29/10/2013 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today. America's spy chiefs in the

spotlight. US Congressmen demand answers over allegations they spied

on friendly nations. Nothing that has been released has shown that we

are trying to do something illegal. Or unprofessional. When we find a

mistake, a compliance issue, we reported.

-- we report it. Polio is back in Syria. The United

Nations confirms ten cases among children, and warns the outbreak

could spread. The desperate attempt to flee after

months under siege, we have an exclusive report from inside Syria.

Also coming up: Was this a political attack on China? Police say they are

searching for two suspects, after a car crashed into a crowd in

Tiananmen Square. And connecting two continents, a new

underwater rail tunnel linking Europe to Asia is open for business,

150 years after it was first proposed.

Hello, welcome to the programme In the past hour, US intelligence

chiefs have faced Congress to answer questions on allegations of mass

surveillance and spying on foreign leaders. At the hearing, the US

National Intelligence Director began by defending the way his staff

operate, and expects more damaging leaks and allegations to come.

The unauthorised disclosure of the details of these programmes has been

extremely damaging. These exclude -- these disclosures of ripping our

ability to conduct intelligence and keep the country safe. We cannot

raise or make up for the damage we know has already been done and we

anticipate more as we continue our assessment, and a small revelations

emerge. The head of the NSA went on to say

he will continue to take what he calls public beatings if it can

better safeguard the US against possible terrorist attacks.

It is much more important for this country that we defend this nation

and take the beatings than it is to give up a programme that would

result in this nation being attacked. We would rather be here in

front of you today telling you why we defended these programmes than

having given them up and have our nation or our allies be attacked and

people killed. The interesting part is that we have shown we can do

both. Defend the country and protect our civil butties and privacy.

Johnny Dymond joins us now in Washington. US intelligence chiefs

defending their record, no laws were broken, they say. No laws were

broken and the characterisation of their agencies, they say, deemed as

incompetent, inaccurate and misleading, sometimes all three

They are pushing back against these stories and disclosures. This is an

attempt to restore the image of the agencies which have been badly

battered over the last few weeks, but there is also substance. The

director of national intelligence was asked about finding out about

the intentions of foreign leaders and if that was important, he said

that was what he went in 1963. Do our allies do that to us? He was

asked. Absolutely, he said. Confirming that everybody listens

into everybody else. We played that clip of General Alexander talking

about him preferring to take a beating and keep the policy -- and

keep the policy going, he is not taking a beating from Congress.

Are you surprised at that? It had felt in the past couple of days that

the atmosphere was changing in Congress from one of defensiveness

of the intelligence agencies to one saying, this is not on.

I am a bit surprised. Things are changing, as more junior members of

the committee pitch in. I thought it would be tougher. The meat of this

will not be in the committee itself but in the legislation Congress is

bringing forward. It looks clear legislation restricting the powers

of the NSA will come forward and may pass through Congress.

Thank you for joining us in Washington.

Constanze Stelzenmueller is Senior Transatlantic Fellow with the German

Marshall Fund. She joins me now from Brussels. In Germany, this NSA

affair is dominating the your airwaves. It is the talk of the town

and in political circles. Not a day goes by it is not at the

top of the news, on the radio, in the newspapers, and you go to dinner

parties, particularly in parties with Americans and diplomats, and

everybody talks about it. It is embarrassing, the German

chancellor was seen as being a friend of President Obama, he was

visiting in the summer and they were standing side-by-side in Berlin and

her phone was tapped for ten years. Apart from expressions of public

outrage, what can Germany and Europe realistically expect from the US and

its intelligence agencies now? The joke was in that speech which I

attended in June, President Obama promised America would listen more

to its allies. I do not think that was what was understood by his

listeners and the Chancellor. Jokes aside, there are several problems.

