ACOZO.COM: October 2013

CNN.com - Top Stories

CNN.com delivers up-to-the-minute news and information on the latest top stories, weather, entertainment, politics and more.

NSA chief defends U.S. spy work
10/30/2013 6:24:49 AM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: "This is not unique to the United States," a committee chair says
NEW: Trying to determine the intentions of foreign leaders is a given, Clapper said
NEW: Media outlets misinterpreted leaked documents, the NSA chief says
"This is not information that we collected on European citizens," the NSA chief says

(CNN) -- The head of the National Security Agency denied Tuesday that the United States collected telephone and e-mail records directly from European citizens, calling reports based on leaks by Edward Snowden "completely false."

"To be perfectly clear, this is not information that we collected on European citizens. It represents information that we, and our NATO allies, have collected in defense of our countries and in support of military operations," Army Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA director, told a House committee reviewing the agency's surveillance activities.

The statement by Alexander before the House Intelligence Committee came as a number of lawmakers called for changes to the way intelligence is collected.

The hearing, billed as a discussion of potential changes to the 35-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, commonly known as FISA, follows a report by the German magazine Der Spiegel that the NSA monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone. Some reports also suggest the United States carried out surveillance on French and Spanish citizens.

It was the latest in a series of allegations that stem from disclosures given to news organizations by Snowden, the former NSA contractor who describes himself as a whistle-blower.

Rocky relations

The allegations have rocked U.S.-European relations with a number of countries calling for investigations. Germany has threatened to cut off the ability of the United States to track bank transfers associated with terror groups.

As the nation's spy chiefs testified, two ranking lawmakers from opposing parties introduced bills that call for greater transparency and oversight of the NSA's surveillance programs.

But during the hearing, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said collecting foreign intelligence was important to protecting Americans and allies from terrorism.

"Every nation collects foreign intelligence. That is not unique to the United States," said Rogers, R-Michigan. "What is unique to the United States is our level of oversight, our commitment to privacy protections, and our checks and balances on intelligence collection."

Alexander said media outlets misinterpreted documents that were leaked. He said the NSA legally collected metadata from some phone calls, and the rest of the metadata came from U.S. allies.

He said European intelligence services collected phone records in war zones and other areas outside their borders and shared them with the NSA.

Alexander vigorously defended the agency's intelligence gathering activities, saying it has saved lives "not only here but in Europe and around the world."

'Fundamental given'

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that trying to determine the intentions of foreign leaders -- by getting close to them or getting their communications -- is a "fundamental given" among intelligence services, and one of the first things he learned in his 50-year intelligence career.

Asked by Rogers if he believes U.S. allies conducted espionage activities against U.S. leaders, Clapper said, "Absolutely."

Snowden's revelations about U.S. intelligence-gathering activities have been "extremely damaging," Clapper said.

But, he added, the activities themselves have been lawful, and "rigorous oversight" has been effective.

Top senator: Obama didn't know of U.S. spying on Germany's leader

Even so, Clapper admitted there have been mistakes.

"We do not spy on anyone except for valid foreign intelligence purposes and we only work within the law. Now, to be sure, on occasion, we've made mistakes -- some quite significant," Clapper said.

"But these are usually caused by human error or technical problems and, whenever we have found mistakes, we've reported, addressed and corrected them."

But it is those mistakes that have prompted calls for reform, including from a ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.

FISA "must be reformed" to improve transparency about and restore the public's confidence in the United States' intelligence gathering activities, Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Maryland, said.

"We must improve transparency, privacy protections and thereby restore the public's confidence."

Yet, the reforms must preserve the intelligence community's abilities to help protect the nation, he said.

Ruppersberger said authorities were considering a proposal to require a declassification review of any FISA Court decision order or opinion "to improve transparency without threatening sources and methods."

The FISA Court grants or refuses surveillance rights requests from U.S. government agencies.

Meanwhile, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, and Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, introduced legislation to limit the NSA's collection and analysis of cell phone calls and emails.

It was an about-face for the two men, who were the leading authors of the Patriot Act in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Reporting mistakes

Alexander, the NSA director, said that of the billions of records of personal data collected last year by the agency, just 288 of them were reviewed.

