UAE agrees to give Egypt $3bn - source
The United Arab Emirates has agreed to grant Egypt $1bn and lend it another $2bn, an Egyptian source close to the talks said on Tuesday.
The source said the amount was expected to be part of a larger financial package from the UAE.
The loan would be in the form of a deposit at Egypt's central bank, although the interest rate and maturity had yet to be finalised.
He also said that Saudi Arabia was expected to lend Egypt $2bn, which he expected to be confirmed within two days.
White House trims GDP forecast
The White House on Monday trimmed its outlook for US economic growth in 2013 and 2014, citing "serious headwinds" from European austerity measures and a slowdown in China, as well as across-the-board budget sequester cuts at home.
The mid-session budget and economic update highlighted the lingering impact of the recession that has stymied President Barack Obama's economic agenda.
In the review, the White House said it expected gross domestic product (GDP) to rise 2.0% this year and 3.1% next year less than the 2.3% and 3.2% forecast in Obama's budget of April 10.
The unemployment rate has fallen somewhat over the past six months but remains stubbornly high - at about 7.5%, because of what the Obama administration says is the lingering impact of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Ahead of tough negotiations with Congress on spending cuts and raising the US debt limit, the White House slashed its estimate of the current year's fiscal deficit to $759bn, or 4.7% of GDP, from its April forecast of $973bn.
Republicans have been focusing on deficit reduction and spending cuts, while Obama has argued for programmes to spur jobs, financed in part by higher taxes on the wealthy.
White House budget director Sylvia Mathews Burwell said in a statement that the report shows Obama's budget "achieves the core goal of fiscal sustainability by putting federal debt on a declining path as a share of the economy".
Congress, however, is not expected to pass Obama's budget this year.
Brazil to probe reports of US spying
Brazil said on Monday it will investigate reports of US electronic spying on
its citizens and called for a multilateral agency to govern the global
internet.
The pledge came after the daily O Globo reported on Sunday that the US National Security Agency (NSA) spied on Brazilian residents and companies as well as people travelling in Brazil, citing documents leaked by the fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Earlier documents leaked by Snowden had alleged that the US maintained a vast surveillance system over the US territory, as well as EU offices in Washington and New York and some European countries, such as Germany.
The satellite intelligence collection base in Brasilia was jointly operated "at least until 2002 by the NSA and the Central Intelligence Agency", the report said.
"I have absolutely no doubt" about the veracity of the reports, Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo said.
"Now the circumstances in which this was carried out, the exact form and date, this we must verify," he added.
No confirmation
Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota welcomed Washington's readiness to discuss the issue describing the spying allegations as "extremely serious".
State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki confirmed the US had "spoken with Brazilian officials regarding these allegations".
But she refused to deny or confirm any details, saying simply "we plan to continue our dialogue with the Brazilians through normal diplomatic channels, but those are conversations that of course we would keep private".
President Dilma Rousseff, who is due to visit the United States later this year, "was very concerned. I would even say outraged", Bernardo said.
The communications minister said Brasilia planned to use the case to seek international support for the creation of a multilateral agency to govern the global internet.
"We need a change in the governance of the internet. It cannot be governed by a private US entity when we know that this entity is controlled by the US government," he added.
Not enough evidence
Bernardo also said he did not believe the NSA monitoring of Brazilians' telephone and email data was done with the collusion of Brazilian firms.
He met on Monday with the head of the National Telecommunications Agency Anatel, Joo Rezende, ordering him to check whether domestic companies were involved
O Globo said the US facility in Brasilia was part of a network of 16 "Primary Fornsat Collection Operations" maintained by the NSA around the world to intercept transmissions from foreign satellites.
Brazil leases eight satellites.
The daily said it did not have enough evidence to say whether the US operation continued after 2002.
It also published an NSA document dated September 2010 which seemed to indicate the Brazilian embassy in Washington and the Brazilian mission to the UN in New York were targeted by the agency.
In limbo
Psaki refused to comment on the allegations saying "we're not going to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity".
The new reports came as the former CIA contractor Snowden, aged 30, remained in limbo in a Moscow airport as he seeks a safe haven in Latin America having fled the US where he faces three felony charges.
The leftist leaders of Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua, who have strained ties with Washington, have all offered him asylum.
But he cannot leave the airport without a travel document after the US revoked his passport.
Washington has urged Russia to hand him over as a gesture of good will because the two sides have no extradition agreement.
The US has warned "any country where he may be moving in transit, where he could end up and certainly any country that were to grant asylum, that could have an impact, of course, on our bilateral relationship", Psaki said.
The pledge came after the daily O Globo reported on Sunday that the US National Security Agency (NSA) spied on Brazilian residents and companies as well as people travelling in Brazil, citing documents leaked by the fugitive former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Earlier documents leaked by Snowden had alleged that the US maintained a vast surveillance system over the US territory, as well as EU offices in Washington and New York and some European countries, such as Germany.