There is a breach of trust. You can save the Chancellor should not have

been using an unencrypted phone I gather they converse. On another

level, there is an unspoken rule leaders do not listen to each other,

they talk on the phone and talk directly, they do not have each

other tapped. There is a bigger problem. The American intelligence

agencies clearly do not have enough supervision and control, that needs

to change, that is a policy problem. Beyond that, there is clearly a

phenomenon that everybody and probably European countries to a

degree seduced by the technology. -- seduced. There is a risk agencies

will do what they can if they are not stopped. And in increasingly

chaotic politics, in a world of crisis management, it is difficult

for leaders and for political setups to stop that. We need to figure that

out. Very briefly, could you tell others

realistically again, what can European leaders expect from the

United States? There is a question about what President Obama knew or

did not know about the tapping, but countries will look after their own

interests. And when it comes to technology, America can do this

better than most. The Americans and the British have

an agreement to not tap each other, I hope that is respected, you never

know. The Germans have been asking for a similar agreement for years

and have not got it, they are asking more firmly for that now and that

will be a place to start. If the President does not know what his

agencies are doing, I suggest he should start finding out.

Thank you for joining us. In Syria, thousands of civilians

have been fleeing a suburb of the capital, Damascus, which had been

under siege by government forces for months. Opposition fighters say the

government tried to starve the people there into submission. Our

chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet, has sent this exclusive

report from Moadamiyeh. A tide of people took to this road

today, fleeing homes where they have lived under siege for nine months.

Some now too weak to walk. They are all exhausted by their ordeal.

Syrian troops sealed off Moadamiyeh Web rebel fighters had taken

control, telling them, surrender or starve -- were rebel fighters.

Civilians paid the price. Thank God we are out. Look, my body

is shaking, there was no food, we had to eat grass, they would not let

others eat. These are the last of the civilians

trapped inside Moadamiyeh since March. Only a couple of thousand

could escape and nothing was getting in, no medical supplies of food One

Syrian said you could not even get a piece of bad inside Moadamiyeh. Less

than -- a piece of red. Less than ten miles away, children

died from starvation. Residents sent out messages begging the world to

help, aid agencies asked for urgent access. The government finally

agreed. Civilians could leave, they say this is the enemy.

They are terrorists. Now we take civilians to safe places. Then those

people are not their responsibility.

Women, children leak less children, the elderly, were taken to a

Shelter, men were separated from their families to be questioned

about their involvement. In the home they left behind, the

battle will now intensify. Syria's civil war has of course had

a calamitous affect on the people of Syria. All too often, the victims

are children. Today, the United Nations has confirmed ten cases of

polio in the North of the country. It is a disease eradicated in Syria

14 years ago. But polio is highly infectious. Refugees fleeing the

violence of Syria's civil war typically live in cramped,

overcrowded and unhygienic conditions. Aid agencies are warning

of a potential polio epidemic. Polio is a highly infectious

disease, mainly affecting children under five years old.

According to the World Health Organisation, only three countries,

Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan, remain polio-endemic.

Before the Syrian war began in 011, 95% of children were vaccinated

against polio. Now, half a million children have not been immunised.

There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented.

With me is Francesco Chicchi. He is the Senior Health Adviser and polio

specialist with Save the Children. This is very worrying for Syria and

the region, how come polio has come back? Since the outbreak of the

conflict, you have a large group of newborn children in Syria who have

not received routine vaccines including polio. Much of what

happened was fairly predict the ball, it reached a tipping point

where conditions are now favourable for the transmission of this disease

because of the low number of children vaccinated. And there is a

lot of movement, people internally displaced and leaving Syria to these

overcrowded refugee camps. We are hearing of ten confirmed cases

today, what numbers are we expecting or fearing? Exactly, cases that are

clinically visible only a small minority of the people affected by

the disease and a number of people will not have symptoms at will be

carrying the disease. The fact there is so much displacement in Syria and

outside doubles the threat in many ways occurs -- because we hope very

much what we are seeing is isolated, at the danger is it spread

across Syria -- but the danger. That is why humanitarian groups are

saying there has to be a cease-fire so that younger children can be

immunised against polio as they were before the outbreak. You have

managed that in other complex, in Sudan, in Afghanistan, how realistic

is this this might happen now in Syria? There is a very strong

precedent and that is why we have put this forward. You have in

countries such as Afghanistan, conditions were just as difficult,

where the so-called days of tranquillity were respected. In the

case of Afghanistan, ten years ago, this enabled the vaccination of

about 6 million children in about two weeks. So there is a precedent

and we should try it in this case. When we talk about an immunisation

cease-fire, it sounds very clinical, but we are talking about chaotic

conditions on the ground that change from day to day and as far as

immunisations are concerned, they need to be refrigerated to be

effective when they are given to the children, how is practically

possible for aid agencies? It is going to be very, very

difficult. We have vaccinated many thousands of children inside Syria,

and it is going to be very challenging. It has limited

conditions. I would not see that as the bottleneck. The main bottleneck

is to monetary and access. We spoke about the difficulties of providing

these immunisations, what is the likelihood, if we don't? Is that

doesn't happen in Syria? -- if that doesn't happen? If we do not carry

out a vaccination campaign, the outbreak might spread within Syria

and potentially outside Syria. Thank you.

