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Gulf Daily News Tuesday, 29th October 2013

n His Majesty King Hamad hosted a dinner banquet last night at Al Rawdha Palace in honour of Qatari Amir Shaikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and his delegation marking their visit to Bahrain. His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier along with senior Ruling Family members, parliament and Shura chairmen, ministers and senior BDF, Interior Ministry and National Guard officers attended. Earlier, the King and the Crown Prince welcomed Shaikh Tamim on arrival.

Checks on NSA spying needed

WASHINGTON: The White House said last night

that some constraints are needed in US surveillance practices in the wake of embarrassing revelations about the sweeping nature of US spying. The comment came a week after President Barack Obama drew heavy criticism over accusations that the National Security Agency (NSA) had tapped the mobile phone of German

Chancellor Angela Merkel and conducted widespread electronic snooping in France and Italy. White House spokesman Jay Carney said that with new intelligence-gathering capabilities, We recognise there needs to be additional constraints on how we gather and use intelligence. Carneys comment, along with a tweet from National Security Adviser Susan Rice that a proper balance is needed, suggested some changes might be in the offing on the scale of US electronic spying. A European delegation took the concerns about the issue to Capitol Hill, where members of the European Parliament met US legislators and spoke of the need to rebuild trust. Meanwhile, Spain yesterday summoned the US ambassador to discuss allegations of spying on Spanish citizens. The Spanish newspaper El Mundo said the NSA had recently tracked over 60 million calls in Spain in the space of a month, citing a document n A man holds a placard reading USA spy and rob us as the which it said formed part of car of US Ambassador to Spain Andorra James Costos leaves papers obtained from ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden. the Spanish Foreign Affairs ministry in Madrid

Highway traffic disrupted

By LAAlA KASHEF AlGHATA

MANAMA: Reports of a suspicious device on Budaiya Highway resulted in a massive traffic jam last night as roads leading to Duraz were closed off. The bomb squad was also reportedly dispatched, with a robot making an attempt to defuse the device, but no further information was available. Traffic was backed up on Budaiya Highway,

which escalated when several burning tyres were placed on Saar Avenue, near Cappuccino Caf. Traffic in Zinj was also backed up from several sides last night, with access difficult and long wait times. However, no further information was available on the reason for the traffic jam.