JAMMU: Over 1,42,000 people have been rescued from the flood-ravaged parts of Jammu and Kashmir so far, as the relief operations launched by Armed forces entered the 12th day today.

"Armed Forces and NDRF have so far rescued over 1,42,000 persons from different parts of J&K in the ongoing rescue and relief operations," a defence spokesperson said here.

Thirteen tonnes of water purifying tablets and six water filtration plants with a capacity to filter 1.2 lakh bottles per day have already reached Srinagar, he said.

Suction pumps and other engineering equipment from Vishakhapatnam have also reached the flood affected area for relief work, he said, adding that twelve sewage pumps from Delhi have also been dispatched to the Valley.

The spokesman said communication equipment of the Department of Telecommunication, Army, BSNL and some private companies have also been dispatched to restore the network.

Also, thirty generator sets of 3 to 5 KVA capacity have been sent to Srinagar to provide continuous power supply in relief camps and field hospitals, he added.

Besides these, as many as 8,200 blankets and 1,119 tents have been provided to the flood victims, he said, adding, 80 medical teams of the Armed Forces Medical Services are already operating in full swing.

Four field hospitals have been established in Avantipur, Pattan, Anantnag and Old Airfield where medical aid is being provided to the ailing people, he said, adding that till now, they have treated more than 22,500 patients.

Military medical services from Bathinda have also been shifted to Srinagar, he said, adding that about 10 tonnes of medicines and other health care materials, including mobile oxygen generation plant, have reached Srinagar from Delhi.

More relief materials, including blankets and tents, water bottles from IRCTC and food packets, are being airlifted from Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Baroda and Amritsar, he said.

Twenty-five tonnes of Indian gram (channa) from NAFED is also being transported to the flood affected areas, he said.

Eighty-six transport aircraft and helicopters of the Indian Air Force and Army Aviation Corps are continuing their efforts in rescue and relief operations, he said, adding that the Army has deployed around 30,000 troops for rescue and relief operations, of which 21,000 troops are deployed in Srinagar region and 9,000 troops in Jammu region.

Armed Forces personnel are distributing water bottles and food packets on a large scale, he said, adding, that till now, more than 4,00,000 litres of water, 1,31,500 food packets and over 800 tonnes cooked food have been airdropped and distributed in the flood-affected areas.

So far, 1771 sorties were undertaken by helicopters and aircraft of Armed Forces and 2371 tonnes of relief materials airdropped by the Indian Air Force, he said.

A total of 224 boats of the Army and 148 NDRF's inflatable boats have also been put into service, he added.

Armed Forces have also established 19 relief camps in Srinagar and Jammu region.

"In Srinagar region, camps were established at BB Cantt, Avantipur, Old Airfield, Sumbal, Chattargam and Jijamata Mandir, where thousands of rescued people are being sheltered," the spokesperson said.

They are also being provided with food and other basic amenities, he added.

To restore the road connectivity, five task forces of the Border Roads Organisation, which include 5700 personnel, have been deployed in Srinagar, Rajouri and Akhnoor, he said.

As of now, they have restored the road connectivity from Batote–Kishtwar, Kishtwar-Anantnag and Jammu-Poonch. On the Jammu–Srinagar highway, BRO personnel have cleared the road up to KM 172 (Ramsu), he said. — PTI

SRINAGAR: Even as the men in uniform continue their relentless efforts to provide succour to flood victims in the Kashmir Valley, their aircraft and boats are being targeted by stone-pelters.

Some of the 80 IAF aircraft involved in relief and rescue operations across the flooded Srinagar city have suffered minor damage after they were targeted by stone-pelters but the security personnel say they "won't give up" till help reaches all.

A rotary wing plane of the Air Force suffered damage during stone-pelting during one of its sorties to undertake rescue operation in the city.

"There have been incidents when the helicopters flying at low altitude were targeted with stones and one of the helicopter was in fact hit by several stones causing some minor damage on the body and near the rotary wings," a senior Air force officer told .

The officer said that the helicopter, however, returned safely to the base where the damage was being assessed.