And technical safeguards exist to ensure that the data are not available to non-authorized personnel, he said.

Only 22 people at NSA are authorized to look at certain phone numbers, he said, and about 30 are authorized to look into the database that contains those numbers.

Referring to the unauthorized release of documents about the NSA's activities, he said, "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 report it to this committee, to all our overseers, and we correct it."

Opinion: Does Obama still have faith in Government?

In his testimony Tuesday, Clapper noted that he had ordered the declassification of a series of documents in recent months to inform the public debate on the matter, and would continue to do so.

"These documents let our citizens see the seriousness, the thoughtfulness and the rigor with which the FISA court exercises its responsibilities," he said, adding that the NSA comprises "honorable people."

Though changes must be made, he urged lawmakers to "remain mindful of the potential long-term impact of overcorrecting."

Most of the documents released by Clapper date to 2009, when the administration was pushing lawmakers to reauthorize sections of the Patriot Act that were set to expire.

Most of the newly declassified documents describe the aggressive push by the NSA, FBI and the Justice Department for lawmakers to save the bulk telephone data collection effort, known as the 215 program, because it was important for their efforts to thwart terrorist threats.

NSA spying claims: Five things you need to know

The collection of mobile phone data, or metadata -- including numbers called and date, time and length of calls -- began in 2006 and matched the NSA's collection of land line telephone data.

At the same time, lawmakers were urged not to discuss the classified program for fear it would hurt national security, the documents say.

This year, after Snowden released the cache of classified documents, including court orders detailing the 215 bulk data program, many lawmakers said they were shocked about the extent of the program.

On Tuesday, Clapper said he wasn't buying their reactions. "It reminds me of 'Casablanca,' " Clapper said, referring to the movie from the 1940s. "My God, there's gambling going on here."

Opinion: U.S. needs to get spying under control

CNN's Catherine Shoichet, Tom Watkins and Mariano Castillo contributed to this report.

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How to counter online bullies

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CNN.com delivers up-to-the-minute news and information on the latest top stories, weather, entertainment, politics and more.

How to counter online bullies
10/30/2013 12:59:34 PM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Some people believe authorities aren't doing enough to crack down on bullies
But the mother of one teen bullying victim doesn't believe vigilantism is a solution
Online bullies leave themselves more open to vigilantes than they may think
Author: "It's a tough thing to try to instill (empathy) at 15 years old"

(CNN) -- Kelly Simpson was a cyberbully.

In middle and high school in Mauldin, South Carolina, Simpson was an early adopter of AOL Instant Messenger and other chat programs, and she used them to needle and taunt her friends and classmates.

For a long time, she thought nothing of it.

"It was kind of pervasive at my school," Simpson, now 27, recalls. "We didn't think it was a big deal." She was just the classic "mean girl," she says.

Among her recreations was sending links via AIM to a now-defunct trolling website called crush007.com, which collected personal information through questionnaires -- and then sent it to people mentioned in the survey. Given that the questions were about secret crushes and sexual habits, the results were often highly embarrassing. For example, one of Simpson's targets, who had just moved away from South Carolina, was revealed to be bisexual -- news that quickly made the rounds at his old school.

It was all amusing to Simpson and her friends until someone hacked into her account, revealing her own secrets -- love triangles and buried feelings, all the "major high school girl drama," says Simpson.

Suddenly she was ostracized and alone.

"I lost all my friends, and as my friends were pretty much my identity, I was at the end of my rope," she says. "I had nothing left."

Looking back, Simpson -- now a student at a Massachusetts seminary -- realizes it seems silly. But she knows how hurtful such acts can be when you're an adolescent.

"As adults we look at things and think, 'Oh, they'll get over it,' " she says. "But we don't realize that this is their world. This is their life. And their life is over when they lose their friends."

Justice or revenge?

Is this what justice looks like in the Internet age? Given the Wild West nature of the Web, with its anonymous social media trolls and a hodgepodge of laws governing online speech, some people believe that authorities aren't doing enough to crack down on bullies.

