US Admits Intelligence 'Needs Constraints'

The White House has admitted it needs to consider "constraints" on how it gathers intelligence after reports the US spied on more than 60 million phone calls in Spain and 46 million in Italy in one month alone.

Spain's El Mundo, citing documents provided by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, said the agency monitored the phone calls from December 10, 2012, until January 8, 2013.

The monitoring did not appear to track the content of calls but their duration and where they took place, according to Spanish and Italian media reports.

The new claims come a week after Le Monde reported similar allegations of US spying in France, and German magazine Der Spiegel said Washington tapped Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.

White House spokesman Jay Carney did not address the allegations directly but appeared to make an attempt to appease the European countries.

"With new capabilities, we recognise that there needs to be additional constraints on how we gather and use intelligence," he said.

The NSA allegedly listened in on Angela Merkel's phone calls

While stressing that US spies must focus "above all" on threats to the American people, his words seemed to offer some recognition to the view that US espionage activities overstepped the mark.

"We need to ensure that we are collecting information not just because we can, but because we should, because we need it for our security," Mr Carney said.

Spain's government has so far said it was not aware its citizens had been spied on by the NSA, and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said he is looking for more information.

Spain's European secretary of state and the US ambassador in Spain are scheduled to meet later.

A report in Bild am Sonntag said that Barack Obama knew three years ago that his intelligence service was eavesdropping on Ms Merkel's phone.

However, the NSA denied Mr Obama had been informed about the operation by the NSA chief in 2010, according to the Bild am Sonntag.

The US President spoke last week with the leaders of France and Germany in an effort to defuse the row.

John Kerry (L) met with Italy PM Enrico Letta (R) last week in Rome

But Ms Merkel is sending intelligence officials to Washington to seek clarification.

The row exploded months ago when revelations by Snowden exposed the scope of the US government's spying operations.

It has deepened in recent weeks when details have emerged on the alleged snooping in foreign countries and US allies.

Washington officials have defended the surveillance programmes, part of US anti-terrorism efforts.

The chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, Mike Rogers, said much of the public information on them was misguided.

"They are seeing three or four pieces of a thousand-piece puzzle and trying to come to a conclusion," he said.

Another official, Congressman Peter King, chairman of the House subcommittee on counter-terrorism and intelligence, said: "The President should stop apologising, stop being defensive."

"The reality is the NSA has saved thousands of lives, not just in the United States but also in France and Germany and throughout Europe," he said.

"We're not doing this for the fun of it.

"This is to gather valuable intelligence which helps not just us but also helps the Europeans."

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Storm Sweeps Europe After Battering Britain

Some 10 people have died in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Scandinavia after a fatal storm that struck Britain swept eastwards to northern Europe.

A Danish man was killed near Copenhagen by a collapsing wall, a woman was killed by falling trees in Amsterdam and a 47-year-old woman was found dead after being swept out to sea during a cliff walk on Belle Ile in France.

At least seven people died in Germany with falling trees killing several drivers. One man also drowned and a 66-year-old woman died when a wall collapsed on her, German media reported.

Thirteen floor high scaffolding comes down in Merksem, Antwerpen

Hurricane-strength winds cut power supplies and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights and train journeys across the continent.

Southern Sweden was hit by torrential rain, and winds up to 84mph (136kph) blew down trees, blocking roads and bringing down power lines, leaving around than 50,000 homes without electricity.

As evening fell there were no reports of injuries in Sweden but widespread reports of property damage.

An uprooted tree falls on a houseboat in Amsterdam

All passenger trains remained halted in southern Sweden until the storm passed.

Heavy winds also swept across the low-lying Netherlands, shutting down all train traffic to Amsterdam and ripping several houseboats off their moorings.

Winds of more than 93mph (150kph) were recorded on one of the islands off the northern Dutch coast.

A ferry carrying 1,000 people from Newcastle was unable to dock in the port of Ijmuiden in northern Netherlands and returned to sea, RTL television said.