The satellite intelligence collection base in Brasilia was jointly operated "at least until 2002 by the NSA and the Central Intelligence Agency", the report said.
"I have absolutely no doubt" about the veracity of the reports, Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo said.
"Now the circumstances in which this was carried out, the exact form and date, this we must verify," he added.
No confirmation
Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota welcomed Washington's readiness to discuss the issue describing the spying allegations as "extremely serious".
State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki confirmed the US had "spoken with Brazilian officials regarding these allegations".
But she refused to deny or confirm any details, saying simply "we plan to continue our dialogue with the Brazilians through normal diplomatic channels, but those are conversations that of course we would keep private".
President Dilma Rousseff, who is due to visit the United States later this year, "was very concerned. I would even say outraged", Bernardo said.
The communications minister said Brasilia planned to use the case to seek international support for the creation of a multilateral agency to govern the global internet.
"We need a change in the governance of the internet. It cannot be governed by a private US entity when we know that this entity is controlled by the US government," he added.
Not enough evidence
Bernardo also said he did not believe the NSA monitoring of Brazilians' telephone and email data was done with the collusion of Brazilian firms.
He met on Monday with the head of the National Telecommunications Agency Anatel, Joo Rezende, ordering him to check whether domestic companies were involved
O Globo said the US facility in Brasilia was part of a network of 16 "Primary Fornsat Collection Operations" maintained by the NSA around the world to intercept transmissions from foreign satellites.
Brazil leases eight satellites.
The daily said it did not have enough evidence to say whether the US operation continued after 2002.
It also published an NSA document dated September 2010 which seemed to indicate the Brazilian embassy in Washington and the Brazilian mission to the UN in New York were targeted by the agency.
In limbo
Psaki refused to comment on the allegations saying "we're not going to comment publicly on every specific alleged intelligence activity".
The new reports came as the former CIA contractor Snowden, aged 30, remained in limbo in a Moscow airport as he seeks a safe haven in Latin America having fled the US where he faces three felony charges.
The leftist leaders of Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua, who have strained ties with Washington, have all offered him asylum.
But he cannot leave the airport without a travel document after the US revoked his passport.
Washington has urged Russia to hand him over as a gesture of good will because the two sides have no extradition agreement.
The US has warned "any country where he may be moving in transit, where he could end up and certainly any country that were to grant asylum, that could have an impact, of course, on our bilateral relationship", Psaki said.
Manning was 'upset' over Iraq, witness
Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of
espionage, was "upset" about the plight of Iraqi civilians before he
handed over a trove of secret files to WikiLeaks, a witness testified on
Monday.
The Army private was dismayed over an incident in which 15 Iraqi civilians had been jailed - with US backing for handing out pamphlets criticising the government, said Sergeant David Sadtler, who helped oversee Manning's work as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad.
Manning "was concerned that this was happening," said Sadtler, who was called as a witness for the defence.
"He was upset at the situation."
Manning's lawyers focused on the episode as they began to present the case for the defence, painting a picture of a conscientious young man bothered by injustice and eager to shed light on US foreign policy.
In an earlier statement to the court, Manning said the Iraqis who were arrested had no ties to militants and their pamphlets were only a "scholarly critique" of government corruption.
Sadtler said Manning was up on international events and that other troops in his unit would come to him "if they needed to know what was going on in the world".
‘Delightful blood lust’
Manning, aged 25, has admitted to giving WikiLeaks more than 700 000 secret military intelligence files and diplomatic cables in the worst leak of classified information in American history.
He has pleaded guilty to lesser offenses that could carry a 20-year prison sentence.
But he is contesting 21 other charges, including the most serious count that he knew he was "aiding the enemy" by funnelling the files to the website. That charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Manning's lawyers earlier filed motions asking the military judge to dismiss several counts against their client, including the most serious charge that he "aided" al-Qaeda by spilling secrets.
The defence lawyers argued prosecutors lack evidence to back allegations he broke rules for using military computers, stole government "property", disclosed email addresses and assisted the enemy when he gave classified files to the anti-secrecy website.
The defence opened the proceedings by playing a 39min video of a 2007 US helicopter attack in Baghdad that went viral in 2010 after Manning passed the footage to WikiLeaks, which released the clip under the title "Collateral Murder".
The disturbing video, from a cockpit gunsight, shows two Apache helicopters firing at a group of Iraqi men whom the crew mistakenly believed were carrying weapons.
Two of those killed in the assault were Iraqis working for the Reuters news agency.
Manning has told the court the video troubled him, particularly jokes made by the air crew that showed what he called "seemingly delightful blood lust".
Talented
The prosecution rested its case last week but suffered an embarrassing setback after acknowledging the military had lost the contract Manning signed laying out the terms of his access to classified information.
As the trial entered its sixth week at Fort Meade in Maryland, north of Washington, the first defence witness told the court Manning had been one of the most talented members of an intelligence analysis unit, excelling at "data mining".