The Army too says that some of its boats deployed for relief and rescue operations were attacked by stone-pelters. 

"It is unfortunate that the people who are trying to save them are being attacked, but we will not give up and will continue with our work till help does not reach to every single soul," said Air Marshal S B Deo, Director General of Air Operations.

There have been reports that at certain places people are being instigated by separatists to target and disrupt the relief and rescue work being undertaken by the Indian Air Force and the Army.

Deo said that he could understand that there was anger amongst the people and he has empathy for those who lost everything in the floods.

"We are doing our duty for which we have deployed more than 80 aircraft and as you can see in every three minute a plane takes a sortie. We are not going to give up," Deo said.

Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah too has condemned the targeting of the Army and Air Force personnel who are engaged in the relief and rescue operations across the Valley and appealed to the "disruptive elements" to allow these operations.

"These disruptive elements are fishing in the troubled waters, they must not become impediments in the relief and rescue work being carried out by different agencies.

"They will get plenty of time afterwards," Omar said. — PTI

Security forces hit hard by floods

SRINAGAR: When calamity strikes, it does not discriminate. This was on ample display when floods ravaged Kashmir.

Along with civilian population, security forces deployed here from various parts of the country were also hit badly.

They lost their belongings and their weapons were damaged or left useless after water entered their camps across the Kashmir Valley.

Hundreds of AK rifles, INSAS rifles and SLR rifles, along with their ammunition, are still submerged at various places across the Kashmir Valley, so are bombs, hand grenades etc.

Some reports said 26 AK rifles from an Army camp have been washed away in the floods. In the area of Gogji Bagh in uptown Srinagar, one of the worst-hit parts of the Valley, about 400 personnel of a Central paramilitary force had to leave their camp after gushing waters engulfed it last Sunday night.

"We got orders to leave everything and save our lives," said one of them, explaining how weapons remained in the submerged building complex.

With water level receding somewhat, they are now make rounds of their complex to locate the weapons.

"Rifles can made reusable again by oiling and servicing as also the ammunition. However, bombs and hand grenades would be of no use now," said another security man on condition of anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to media.

Similar was the fate of Army camps in other places in the Valley.

However, as they come to terms with what happened, their colleagues work almost round-the-clock to save marooned civilians and deliver relief material to those who refuse to come out of their submerged houses for fear of theft and looting. 

"We start our operations to help the marooned people at 4 am every day and halt at midnight. Between midnight and 4 am, the boats are serviced," said Subedar Honorary Lt S P Singh of 103 Engineers Regiment, which is based in Jalandhar and was rushed here five days back to help in rescue and relief operations.

He, along with his colleagues Naik Nachitra Singh, Naik V D Bhonsle and Naik O P Patel, make rounds of various colonies of Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar and Nowgam, in boats to ferry the marooned people as well as those evacuees who want to visit their homes.

"Our priority is to save children, women and unwell people," he says, while estimating that their regiment must have rescued at least 10,000 people so far.

Major Ashish Sharma, leading their operations, says about 250-300 people are rescued every day by them.

Besides rescue, they are also engaged in delivering food, medicines and other essentials to people who are marooned but do not want to leave their houses.

The Indian Air Force, on its part, has pressed into service 35 aircraft and equal number of helicopters to bring in relief supplies and evacuate people from the valley. These include heavy lift five C-130J and three C-17 aircraft, according to an IAF spokesman.

Relief material is brought from various places including Delhi and Chandigarh, and stranded people are taken to places where arrangements are made for their onward journey to their destinations, the spokesman said.

He said while initially the thrust was on rescuing people from marooned areas, now it has shifted to providing relief material. — PTI

14 children found dead in Srinagar hospital

SRINAGAR: Fourteen children who died at a hospital here are among the 43 people found dead in the Kashmir Valley as the flood waters receded in Jammu and Kashmir, authorities said Saturday.

Officials on Saturday said the 14 children had died in the government-run G.B. Pant Hospital here. The hospital and other major hospitals in the city, including the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) and the Government Medical College (GMC), were inundated in the floods.

State government officials confirmed to IANS that 29 bodies had been found in the Kashmir Valley alone after the flood waters receded.