Unconfirmed reports in China suggest a car crash and an explosion in the

heart of Beijing yesterday may have been a suicide attack. Five people

died when an SUV drove past security barriers and crashed into

pedestrians at Tiananmen Square That is a sensitive location because

it was the focus of pro-democracy protests in 1989.

First came the fiery crash, in the heart of one of the most politically

sensitive places in China. Next to and square, and just the country's

iconic portrait of its founder. Next, the questions? Who was

responsible? It has been said that the incident seemed to be a planned

suicide attack. The people inside the SUV have not been identified,

says the same source. But outside Beijing, vehicles are being stopped

at a check point. A notice related to city hotels indicate police

looking for two male suspects in connection with the episode on

Monday. The attacks come from counties like this one, for they

have witnessed clashes between ethnic minorities and security

sources. They believe that the Chinese authorities suppressed their

culture and customs. In Beijing several people hurt by the speeding

SUV are receiving treatment at a local hospital. TRANSLATION: I

thought if the car would hit us we would die White there, this man

explained. But it hit a marble railing and it did not hit us. The

car seems to appear, nobody noticed it. It suddenly came towards us I

just moved to the side and the car rushed past.

Chinese censors have been hard at work, wiping messages from Internet

forums that start any meaningful discussion about the incident on

Monday. As they scramble to connect the dots and figure out what Willie

happened in Tiananmen Square, they are not turning to the public for

help. -- what really happened. Two Kenyan soldiers have been sacked

and jailed for looting during the terror attacks on the Westgate

shopping centre last month. CCTV footage seems to show the soldiers

carrying shopping bags out of the shopping centre. A third soldier

also from the specialist combat unit is under further investigation.

A Bolshoi ballet dancer has pleaded not guilty in court in Moscow over

involvement in a shocking acid attack on the troupe's artistic

director Sergei Filin. Pavel Dmitrichenko stands accused of

masterminding the assault in January. The incident exposed bitter

behind the scenes rivalries at one of Russia's greatest cultural

institutions. There have been violent scenes in

Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, for the second night running. The

violence was in the north of the city and followed an incident at the

weekend when a teenager was shot dead by police in the north of the

city. In Moldovan dancer on the bridge of the ill-fated Costa

Concordia with the captain has admitted that she was his lover

Domnica Cemortan testified she was in a romantic relationship with the

captain and was with him when the cruise ship ran aground last year

killing more than 30 people. The captain faces multiple charges of

manslaughter and abandoning ship and denies responsibility but faces up

to 20 years in prison if convicted. A couple have been arrested in

south-west France after car mechanics and a malnourished baby

girl in the boot of the car. Staff at the carriage in the Dordogne said

they heard the moaning from the back of the vehicle which the mother

brought in for repairs. The child is thought to have been 15 months.

It is a case that officials say defies the imagination.

A garage owner detected an unpleasant smell. He looked in the

boot and there in appalling physical condition lay a one-year-old girl.

She was completely naked. On this side, there was an unbearable smell.

She was in a garbage bag in the boot of the car. Her mother had kept

secret her existence from her birth. Even the father claims that

have known. Neither her size nor her weight corresponds to her age, and

there are some psychological retardation is with medical patterns

that do not qualify with her age. The neighbours say they are

astounded. I have never seen a crib or knew about the baby or knew that

the mother was pregnant, we only saw the other children playing outside.

The child is responding to treatment in hospital. The couple have been

charged with harming the child. It is thought the mother had some deep

psychological disturbance. When the child was found in the car,

according to the mechanic, the mother was completely unfazed.

