WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama defended top secret National Security Agency spying programs as legal in a lengthy interview, and called them transparent — even though they are authorized in secret.

LONDON - Phone call logs, credit card records, emails, Skype chats, Facebook message, and more: The precise nature of the NSA's sweeping surveillance apparatus has yet to be confirmed.

But given the revelations spilling out into the media, there hardly seems a single aspect of daily life that isn't somehow subject to spying by the U.S. agency.

For some, it's a matter of indifference who or what is rifling through their electronic records. Others, mindful of spy agencies' history of abuse, are more concerned.

HONG KONG - The former CIA employee who leaked top-secret information about U.S. surveillance programs remains in Hong Kong, where activists rallied in his support Thursday outside the American Consulate.

The news of Edward Snowden's whereabouts, revealed by an editor of a local newspaper that interviewed him Wednesday, is the first since he went to ground Monday after checking out of his hotel in the autonomous Chinese territory.

WASHINGTON - CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell is stepping down and being replaced by White House lawyer Avril Haines, who will be the first woman to hold the post.

When President Barack Obama named a successor to former CIA Director David Petraeus in January, Morell was passed over in favour of the White House counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan. Morell had been acting director since Petraeus' resignation.

WASHINGTON - The director of the National Security Agency told Congress that information collected by once-secret U.S. surveillance programs disrupted dozens of terrorist attacks, while the young man who leaked documents to expose the programs declared from Hong Kong, "I am not here to hide from justice."

The NSA director, Army Gen. Keith Alexander, was set to address the Senate Intelligence Committee in closed session on Thursday.

WASHINGTON - The director of the National Security Agency vigorously defended once-secret surveillance programs as an effective tool in keeping the U.S. safe, telling Congress that the information collected disrupted dozens of terrorist attacks without offering details.

WASHINGTON - The director of the National Security Agency says he wants to provide as much public detail as possible on the agency's surveillance programs, arguing that they protect America while also guarding the public's civil liberties and privacy.

NSA director Keith Alexander told senators at a hearing Wednesday that he doesn't want to jeopardize national security but wants a public debate about the phone and email surveillance programs disclosed last week by a former NSA contractor.

HONG KONG - The former CIA employee who leaked top-secret information about U.S. surveillance programs said in a new interview in Hong Kong on Wednesday that he is not attempting to hide from justice here but hopes to use the city as a base to reveal wrongdoing.

HONG KONG - The former CIA employee who suddenly burst into headlines around the globe by revealing himself as the source of top-secret leaks about U.S. surveillance programs has just as quickly gone to ground again.

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton said Tuesday that it has fired Edward Snowden, the employee who leaked details of a secret National Security Agency surveillance program.

The McLean, Va.-based firm said in a statement that it fired Snowden on Monday "for violations of the firm's code of ethics and firm policy." It said he had earned a salary of $122,000 a year.

The firm called Snowden's actions "shocking" and said he had been a Booz Allen employee for less than three months.