Officials said there was four to 10 feet of flood water in residential areas of Shivpura, Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar, Wazirbagh, Gogjibagh, Karan Nagar, Shetrashahi, Bemina, Qamarwari and some other areas in the Srinagar city.

The main business hubs of the city — Lal Chowk, Residency Road, Maisuma, Hari Singh High Street and Karan Nagar are still submerged. The financial losses to businesses in these markets is estimated to be multi-crores.

The markets in the old city areas of Srinagar have been closed for the last six days because of shortage of goods, although these areas are not affected by the flood waters directly.

The Srinagar-Jammu national highway through which all supplies are routed to the land-locked Valley remained closed for the sixth day Saturday. Efforts are on to restore this lifeline to Kashmir.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has confirmed that all records of state's premier financial institution — The Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd — are safe and people need not worry about their deposits.

People were seen lined up in unending queues at petrol pumps in north Kashmir's Ganderbal district.

Authorities have started bringing in petroleum products into the Valley through the Manali-Leh-Srinagar highway that is open for traffic.

More than 15,000 people from different parts of the country are waiting at Srinagar airport to be flown out of the flood-ravaged Valley, officials said.

Although the local radio station and Doordarshan are still unable to resume services, an alternative arrangement was started on Friday by airing flood-related messages through the Prasar Bharati controlled FM station here.

All telecom connectivity, including landlines, mobile services and the Internet, are shut for the fifth day Saturday in the Valley despite claims by the authorities that these were being restored "on a war footing". — IANS

JAMMU: The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway remained closed for the tenth consecutive day today due to landslides and sinking of road at various places, with hundreds of vehicles stranded on the route.

The traffic was suspended on the 300-km-long crucial road link due to landslides, washing of road patches and flooding at various places on September 4.

Hundreds of passenger and commercial vehicles were stranded on the highway at various place in Banihal, Ramban, Batote, Kud, Patnitop, Chenani, Udhampur and Jammu due to closure of the road, police officials said.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has intensified operations to clear the Highway as soon as possible, they said, adding BRO pressed into service its men and machines and launched a massive clearance and repair operation to reopen the highway for traffic.

Authorities were focusing on reopening of the highway so that more rescue material could reach Kashmir by road. — PTI

NEW DELHI: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan is visiting Jammu and Kashmir to take stock of medical relief operations in the flood-hit state.

Officials said that the Health Minister will reach Jammu today and oversee the on site relief operations there. He will be visiting Srinagar tomorrow to review the relief work there.

The Health Ministry has earlier sent over 100 tonnes of medicines and other supplies besides teams of doctors and experts to flood-ravaged Jammu and Kashmir.

A 20-member clinical team comprising physicians, pediatricians and reproductive health specialists have been deployed in Srinagar.

The ministry has set up a control room here to monitor the situation in the state round-the-clock. — PTI

Chhattisgarh to send 10,000 solar lamps

RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh government has decided to provide 10,000 solar lamps and other necessary electrical equipment, including transformers, to people of flood-ravaged Jammu & Kashmir.

The decision was taken during a meeting of Chhattisgarh State Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA), which was chaired by Chief Minister Raman Singh at the Mantralaya last evening, an official release said here today.

Besides solar lanterns, transformers and other equipment will be provided to maintain power supply in the flood-hit region of the northern state, it said.

The CM has directed the officials of Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company (CSPDCL) and CREDA to take immediate steps in this direction, it said.

The state has already declared to extend an assistance of Rs 10 crore — Rs 5 crore in terms of cash and rice worth Rs 5 crore — for the flood victims.

Meanwhile, Singh also reviewed the works undertaken by CREDA during current financial year from April-July along with its achievements in the previous fiscal.

In 2013-14 as many as 4,40,582 free solar lamps were distributed in the tribal inhabited remote areas while 2,44,283 free solar study lamps were given to students under the scheme of the state government, it said.

So far this year, as many as 1,146 families were provided solar lamps and solar study lamps were given to 3832 students till July, it added.