Anonymous, the hacking collective, has been particularly active in rape cases related to cyberbullying, including that of Amanda Todd, a Vancouver, British Columbia, girl who committed suicide in 2012 after a topless photo of her led to teasing and abuse at school, and the case of Daisy Coleman, a Maryville, Missouri, high schooler who says she was raped by a local football player.

But other citizens have gotten involved, too.

At the time, it was very, very hard for me to have an ounce of sympathy ...
Tina Meier, mother of bullying victim

In 2007, Lori Drew -- whose creation of a MySpace account for "Josh Evans," a fictitious 16-year-old boy, resulted in the suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier -- became the focus of national outrage and cyberattacks after her name was revealed by some online amateur detectives. Drew was acquitted of charges in 2008 and has since moved away from the St. Louis suburb where she lived down the block from the Meier family, but her acts still invite anger years after the incident.

But Tina Meier doesn't believe that vigilantism is a solution.

Meier, Megan's mother, now runs the Megan Meier Foundation. Its goal is to promote awareness of bullying and "promote positive change to children, parents and educators in response to the ongoing bullying and cyberbullying in our children's daily environment," according to its mission statement.

Experts address your most pressing bullying questions

Meier admits it has been a challenge to look forward. When the MySpace account was first traced to Lori Drew, she says, "I felt that vengeance."

She remembers appearing on Bill O'Reilly's Fox News show and being asked what she thought of the attacks on the Drews.

"At the time, it was very, very hard for me to have an ounce of sympathy," she says. And she understands the impulse that prompts people to seek what they believe is justice in an unjust world. But, she adds, over time she has come to believe that such acts simply feed a cycle of violence and pain.

She compares it with standing up for people who are being victimized.

"I talk about this -- we want those bystanders to be 'upstanders.' Stand up when you see somebody ridiculed or made fun of," she says. "But what it means is to stand up in the right way. If you go out there because you're protecting them and you punch the other person, you might feel good for a minute because you did the right thing by standing up, but now it's caused more violence."

'Another type of bullying'

There's certainly no shortage of anger on the Internet, some of it driven by easy online anonymity. (Just read the comments to any CNN.com story.) As Lesley Withers, a professor of communication at Central Michigan University, said in 2008, "In the (pre-Internet era), you had to take ownership (of your remarks). Now there's a perception of anonymity. People think what they say won't have repercussions, and they don't think they have to soften their comments."

But experts are unsure if cyberbullying is on the rise, or if there's simply more attention given it nowadays.

"I think it's a hard question to answer," says Robin Kowalski, a psychology professor at Clemson University who specializes in the study of cyberbullying.

There are a lot of factors, she points out: the age of your sample, the size of the sample, the technologies used, a whole list of variables.

That said, she believes bullies leave themselves more open to vigilantes than they may think. After all, the same impulses that allow for cyberbullying -- the anonymity, the lack of face-to-face contact -- also allow for cybervigilantes to exact revenge.

Acceptance is the key. It starts at home -- it starts with the parents ...
Tammy Simpson

The two, she argues, aren't so different. Vigilantism, she says, "can be just another type of bullying."

In this day and age, a record of such abuse may linger. The Internet, after all, is forever -- though teenagers and young adults often don't realize that.

"How do you get a 13-year-old whose frontal lobe hasn't developed to the point where it can truly anticipate consequences, how do you get them to really understand that?" asks Kowalski.

She wishes that more people would follow in Tina Meier's footsteps.

"Rather than people attacking perpetrators online, I'd like them to invest that effort in trying to educate people in what bullying is, or cyberbullying is, and more productive ways to deal with it," she says.

Reaching out to others

Tammy Simpson puts the tension between bullying and vigilantism in even more basic terms: Two wrongs don't make a right.

Simpson (no relation to Kelly Simpson), a mother from Mount Pleasant Mills, Pennsylvania, lost her 14-year-old son Brandon Bitner to bullying in 2010. Brandon was a shy, artistic child who played violin (which prompted taunts of "sissy") and decided to adopt a goth look in high school, dyeing his hair and painting his fingernails black.

Outwardly, says Simpson, Brandon was generally fun and upbeat. It was only after he killed himself by stepping in front of a tractor-trailer -- he walked more than six miles in early morning darkness to do so -- that she found out about the "relentless" bullying he endured at school. He'd left a suicide note on his computer asking that his experiences not happen to anyone else, and his friends told Simpson what had been going on in school.

