The former Penn State coach at the centre of a child abuse investigation that has shocked the US has admitted in an interview showering with young boys, but denies being a paedophile.

Jerry Sandusky told NBC News that he had "horsed around with kids", hugged them and touched their legs, but was innocent of the charges against him.
In a phone interview, he said he should not have showered with the children.
Mr Sandusky, 67, is accused of abusing at least eight boys over 15 years.
According to grand jury testimony, a witness saw him raping a boy as young as 10 in the Penn State showers in 2002.
'Sexually attracted?' In an interview with NBC News' Rock Center programme broadcast on Monday night, Mr Sandusky said: "I have horsed around with kids. I have showered after workouts.
"I have hugged them and I have touched their legs without intent of sexual contact."
When asked if he had done anything wrong, he said: "I shouldn't have showered with those kids."

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Child abuse in America

Every five hours a child dies from abuse or neglect in the US.
The latest government figures show an estimated 1,770 children were killed as a result of maltreatment in 2009.
A recent congressional report concludes the real number could be nearer 2,500.
In fact, America has the worst child abuse record in the industrialised world. Why? The BBC investigates.
 

Asked if he was a paedophile, he said: "No".

The former defensive co-ordinator for the Penn State Nittany Lions was also asked if he felt sexual attraction to underage boys.
"Sexually attracted?" Mr Sandusky said. "You know, I enjoy young people. I love to be around them. But no, I'm not sexually attracted to young boys."
In an interview with CNN on Monday evening, Mr Sandusky's lawyer, Joe Amendola, described his client as a "big overgrown kid" and said athletes have a culture of showering together.
Mr Amendola said his client had been "destroyed" by the charges - that bricks had been thrown through the windows of his home.
The lawyer added: "We have an answer for every allegation."
Mr Sandusky was formerly assistant to Penn State head coach Joe Paterno, who was fired last week amid criticism he did not do enough about the allegations.
On Monday, Mr Paterno's name was taken off the Stagg-Paterno Championship Trophy, also known as the Big Ten.
Meanwhile, the president of Mr Sandusky's charity for disadvantaged children resigned. Jack Raykovitz said he hoped his exit would help restore faith in the organisation.
Mr Sandusky - who was arrested a week ago - allegedly groomed victims through the Second Mile, which he founded in 1977.
He retired from Penn State in 1999, but continued to use the university's facilities for his work with the charity.
It emerged on Sunday that the judge who granted Mr Sandusky unsecured bail had donated to the charity and worked as a volunteer for the group.
State College District Judge Leslie Dutchcot did not immediately respond to questions about whether she would recuse herself from the case.
The Penn State scandal also claimed the job last week of the university's president, Graham Spanier.
Meanwhile, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice-president Gary Schultz deny charges they covered up the alleged abuse.

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Libyan factions in deadly clashes near Zawiya

Several days of fighting between rival factions near the Libyan coastal city of Zawiya have left at least seven people dead, reports say.

The BBC's Karen Allen in Libya says rival communities have been fighting for an area previously controlled by Gaddafi loyalists.
The interim government said the fighting had been resolved.
However analysts say the violence raises questions about stability in post-Gaddafi Libya.
The country is still awash with weapons and armed groups following the rebellion that led to the collapse of Col Muammar Gaddafi's rule.
Interim Libyan leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said the ruling ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) had brought together elders from the feuding areas - Zawiya and the nearby tribal lands of Warshefana - and that the dispute has been resolved over the weekend.
"I want to assure the Libyan people that everything is under control," he said on Sunday.
However, witnesses said some fighting was still taking place as he spoke.
Reports said trouble flared up on Thursday when fighters from Warshefana set up a checkpoint on a highway near Zawiya, challenging fighters from the city.
Fighters from Zawiya reportedly accused their Warshefana counterparts of having links to the old government.

A fighter from the capital Tripoli, quoted by AP news agency, said the two sides had been battling for control of a military camp of the ousted government on the main road between Tripoli and Zawiya.
Witnesses reported hearing heavy gunfire and the explosions of rocket-propelled grenades.
At least seven people were killed although one report quoting medics in the Warshefana region put the toll at 13 - four from Zawiya and nine from Warshefana.
Mr Abdul-Jalil said the trouble had been started by "young men behaving irresponsibly" and that the NTC had established a committee to address the grievances of both sides.
NTC leaders have said they cannot quickly disarm the various armed factions across the country.
Mr Abdul-Jalil said there was high unemployment among the armed men and that the new government had to offer alternatives such as jobs, education and training.

