Poverty hits native Canada children

19 June 2013 Last updated at 11:13 ET

Four in 10 indigenous Canadian children live in poverty, a figure more than twice the national rate, a report has found.

Groups registered with the government and living on reserve land suffer even higher child poverty, the study found.

The report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Save the Children Canada used 2006 census data.

It linked the poverty to "the legacy of colonialism" and underfunding of basic services, particularly on reserve land.

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• All: 17
• Non-Indigenous: 15
• Indigenous: 40
• Status First Nation: 50
• Metis, Inuit, non-status First Nation: 27

Source: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Save the Children Canada report

"Indigenous children trail the rest of Canada's children on practically every measure of wellbeing: family income, educational attainment, poor water quality, infant mortality, health, suicide, crowding and homelessness," the report found.

According to the report released on Wednesday, 40% of all indigenous Canadian children live below a statistically derived low income threshold.

That includes "status First Nations" children in tribes and bands registered with the government and living on reserve land, as well as Inuits, children of mixed heritage, and others,

Seventeen per cent of all Canadian children live in poverty, while among non-indigenous children of all races and ethnic backgrounds, the figure is 15%.

'Disturbingly slow' progress

Among Status First Nations the figure is 50%.

Status First Nation Children in the prairie provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan fare the worst, with almost two-thirds living below the poverty line.

The report recommends increasing funding for education, healthcare, social services and direct welfare payments to families with children, as well as support for indigenous entrepreneurship. It estimates it would cost about 1bn Canadian dollars ($979m; £626m) to lift all indigenous children up to the poverty line.

"Progress in providing basic services for Indigenous peoples such as safe water, good-quality education and adequate housing remains disturbingly slow," the reports authors wrote.

"Failure to act will result in a more difficult, less productive, and shorter life for Indigenous children."

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US force-feeding 'hurts detainees'

19 June 2013 Last updated at 12:15 ET

A prisoner currently on hunger strike in Guantanamo Bay has described the pain and discomfort of the force feeding regime at the jail.

Algerian detainee Ahmed Belbacha, in testimony given to the BBC, said the process "hurts a great deal" and many prisoners vomit.

He has been held at the US military prison in Cuba for 11 years, but was cleared for release 6 years ago.

Doctors have called for the detainees to receive independent medical care.

On Wednesday, The Lancet published a letter signed by more than 150 doctors and medical professionals to US President Barack Obama saying the hunger strikers needed doctors they could trust.

Mr Belbacha, 43, told the BBC's Newshour programme through his lawyer: "I tell the doctors that force- feeding me is a violation of their medical ethics, but they say that the order comes from the guards and they have no control."

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At least 100 prisoners are protesting against their indefinite detention by refusing food. Mr Obama has said he will make a renewed attempt to close the prison, but he has met with resistance from the US Congress.

Lawyers representing some of those on hunger strike say their clients regularly collapse through weakness as the protest takes its toll.

Lack of trust

Mr Belbacha, who lived in the UK for two years, said every day of the hunger strike was "an ordeal".

Speaking through his lawyer as journalists are not allowed to interview the prisoners, he revealed that he tries to hide it when he vomits because otherwise he would be force-fed again.

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The medical staff is scared because they don't know how to measure the vitals with all the shackling and cannot complain"

End Quote Ahmed Belbacha Guantanamo detainee

He was arrested in Pakistan in December 2001 after the 9/11 attacks and taken to Guantanamo. The US military cleared him for release in 2007, but he says he cannot return to Algeria and no other country has agreed to take him in.

Mr Belbacha said prisoners are shackled as they are force-fed and strapped into a feeding chair with their hands tied to their stomachs. The process is often made worse by the "inexperience or indifference" of medical staff.

"Sometimes they botch putting the tube in and tears stream down my cheek. They used to use my left nostril but it stopped working," the former engineer said.

The letter published in the Lancet medical journal on Wednesday said the detainees had "very good reason" not to trust US medical doctors, as they are required to follow orders of military commanders.