The message she has taken from his death, she says, is to reach out to others.

"From the day that Brandon died, I took it upon myself to go out wherever and speak, and I tell Brandon's story," she says. "And once I tell Brandon's story, people realize what happened was because he wasn't accepted. I just tell them acceptance is the key. It starts at home -- it starts with the parents -- but it can start with you. You can stop the cycle."

It's a hard point to get across, especially given the messages we get from entertainment, points out Patrice Oppliger, a professor at Boston University's College of Communication who studies portrayals of bullying in the media.

Even a movie about bullying, such as "Mean Girls," based on the book "Queen Bees and Wannabes" by Rosalind Wiseman, ends up glamorizing bad behavior, she says.

The book, she points out, is a helpful guide to relationships between girls; the movie, on the other hand, showed "the positive side of being a mean girl," she says.

"I left the movie wanting to be a mean girl," she says. "Everybody was mean to each other. And there was this sort of fake resolution at the end, where the next group of 'plastics' came in. So this is going to be a never-ending circle."

Teaching empathy

It's a tough thing to try to instill (empathy) at 15 years old
Kate MacHugh

There are moves to crack down on bullying and cyberbullying. Forty-nine states -- all but Montana -- now have laws against school bullying, says Clemson's Kowalski, and more than 35 have some kind of law against cyberbullying. Facebook and Twitter have instituted policies against abuse.

Moreover, there are more programs such as Meier's and Tammy Simpson's that educate students and parents about bullying and how to counter it.

Stopping bullying and vigilante reactions remain a challenge, however. Children and many adults lack impulse control, a huge flaw when dealing with the immediacy of the Internet. The Net itself is a wide-open place, full of opportunities for mischief in a way that one-on-one contact doesn't allow.

It's also hard for many people being bullied to talk to authority figures.

Kate MacHugh, who was bullied in high school, says she couldn't even talk to her parents, though her mother is a social worker and her father is a therapist. Schoolmates were spreading rumors that she had slept with the football team or sending messages she should kill herself, she recalls, but she was "embarrassed" to bring it up.

"I didn't know how to have that conversation with them," she says. "I wasn't emotionally mature enough to do that."

MacHugh, 24, now a social worker herself in her native New Jersey, has written a book, "Ugly: The Story of a Bullied Girl." She believes that children have to be taught empathy -- and it has to begin very young.

"It's a tough thing to try to instill (empathy) at 15 years old," she says. Moreover, she says, she'd like to cut down on Internet anonymity. "It's cowardly and pathetic to go online and pretend to be someone else just to say hurtful things," she says. "If you have a problem with me, call me (directly)."

Adds Tina Meier, "If you're an empathetic person, and you truly do care about what other people go through, you're more likely to step up to have some sort of understanding and sympathy for a person who's struggling. You're not as prone to jump into the mix of something when other people are jumping on that person."

She knows it's hard.

"I think our world is filled with so much stress and so much pressure that sometimes people are on the edge of just exploding, and when they find an opportunity to lash out, and they feel there's justification, they feel I'm standing up for that person," she says.

"At the end of the day I realize we can't save the world," she adds. "The way we make our mark is doing one school, one community, one parent group, one area at a time to truly hope it has that ripple effect."

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Ex-Murdoch journalists admit phone hacking

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CNN.com delivers up-to-the-minute news and information on the latest top stories, weather, entertainment, politics and more.

Ex-Murdoch journalists admit phone hacking
10/30/2013 4:39:54 PM

Neville Thurlbeck (file photo) is reportedly one of three former News of the World journalists to plead guilty to phone hacking.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Three News of the World journalists plead guilty to phone hacking in trial in London
Neville Thurlbeck, James Weatherup and Greg Miskiw plead guilty, report British media
Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson are accused of conspiring to hack voice mails
They both formerly edited the now-defunct News of the World newspaper

London (CNN) -- Three former journalists at Rupert Murdoch's defunct British tabloid News of the World have pleaded guilty to phone hacking, British media reported Wednesday, citing the prosecution in the case.