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Australia's Gillard urges U-turn on India uranium sales

Australia's prime minister has called for the country's ban on selling uranium to India to be overturned.

Julia Gillard wrote in a newspaper column that it made no sense to sell nuclear material to China, Japan and the US, but not to India.
Ms Gillard's Labor Party introduced the ban in 2008 because India had not signed the non-proliferation treaty.
Australia holds about 40% of the world's proven reserves of uranium and supplies about 20% of the world market.
The country has no nuclear power facilities itself but allows the export of uranium for peaceful purposes.
'Dynamic, democratic India' India has a long-standing nuclear power programme, but also has nuclear weapons.
Delhi has refused to sign the non-proliferation treaty, arguing that it is discriminatory because only countries that had tested nuclear weapons before 1967 are allowed to legally possess them.
Despite this, the US recently signed a deal with New Delhi to co-operate on its civil nuclear programme.
Ms Gillard, writing before the Labor Party conference next month, urged her colleagues to drop their support for the ban, describing India as a close partner.
"It is time for Labor to modernise our platform and enable us to strengthen our connection with dynamic, democratic India," she wrote.
"We must, of course, expect of India the same standards we do of all countries for uranium export - strict adherence to International Atomic Energy Agency arrangements and strong bilateral undertakings and transparency measures that will provide assurances our uranium will be used only for peaceful purposes."
She said lifting the ban would bring jobs and growth to Australia.
Analysts say Ms Gillard's plan is likely to face stiff opposition from politicians on the left of her party, but she is likely to have enough support to force the issue through.
India is planning to build some 30 reactors in the next 30 years and is aiming to get a quarter of its electricity from nuclear energy by 2050.

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Occupy Wall Street: New York police clearing protest

Police in New York have launched a pre-dawn operation to clear the Occupy Wall Street camp in Zuccotti Park.

The city mayor's office said on Twitter that the protesters should "temporarily leave and remove tents and tarps" but could return once the park was clear.
Occupy Wall Street was set up in September to protests against economic inequality and had been followed by dozens of protests around the world.
A camp in Oakland, California was cleared overnight on Monday.
The New York Times said that as the operation in Zuccotti Park began at about 01:00 (06:00 GMT), police gave an announcement, saying: "The city has determined that the continued occupation of Zuccotti Park poses an increasing health and fire safety hazard."
Leaflets were also handed out saying protesters would be allowed to return once the clearance had taken place, but not to bring camping equipment.
Occupants were told to "immediately remove all private property" and that they would be arrested if they interfered with the operation, said the notice. Any belongings left behind would be put into storage.
The BBC's Laura Trevelyan on the edge of the park says riot police are blocking entrances but that while protesters are frustrated the scene is calm outside the camp.
However, the overnight action clearly took the camp by surprise, our correspondent says.
Protesters were discussing regrouping in nearby Foley Park in lower Manhattan and believe the manner of the clearance will only amplify their message, our correspondent adds.
The protesters' live web stream from the park showed crowds chanting "all day, all week, Occupy Wall Street" and "the whole world is watching" as police moved into the camp, close to New York's financial district.
"The police are forming a human shield, and are pushing everyone away," protester Rabbi Chaim Gruber told AP.
They released a statement saying: "Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park), home of Occupy Wall Street for the past two months and birthplace of the 99% movement that has spread across the country and around the world, is presently being evicted by a large police force."
Police spokesman Paul Browne said most people had begun leaving the park once the order to vacate was given but that a small group of people were refusing the leave.
He said the park was not heavily populated at the time, the Associated Press reports. At least one person was arrested for disorderly conduct.
The city authorities and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have come under pressure from local businesses to shut down the camp, which has numbered about 200 occupants as it nears its two-month anniversary.
The ban on camping equipment will effectively put an end to people sleeping in the park, says our correspondent.
Camp deaths The Occupy movement, inspired by the Arab Spring uprisings and economic protest camps in Spain, is calling for a more equal distribution of wealth.