"Without trust, safe and acceptable medical care of mentally competent patients is impossible," the letter said.

"Since the detainees do not trust their military doctors, they are unlikely to comply with current medical advice.

"That makes it imperative for them to have access to independent medical examination and advice, as they ask, and as required by the UN and World Medical Association."

Dr Frank Arnold, one of the signatories to the letter, told the BBC: "The UN and numerous other authoritative bodies have quite explicitly stated that the force-feeding that goes on in Guantanamo is torture. Forcing someone to accept treatment which they're competent to refuse is an assault."

The current hunger strike, which began in February, is the longest in the military prison's history. Lawyers representing detainees say it was sparked by tougher prison searches.

The US military, which runs the camp, says those searches uncovered various banned items, including homemade weapons that have been used to attack prison guards.

The detainees' lawyers claim that during those searches the Koran was mishandled - something the US military strongly denies.

The signatories to the Lancet letter add that if detainees are ever to be transferred out of Guantanamo, they must be fit to do so.

They said doctors were "prepared to visit [the detainees] under appropriate conditions, to assist in their recovery and release, and certify when we are confident it is medically safe for them to fly".

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One in nine US bridges 'deficient'

19 June 2013 Last updated at 14:47 ET

One in nine US bridges - more than 66,000 in total - is structurally deficient, a report has found.

Since 2008, the pace at which the US repairs bridges has slowed threefold compared to 1992-96, the report by Transportation for America, a coalition of transport interests, found.

The average age of US bridges is now 43 years, seven years short of the average lifespan, the report found.

It warns the backlog of bridges needing repair will grow amid US budget woes.

The report recommends US policymakers enshrine bridge repair and overhaul as a top priority for federal transport funds, but notes repairing America's deficient bridges will cost $76bn (£49bn).

Not necessarily unsafe

In 2012, 11% of US bridges were rated structurally deficient, down from 22% in 1992. But the rate of repair has significantly slowed despite an influx of funding from President Barack Obama's 2009 economic stimulus package.

In 15 of the 50 US states, the number of deficient bridges has increased since 2011.

In 10 years, one in four bridges will be older than 65 years.

According to the report, about 260 million trips are taken across deficient bridges each day.

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• In Pennsylvania, almost a quarter of bridges are structurally deficient, the worst in the nation
• Seven of the 10 states with the largest share of deficient bridges in 2011 have reduced their total number of deficient bridges
• Five per cent more bridges in Arizona, Delaware, and Hawaii are rated deficient than in 2011
• On average, Arizona bridges are in the best shape in the US

While structurally deficient bridges are not necessarily unsafe, they are generally rated in poor condition and require upgrading or replacing.

"Bridges may be rated deficient for a range of reasons and not all of them pose an immediate threat to public safety," the authors wrote.

"However, allowing bridges to remain in serious need of repair can lead to the sudden closure of a critical transportation link or, far worse, a collapse that results in lives lost and a major economic impact to the affected region."

In 2007 for instance, 13 people were killed when a bridge collapsed in Minnesota, while eight died in Texas in 2001. A bridge collapsed in May in Washington state, but no-one was killed.

Outdated

The National Transportation Safety Board eventually determined that the 2007 collapse was related to a design error, although the bridge was deemed structurally deficient at the time.

And the bridge over the Skagit River in Washington collapsed in May when a lorry hit an overhead support beam.

The Transportation for America report noted the Skagit River bridge had been built before the interstate system and was not designed "to carry the large load of today's interstates".

The American Society of Engineers, meanwhile, believes politicians are too keen to build new bridges instead of repairing old ones.

A new freeway bridge being built in Arizona collapsed on Wednesday, killing one worker and injuring another.

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Obama calls for nuclear arsenal cuts

19 June 2013 Last updated at 16:26 ET

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President Obama: "I intend to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures"

US President Barack Obama has called for greater efforts to be made to reduce US and Russian nuclear arsenals.

Speaking at the Brandenburg Gate during a visit to the German capital, Berlin, he said he was confident the US could maintain its security while reducing its nuclear capacity by a third.