The three who pleaded guilty are Neville Thurlbeck, James Weatherup and Greg Miskiw.

They were among a group of people who went on trial this week in the much-anticipated case.

The highest profile defendants are Rebekah Brooks, a protégé of global media baron Murdoch, and Andy Coulson, a former spin doctor for British Prime Minister David Cameron -- both former editors of News of the World.

It is not clear how the guilty pleas from the three journalists will affect the cases against their former bosses.

The phone-hacking accusations have reverberated through the top levels of British politics and journalism and prompted a parliamentary committee to issue damning criticism of Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. owned News of the World through its UK subsidiary, News International.

After the scandal, Murdoch stepped down from a string of company directorships and abandoned a multibillion-dollar bid to acquire satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

Suspected hacking victims include some of the world's biggest celebrities, including Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Jude Law, Paul McCartney and soccer star Wayne Rooney, as well as victims of crime and the July 7, 2005, London terrorist attacks.

Brooks and Coulson were close to British Prime Minister David Cameron. Coulson, who edited the News of the World from 2003 to 2007, went on to become Cameron's director of communications before resigning early in 2011. Brooks was a friend of the prime minister and his wife.

Brooks, formerly chief executive of News of the World's parent company, News International, part of Murdoch's News Corp. empire, also faces a charge of perverting the course of justice.

But the most explosive charge against her is plotting in 2002 to eavesdrop illegally on the voice mail of missing British schoolgirl Milly Dowler, who was later found murdered.

Public anger after the revelation in 2011 that the missing girl's phone had been hacked forced Murdoch to close News of the World, which Brooks edited at the time of the hacking. She then became editor of The Sun newspaper before taking up the chief executive role.

Brooks, Coulson and fellow former News of the World employees Stuart Kuttner, Greg Miskiw, Ian Edmondson, Neville Thurlbeck and James Weatherup are accused of conspiring between October 3, 2000, and August 9, 2006, "to intercept communications in the course of their transmission, without lawful authority."

Specifically, the charge asserts that they listened to "voice mail messages of well-known people."

Brooks, Coulson, Kuttner, Miskiw, Thurlbeck and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire face an additional charge of intercepting Dowler's messages.

Brooks, her husband Charlie Brooks and a former personal assistant also face a separate set of charges of conspiring to obstruct the police investigation into phone hacking. They were charged in May 2012, along with Brooks' former driver, a security guard and members of News International security staff, with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The hacking scandal prompted Cameron to set up an independent inquiry, led by Lord Justice Leveson, to make recommendations on journalistic ethics and examine the relationship of the press with the public, police and politicians.

CNN's Richard Allen Greene and Lindsay Isaac contributed to this report.

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Tiananmen Square crash a terrorist attack, China says

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Tiananmen Square crash a terrorist attack, China says
10/30/2013 12:45:00 PM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Five people detained in connection with deadly crash, police say
China censors images of jeep that plowed into Tiananmen Square, killing 5
Uyghur diaspora group says it's too early to assign blame

Beijing (CNN) -- Five suspects have been detained in Monday's deadly crash in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, which has been identified as a terrorist attack, Beijing police said Wednesday.

The attack -- in which five people died and dozens were hurt -- was "carefully planned, organized and premeditated," police said on their official Weibo account online.

Working with police in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Beijing police captured the suspects, a spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau said.

The spokesman, who was not named, said Usmen Hasan; his mother, Kuwanhan Reyim; and his wife, Gulkiz Gini, drove a jeep bearing a Xinjiang license plate into a crowd in the famed square at noon on Monday, killing two people and injuring another 40.

Authorities had earlier put the number of injured at 38.

The jeep then crashed into a guardrail of Jinshui Bridge across the moat of the Forbidden City. All three of the jeep's occupants died when they set gasoline afire, the spokesman said. The other two fatalities were tourists; a woman from the Philippines and a Chinese man.

Police found gasoline, two knives and steel sticks "as well as a flag with extremist religious content" in the jeep, the police posting said.

In addition, authorities found knives and a "jihad" flag in the temporary residence of the five detained suspects, it added.

Tensions between Han Chinese and the largely Muslim Uyghurs have sometimes turned violent.