 

Officials said the Oakland camp was cleared amid fears of violence

Organisers in the US say most of the country's money is held by the richest 1% of the population and that they represent the other 99%.
They have received widespread support, including from many authority figures, but there have been concerns about safety and hygiene, while critics of the movement say it has failed to suggest a viable alternative economic system.
The New York action comes after police arrested 33 people in Oakland, California as they raided the protest camp in Frank Ogawa Plaza early on Monday morning.
The camp had been marred by recent outbreaks of violence in and around it, including a fatal shooting last week. However, camp residents had said the killing was unconnected to their protest.
Police had declared the plaza a "crime scene" shortly they entered.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said she had to act after "repeated violence and this week a murder".
"We had to bring the camp to an end before someone else got hurt."
Oakland police had said they sympathised with the protesters' cause, but urged them to "leave peacefully, with your heads held high, so we can get police officers back to work fighting crime in Oakland neighbourhoods".
A similar raid ended with police in riot gear arresting 50 people in Portland, Oregon on Sunday evening.
Police in a Vermont city have also evicted protesters after a man fatally shot himself last week inside a tent.
A number of other US cities have seen protests camps spring up in the past two months, and the Occupy movement has also spread to Europe, South America and Asia.

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Euro crisis 'opportunity for UK' to reclaim powers - PM

 

The current turmoil in Europe is an opportunity for the UK to "refashion" its relationship with Brussels, David Cameron has said.

In a speech in London, the prime minister argued powers should "ebb back" from Brussels to Westminster as part of "fundamental" future reform.
Although the EU is "out of touch" on many issues, he said it is not in the UK's national interest to exit.
The PM is under pressure from many of his MPs to renegotiate UK membership.
Some Conservatives want to go further and leave the EU altogether.
The prime minister's authority was directly challenged last month when 81 Tory MPs defied the leadership and voted for a referendum on the UK's continued place in the EU.
'Outward looking' Mr Cameron used a major foreign policy speech in the City of London to argue that the eurozone financial crisis has challenged longstanding assumptions about how the EU should evolve and its 27 members must now ask what kind of union they want in the future.

Claiming that the EU is too often seen as an "abstract end in itself" and detached from economic reality, he outlined his vision for a more "outward looking", "flexible" and "diverse" union which puts advancing its citizens living standards above all else.

"We have a right to ask what the European Union should and should not do and change it accordingly," he said.
"As I said, change brings opportunities. An opportunity to begin to refashion the EU so it better serves this nation's interests and the interests of its other 26 nations.
"An opportunity, in Britain's case, for powers to ebb back instead of flow away and for the European Union to focus on what really matters to underpin prosperity, stability and growth.
"That is the kind of fundamental reform I yearn for."
Staying inside Mr Cameron has been urged to spell out what powers he wants to claw back from Brussels and when negotiations on this might begin but he has appeared to rule out such a possibility in the short term and his Lib Dem coalition partners are wary of such a step.
But Tory MPs have said negotiations on amending EU treaties to allow for closer fiscal integration among eurozone members could start as early as next month and the UK must be prepared for this.
In his speech, the prime minister warned that Europe is "slipping behind" other economic powers and that unless it becomes more competitive, it will remain a "continent in trouble".
But he insisted that the UK's future remains within the EU, not outside it.
"Leaving the EU is not in our national interest," he will argue. "Outside, we would end up like Norway, subject to every rule for the single market made in Brussels but unable to shape those rules.
"Believe me, if we weren't in there helping write the rules they would be written without us - the biggest supporter of open markets and free trade - and we would not like the outcome."
'We sceptics' The BBC's political correspondent Robin Brant said this was a strong message about what the PM saw as the limits of ever-closer union with Mr Cameron referring at one point to "we sceptics".
Labour indicated earlier on Monday it was prepared to consider the case for "rebalancing" the division of powers between the UK and Europe but said this should not be a priority amid continuing efforts to stabilize the euro and the need to secure the future of the single market.

Shadow Treasury minister Chris Leslie said despite Mr Cameron's rhetoric, the government had actually been "sitting on the sidelines" in crucial debates about Europe's future.
In a wide-ranging address, the prime minister also defended the UK's intervention in Libya and said the new Libyan authorities had found evidence of chemical weapons hidden by the Gaddafi regime.
He also revealed that the UK plans to host an international conference on Somalia next year, saying it is a "failed state that directly threatens British interests".
The event will look at ways of dealing with piracy off the coast of Somalia, protecting ships in the Gulf of Aden, challenging extremist groups in Somalia and the risk of UK citizens being radicalised there.

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Dozens killed in Syria as Jordan king tells Assad to go

Dozens of people are reported to have died in continuing unrest across Syria, as the king of neighbouring Jordan urged President Assad to stand down.