He also called for reductions in the number of tactical warheads in Europe.

However Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Moscow "cannot take these assurances seriously".

The US and Russian signed a joint agreement in 2010 to mutually reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons to a maximum of 1,550 warheads and no more than 700 deployed launchers.

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Analysis

President Barack Obama is seeking to revive the process of nuclear disarmament which figured prominently during his first term, but which has largely disappeared from the agenda since then.

Reducing the stockpiles of strategic or long-range nuclear weapons further is one thing - though without a resolution of US-Russian differences over missile defence it may be difficult to make headway.

Are the Russians willing to play ball - perhaps by accepting parallel reciprocal cuts thus avoiding some of the lengthy timetable of a detailed new treaty?

If not, is Mr Obama ready to push forward with cuts anyway ?

Bringing shorter-range - so-called tactical nuclear weapons - into the picture could also be problematic.

Russia has an overwhelming preponderance of these weapons in Europe and has often seen them as tied to imbalances in conventional weaponry.

Opening up that whole can of worms could be difficult.

Mr Obama said the US was "on track" to cutting its warheads to pre-Cold War levels, but "we have more work to do".

He said he had determined that the US could ensure its own and its allies security and maintain a credible deterrent "while reducing our deployed strategic nuclear weapons by up to one third".

"I intend to seek negotiated cuts with Russia to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures," he said.

"We may no longer live in fear of global annihilation but so long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe."

Mr Obama added that the US would also work alongside Nato allies to seek "bold reductions" in the use of tactical weapons in Europe, and would also seek to forge a new international framework for the use of peaceful nuclear power.

He also said the US rejected the nuclearisation of countries like North Korea and Iran.

But Mr Rogozin, a former Russian ambassador to Nato, said Moscow "cannot take these assurances seriously" while the US is taking steps to build up its missile defence systems.

"The offence arms race leads to a defence arms race and vice versa," he said in comments quoted in Russia's state-owned Itar-Tass

Shortly before Mr Obama spoke, Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying that Moscow "cannot allow the balance of the system of strategic deterrence to be disturbed or the effectiveness of our nuclear force to be decreased".

A senior foreign policy adviser to Mr Putin said other nuclear-armed countries would have also have to reduce their stockpiles for such a plan to work.

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New Start treaty

• US and Russia allowed 1,550 nuclear warheads each, maximum
• No more than 700 launchers each (including submarines and heavy bombers)
• Each side able to make on-site inspections to verify how many warheads a missile is carrying

"The situation now is not like in the 1960s and 1970s when only the United States and the Soviet Union held talks on reducing nuclear arms," Yury Ushakov told a briefing in Moscow.

"Now we need to look more broadly... and increase the circle of participants in possible contacts on this matter."

'Proportionality'

Mr Obama's visit to Berlin is his first as American president.

His address to students and government officials at the Brandenburg Gate, which once divided East and West Germany, comes almost 50 years after President John F Kennedy's celebrated "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.

Mr Obama said that for the US, moving beyond the Cold War "mindset of perpetual war" also meant redoubling efforts to close the US prison camp at Guantanamo, tightly controlling the use of new technology like drones and "balancing the pursuit of security with the protection of privacy".

In her morning meetings with Mr Obama, Mrs Merkel had criticised Prism, the recently exposed US phone and internet surveillance programmes, saying: "We do see the need for gathering information, but there is a need for due diligence and proportionality."

The chancellor grew up in Communist East Germany, where police surveillance was widespread.

She acknowledged that the internet "enables enemies of a free liberal order to use and abuse and bring threats to all of us", but "an equitable balance must be struck".

Mr Obama said the monitoring applied within narrow limits to do with national security. It had detected 50 potential threats and saved many lives, he emphasised.

"This is not a situation where we simply go into the internet and begin searching any way we want," he told a news conference in Berlin.

Mr Obama's visit comes after G8 leaders backed calls for holding Syrian peace talks in Geneva "as soon as possible".

Speaking earlier, Mr Obama said the US was confident that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons during the 26-month-old conflict, but refused to spell out what aid might go the rebels.