READ: 5 dead after jeep crashes and catches fires in Beijing's Tiananmen Square

A spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, a diaspora group, said Wednesday it was not clear that Uyghurs played any role.

"Every time something like this happens, authorities usually point fingers at Uyghurs," Alim Seytoff said. "The notice should not be taken as the evidence of Uyghur involvement in the incident."

Willy Lam, an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Center for China Studies, said the incident would be considered a loss of face for Beijing's leaders, especially if it turns out to be related to Uyghur separatism.

"It was close to the Zhongnanhai party headquarters and, in terms of timing, it's on the eve of the plenary session of the Chinese Communist Party, so they don't want these rumors and speculation," he said.

Earlier this month, Chinese police said they had arrested 139 people in Xinjiang for spreading religious extremism online. The arrests came in the wake of riots that left 35 people dead.

Chinese media outlets that reported Monday's incident stuck to the bare-bones details published by China's state run Xinhua news agency.

China's state broadcaster, CCTV, showed no footage of the incident. Images posted immediately after the incident on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, which showed black smoke and a vehicle engulfed in flames, were largely deleted. Searches combining the words Tiananmen, terrorism and car crash were also blocked.

CNN broadcasts about the incident were blacked out inside China.

Lam said Chinese media outlets had likely received an official order to stick to Xinhua's version of events.

On Tuesday, the square was back to normal.

CNN's David McKenzie and Feng Ke in Beijing and CNN's Aliza Kassim and Tom Watkins in Atlanta contributed to this report

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Israel frees Palestinian prisoners

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CNN.com delivers up-to-the-minute news and information on the latest top stories, weather, entertainment, politics and more.

Israel frees Palestinian prisoners
10/30/2013 5:09:07 AM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Abbas says there can be no peace deal until all prisoners have been freed
The Palestinian Prison Authority says a total of 26 prisoners have been released
It is the second time in recent months that Israel has freed prisoners
The release is part of an agreement that jump-started stalled peace talks

Ramallah, West Bank (CNN) -- Israel released 26 Palestinian prisoners early Wednesday, part of an agreement that fueled new peace talks.

The released prisoners were the second of four groups -- roughly 100 prisoners -- expected to be freed in a deal cobbled together by the United States to jump-start stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The Palestinian Prison Authority confirmed 21 prisoners were released shortly after midnight in the West Bank and another five were released in Gaza.

Families of the prisoners were on hand in the West Bank, where cheers went up as buses carrying the prisoners arrived.

But the prison release has angered some Israelis, who protested outside the West Bank prison where the inmates where held before their release.

Oded Karamani said he sees the release of his brother's killer as a betrayal.

"It makes me feel like I got stabbed in my back, and they turned the knife, and turned the knife," Karamani said.

Ronen Karamani, 18, was abducted in 1990 and stabbed to death near Jerusalem. Two Palestinians were convicted in connection with his murder.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the decision to free Palestinian prisoners one of the most difficult of his career.

But many Israeli officials, including the defense minister, have said it is part of a long-term security strategy.

Israel released more than two dozen Palestinian prisoners in August on the eve of new peace talks. Some of them had been held for more than 20 years.

The first prisoner release came after Israel said it would forge ahead with a plan to build 900 housing units in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians hope will be the capital of their future state.

The issue of Israeli settlements derailed the last round of direct talks, in 2010, and critics of Netanyahu say building on disputed territory could derail the new talks.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the prisoners' release, describing it as a "day of joy." But he warned that there would be no peace agreement with Israel until all Palestinian prisoners had been freed.

"Our true joy will not be complete until we bring everyone out of prison," he told Palestine TV.

Salma Abdelaziz and Saad Abedine contributed to this report.

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WHO confirms polio cases in Syria

CNN.com - Top Stories

CNN.com delivers up-to-the-minute news and information on the latest top stories, weather, entertainment, politics and more.

WHO confirms polio cases in Syria
10/29/2013 4:35:36 PM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Most of the victims are younger than 2
Ten cases have been confirmed out of 22 suspected cases, WHO says
Public health officials had already begun mounting a vaccination campaign
First confirmation of polio in Syria since 1999

(CNN) -- Ten cases of polio have been confirmed among children in Syria, the first outbreak of the disease in that country since 1999, a World Health Organization spokesman told CNN Tuesday.