Fifty flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport were cancelled and Rotterdam Port, Europe's busiest, said incoming and outgoing vessels were delayed.

In Belle Ile, an island off France's northwestern Brittany coast, high winds generated waves of five to six metres, local authorities said.

Winds topping 100kph struck the north and northwest of the country felling trees, whipping up seas and cutting power supplies to around 75,000 homes, according to the ERDF electricity distribution company.

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Tiananmen Square Car Blaze: Police Hunt Suspects

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent

Chinese police are investigating whether an incident in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in which a jeep burst into flames, killing five people, might have been an attack by Muslim separatists from the western Xinjiang province.

No official details have been released but a document, circulated online and purported to be from the Chinese police, names two suspects and claims that the authorities are searching for several vehicles, all with Xinjiang number plates.

The document is addressed to all Beijing hotels and is described as a "notice of arrangement of the immediate search of suspect vehicles".

In Chinese, it reads: "On 28 October, 2013, our city had a major case.

"The suspects are Yusupu Aiheputi (male, registered residence address 2-3-27-1 Pishan Farm, Pishan County, Xinjiang province) and Yusupu Wumaierniyazi (male, registered residence address Unit 1 Sangejiao Village, Lukeqin Town, Shanshan County, Xinjiang province).

The crash took place directly below an iconic portrait of Chairman Mao

"The suspected vehicles are light coloured Sports Utility Vehicles, number plates: XinA45559, XinA82Q53, XinC96063 and XinBM7831."

The document adds: "To prevent suspected personnel and vehicles from continuing their crime, we are now asking all accommodation providers to immediately search all guests, parking vehicles and cars driven by former guests from October 1.

"If any discovery is made of the suspects or vehicles, please report to the security team's action and management branch."

The incident in Tiananmen Square took place directly underneath the iconic portrait of Chairman Mao, which hangs on the Tiananmen Gate at the north end of the square and represents one of the most symbolic locations in China.

The 4x4 vehicle left the main highway which crosses the square and veered into a crowd of tourists queuing to visit the Forbidden City.

Tiananmen Square was open on Tuesday but was heavily policed

The three occupants of the car died inside. Two tourists - one Chinese and one Filipino - were also killed and 37 people were injured.

Initially, Chinese authorities said the incident was a car crash. The scene was cleared up quickly and the square reopened to traffic and tourists within a few hours.

Foreign journalists were asked not to film the aftermath. Sky News staff were detained for 20 minutes and forced to delete all their footage.

Government censors spent the day deleting the theories and photographs from China's increasingly vocal social media forums.

There was no mention of the incident on China's main national evening news on state television.

Chinese language newspapers have reported simply that there was an accident in Tiananmen Square, although the English language state-run newspapers have included the suggestion that there may be links to the Uighur people of Xinjiang Province.

Screens were erected to hide the scene of the crash

Almost half the population of Xinjiang province, in the China's far west, are Muslim Uighurs, who accuse the Chinese government of violently eroding their religion and their culture.

They consider themselves to be culturally and ethnically much closer to the central Asian nations than to China and claim their ethnic identity is being diluted by the co-ordinated mass migrations of Han Chinese, the country's majority ethnic group, into the province.

The Chinese central government in Beijing, more than 2,000 miles to the east, has long claimed the Uighurs are waging a campaign of violence in an effort to secure themselves an independent state.

Incidents of violent clashes between Chinese state security forces and Uighurs in Xinjiang are common.

However, the facts are extremely hard to verify independently because foreign journalists are restricted from reporting in the region.

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Tiananmen Square: Car Crashes Into Crowd

Three people have been killed and 11 others injured after a Jeep crashed into a crowd in China's Tiananmen Square.

The vehicle burst into flames after crashing through barriers

The vehicle hit a barrier at the entrance to the Forbidden City and burst into flames.