"I cannot and will not comment on specifics on our programmes related to the Syrian opposition," he said, stressing his support for a political transition.

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FBI uses surveillance drones in US

19 June 2013 Last updated at 16:55 ET

The FBI has used drones for surveillance in limited cases over US soil, FBI Director Robert Mueller has told a US Senate committee.

Mr Mueller said the agency had "very few" drones and had used them in "a very minimal way" and "very seldom".

But the director said the FBI was in the "initial stages" of developing drone policies.

The revelation comes amid a debate about how the US government balances privacy and national security.

It recently emerged that America's electronic spying agency has been harvesting US phone records and overseas internet data.

Mr Mueller described the drone use in testimony on Wednesday to the US Senate judiciary committee. He was questioned on the matter by Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley.

"I will tell you that our footprint is very small," said Mr Mueller, who is retiring in September after 12 years as FBI director.

He said drones were used in "particular incidents where you need the capability", adding he was unsure how long images captured by the drones were kept.

The panel's chairwoman, Sen Dianne Feinstein, told the FBI director she believes that unmanned planes are the biggest threat to Americans' privacy, especially their use by private firms.

The authorities used a surveillance drone during a February stand-off with an Alabama man who shot dead a school bus driver and then took a five-year-old boy hostage, according to media reports at the time.

Congress has ordered the Federal Aviation Administration to open up US airspace to unmanned aircraft by October 2015.

The aerospace industry predicts there will be 30,000 drones deployed globally within five years, half of them in the US, the Associated Press news agency reports.

In March, a Republican senator raised concerns about the use of drones against Americans.

Kentucky's Rand Paul demanded a pledge that the federal government would not use such aircraft in the US to kill terror suspects who are American citizens.

Sen Paul spoke without a pause on the issue for nearly 13 hours on the Senate floor, in a tactic known as a filibuster, to delay the nomination of a new CIA chief.

In May, US President Barack Obama said he would curtail the use of armed drones in operations outside the US.

Under the new policy described by the White House, the US will only allow drones to be used in areas that are not overt war zones when there was a "continuing, imminent threat" to the US and capture was not feasible.

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Serena sorry for quotes on US rape

19 June 2013 Last updated at 17:38 ET

World tennis number one Serena Williams has apologised after reportedly appearing to criticise the victim in a high-profile US rape case.

Rolling Stone magazine quoted her as saying the teenager in the Steubenville, Ohio, case "shouldn't have put herself in that position".

Williams has now released a statement on her website saying she was "deeply sorry for what was written".

In March, two high school footballers were convicted of the Ohio rape.

The case, involving a 16-year-old girl, fiercely divided the small town, attracting nationwide media attention.

'A real shock'

In an interview posted on Rolling Stone's website on Tuesday, Williams was quoted as saying: "I'm not blaming the girl, but if you're a 16-year-old and you're drunk like that, your parents should teach you - don't take drinks from other people.

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I am currently reaching out to the girl's family to let her know that I am deeply sorry for what was written"

End Quote Serena Williams

"She's 16, why was she that drunk where she doesn't remember? It could have been much worse. She's lucky."

According to Rolling Stone, Williams added that the girl "shouldn't have put herself in that position, unless they slipped her something, then that's different".

While not denying she made the statements, Williams appeared on Wednesday to cast doubt on their accuracy.

She said in a statement on her website: "What happened in Steubenville was a real shock for me. I was deeply saddened. For someone to be raped, and at only 16, is such a horrible tragedy! For both families involved - that of the rape victim and of the accused.

"I am currently reaching out to the girl's family to let her know that I am deeply sorry for what was written in the Rolling Stone article. What was written - what I supposedly said - is insensitive and hurtful, and I by no means would say or insinuate that she was at all to blame.

"I have fought all of my career for women's equality, women's equal rights, respect in their fields - anything I could do to support women I have done. My prayers and support always goes out to the rape victim. In this case, most especially, to an innocent 16-year-old child."

