to take residents to a government shelter.

But men, young and old, were kept in a separate queue. They will now be questioned about what side they are on, and what their involvement was in the fight.

The government says all civilians have now left the besieged area, with only what it calls "terrorists" staying behind.

Kinda al-Shamamat, the Syrian minister for social affairs, said whoever stayed behind was the enemy.

She said: "Inside al-Muadhamiya there is armed groups. They are terrorists. Now we take the civilians to safe places. And then those people are not our responsibility, they are terrorists."

But our correspondent says that one activist the BBC reached by Skype said thousands of civilians were still trapped inside, too frightened to leave.

He said that, despite assurances of safe passage, many men who left were now in detention.

Our correspondent says she is unable to verify his claims, but what is clear is the siege is not over.

Supplies in Muadhamiya had been running desperately short, and residents had pleaded to be saved from starvation.

The Syrian army had previously said that rebel-held areas of Damascus such as Muadhamiya could surrender or starve.

At least two other Damascus suburbs - Yarmouk and Eastern Ghouta - have also been besieged by government forces for several months.

The situation had become so desperate that, earlier this month, Muslim clerics issued a religious ruling allowing people to eat cats, dogs and donkeys just to survive.

Those animals are usually considered unfit for human consumption in Islam.

For months, the UN and other aid agencies have been calling for urgent help, fearing the worst for the people of Muadhamiya.

"We didn't see a piece of bread for nine months," one woman told the BBC. "We were eating leaves and grass."

Meanwhile, Syria's Deputy Prime Minister, Qadri Jamil, was dismissed on Tuesday for leaving the country and acting without government permission, state media said.

Mr Jamil met US officials in Geneva over the weekend to discuss peace negotiations, according to UN and Middle East officials.

But the state news agency Sana said Mr Jamil had been dismissed by President Bashar al-Assad "because he left his centre of work without prior permission and did not follow up on his duties".

"Additionally, he undertook activities outside the nation without co-ordinating with the government," Sana said.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in the fighting that has ravaged Syria for two-and-a-half years, according to the UN.

A further two million people have fled Syria and some 4.5 million have been displaced internally.

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Iraq is hit by wave of bombings

30 October 2013 Last updated at 06:57 ET

Three separate bombings in Iraq have killed at least 20 people, officials have said.

In the deadliest attack north of Baghdad, two suicide bombers killed at least 11 military and police officers overnight on Tuesday.

Another suicide bomber drove his car into a checkpoint near the northern city of Mosul. A third hit near a policeman's car in Tikrit.

Violence in Iraq 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.

The violence is often fuelled by sectarian divisions between Shia and Sunni Muslims and much of it is blamed on al-Qaeda, who are known to target security forces and other government employees.

Since the beginning of 2013, there have been just 16 days in which there were no deaths from violence in Iraq, the most recent of which was 24 May, according to figures compiled by the AFP news agency.

AFP says that about 30 suicide bombers have managed to detonate explosives in attacks this month, while others were killed before they could do so.

The violence comes as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki departs for the US, where he will lobby for increased support for the fight against insurgents.

Experts say that the Iraqi government should pursue longer-term efforts to build trust among citizens, especially among members of the country's Sunni minority.

'Traitors'

Police say that in the attack 50km (30 miles) north of Baghdad overnight on Tuesday, two suicide bombers detonated their explosives-laden belts among a group of soldiers and militiamen who had gathered in the orchard of a local Sunni leader, killing at least 11 people.

Police told the AP news agency that the militiamen belonged to the Sahwa movement, also known as the Awakening Council, which was formed by US forces in 2007 to fight insurgents during the height of the Iraq war.

Correspondents say that ever since then it has been a target for Sunni hardliners who consider members of the movement to be traitors.

Police say that the bombers blew themselves up in sequence to maximise casualties - the first detonating his device among the group and the second at the gate of the compound as people tried to flee. At least 23 people were wounded.

In the Mosul attack 360km (225 miles) north-west of Baghdad, a suicide bomber drove his car into a checkpoint near a police station, killing three policemen and four civilians, police told AP.

When an ambulance arrived at the scene, gunmen opened fire on its crew, killing one and wounding three.

In the third attack, a roadside bomb on Wednesday exploded near a police captain's car in Tikrit, north of Baghdad, wounding him and killing a civilian, doctors said.

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Germans in US talks over spy claims

30 October 2013 Last updated at 07:55 ET

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A summary of US spying allegations brought about by Edward Snowden's leak of classified documents

A German delegation of intelligence officials is in Washington for talks at the White House on Wednesday following claims that the US monitored Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.