The driver and two passengers in the vehicle were killed, while tourists and police were among those hurt.

Tthe square, which was the site of pro-democracy protests in 1989 that were brutally crushed by the authorities, was evacuated immediately after the crash.

Streets leading to the area were blocked off, with screens erected to stop people photographing the scene.

Two AFP journalists were detained close to the site when they went to report on the story.

Police put up screens to stop people taking photos of the crash

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying declined to say whether the government believed it was a terror attack. She said she did not know the specifics of the case and refused to comment further.

Sky's China Correspondent Mark Stone said local reports described it as an "accident", but he said many people would find that hard to believe given the "politically-sensitive" location.

"The location of the incident couldn't be more significant. It's right underneath the portrait of Chairman Mao on the Tiananmen Gate at the entrance to the Forbidden City. It is the most symbolic location in China," he said.

"There are three likely scenarios. One: this was a car crash which, by astonishing coincidence, took place at the most politically-sensitive place in China.

Officers blocked off roads to the square

"Or it was a form of protest; possibly a political protest against the communist leadership.

"The most probable scenario, however, is that this was an extreme form of petitioning: a family with a gripe, passed over by local authorities, take things to the extreme.

"We saw this with the airport bomber - a man who blew himself up at Beijing airport earlier this year to complain about police brutality in his province."

Two hours after the incident, Sky News drove through the square to film the aftermath.

"With the exception of a wet patch on the road, the whole area had been cleared up," Stone said.

"But in an indication of how sensitive the incident is, the Sky News vehicle was stopped by the authorities. They questioned the Sky team for 20 minutes and forced them to delete the video footage.

The square was the focus of a 1989 protest that was violently suppressed

Tiananmen Square is heavily policed to guard against political protests as occasionally happens on sensitive dates.

News of the incident first emerged on Chinese social media sites, with pictures showing the flaming wreck surrounded by police and emergency vehicles.

Chinese bloggers are speculating that the crash must have been intentional.

"Is this the 2013 Tiananmen self-immolation incident?" asked one poster. "There's still a person inside the car!"

Around 120 people have set themselves alight since February 2009 in Tibet and adjoining regions of China, in protests against Chinese oppression.

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Obama 'Aware Of Merkel Tapping Since 2010'

A German newspaper has claimed Barack Obama knew three years ago that his intelligence service was eavesdropping on Angela Merkel - contradicting reports that he had told his counterpart he did not know.

Bild am Sonntag claimed the US President allowed US intelligence to continue listening to the German Chancellor's calls, after being briefed on the operation by the National Security Agency in 2010.

It also alleged that Mr Obama personally authorised the monitoring of Mrs Merkel's mobile phone.

Germany received information last week that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had bugged Mrs Merkel's phone, prompting Berlin to summon the US ambassador - a move unprecedented in post-war relations between the close allies.

The NSA denied Mr Obama had been informed about the operation by the NSA chief in 2010, as reported by the newspaper, but the agency did not comment on whether Mr Obama knew about the bugging of Mrs Merkel's phone.

Both the White House and the German government declined to comment.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the NSA ended the programme that involved Mrs Merkel after the operation was uncovered in an Obama administration review that began this summer.

The programme also involved as many as 35 other world leaders, some of whom were still being monitored, according to the WSJ report, which was attributed to US officials.

Activists in Washington DC staged a weekend protest over the NSA's tactics

Citing a source in Mrs Merkel's office, some German media have reported that Mr Obama apologised to the Chancellor when she called him on Wednesday, and told her that he would have stopped the bugging happening had he known about it.

But Bild am Sonntag, citing a "US intelligence worker involved in the NSA operation against Merkel", said NSA chief General Keith Alexander informed Mr Obama in person about the matter in 2010.

"Obama didn't stop the operation back then, but let it continue," the newspaper quoted the source as saying.

The NSA said, however, that Gen Alexander had never discussed any intelligence operations involving Mrs Merkel with Mr Obama.