The worst-ever floods which hit the Valley in 109 years has so far claimed around 250 lives, leaving thousands stranded. — PTI

NEW DELHI: Voting today began on a brisk note in byelections to three Lok Sabha and 33 Assembly constituencies spread across ten states, seen as a test of Narendra Modi government's popularity, especially as BJP braces for polls in two states next month.

Amid elaborate security arrangements, the polling is being held in 11 Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, where the stakes are high for BJP. Around nine per cent votes were cast in the first two hours, according to poll officials.

The election comes after the saffron party's near-total sweep of the 80 seats in Lok Sabha polls just four months ago.

Eleven Assembly seats felt vacant after 10 BJP MLAs and one of its ally Apna Dal were elected to the Lok Sabha.

BJP chief Amit Shah also faces the challenge in the bypolls in UP as he was credited with the party's stupendous success.

The three Lok Sabha bypolls are in Vadodara (Gujarat), Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh) and Medak (Telangana). Among the Assembly seats, nine in Gujarat, four in Rajasthan, two in West Bengal, five in northeastern states and one each in Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh are going to polls today.

Counting of votes is scheduled for September 16.

Retaining Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, vacated by SP supremo Mualayam Singh Yadav who had won from two LS seats including Azamgarh, is a matter of prestige for his party. BSP and Congress have not fielded their candidates, leaving a straight contest between Tej Pratap Singh and BJP's Shiv Singh Shakya.

The 11 aAsembly seats in UP, whose outcome may be a pointer to which way the political wind is blowing in the run up to 2017 assembly polls, are Saharanpur Nagar, Noida, Thakurdwara, Bijnor, Nighasan, Balha, Sirathu, Rohaniya, Hamirpur, Charkhari and Lucknow East. All of these were vacated by BJP MLAs who won the Lok Sabha elections.

In Gujarat, Narendra Modi's successor as Chief Minister Anandiben Patel faces her first big test in byelections beinge held today for Vadodara LS seat, vacated by Modi, and in nine Assembly constituencies.

This is the first election in Gujarat in more than 12 years that BJP would be fighting without its star campaigner Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Polling began on a swift note for the by-election to Medak Lok Sabha seat in Telangana and Nandigama (SC) Assembly seat in Andhra Pradesh.

Byelection is being held in Medak as the Lok Sabha seat was vacated by Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrasekhar Rao upon becoming Chief Minister of the newly-formed Telangana state.

Medak LS seat, once part of undivided Andhra Pradesh and now in Telangana, witnesses a triangular contest between ruling TRS, BJP, and Congress. The bypoll was necessitated as TRS chief and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao vacated the seat.

On the other hand, TDP is trying hard to prove it won't be easy to conquer its bastion Nandigama assembly in Krishna district where it is in a direct fight against Congress. The byelection was forced by the death of TDP MLA Tangirala Prabhakara Rao within days of his victory.

Voting was also underway in the lone insurgency-hit Antagarh Assembly constituency in Chhattisgarh where only two candidates are in the fray.

In West Bengal, Chowringhee and Dakshin Bashirhat Assembly seats had been won by CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress for which the bypolls are a crucial test of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's popularity.

Buyoed by its modest gains in Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal and relying on Modi's charisma, BJP hopes to wrest the Bashirhat Dakshin seat from Trinamool and make its debut in the state assembly.

Assembly elections will be held in Maharashtra and Haryana in a single phase on October 15. — PTI

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India R M Lodha today asserted that the independence of judiciary is "non- negotiable" and it has the inherent strength to foil any attempt to interfere with that.

In remarks that come against the backdrop of steps to end the collegium system of higher judicial appointments, he did not make any direct reference to the law passed by Parliament in this regard but said no effort to take away judiciary's independence will succeed.

Judicial independence is essential for maintaining public confidence that there is an institution which would come to their "aid and rescue in case of any wrong committed by the Executive or anyone", he said addressing a seminar on 'Rule of Law Convention-2014'.

The CJI called upon the legal fraternity to keep away people who "play tricks to taint judiciary", saying any form of corruption in judiciary "shield impurity which is the worst form of aliment in thriving democracy". "I won't speak on the issue (the Bill,) but I would touch upon the issue of independence of judiciary which is very dear to me. It is one thing which is non-negotiable," Justice Lodha, who is demitting office as CJI on September 27, said.