In one incident, about 20 troops were killed in a clash with army defectors in a southern town near the Jordan border, activists say.
King Abdullah became the first Arab leader to openly urge Mr Assad to quit.
He told the BBC that if he were in Mr Assad's position, he would start talks to ensure an orderly transition.
"I would step down and make sure whoever comes behind me has the ability to change the status quo that we're seeing," King Abdullah stated in an exclusive interview with BBC World News television.
He said: "If Bashar [al-Assad] has the interest of his country [at heart] he would step down, but he would also create an ability to reach out and start a new phase of Syrian political life.
"That's the only way I would see it work and I don't think people are asking that question."

King Abdullah added: "Whenever you exert violence on your own people, it is never going to end well."

Many Arab leaders have condemned the crackdown on months of protests in Syria. Dozens of deaths have been reported in the latest unrest on Monday.
The Arab League voted on Saturday to suspend Syria's membership.
A Syrian spokeswoman in Washington, Roua Sharbaji, told the BBC that Syria expected neighbouring Arab states to adopt a more constructive role in helping to solve the crisis.
The UN says more than 3,500 people have died since the start of the protests in March. The Syrian authorities blame the violence on armed gangs and militants.

In the latest violence, the Local Co-ordination Committees - a network of opponents to President Assad's rule - said 51 civilians had been killed on Monday, including 21 in the restive s'If there is a life after Bashar, what is it?'outhern province of Deraa and 13 in the city of Homs.

In a separate report, Reuters news agency quotes activists as saying 40 people were killed in the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh near the border with Jordan.
The activists say about half were members of the security forces killed by defectors from the army.
Such claims are impossible to verify as the Syrian government has severely restricted access for foreign journalists.
Defiance Many Western powers have urged President Assad to stand down. Both the EU and the US have said he has lost legitimacy but have ruled out military intervention.
On Monday, the European Union on Monday tightened its sanctions on Syria.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels added 18 Syrian officials to a list of people affected by a travel ban and asset freeze. This brings to 74 the number of President Assad's inner circle who have been blacklisted.
The ministers also approved the freezing of loans to Syria from the European Investment Bank.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he hoped the UN would finally impose its own sanctions on Syria.

Russia and China last month vetoed a Western-sponsored UN Security Council resolution condemning Damascus.
The US welcomed the moves by the Arab League and the EU.
"We're going to continue to consult not only with the Arab League, but also with the EU and our other partners as we move forward in trying to find ways to increase the pressure on Assad," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.
Earlier on Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem reacted defiantly to the Arab League's suspension. He said the decision was illegal and vowed to overcome "conspiracies" against Damascus.
The Arab League is set to hold another meeting to discuss Syria on Wednesday.
Russia on Monday condemned the suspension. "Someone really does not want the Syrians to agree among themselves," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow.

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Syria defiant over Arab League suspension

 Opposition supporters rallied in the Syrian town of Hula on Sunday

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Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem has reacted defiantly to the Arab League's suspension of Syria over its crackdown on protesters.

He denounced the move as a "dangerous step" and said it was an illegitimate decision prompted by US incitement.

He said Syria would not budge from what he called its strong positions, adding that all "plots" against it would fail.

The Arab League voted on Saturday to suspend Syria's membership over its repression of months of protests.

It is set to hold another meeting to discuss Syria on Wednesday.

At a televised news conference, Mr Muallem said: "Today there is a crisis in Syria which pays the price of its strong positions. Syria will not budge and will emerge stronger... and plots against Syria will fail."

He also apologised for attacks by Assad loyalists on foreign embassies in Damascus.

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"It is important... that this does not repeat itself. The protection of the embassies is part of our responsibilities. For this reason, I apologise for what happened," Mr Muallem told a news conference in the Syrian capital.

Crowds attacked the embassies of France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey on Saturday. Qatar and Saudi Arabia were among the countries that voted to suspend Syria from the Arab League.

Mr Muallem also played down the prospect of any Western military intervention in Syria.

"Syria is not Libya. The Libyan scenario will not be repeated; what is happening in Syria is different from what happened in Libya and the Syrian people should not worry," he said.

When the UN Security Council voted earlier this year to approve military action against Libya, China and Russia abstained.

More sanctions

Mr Muallem's statement came as European foreign ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss tightening sanctions against Syria, on which a preliminary deal has been reached.

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The sanctions are set to target more individuals associated with the crackdown and to prevent Syria getting funds from the European Investment Bank.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has said it was time to look at increased protection for Syria's civilians and urged the UN Security Council to take a stand.

"Today the time has come to see how we can better protect the population. I hope the Security Council too will finally take a position," Mr Juppe said.

The UN says more than 3,500 people have died since the start of the protests in March while the Syrian authorities blame the violence on terrorists

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