Now, a tale of a boat, bridge and a tunnel, but what is extraordinary

about this underwater tunnel in Istanbul is that it is the first to

link two continence. It was conceived in Turkey more than

150 years ago, but the new rail link under the Bosporus River was finally

inaugurated today. Actual construction took a while as well,

it started back in 2004. In total, it is 1.4 kilometres in length

underwater which makes it such an immense project. It was dog 60

metres below. It cost $4 billion to build. As you can see, the

ribbon-cutting ceremony wasn't exactly the smoothest. The Turkish

Prime Minister was among those to speak and he said that the tunnel

would bring people together and was an achievement for all of mankind,

presumably including our correspondent James Reynolds, who

was one of the first people to make the journey under the tunnel.

For decades, there has been three basic ways to get from one side of

Istanbul to the other. You could take a ferry boat like

this or you could drive across using one of the bridges. The hardest of

all chose to swim across and now, there is a fourth way to get from

one side of the other. Use the new underwater tunnel. We are in the

station and we are now on the way down towards the trains. We will be

among the first people to take the train from the Asian sides to the

European side. We are now on the train and it is making its way onto

the Bosporus River from Asia to Europe. We are one of the first

people to do this journey. The train is absolutely packed with people

wanting to be among the first. If you look at the map, it doesn't have

many stops, but it does have this patch of blue in the middle, that is

the Bosporus River. You can see underneath the tunnel that crosses

underneath. Some people here in Istanbul say they do not want beyond

this train, they are worried that it may not be able to withstand

flooding or earthquakes, but the government says nobody has anything

to worry about. This is safe, and people here seem reasonably

comfortable. That was James Reynolds reporting. A

British man has been charged with hacking into US military and

government computer systems. Carlos Burle -- Lauri Love is accused of

hacking into NASA databases from his home in Stradishall.

When the storm hit the UK yesterday, it reached gusts of up to 99 mph. It

caused major problems in Germany, and in Amsterdam, a woman was

crushed on the canal. The storm, done with the UK, moved

on to ravage Western Europe. It powered into the Danish coast and

closed the road link to Sweden. The winds here were up to 120 mph. They

ripped apart the metal scaffolding on this loading in Copenhagen. -

building. The winds sliced to Brussels. They sliced through

Amsterdam, where along the canal, it was the trees being uprooted by the

wind. A woman died when one of the trees fell on her. I cross the

Netherlands, it is estimated repairs will cost some ?70 million. There is

damage across large parts of Europe. In northern France, transport was

hit hard. Train services at airports experienced huge delays. Things are

beginning to return to normal as the wind dies down. Today, it is pretty

much the car much of the storm, but it was a big weather event. The

winds recorded from France to Scandinavia were among the strongest

winds in the last decade. In Germany, several people died, one

man and this tree fell on his car, but across Europe, most countries

were well-prepared. Warnings had been issued, and while the Keira

continues, many will feel it could have been a lot worse.

The force of the storm that swept across northern Europe ripped up

huge waves which may have helped one surfer set a world record in

Portugal. Take a look at this. This is

Brazilian surfer, Carlos Burle, who is riding what is believed to be the

biggest waves ever conquered. The exact size of these waves is yet to

be determined. But there are reports that the swells could have been 30

metres high, which would equal the world record, and making that he'd

even more remarkable, just moments before mastering is waves, he

rescued a fellow surfer who had been knocked unconscious by a giant wave.

What a day for him. The main news now, American

intelligence chiefs have started giving evidence at a congressional

hearing at guessing -- addressing snooping on foreign leaders.

That is that from us here and the rest of the team, next up, the

weather, from us, goodbye. A very unsettled outlook with more

wind and rain for all of us this week and into the weekend. The next

weather system coming off the Atlantic will bring rain in the next

few days. A cold, clear night with a touch of Frost particularly in the

suburbs and rural areas and in parts of the south of the UK. Wind and

rain coming into Northern Ireland and in too much of Scotland, Wales

and West in England during the day. Further east, we keep the brightness

with some cold weather and damages then recovering to 14 degrees read

the breeze will freshen up. -- temperatures then recovering. Some

cloud and rain coming into the south-west and with a strengthening

wind, not that comfortable. 14 degrees. Similar for Wales with