Six In The Morning Monday October 28

28 October 2013 Last updated at 09:28 GMT

NSA 'monitored 60m Spanish calls in a month'

The US National Security Agency (NSA) secretly monitored 60 million phone calls in Spain in one month, Spanish media say.

The reports say the latest allegations came from documents provided by the fugitive US analyst Edward Snowden.

They say the NSA collected the numbers and locations of the caller and the recipient, but not the calls' content.

This comes as an EU parliamentary delegation travels to Washington to convey concerns.

The officials from the European parliament's Civil Liberties Committee will speak to members of Congress to gather information.

It is not clear how the alleged surveillance was carried out, whether it was from monitoring fibre-optic cables, data obtained from telecoms companies, or other means.

Russia needs immigrants, but can it accept them?

Russia's population is shrinking, making immigrants critical to the country's well-being. But xenophobia – highlighted by a Moscow race riot two weeks ago – is on the rise.

By Fred Weir, Correspondent

MOSCOW

They came on like a river pouring from two nearby metro stations, tens of thousands of mostly young, dark-skinned Muslim men, some bearded, some dressed in traditional Central Asian clothes, but most thin, haggard, clean-shaven, and wearing the tracksuits and cheap plastic jackets, with baseball caps or tuques, that make up the standard uniform of Moscow's poor migrant laborers.

The crowds, hemmed in and broken up into small streams by ranks of impassive Moscow riot police, converged on the Poklonnaya Gora mosque, a small and largely symbolic structure installed by Russian authorities almost two decades ago as part of a larger war memorial complex. It's one of just six mosques in Moscow where the city's Muslim inhabitants might mark the holiday of Eid al-Adha or, as it's called in Russia, Kurban-Bairam. Since the mosque can accommodate only a handful of worshipers at a time, most waited patiently and silently nearby, a vast sea of un-Slavic faces.

ISRAEL

Reluctant Israel open to US rights review

Israel has dropped its refusal and says it will attend a United Nations Human Rights Council review of its human rights record in Geneva on Tuesday. The newspaper Haaretz says Germany had urged Israel to take part.

Israel's foreign ministry said late Sunday that the Jewish state would take part in a review of its practices at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

In January, Israel had begun a boycott, accusing the council of bias toward Palestinians.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told the German news agency DPA that a "decision had been taken to appear at the Human Rights Council."

The newspaper Haaretz said Israel had challenged the council's frequent vetting of the Jewish state's human rights record but had been swayed to attend the review by a letter from German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.

G4S-run prison in South Africa investigated over abuse claims
Jail operated by UK security firm allegedly used forced injections and electric shock treatment to subdue inmates

• Ruth Hopkins in Bloemfontein
• The Guardian, Monday 28 October 2013

A South African prison run by the British security company G4S is under investigation for allegedly using forced injections and electric shock treatment to subdue inmates.

Prisoners, warders and health care workers said that involuntary medication was regularly practised at the Mangaung Correctional Centre near Bloemfontein. G4S denies any acts of assault or torture.

The revelations come just weeks after the South African government took over operations from G4S after finding it had "lost effective control over the prison" in the wake of a series of stabbings, riots, strikes and a hostage taking.

Mystery of the world’s largest bell continues to lure treasure hunters and Burma’s elite

Having lain underwater for 400 years, artefact may be out of sight, but it is not out of mind

ANDREW BUNCOMBE  , SWAN PYAE WIN NAING RANGOON 

 MONDAY 28 OCTOBER 2013

For more than 400 years the Dhammazedi bell bell has supposedly lain at the bottom of a Burmese river, luring adventurers and treasure-hunters from near and far.

Their inability to recover what is reckoned to be the world’s largest bell has added to stories the 270 tonne treasure must be protected by spirits.

Now, a leading Burmese businessman and politician has announced his plan to fund another hunt for the bell, spending more than $10m if that is what is required to locate it and return it to the glittering Shwedagon pagoda, from where it was originally looted.

Attackers in Mexico blow up nine electrical plants

By Tracy Wilkinson

MEXICO CITY -- Assailants early Sunday blew up at least nine electrical power plants in one of Mexico's largest states, triggering blackouts that gunmen then used as cover to torch gasoline stations, residents and authorities said.

The attacks in Michoacan state, west of the capital, did not cause deaths or serious injuries, authorities said. But they served as a pointed reminder of the strength of drug gangs and other criminals.

Shortly after midnight, attackers armed with Molotov cocktails almost simultaneously disabled electrical substations in at least nine cities and towns in Michoacan, plunging an estimated 1 million people into darkness. The power was out for 15 hours.