The chancellor's foreign policy adviser and Germany's intelligence co-ordinator will hold talks at the White House.

The head of US intelligence has defended the monitoring of foreign leaders as a key goal of operations.

The US is facing growing anger over reports it spied on its allies abroad.

It has also been reported that the National Security Agency (NSA) monitored French diplomats in Washington and at the UN, and that it conducted surveillance on millions of French and Spanish telephone calls, among other operations against US allies.

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

The measure of how seriously Chancellor Merkel takes the matter is that she has sent two of the most important people in her immediate circle of advisers: her foreign policy adviser, Christoph Heusgen, and the German government's intelligence coordinator, Guenter Heiss.

Next week, the heads of the actual spying agencies go to meet their opposite numbers in Washington.

This week's meetings are more about how to rebuild trust, while next week's agenda will be more about the detail of how the two countries' agencies might or might not work more in harmony.

The US has an agreement to share intelligence with Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Canada. It is not clear if Germany wants to be part of that.

There have been commentators in America saying that Germany is in a different position from the other countries mentioned because its future relationship with China is not clear.

On this argument, Germany's close trade links with China might make it loath to support the US in any future trans-Pacific confrontation.

However, NSA director Gen Keith Alexander said "the assertions... that NSA collected tens of millions of phone calls are completely false".

The revelations stem from documents leaked by fugitive ex-US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who now lives in Russia and is wanted in the US in connection with the unauthorised disclosures.

German media have 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.

Germany's delegation includes Christoph Heusgen, Mrs Merkel's foreign policy adviser, and Guenter Heiss, the secret service co-ordinator, NSA spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, are also expected to take part.

Ms Hayden said the meeting was part of the agreement reached between President Barack Obama and Chancellor Merkel last week to deepen US-German cooperation on intelligence matters.

'Basic tenet'

The meeting comes just hours after Mr Clapper and Gen Alexander testified before the intelligence panel of the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Continue reading the main story

How intelligence is gathered

• Accessing internet company data
• Tapping fibre optic cables
• Eavesdropping on phones
• Targeted spying

Gen Alexander said much of the data cited by non-US news outlets was actually collected by European intelligence services and later shared with the NSA.

Meanwhile, Mr Clapper told lawmakers that discerning foreign leaders' intentions was "a basic tenet of what we collect and analyse".

He said that foreign allies spy on US officials and intelligence agencies as a matter of routine.

Mr Clapper said the torrent of disclosures about American surveillance had been extremely damaging and that he anticipated more.

But he said there was no other country that had the magnitude of oversight that the US had, and that any mistakes that had been made were human or technical.

The BBC's Jonny Dymond in Washington says if anyone was expecting apologies or embarrassment from the leaders of America's intelligence community, they were in for a disappointment.

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James Clapper said knowing what foreign leaders were thinking was critical to US policymaking

The intelligence pair were not given a tough time by the committee but that sentiment is turning within Congress toward tightening up the reach of American intelligence agencies, our correspondent says.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied that Moscow used free USB memory sticks and mobile phone charging cables to spy on delegates attending the G20 Summit in St Petersburg last September.

Reports in two Italian newspapers suggested that the USB sticks and cables had bugs on them that could steal data from the delegates.

Spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the reports were an attempt to distract from the problems between European countries and the US.

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Polio outbreak in Syria confirmed

29 October 2013 Last updated at 07:35 ET

The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed 10 cases of polio in war-torn 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.

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

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in the Swiss city of Geneva says there has been speculation that foreign groups fighting in Syria may have imported it.

'Regional risk'

Continue reading the main story

• 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 million 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 polio case was reported 10 days ago, 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.

"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.

There is no known cure for Polio, 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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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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US marks Storm Sandy anniversary

29 October 2013 Last updated at 01:28 ET

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One year after Hurricane Sandy, the BBC's Laura Trevelyan went to Staten Island to check the progress of the recovery effort.

The US is marking one year since Superstorm Sandy hit the US east coast, killing at least 117 people.

Sandy was the most destructive storm in the US since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

On Monday, historical immigration landmark Ellis Island reopened for the first time since the storm flooded low-lying areas in New York City.

But many communities are still struggling to rebuild amid complaints emergency funds have failed to reach the hardest-hit.

Still suffering

As of August, just under a quarter of the $48bn (£30bn) earmarked for rebuilding had been committed to local governments, according to Reuters news agency.

Federal officials have unveiled plans for a second round of disaster relief amounting to $5bn for five states and New York City, and they pledged that the pace of spending would pick up after a slow start.

"In year one, we all agreed the aid flowed too slowly," Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, told reporters.

"The second year will be a lot better. The spigot is now open."