"Alexander did not discuss with President Obama in 2010 an alleged foreign intelligence operation involving German Chancellor Merkel, nor has he ever discussed alleged operations involving Chancellor Merkel," said NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines.

"News reports claiming otherwise are not true."

On Sunday, another German media publication, Der Spiegel magazine, claimed the US may have bugged Mrs Merkel's phone for more than 10 years.

It said the Chancellor's mobile had been listed by the NSA's Special Collection Service since 2002 and had still been on the list weeks before Mr Obama visited Berlin in June.

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Michael Jackson's Doctor Released From Jail

Conrad Murray has been released from jail two years after being convicted of causing Michael Jackson's death.

Murray, 60, left a downtown Los Angeles jail shortly after midnight local time, the sheriff's office said.

The physician was convicted in 2011 of involuntary manslaughter for Jackson's death in June 2009.

The pop superstar died after receiving a lethal dose of the anaesthetic Propofol, which Murray was giving Jackson as a sleep aid.

The doctor was sentenced to a four-year term, but a change in California law allowed his incarceration time to be significantly cut down.

The change is designed to alleviate chronic overcrowding in the state's prison system.

News of Conrad Murray's early release will likely upset the star's fans

Murray's medical licences have been suspended or revoked in three states where he had previously practised medicine.

In recent weeks, it has been reported that Murray is seeking to hire a publicist and also have his medical licences reinstated.

News of his release is likely to upset Jackson's family and the star's multitude of fans around the world.

Murray has denied that he was responsible for Jackson's death, saying he was trying to wean the singer off the drug.

He is currently appealing his conviction and his lawyer has fielded numerous big-money offers for his first post-jail television interview.

Last month the jury in a civil court case ruled that Murray had not been unfit for the job of looking after Jackson.

The jury dismissed a claim by the Jackson family that concert promoter AEG Live was negligent in hiring the doctor.

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Al Qaeda-Linked Syrian Rebel Leader 'Killed'

The leader of the powerful Syrian rebel group the al Nusra Front has been killed, according to Syrian state-run TV.

According to the one-line report, Abu Mohammad al Golani was killed in the coastal province of Latakia.

It did not say when or give further details.

However the rebel group said in a statement on Saturday that its leader was in good health.

"What was claimed by one channel alone, regarding what it claimed was the killing of the emir of al Nusra Front, was a lie," said the group.

The extremist front has become one of the most effective among the rebel groups fighting President Bashar Assad's forces.

The al Nusra Front played a key part in the Battle of Aleppo

However, it has links to al Qaeda and is classed by the US, the UK and the UN as a terrorist organisation.

If al Golani's death is confirmed it will be a significant blow to rebels, who consider the group to be the "special forces" of the battle against the regime.

The group, whose goal is to overthrow Mr Assad and establish an Islamist state under Sharia law, announced its creation in January 2012 and were key players in the Battle of Aleppo.

But they have an uneasy alliance with the National Coalition for Opposition Forces and many rebel groups consider them to be too extreme.

Al Nusra is opposed to western intervention in the nearly three-year-long Syrian civil war and many members consider the US to be an enemy of Islam.

The news of al Golani's death came as a car bomb outside a mosque in Damascus killed at least 40, including seven children.

Dozens of people were wounded in the car bombing in the rebel-controlled town of Suq Wadi Barada, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Anti-regime activists blamed the attack on government forces, while state news agency SANA said "the car exploded while the terrorists were packing it with explosives".

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Merkel's Phone 'Bugged For Decade By US'

The United States may have bugged Angela Merkel's phone for more than 10 years, it has been claimed.

Der Spiegel magazine said the German chancellor's mobile telephone had been listed by the NSA's Special Collection Service (SCS) since 2002 and was still on the list weeks before Barack Obama visited Berlin in June.

Germany's outrage over reports of bugging of Ms Merkel's phone by the NSA prompted it to summon the US ambassador for the first time in living memory.