"Having been a judge of High Courts and the Supreme Court for more then two decade, 21 years, I can say with confidence that judiciary has the inherent strength and no effort would succeed in taking away the independence of judiciary," he said.

Justice Lodha said, "My experience is that by and large now people understand that judiciary is something whose institutional independence cannot be touched.

"I am more than confident that independence of judiciary maintained by everyone and anyone for whom judiciary is dear at any cost and once it is maintained I am sure there would be strong rule of law as it is the independence of judiciary that leads to confidence in people mind that here is a judiciary that would come to their aid and rescue if there is wrong done by executive or by anyone." 

Justice Lodha also referred to the Judicial Appointments Commission of United Kingdom and said during his recent visit to London, he was told that there is no change in the quality of appointments after the Commission was constituted five years back but "it brought transparency".

He said in the era of economic growth, corruption is also growing and it is "very-very" essential that judiciary remain corruption free.

"If there is any amount of corruption in judiciary one thing that will happen is it would shield impurity. That is the worst form of ailment in a thriving democracy and to each one of you who are sitting here I request you don't do anything that directly or indirectly brings corruption to judiciary. Because corruption is not something which can happen by one hand.There are people who play all sorts of trick".

"Corruption has to be eradicated in all forms in judiciary," the CJI said, adding that the challenge is there to maintain the purity of judiciary.

While lauding the role played by legal profession in the independence of the country, he said "Now, the role of lawyers has become important for maintaining rule of law. Rule of law cannot be breached by anyone howsoever be a person mighty." — PTI

NEW DELHI: After a gap of 18 years, BJP's student wing Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad today swept Delhi University students' union elections, trouncing Congress' NSUI to bag all four positions and credited the triumph to "Modi wave".

The ABVP won posts of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary by comfortable margins, bettering last year's performance when it had lost one of the seats to the National Students' Union of India (NSUI).

Mohit Nagar was elected president of DUSU, while Pravesh Malik won the poll for vice-president's post. Kanika Shekhawat and Ashutosh Mathur have been elected as secretary and joint secretary, respectively.

Chief Election Officer for the DUSU polls D S Rawat said Nagar polled 20,718 votes defeating Gaurav Tushir of NSUI who polled 19,804 votes for the post of president. The margin of defeat was 914.

Last year, ABVP had won the posts of president, vice-president and joint secretary, while NSUI had managed to capture only secretary's post.

"Expectations of people have gone up after the Modi government came to power. The ABVP fulfilled its promises of scrapping the four-year undergraduate (FYUP) programme. We won because of the Modi wave," said Rohit Chahal, National Secretary, ABVP.

BJP national president Amit Shah took to twitter to congratulate ABVP on their victory.

"I congratulate ABVP for winning all 4 panels in DUSU elections. The students & karyakartas of DU deserve the credit," he tweeted.

Parvesh Malik, who polled 21,935 votes, defeated NSUI's candidate Mona Chodhary with the margin of 7,859 votes.

Chodhary got 15,649 votes, Rawat said.

He said Shekhawat defeated NSUI's Amit Sidhu Teema by 3022 votes. Shekhawat polled 18,671 votes while Teema polled 15,649 votes.

ABVP joint secretary candidate Ashutosh Mathur polled 23,133 votes while NSUI's Abhishek Choudhary got only 12,065 votes. Mathur defeated Choudhary by 11,068 votes, which is the highest margin among all the winning candidates. PTI

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has pointed to a "silver lining" in the violence wrought by the Islamic State, saying it has brought "clarity" in the Muslim world in a long time about the need to snuff out this "brand of Islamic extremism".

At a Democratic Party fund-raiser, Obama said the militant group ISIS, poses the most prominent threat in the Middle East when it comes to terrorism. ISIS, he said has not only taken over large swathes of Iraq and Syria but displayed the kind of brutality that even by the standards of terrorists is extraordinary.