The BBC's Nick Bryant says the shorelines of New Jersey and New York still bear deep scars from Sandy, with empty lots where family and vacation homes used to stand, and businesses are closed down and boarded up.

Many owners are still battling to receive pay-outs from their insurance companies, while others are still waiting to find out whether they will receive compensation from the government for wrecked properties that are now uninhabitable.

"It is going to take years to rebuild," resident Aimam Youssef, who lost his home in Midland Beach, Staten Island, told the BBC.

"We should not be suffering like this after one year, we should not."

Almost two-thirds of the people who applied for federal disaster aid have not received any, our correspondent says.

In New York City, as work repairing the last subway line to be damaged by flooding continues, transit officials were offering free subway rides on Tuesday from hard-hit areas of the Rockaways and Howard Beach.

Meanwhile, homes in Oakwood Beach, Staten Island, have been bought out under a state programme that promises to turn neighbourhoods wrecked by Superstorm Sandy into perpetual green space.

Events are being held to mark the anniversary of the storm, including a state-wide prayer service in New Jersey.

At least 117 deaths have been blamed on Sandy in the US, according to officials.

The storm also killed scores of people as it swept across the Caribbean.

Millions of people were forced to flee their homes.

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Japan banks in yakuza gangster probe

29 October 2013 Last updated at 04:58 ET

Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA) will inspect three major banks, including giant Mitsubishi, over possible transactions involving yakuza organised crime gangs.

One of them, Mizuho Financial, has already admitted senior managers knew three years ago it had lent 200m yen ($2m; £1.28m) to Japanese criminal gangs, but did not take action.

An external inquiry cleared the bank of intentionally covering up the loans.

Sumitomo Mitsui is the third involved.

The yakuza gangs are not actually illegal. But like the Italian mafia or the Chinese triads, they are involved in unsavoury activities such as gambling, drugs and prostitution, as well as operating protection rackets.

Failure

On Monday, lawyers hired by Mizuho to look into the transactions said "many officials and board members were aware of, or were in a position to be aware of, the issue".

But the lawyers' report also said that Mizuho failed to recognise it as a problem, believing that the compliance division "was taking care of it".

The company said 54 former and current executives would be punished, including Mizuho bank chairman, Takashi Tsukamoto, who is resigning his position but will remain as head of the parent company.

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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.

Continue reading the main story

• 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 07:25 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.

Continue reading the main story

Intelligence officials testifying

Officials appearing before the House of Representatives intelligence committee on 29 Oct:

• James Clapper, director of National Intelligence
• James Cole, deputy attorney general, US justice department
• Gen Keith Alexander, director of National Security Agency (NSA)
• Chris Inglis, deputy director of the NSA

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.

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.

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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

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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Anti-Mandela plotters sentenced

29 October 2013 Last updated at 08:00 ET

The ringleader of a white supremacist plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela and drive black people out of South Africa has been sentenced to 35 years in jail, the national broadcaster has reported.

Former university lecturer Mike du Toit was convicted last year of treason for his leadership role in the plot, after a trial lasting nine years.

He led the Boeremag, a militia of white supremacist loyalists.

In 2002 it attempted to overthrow the governing African National Congress.

Twenty other Boeremag members convicted of high treason were given jail terms of between five and 35 years in the court in Pretoria.

In July 2012 du Toit, a former academic, was convicted for being behind nine bombings in Johannesburg's Soweto township in 2002, killing one person.

He was also found guilty of authoring a blueprint for revolution intended to evict black people from most of South Africa and establish a racially "pure" nation by killing anyone who got in the way.

Du Toit was the first person to be convicted of treason in South Africa since white minority rule ended in 1994.

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison under apartheid before being elected president in 1994, and acted as a unifying force after decades of white-minority rule.

Analysts say that while race relations in South Africa are still an issue, white extremist groups like Boeremag - which means Afrikaner Power in Afrikaans - have very little support.

There were gasps of disbelief from the families of those convicted - some relatives started sobbing when the judge handed down the sentences, media reports said.

Nearly 200 people gave evidence for the state - including police informants within Boeremag.

Two of du Toit's co-conspirators, Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws - who both reportedly escaped from custody and were rearrested - were given longer sentences for their roles in planting bombs and plotting to kill Mr Mandela, local media reported.

Judge Eben Jordaan took into consideration that almost half of the accused have spent up to 11 years in jail, which means some of them were able to walk out of court on Tuesday as free men.

Correspondents say that there is hope that the sentences have brought an end to one of the longest-running and most expensive trials in South African legal history, even though there is a possibility that some will appeal.