Williams, a 16-time Grand Slam champion, is preparing to defend her title at Wimbledon next week.

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Two held in US 'X-ray terror plot'

19 June 2013 Last updated at 19:52 ET

Two US men have appeared in court accused of plotting to build an X-ray weapon to kill enemies of Israel and the US with lethal rays of radiation.

Glendon Scott Crawford, 49, and Eric Feight, 54, allegedly sought funding to assemble the truck-mounted machine.

But a synagogue, a Jewish organisation and the Ku Klux Klan alerted police after Mr Crawford approached them.

The men are charged with conspiracy to provide support to terrorists.

They face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

The authorities say they monitored the defendants, who are from New York state, to ensure they could not obtain a radiation source or harm members of the public.

It is alleged that in April 2012, Mr Crawford walked into a synagogue and "asked to speak with a person who might be willing to help him with a type of technology that could be used by Israel to defeat its enemies, specifically, by killing Israel's enemies while they slept".

An undercover investigator was assigned to record conversations with the two men. Mr Crawford, an industrial mechanic for General Electric, knew Mr Feight through his work as an external contractor for the utility.

FBI agent Geoffrey Kent said in the indictment: "Crawford has specifically identified Muslims and several other individuals/groups as targets."

Mr Crawford is said to have told an undercover investigator that "radiation poisoning is a beautiful thing".

According to the indictment, Mr Crawford said he harboured animosity to those he perceived as hostile to the interests of the United States, individuals he referred to as "medical waste".

Both of the accused also said they were committed to building the device and discussed technical specifications, according to the indictment.

Investigators allege Mr Feight designed, built and tested a remote control for the system. The damaging effects of the radiation would have affected their victims only days later, according to the alleged plan.

The two were arrested the same day as undercover investigators planned to offer access to a real but inoperable X-ray system.

"This case demonstrates how we must remain vigilant to detect and stop potential terrorists, who so often harbor hatred toward people they deem undesirable," prosecuting US Attorney Richard Hartunian said in a statement.

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Fed 'could end bond-buying in 2014'

19 June 2013 Last updated at 22:21 ET

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US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on the pace of asset purchases

The US Federal Reserve has maintained the rate of its asset purchase programme at $85bn (£54bn) a month, but could start scaling it back soon.

It also kept interest rates at a record low range of between zero and 0.25%.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said if the central bank's forecasts were correct, it could begin slowing asset purchases by the end of 2013 and wind them down completely by the middle of 2014.

But he emphasised that the programme was tied to economic conditions.

"We have no deterministic or fixed plan," Mr Bernanke told a press conference after the Fed's latest two-day monetary policy meeting.

The Fed painted a brighter economic outlook, in which it expects the unemployment rate to continue to fall and inflation to edge closer to its longer term target of 2%.

US stocks fell sharply in afternoon trading as investors digested a possible scaling back of stimulus measures. The Dow Jones dropped 206 points, or 1.3%, to close at 15,112.

Benchmark 10-year US bond yields jumped to a 15-month high on expectations the Fed will reduce its bond buying.

'Threshold, not trigger'

The Fed's asset purchase programme, in which it has been buying $85bn of government bonds a month, aims to lower long-term interest rates to encourage borrowing, spending and investing.

Mr Bernanke said that the tapering of the programme was akin to "letting up a bit on the gas pedal" and "not beginning to apply the brakes".

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Samira Hussain BBC business reporter, Washington DC

---

The current relationship between the Federal Reserve and the American economy is new and uncharted territory.

The central bank has been supporting this country's current recovery by steadily pumping money in to the US economy.

The key to any good relationship is clear communication.

Some say that has been lacking on the part of the architect of the stimulus, Ben Bernanke.

The mere suggestion by the Chairman of the Federal Reserve that it may ease some of its asset purchases sooner than expected, sent jitters through markets back in May.

The relationship is still trying to recover.

By Bernanke's own admission, the goal of Wednesday's press conference was to offer clarity, if and when the Fed may want to start easing its way out of the relationship.

In spending more than an hour speaking to reporters, Bernanke tried to send as clear a message as he could.