WHO's Oliver Rosenbauer said the confirmations were among 22 suspected cases that were identified on October 17 in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor after the children exhibited symptoms of "acute flaccid paralysis" -- a sudden onset of weakness and floppiness in any part of a child's body or paralysis in anyone in whom polio is suspected as the cause.

The confirmation was key because other diseases can cause similar symptoms.

Most of the victims were younger than two years old and were unimmunized or underimmunized, WHO said in a statement.

The Syrian Health Ministry is working with international organizations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to get vaccine to all areas of Syria, Health Minister Dr. Saad al-Nayef told WHO's regional committee on Monday in Muscat, Oman, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported Tuesday.

But Dr. Bruce Aylward, the World Health Organization's assistant director-general for polio, emergencies and country collaboration, told CNN last week that his organization was not waiting for the confirmation to mount a vaccination campaign.

"As far as everyone is concerned, they're treating this like polio," he said.

On October 24, health officials launched a program to immunize 1.6 million Syrian children against polio, measles, mumps and rubella -- in government- and rebel-held areas. The response, which will also include neighboring countries, is expected to last at least six months, the WHO said.

According to UNICEF, 500,000 children in Syria have not been vaccinated against polio.

Given the fighting, the large-scale movement of refugees and the number of children who have not been fully immunized, "the risk of further international spread of wild poliovirus type 1 across the region is considered to be high," it added.

The highly infectious viral disease primarily affects young children. Initial symptoms can include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, neck stiffness, limb pain and, in a small number of cases, paralysis and death.

It can be prevented through immunization, but there is no cure. The incidence of the disease has dropped by more than 99% since 1988. It remains endemic in three countries -- Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan -- down from more than 125 countries in 1988.

Public health can be among the first casualties of war, as resources are diverted away from ensuring clean water supplies and intact sewer lines.

Despite the challenges posed by the ongoing civil war, the polio vaccination effort will be helped by the fact that Syria had high rates of vaccination coverage among its populace prior to the current conflict, Aylward predicted.

In an address Friday to the U.N. Security Council, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief cited the outbreak as an example of the privations endured by the Syrians and the risks they face.

Diseases, including those easily preventable by basic hygiene and vaccination, are spreading "at an alarming rate," said Valerie Amos. In addition, reports of malnutrition have soared, and people suffering from chronic illnesses, such as cancer and diabetes, are dying for lack of access to treatment, she said.

Aid workers cannot reach some 2.5 million people in the country, she added.

"All humanitarian staff missions and convoys continue to require written approval," she said, citing as "unacceptable" and "unpredictable" the government's processing of visas for U.N. and non-governmental staff members. More than 100 such visas are pending, many are limited to a single entry and many of those that are issued are for insufficient durations, she said.

"There is simply no reason why humanitarian staff, whose only interest is to help those in desperate need, have not been granted visas to scale up our operations," she said.

In response, Syria's permanent representative to the United Nations acknowledged to reporters in New York that the country is facing grave humanitarian problems, but accused Amos of having failed to properly apportion blame.

"She should know and say what are the root causes," Bashar Jaafari told reporters, citing neighborhoods that are "under siege by the Syrian Army because there are armed groups in these neighborhoods taking civilians as human shields."

Jaafari said his country is "a victim of interference by some member states into its domestic affairs."

Regarding the issuance of visas, he said, "We are issuing too many visas to too many people; we are a sovereign nation, like any other nation; we have our own reasons sometimes to deny a visa to this or that individual."

Jaafari said Damascus has extended visas to hundreds of people working for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which is led by Amos. "Any minimal cases here and there" of problems "wouldn't affect the overall picture of our cooperation with OCHA," he said.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have died in the conflict, which began in March 2011 when government forces cracked down on peaceful protesters.

CNN's Jessica King contributed to this report

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State TV: Syrian president fires VP

CNN.com - Top Stories

CNN.com delivers up-to-the-minute news and information on the latest top stories, weather, entertainment, politics and more.