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Bosphorus tunnel to join continents

29 October 2013 Last updated at 08:01 ET

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The tunnel in Istanbul will link the Asian and European shores of the city

A railway tunnel underneath the Bosphorus Strait is due to open in Turkey, creating a new link between the Asian and European shores of Istanbul.

The tunnel is the world's first connecting two continents, and is designed to withstand earthquakes.

It is being opened on the 90th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for years championed the undersea engineering project, first conceived by an Ottoman sultan in 1860.

Work began in 2004 but archaeological excavations delayed construction.

The underwater section runs for 0.8 miles (1.4 km), but in total the tunnel is 8.5 miles (13.6 km) long. It is scheduled to be inaugurated at 13:00 GMT.

Japan invested $1bn of the $4bn (£3.4bn) total cost of the project, named Marmaray, which is a conflation of the nearby Sea of Marmara with "ray", the Turkish word for rail.

'Pharaonic'

The BBC's James Reynolds in Istanbul says the Turkish government hopes the new route under the Bosphorus will eventually develop into an important trading route.

In theory it brings closer the day when it will be possible to travel from London to Beijing via Istanbul by train.

The Marmaray project will upgrade existing suburban train lines to create a direct link joining the southern part of the city across the Bosphorus Strait.

Istanbul is one of the world's biggest cities, with about 16 million people. Some two million, according to the AFP news agency, cross the Bosphorus every day via just two bridges, causing severe traffic congestion.

The rail service will be capable of carrying 75,000 people per hour in either direction.

"While creating a transport axis between the east and west points of the city, I believe it will soothe the problem" of congestion, said Istanbul's mayor Kadir Topbas.

But critics of Prime Minister Erdogan have seen the tunnel as one of his grandiose construction projects for the city where he used to be mayor.

Detractors of his proposals, including a third airport, a parallel canal, a third bridge over the Bosphorus and a second tunnel, for cars, south of Marmaray, say they illustrate Mr Erdogan's "pharaonic" ambitions.

Authorities came under fire earlier this year when protesters opposed plans to redevelop a park in Istanbul. Widespread violence between anti-government demonstrators and security forces ensued.

The rail tunnel will not be fully operational after its official opening on Tuesday, AFP reports.

"The part that is in service is very limited. All that has been delayed until much later," said Tayfun Kahraman, president of the Istanbul Chamber of Urban Planners.

"We are wondering why this inauguration is happening so soon."

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be present at the official opening in recognition of the Bank of Japan's status as the project's principal financial backer.

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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.

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"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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Karzai to meet Pakistan PM in UK

28 October 2013 Last updated at 06:43 ET

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It is hoped that the meeting will improve relations, says the BBC's David Loyn

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is beginning a five-day visit to the UK, during which he will hold talks with his Pakistan counterpart, Nawaz Sharif.

Britain will chair the meeting, which aims to improve troubled relations between the two Asian countries.

Correspondents say the UK government will be seeking assurances from Mr Karzai about stability ahead of the election in Afghanistan in April.

Mr Karzai must step down next year after serving two terms.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron began engineering the three-way meeting in July last year when he was in Kabul at the same time as the Pakistani president.

Jump-starting talks

Afghanistan believes that Taliban safe havens in Pakistan are the main cause of increased violence in the country.

Elements of Pakistan's intelligence service have long been accused of backing the Afghan Taliban and giving them refuge on Pakistani soil - something Islamabad strongly denies.

Mr Karzai has said he wants the Pakistani government "to facilitate peace talks" with the Taliban, over whom - he says - Pakistan has a high degree of influence.

One of Mr Karzai's main demands has been the release of high-profile Taliban prisoners held in Pakistan in the hope that this will help jump-start direct talks with insurgents.

Afghanistan wants to know the whereabouts of the former Taliban military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

It believes he could open the way to peace talks, says the BBC's David Loyn in Kabul.

Pakistan said he had been released from custody last month, but he has not been seen in public.

On Sunday, Mr Karzai's spokesman said Afghanistan believes that the new Pakistani leader Nawaz Sharif has "good intentions" for co-operation.

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David Bowie leads Lou Reed tributes

28 October 2013 Last updated at 06:11 ET

Rock legend David Bowie has led the tributes to US singer and former Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed, who died on Sunday aged 71.

Bowie's Facebook page said of his "old friend", considered one of the most influential singers and songwriters in rock: "He was a master."

Reed's second solo album Transformer, featuring Perfect Day and Walk on the Wild Side, was co-produced by Bowie.

Reed's literary agent said he died of a "liver-related ailment".