"What also is a silver lining in the terrible mayhem that ISIL has wrought throughout the region is that it has focussed attention I think for the first time in a long time in the Muslim world, a great clarity about the need to completely distance from and ultimately snuff out this particular brand of Islamic extremism that really has no place in the 21st century," Obama said yesterday.

"And that is I think a measure of how we have got to approach these problems because they’re not going to go away immediately,” he said.

"What gives me confidence is that we're on the right side of history here," he added.

In his televised speech earlier, Obama had vowed to "degrade and ultimately destroy" the Islamic State, as he announced a dramatic expansion of the US-led military campaign, including airstrikes for the first time in Syria and the formation of a broad coalition to fight the dreaded militant group so that it would "find no safe haven".

"We will defeat ISIL, but there are always going to be these threats of terrorism and we're going to have to make sure that we are creating the structure and the partnerships and the commitment that allows us over the long haul to win this fight," Obama said.

Meanwhile, the White House and Pentagon concurred that President Obama was determined to lead the world in defeating the terrorist organisation (ISIS), as vowed by him in his televised address.

"United States is at war with al-Qaeda and its affiliates around the globe, the United States is at war with ISIL," Earnest told reporters yesterday.

"The strategy that the Obama Administration has put in place is a counter-terrorism strategy that has been successful in other areas where there are extremist groups seeking a safe haven to do harm to the US.

"This counter-terrorism strategy includes building up the capacity of local forces to take the fight to these extremist groups on the ground in their country," he said.

The White House statement was echoed by the Pentagon.

"What I said was this is not the Iraq war of 2002. But make no mistake, we know we are at war with ISIL in the same way we're at war and continue to be at war with al-Qaeda and its affiliates,"Pentagon Press Secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby, told reporters.

"But military measures are not going to be enough," Kirby said, but reiterated that "there would be no troops on the ground. The destruction of ISIL and their capabilities is going to require more than just airpower." "It also is going to take the ultimate destruction of their ideology," he added. — PTI

LONDON: The family of a British man being held hostage by Islamic State (IS) militants have appealed to his captors to make contact with them, media reported Saturday.

A statement from the family of David Haines said the militants, who have beheaded two US journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, had not replied to their previous messages, BBC reported.

Haines, 44, was taken hostage in the village of Atmeh, in the Idlib province of Syria, in March 2013.

He had been helping French agency Acted deliver humanitarian aid, having previously helped local people in Libya and South Sudan.

IS has threatened to next kill Haines unless US air strikes on its positions in Iraq are halted.

The threat was made during a video posted online showing the killing of US journalist Steven Sotloff earlier this month.

"We are the family of David Haines. We have sent messages to you to which we have not received a reply. We are asking those holding David to make contact with us," the statement made by Haines' family said.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has said that the government was doing "everything" it could to protect Haines.

The militant group previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) have seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria since June, declaring a new caliphate. — IANS

WASHINGTON: A US court overseeing spy agencies has renewed the government's authority to carry out a controversial phone surveillance programme for another three months, federal bodies have said, attributing it to the delay in the passage of the surveillance reform bill by the Senate.

Reauthorisation from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) will allow the National Security Agency (NSA) to continue to warrantlessly collect "metadata" in bulk about people's phone calls. The records contain information about which numbers people called, when and how long they talked, but not the actual content of their conversations.

"Given that legislation has not yet been enacted, and given the importance of maintaining the capabilities of the Section 215 telephony metadata programme, the government has sought a 90-day reauthorisation of the existing programme, as modified by the changes the President announced in January," the US Department of Justice and the Director of National Intelligence said in a joint statement.

The NSA's phone records program needs to be reauthorized by the FISC every 90 days. The current authority expires on December 5.

While the House of Representatives passed the bill in this regard early this year, it is stuck in the Senate.

"The Department of Justice and the Director of National Intelligence support this legislation and believe that it reflects a reasonable compromise that preserves essential intelligence community capabilities, enhances privacy and civil liberties, and increases transparency," the Department of Justice and the Director of National Intelligence said.

Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, fled the US in 2013, after leaking data concerning the NSA surveillance programs around the world. — PTI