"He was our best analyst by far when it came to developing products," said Chief Warrant Officer Joshua Ehresman, who oversaw intelligence work produced by Manning and other enlisted soldiers.
Unlike other troops who often needed assignments to be spelled out in detail, Manning was the "go-to guy" and "would come up with exactly what you were looking for," he said.
Ehresman and two other witnesses said there were no rules in Manning's unit barring soldiers from running an executable file or program off of a CD.
The testimony was meant to bolster the defence’s argument that Manning did not exceed his authorised access to government databases or violate computer regulations.
The defence also called a former chief prosecutor of terror suspects at the US prison at its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Morris Davis, to try to cast doubt on the importance of documents leaked by Manning about detainees at the jail.
The "detainee assessment briefs" on Guantanamo inmates, which were leaked by Manning, were superficial biographical information that "were so wildly inaccurate as not to be useful" to prosecutors, Davis told the court.
The case has taken on added weight in the aftermath of another round of leaks from a former contractor for the National Security Agency.
Edward Snowden fled to Hong Kong and later to Moscow after handing over documents to the media revealing far-reaching US electronic surveillance of phone records and Internet traffic.
The Army private was dismayed over an incident in which 15 Iraqi civilians had been jailed - with US backing for handing out pamphlets criticising the government, said Sergeant David Sadtler, who helped oversee Manning's work as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad.
Manning "was concerned that this was happening," said Sadtler, who was called as a witness for the defence.
"He was upset at the situation."
Manning's lawyers focused on the episode as they began to present the case for the defence, painting a picture of a conscientious young man bothered by injustice and eager to shed light on US foreign policy.
In an earlier statement to the court, Manning said the Iraqis who were arrested had no ties to militants and their pamphlets were only a "scholarly critique" of government corruption.
Sadtler said Manning was up on international events and that other troops in his unit would come to him "if they needed to know what was going on in the world".
‘Delightful blood lust’
Manning, aged 25, has admitted to giving WikiLeaks more than 700 000 secret military intelligence files and diplomatic cables in the worst leak of classified information in American history.
He has pleaded guilty to lesser offenses that could carry a 20-year prison sentence.
But he is contesting 21 other charges, including the most serious count that he knew he was "aiding the enemy" by funnelling the files to the website. That charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Manning's lawyers earlier filed motions asking the military judge to dismiss several counts against their client, including the most serious charge that he "aided" al-Qaeda by spilling secrets.
The defence lawyers argued prosecutors lack evidence to back allegations he broke rules for using military computers, stole government "property", disclosed email addresses and assisted the enemy when he gave classified files to the anti-secrecy website.
The defence opened the proceedings by playing a 39min video of a 2007 US helicopter attack in Baghdad that went viral in 2010 after Manning passed the footage to WikiLeaks, which released the clip under the title "Collateral Murder".
The disturbing video, from a cockpit gunsight, shows two Apache helicopters firing at a group of Iraqi men whom the crew mistakenly believed were carrying weapons.
Two of those killed in the assault were Iraqis working for the Reuters news agency.
Manning has told the court the video troubled him, particularly jokes made by the air crew that showed what he called "seemingly delightful blood lust".
Talented
The prosecution rested its case last week but suffered an embarrassing setback after acknowledging the military had lost the contract Manning signed laying out the terms of his access to classified information.
As the trial entered its sixth week at Fort Meade in Maryland, north of Washington, the first defence witness told the court Manning had been one of the most talented members of an intelligence analysis unit, excelling at "data mining".
"He was our best analyst by far when it came to developing products," said Chief Warrant Officer Joshua Ehresman, who oversaw intelligence work produced by Manning and other enlisted soldiers.
Unlike other troops who often needed assignments to be spelled out in detail, Manning was the "go-to guy" and "would come up with exactly what you were looking for," he said.
Ehresman and two other witnesses said there were no rules in Manning's unit barring soldiers from running an executable file or program off of a CD.
The testimony was meant to bolster the defence’s argument that Manning did not exceed his authorised access to government databases or violate computer regulations.
The defence also called a former chief prosecutor of terror suspects at the US prison at its naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Morris Davis, to try to cast doubt on the importance of documents leaked by Manning about detainees at the jail.
The "detainee assessment briefs" on Guantanamo inmates, which were leaked by Manning, were superficial biographical information that "were so wildly inaccurate as not to be useful" to prosecutors, Davis told the court.
The case has taken on added weight in the aftermath of another round of leaks from a former contractor for the National Security Agency.
Edward Snowden fled to Hong Kong and later to Moscow after handing over documents to the media revealing far-reaching US electronic surveillance of phone records and Internet traffic.
Obama still to decide on Afghan troops
US President Barack Obama has not yet decided
how many troops to keep in Afghanistan after 2014, but a total pullout is one
of the options under consideration, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
Pentagon spokesperson George Little, in a news briefing, declined
comment on whether Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel supported keeping US forces in
Afghanistan after 2014, saying he would not disclose Hagel's private
recommendations to Obama.