The last tweet posted on his official Twitter account, hours before the news of his death, simply stated: "The Door". The tweet links through to a photograph of a door, with a poster of Reed on it and the words "Papa Loves Baby" scrawled underneath.

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Reed's former Velvet Underground bandmate John Cale wrote on his website: "The world has lost a fine songwriter and poet… I've lost my 'school-yard buddy.'"

Other stars paying tribute included The Who, who tweeted: "RIP Lou Reed. Walk on the peaceful side." Iggy Pop said it was "devastating news".

An admitted hard drinker and drug user for many years, Reed had a liver transplant this May after suffering liver failure.

"I am a triumph of modern medicine," Reed posted on his website on 1 June.

But Reed's literary agent Andrew Wylie said the musician, who died at his home in Long Island, New York, on Sunday morning, had not been well "for a few months".

British music journalist Charles Shaar Murray told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Reed "completely changed the cultural landscape we inhabit".

He said that although Velvet Underground were "spectacularly unsuccessful", The Beatles and Bowie were "huge fans" of Reed, and that he "exercised huge influence on glam rock and punk and everything that grew out of those phenomena".

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• Born in Brooklyn in 1942
• Co-founded the rock band Velvet Underground, who influenced generations of musicians with such songs as Heroin and Sweet Jane
• Andy Warhol was the group's manager
• Reed's subsequent solo career spanned decades, and included tracks such as Walk on the Wild Side and Perfect Day
• He was a heavy drinker and drug user and developed liver problems earlier this year

Mr Murray added that Reed "did not suffer fools... or journalists gladly", adding that "he was not considered a likeable man, except by his closest friends".

He used the "deliberate withholding of charm as a weapon" and "performed to a smallish but loyal audience sufficient in number to sustain a comfortable lifestyle".

Many musicians paid homage to the influence Reed had on their own careers.

Nikki Sixx of heavy metal band Motley Crue tweeted: "RIP Lou Reed. Thank you for your beautiful/dark lyrics/music and stance on life. You inspired me from my teenage years right up till today."

US singer Cyndi Lauper added that she was grateful for "his music and the influence he had on my music".

Tom Morello, of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, said: "My intro to Lou Reed/Velvet Underground was Jane's Addiction cover of 'Rock n Roll'. He was a singular, unique talent. RIP Lou and thanks."

Reed's individuality was also hailed by Paul Stanley of Kiss, who called him "a musician, artist and trailblazer who played by his own rules".

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Lizo Mzimba looks back at the life of Lou Reed

The Velvet Underground became renowned for their fusion of art and music and for collaborating with Andy Warhol.

However, the band never achieved commercial success during their 1960s existence, but their influence on music in later decades was widely recognised.

The glam, punk and alternative rock movements of the 1970s, 80s and 90s were all indebted to Reed, whose songs were covered by the likes of REM, Bowie, Nirvana, Patti Smith and countless others.

Music producer Brian Eno once summed up their influence by saying: "The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band."

The group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

US actress Mia Farrow, whose career also began in the 1960s, simply said: "Deepest Gratitude Lou Reed. Peace. "

British author Salman Rushdie expressed his loss by tweeting: "My friend Lou Reed came to the end of his song. So very sad. But hey, Lou, you'll always take a walk on the wild side. Always a perfect day."

US actress Whoopi Goldberg, paid tribute, saying: "The great & amazing Lou Reed has died my condolences 2 his wife Laurie Anderson. Lou was 1 of a kind & this colored girl still says dededede...".

US actor Samuel L Jackson added: "R.I.P. Lou Reed. Just met at the GQ Awards. The music of my generation. Still Relevant!"

British comic and actor Ricky Gervais described Reed as was "one of the greatest artists of our time", while presenter and broadcaster Jonathan Ross said of the musician: "A great talent, a nice man, a sad day."

After quitting The Velvet Underground in 1970, Reed released his self-titled debut in 1972, but it wasn't until the Bowie-produced LP Transformer later that year that he achieved chart success.

Perfect Day enjoyed a revival in 1996 when it was featured in Danny Boyle's Trainspotting, and again a year later when it was re-recorded by a celebrity cast for a BBC charity single.

Ian Broudie from the Lightning Seeds, who sang on the single, told the BBC Reed was able to convey life in New York.

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Backing singer Casey Synge describes working with Reed on Walk on the Wild Side

"His lyrics are poetry, really. And he seemed to deal with things that no other writer seemed to really deal with in songs. The Velvet Underground would probably be dealing with drugs, sexuality, everything."

As a solo artist, he released 20 studio albums. His last, Hudson River Wind Meditations, was released in 2007.

Reed is survived by his second wife, the musician and performing artist Laurie Anderson.

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