In an SCS document cited by Der Spiegel, the agency said it had a "not legally registered spying branch" in the US embassy in Berlin, the exposure of which would lead to "grave damage for the relations of the United States to another government".

Mr Obama met with Ms Merkel in Berlin earlier this year

From there, NSA and CIA staff were tapping communication in the Berlin's government district with high-tech surveillance.

Quoting a secret document from 2010, Der Spiegel said such branches existed in about 80 locations around the world, including Paris, Madrid, Rome, Prague, Geneva and Frankfurt.

The magazine said it was not clear whether the SCS had recorded conversations or just connection data.

Mr Obama apologised to Merkel when she called him on Wednesday to seek clarification on the issue, Der Spiegel wrote, citing a source in Ms Merkel's office.

Ms Merkel's spokesman and the White House declined comment.

The rift over US surveillance activities first emerged earlier this year after reports that Washington had bugged European Union offices and had tapped half a billion phone calls, emails and text messages in Germany in a typical month.

But it appeared close to resolution after Ms Merkel's government said in August - just weeks before a parliamentary election - the United States had given sufficient assurances they were upholding German law.

Mr Obama ordered a review of US surveillance programmes after former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents that raised alarm in the United States and abroad.

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Brooklyn Stabbings: Five Dead Including A Baby

Five people - including a baby - have been stabbed to death at a house in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

New York Police Department said on Sunday that the ages of the victims ranged from one to 20.

Police did not immediately disclose the gender of the victims, or their relationships to one another.

Authorities were alerted to a stabbing at a home on 57th Street near Ninth Avenue at around 11pm on Saturday.

New York Fire Department spokesman Jim Long said emergency crews found three people dead at the scene.

Two others were taken to hospitals - one to the Lutheran Medical Centre and another to Maimonides Medical Centre - where they were pronounced dead.

Police provided no further details and would not say if anyone was in custody.

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US Spy Agency Site Crashes Amid Attack Claims

The website for America's National Security Agency has gone down, fuelling speculation that it might have been attacked by hackers.

The public-facing site for the intelligence agency, which has been under fire after whistleblower Edward Snowden released secret documents about it, suddenly went down on Friday afternoon - and is still unavailable.

Several Twitter accounts that purportedly belong to people loosely associated with the hacking movement Anonymous have suggested they are responsible, but the claims are unverified.

An NSA spokesperson denied the claims, saying they were "not true."

"NSA.gov was not accessible for several hours tonight because of an internal error that occurred during a scheduled update. The issue will be resolved this evening," the spokesperson said.

"Claims that the outage was caused by a distributed denial of service attack are not true."

Twitter users @AnonymousOwn3r and @TruthIzSexy implied that a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack - a method of over-loading a website with too much traffic - may have been waged as an act of protest against the NSA.

Other Anonymous-affiliated accounts referred to the website crash.

Tweets from AnonyOps read: "Aww don't panic about http://nsa.gov being down. They have a backup copy of the internet.

"The #NSA is lawless and believes rules don't apply to them. Time for a total reboot."

An0nPun1shm3nt wrote: "Dear National Security Agency #NSA, Lesson #1 : If you spy on us, we are coming for you!"

The outage comes a day after former NSA director Michael Hayden was overheard speaking in an off-the-record conversation with a journalist, allegedly criticising the Obama administration over recent revelations leaked by Mr Snowden that the NSA had monitored the phone calls of at least 35 world leaders.

But Mr Hayden later told the Washington Post that he had not been disparaging about Mr Obama or his administration.

He said: "I didn't criticise the President. I actually said these are very difficult issues. I said I had political guidance, too, that limited the things that I did when I was director of the NSA. Now that political guidance (for current officials) is going to be more robust. It wasn't a criticism."

Meanwhile, a rally to protest the NSA's surveillance programmes is due to take place in Washington DC later today.

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