Eventually this relationship has to change but for now, the stimulus will continue.

He added that interest rates were likely to remain low for some time after asset purchases concluded, and any rate rise was likely to be "far in the future".

The Fed has previously said that it would not consider raising rates until the unemployment rate, currently 7.6%, fell to 6.5%.

But Mr Bernanke stressed that this 6.5% level was "a threshold, not a trigger", saying that if unemployment were to fall below it, it would not immediately lead to a rate rise, but merely a consideration of the broader economic outlook.

Mr Bernanke also noted that inflation had been running below the Fed's 2% longer-run objective, but said that temporary factors were partly the reason for that.

Forecasts

In its latest statement, the Fed noted further improvement in labour market conditions in recent months, and said the downside risks to the jobs market and the economy had "diminished since the Fall".

In fresh quarterly projections, the central bank said it expects the US economy to grow between 2.3% and 2.6% in 2013.

It predicts an unemployment rate of about 7.2% to 7.3% by the end of the year, slightly lower than its March prediction. It expects unemployment to have fallen to 5.8% to 6.2% by 2015.

Alec Young, global equity strategist at Standard & Poor's in New York, told the BBC: "No matter how you look at it, we're closer to the end of this unprecedented stimulus than we were yesterday.

"They have increased at the margin their outlook for the economy - and what's going to drive an end to QE (quantitative easing) and tapering of their bond purchases, and ultimately a tightening of interest rates, is a healthier economy."

Inflation concerns

The Fed said inflation could run as low as 0.8% this year, but will pick up next year to between 1.4% and 2%.

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"Inflation that is too low is a problem," Mr Bernanke said. "We expect inflation to come back up. That's our forecast. But... we are concerned about it."

"We would like to get inflation up to our target. And that will be a factor in our thinking about the thresholds. It will be a factor in our thinking about asset purchases."

Fourteen of the 19 Federal Reserve board members and bank presidents, who set out the quarterly projections, said they did not think it would be appropriate to raise interest rates until 2015. One member thought a rate rise would not be seen until 2016.

Mr Bernanke has been Federal Reserve chairman since 2006 and is expected to step down when his second term ends in January 2014.

President Obama has suggested that Mr Bernanke will not continue beyond the end of his term, saying in a recent interview that he had "already stayed a lot longer than he wanted".

At the press conference, Mr Bernanke declined to comment on his personal plans.

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Sopranos actor James Gandolfini dies

20 June 2013 Last updated at 01:54 ET

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Katy Watson reports: "For a man who saw huge success relatively late in his acting career, his premature death has come a great shock to many"

James Gandolfini, the US actor best known for his role as a therapy-seeking mob boss in The Sopranos, has died at the age of 51.

Gandolfini suffered a possible heart attack while on holiday in Rome, the US HBO TV network told the BBC.

The New Jersey-born star had been in Italy to attend the Taormina film festival in Sicily.

He won three Emmy awards for his role as Tony Soprano, a mafia boss juggling his criminal career and family life.

"It is with immense sorrow that we report our client James Gandolfini passed away today while on holiday in Rome, Italy," said his managers, Mark Armstrong and Nancy Sanders, in a statement on Wednesday night.

"Our hearts are shattered and we will miss him deeply."

HBO also said the star of The Sopranos, which ran for six series on the cable channel from 1999-2007, would be "deeply missed".

From bartender to Broadway

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• 1961: Born in Westwood, New Jersey to school dinner lady and a bricklayer, both of Italian descent
• Gained BA in Communications from Rutgers University
• 1993: Played woman-beating mafia enforcer Virgil in Tony Scott's True Romance
• 1995: Performed in Broadway's On the Waterfront.
• 1999: Debut appearance as New Jersey Mafia boss Tony Soprano, for which he won three Emmys and a Golden Globe during its eight-year-run
• 2007: Produced HBO documentary on injured Iraq War veterans and their devotion to America
• 2012: Executive producer of HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn, starring Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman

"He was a special man, a great talent, but more importantly a gentle and loving person who treated everyone, no matter their title or position, with equal respect," said its statement.

