The US ambassador to Spain, who had been summoned by its EU minister, vowed to clear the “doubts” that had arisen about his country’s alleged espionage.

The minister, Inigo Mendez de Vigo, said such practices, if true, were “inappropriate and unacceptable”.

An EU delegation is to meet officials in Washington to convey their concerns.

The representatives from the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs are expected to speak to members of the US Congress and security officials to gather information about the recent allegations of US spying on European leaders and citizens.

Der Spiegel suggests the US has been spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone since 2002.

Another report says Mr Obama was told in 2010 about the surveillance and failed to stop it.

The spy row has led to the worst diplomatic crisis betweeen the two countries in living memory.

Leaked documents say a US listening unit was based in its Berlin embassy – and similar operations were replicated in 80 locations around the world.

The German interior minister has been quoted as saying such an operation, if confirmed, would be illegal.

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

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

BBC

Alain Fraitag says the former bus driver died in a secure hospital in Nancy in the early hours of Sunday.

Louis was jailed for life in 2004 for the murders of seven young women in the 1970s.

Many of the victims were mentally disabled and in care in the northern Yonne region. Some had used a bus driven by Louis.

He admitted carrying out some of the murders in 2000, but later retracted the confession.

The case against Louis was plagued with a succession of judicial problems.

In March 2002, the government punished three magistrates for failing in their duties by allowing Louis to avoid prosecution for more than 20 years. The thoroughness of the investigation was also questioned.

Many of the victims had severe learning difficulties, yet the local authorities simply recorded them as runaways. French police appeared to show little interest at the time.

Only one local gendarme pursued evidence against Louis, but the inquiries were halted and a damning report was lost until 1996.

The gendarme was then found shot dead – in what was recorded as suicide.

It was only thanks to pressure from the victims’ families that the issue was kept alive until Louis was convicted and jailed.

Amid the congressional disarray, a top ratings agency warned of a possible downgrade in US creditworthiness.

The US must raise its $16.7tn (£10.5tn) debt limit by Thursday or risk default.

Politicians, bankers and economists have warned of global economic consequences unless an agreement can be reached.

The Democratic-controlled Senate took control on Tuesday night, working on a bipartisan deal that aides said would extend the federal borrowing limit until 7 February and fund the government to mid-January.

BBC

The massive storm made landfall on Saturday, packing winds of up to 200km/h (125mph).

In 1999 a cyclone killed more than 10,000 people in Orissa.

However, authorities say they were better prepared this time.

By Saturday evening, five deaths were linked to the cyclone, four attributed to falling trees and one to a house collapse.

BBC

A former rebel group loosely allied to the government, the Revolutionaries Operations Room, said it had arrested Mr Zeidan on the orders of the prosecutor general.

The justice ministry had denied this.

The militia was one of several groups angered by a US commando raid on Libyan soil on Saturday which seized senior al-Qaeda suspect Anas al-Liby.

Many saw the raid as a breach of Libyan sovereignty amid growing pressure on the government to explain if it was involved.

The group is one of a number operating in Libya – they are nominally attached to government ministries but often act independently and, correspondents say, often have the upper hand over police and army forces.

The government has been struggling to contain these militia, who control parts of the country, two years after the revolt which overthrew Muammar Gaddafi.
Libyan PM Ali Zeidan has called for “rationality and wisdom” after being freed from the custody of militiamen.

He was abducted from a Tripoli hotel and held for several hours by armed men whose identity has yet to be confirmed.

In a cabinet meeting, the PM thanked “real revolutionaries” who took part in a security operation to free him.

The motive of the abduction is unclear but some militias had been angered by a US commando raid to capture senior al-Qaeda suspect Anas al-Liby.

Many militia groups saw the raid in Tripoli on Saturday as a breach of Libyan sovereignty and there is growing pressure on the government to explain if it was involved.

BBC

They say UN peacekeepers introduced cholera to Haiti in 2010. The disease killed more than 8,000 people and made hundreds of thousands sick.

The lawyers are demanding compensation of $100,000 (£62,000) for every person who died and $50,000 for each of those who became ill.

The UN says it has legal immunity.

Lawyers filed the suit at the US District Court in New York. They said they were left with no other option after the UN had rejected previous claims for compensation.
“The UN refused to even consider them. We then felt we had no choice but to file in a national court,” Brian Concannon, director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, which is bringing the case, told the BBC.

BBC international development correspondent Mark Doyle says investigations have pointed strongly to leaking sewage at a camp for UN soldiers from Nepal, where cholera is endemic, as the origin of the outbreak in Haiti.

No cases of the bacterial infection, which causes diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and muscle cramps, had been recorded in Haiti for a century until the outbreak in late 2010.

Then cases mounted quickly in an area near the camp.

Leading cholera expert Danielle Lantagne, who once worked for the UN, said in the past that the outbreak’s “most likely source” was the UN camp.

In February, a spokesman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the petition for compensation was “not receivable” under a 1947 convention which grants the UN immunity for its actions.

Our correspondent says the UN’s position is unlikely to change.

Apparently the “beef” was actually made from pork (which is considerably cheaper than beef) that had been treated with chemicals including paraffin wax and industrial salts to make it look like real beef.

Shanghiist reports that the factory sold more than 1,500 kilos (3,000 pounds) of the fake beef to local markets at around 25 to 33 yuan ($4 or $5) per kilo.

So far six workshops that were producing the fake beef have been discovered and shut down.

This isn’t the first instance of fake meat being sold in China. In May of this year, ‘The Guardian UK’ reported that the Chinese authorities had arrested over 900 people and seized 20,000 tonnes of illegal meat products.

The Guardian

But, speaking at the APEC forum in Indonesia, he said any impact was “momentary” and Washington’s commitment to Asia was “undiminished”.

President Barack Obama cancelled his Asia visit because of the shutdown.

The US government closed non-essential operations on Tuesday after Congress failed to agree a new budget.

Thousands of federal employees have been sent home. Some are working but not paid.

US-EU trade negotiations have also been postponed because of the crisis.

BBC

The vote was called after Silvio Berlusconi ordered ministers in his centre-right People of Freedom party (PDL) to leave the government.

But on the eve of the vote, leading PDL figures defied him, saying they would back Mr Letta.

Mr Letta has rejected the resignations of the five PDL ministers.

Berlusconi, a former prime minister, has accused Mr Letta of allowing his “political assassination through judicial means” – a reference to Berlusconi’s criminal conviction for tax fraud in August.

“Even though I understand the risks that I am taking on, I have decided to put an end to the Letta government,” Berlusconi said in a letter to the weekly magazine Tempi.

But in an apparent break with Berlusconi, his deputy and party secretary Angelino Alfano said PDL MPs should back Mr Letta in Wednesday’s confidence vote.

“I am firmly convinced that our party as a whole should vote confidence in Letta,” said Mr Alfano, who is also Italy’s interior minister.

His comments caused the Italian stock market to jump on Tuesday as investors appeared increasingly confident that the government would not fall.

Another once-loyal supporter, Carlo Giovanardi, a senator from Berlusconi’s party, said 40 PDL senators were ready to vote for the government.

“We want to remain a moderate force,” he said.

Fabrizio Cicchitto, a PDL deputy, said: “Making the government fall would be a mistake.”

Mr Cicchitto said any new government would be “hostile to the PDL” and would be a boon for Mr Letta’s centre-left Democratic Party.

On Tuesday, Mr Letta refused to accept the resignations of five ministers from the PDL, Italy’s Ansa news agency reported, citing a government source.

BBC