State TV: Syrian president fires VP
10/29/2013 6:37:55 PM

Visiting Syrian deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil in Moscow, on October 17, 2013.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Vice Premier Qadri Jamil met with the U.S. ambassador to Syria on Saturday, official says
He's accused of having "unauthorized meetings abroad" without government coordination
Jamil represents the Popular Front for Change and Liberation

(CNN) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has fired Vice Premier Qadri Jamil "due to his absence from office without notice," state television reported Tuesday.

Jamil had carried out "unauthorized meetings abroad without coordinating with the government," the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said.

A senior State Department official said that U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford met Saturday with Jamil in Geneva, Switzerland.

"We meet lots of Syrians of all political backgrounds," the official said. "We're not going to give a list, but we do regularly meet Syrians with direct contacts with the regime in Damascus."

He added, "We are clear: There is no military solution for either side. There needs to be a political negotiation for a new, transitional governing body chosen by mutual consent with full executive powers."

Jamil represents the Popular Front for Change and Liberation, which is part of the "internal opposition" formed by the government of Bashar al-Assad as part of a series of superficial measures intended to mollify its critics over the last two years.

The announcement came on the same day the Syrian Arab News Agency reported that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem met with U.N. Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi and discussed efforts to hold an international conference on Syria in Geneva.

"Minister al-Moallem affirmed that Syria will participate in the conference on the basis of the Syrian people's exclusive right to decide upon their political future and choosing their leadership, rejecting any form of foreign interference, and having the dialogue in Geneva be between Syrians and led by Syria," SANA reported.

CNN's Roba Alhenawi contributed to this report.

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EU-U.S. talks on 'possible legal remedies' over spying

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CNN.com delivers up-to-the-minute news and information on the latest top stories, weather, entertainment, politics and more.

EU-U.S. talks on 'possible legal remedies' over spying
10/30/2013 11:15:04 AM

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

EU delegation raises concerns over U.S. spying on its citizens
The delegation has been in Washington since Monday
Germany's own delegation is in Washington too
American intelligence leaders are starting to push back on accusations

(CNN) -- A delegation of European Union officials will continue their fact finding mission Wednesday when they meet with White House officials over recent revelations that the National Security Agency spied on European leaders and their citizens.

The European Parliament's civil liberties committee has been in Washington since Monday, and has already met with officials from the State Department, Capitol Hill, and various intelligence agencies.

At the White House today, the group will meet with Karen Donfried, who is the senior director for European affairs for the National Security Council, to discuss the impact that U.S. surveillance programs have had on EU citizens.

The talks were described as an opportunity to explore "possible legal remedies for EU citizens" that were affected by U.S. surveillance. Specific examples of possible remedies were not detailed.

But as European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel along with her French and Spanish counterparts, have reacted with indignation and fury at the allegations of surveillance, leaders within the American intelligence community have begun to publicly push back.

The head of the National Security Agency, Army Gen. Keith Alexander, denied Tuesday that the United States collected telephone and e-mail records directly from European citizens, calling reports based on leaks by Edward Snowden "completely false."

Alexander along with his colleague James Clapper who is the Director of National Intelligence was testifying before the House Intelligence Committee, where a growing number of lawmakers have called for a review of the process on intelligence gathering.

Clapper went even further; telling lawmakers that such covert spying among nations was a "fundamental given," including attempts to access their communications.

The White House has already said it would reexamine the process by which such intelligence was collected. White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday, "we need to look at and make sure that we are not just gathering intelligence because we can, but we're gathering it because we need it", adding the review was currently underway and should be completed by the end of the year.

The EU delegation will have their chance to address all the allegations Wednesday at their press conference. Thus far, the members have not spoken publicly on their meetings.

Germany is sending a separate delegation to the White House on Wednesday, after reports of Merkel's phone being tapped resulted in the German chancellor's announcement that her country's confidence in the United States had been "shaken."

NSC spokesperson Caitlin Hayden said the meeting between the Germans and the White House comes after "in their recent telephone conversation, President Barack Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to intensify further the cooperation between U.S. and German intelligence services."

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State TV: Syrian president fires VP

EU-U.S. talks on 'possible legal remedies' over spying