"He touched so many of us over the years with his humour, his warmth and his humility."

Gandolfini was born in 1961 in Westwood, New Jersey, to a school dinner lady and a bricklayer-turned-school caretaker, both of Italian background.

He graduated with a degree in communications from New Jersey's Rutgers University.

Then he moved to New York, finding work as a bartender and a club manager.

Gandolfini's acting career took off in 1992 when he landed a part in a Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

His breakthrough role came a year later playing a mobster in the movie True Romance.

Gandolfini's more recent film credits included In The Loop, Zero Dark Thirty and Killing Them Softly.

He was nominated for a Tony theatre award in 2009 for his role in the Broadway hit God of Carnage.

'Genius'

Gandolfini is survived by his second wife, Deborah Lin, a former model from Hawaii, whom he married in 2008, and their daughter, Liliana, born last year.

He also leaves a teenage son, Michael, from his first marriage to Marcy Wudarski, his former personal assistant. They wed in 1999 and split three years later.

Sopranos creator David Chase said Gandolfini was a "genius".

"He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time," he said. "A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes."

Lorraine Bracco, who played Tony Soprano's psychiatrist, Dr Jennifer Melfi, in the TV drama, said: "We lost a giant today. I am utterly heartbroken."

Jeff Daniels, who starred with Gandolfini in God of Carnage, said: "If Broadway has a version of a guy you want in your foxhole, Jim Gandolfini was mine."

In a December 2012 interview with the Associated Press news agency, Gandolfini said he had become an actor to overcome his anger.

"I don't know what exactly I was angry about," he said.

"I try to avoid certain things and certain kinds of violence at this point," he added. "I'm getting older, too. I don't want to be beating people up as much."

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Assange asylum bid for NSA leaker

20 June 2013 Last updated at 05:25 ET

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is trying to broker a deal that would see US surveillance programme leaker Edward Snowden granted asylum in Iceland.

Mr Assange said he had been in touch with lawyers for Mr Snowden, who fled to Hong Kong before the scandal broke.

Iceland's PM said "informal discussions" had been held with an intermediary of the ex-CIA contractor.

But Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson said Mr Snowden, 29, would need to be in Iceland to apply for asylum.

Mr Snowden, who most recently worked as a contract computer technician for the National Security Agency (NSA), the US electronic spying agency, has vowed to fight any extradition attempts by the US.

The US has yet to file a formal request for his extradition from the Chinese territory.

Fair trial?

The leaks, published in a series of articles this month in The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers, revealed that US agencies had systematically gathered vast amounts of phone and web data.

"We are in touch with Mr Snowden's legal team and have been, are involved, in the process of brokering his asylum in Iceland," said Mr Assange in a conference call from the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he himself is fighting extradition to Sweden.

On Monday, Mr Snowden said US officials had destroyed any possibility of a fair trial by labelling him a traitor.

"The US government, just as they did with other whistleblowers, immediately and predictably destroyed any possibility of a fair trial at home, openly declaring me guilty of treason," he wrote in a live online chat.

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney and two influential members of the US Congress have accused the leaker of betraying his country.

Mr Snowden's father has also urged his son not to commit "treason", using a US TV interview this week to urge him to come home and "face justice".

NSA Director Gen Keith Alexander told Congress on Wednesday that surveillance programmes leaked by Mr Snowden had helped thwart 50 attacks since 2001.

Plans to attack the New York Stock Exchange were among 10 plots targeting the US that had been stopped, Mr Alexander told the intelligence committee of the House of Representatives, adding that the snooping operations were critical.

Julian Assange walked into the Ecuadorean embassy in London on 19 June 2012 when his appeal against extradition to Sweden for questioning on accusations of sex crimes was turned down.

He has always denied the accusations, and said on Wednesday he would stay in the embassy even if they were dropped, as he still feared being sent to the US for releasing secret documents.

Wikileaks made headlines around the world in 2010 after it released more than 250,000 leaked US diplomatic cables.

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