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Ai Weiwei has posted a number of pictures of what he says are listening devices found in his Beijing studio.

The Chinese dissident artist captioned one photo of a bug on Instagram with “There will always be surprises”.

His friend Liu Xiaoyuan confirmed the bugs were found after the artist returned from a trip to Germany.

Xiaoyuan tweeted that they were found when redecoration started on Ai’s home and were found in the office and a living room. The pictures show the devices were hidden in electric sockets.

The artist also posted a video clip of firecrackers being set off in a metal bucket next to one of the devices. He wrote “Did you hear it?” next to the video.

The artist has retweeted an article saying listening devices had been found at his studio. His mother Gao Ying told Radio Free Asia that she believed the devices were placed in his studio four years ago when the artist was arrested and his studio was searched by the authorities.

The artist has long been critical of the ruling Communist Party and was held in 2011 for 81 days before being released. He was arrested during a government crackdown on political activists. He was held over alleged crimes of bigamy and tax evasion, but was released without charge.

He was later given a 15 million yuan (£1.5m) fine for evading taxes, although the artist maintains the charges were politically motivated in retaliation for his criticism of the Chinese Government. The authorities kept his passport for four years but it was returned earlier this year.

Since then he has visited Germany, where his son lives, and London. In September he was in London for the launch of a retrospective of his work at the Royal Academy.

A pact that helped the tech giants and others send personal data from the EU to the US has been ruled invalid.

The European Court of Justice said that the Safe Harbour agreement did not eliminate the need for local privacy watchdogs to check US firms were taking adequate data protection measures.

It added that the ruling meant Ireland’s regulator now needed to decide whether Facebook’s EU-to-US transfers should be suspended.
The pact has existed for 15 years.

Facebook has denied any wrongdoing.”This case is not about Facebook,” said a spokeswoman. “What is at issue is one of the mechanisms that European law provides to enable essential transatlantic data flows. “We will of course respond fully to any enquiries by our regulator the Irish Data Protection Commission as they look at how personal data is being protected in the US.

“The outcome… will have significant implications for all Irish companies who transfer data across the Atlantic.” The ruling was the result of a legal challenge by an Austrian privacy campaigner concerned that the social network might be sharing Europeans’ personal data with US cyberspies. “I very much welcome the judgement of the court, which will hopefully be a milestone when it comes to online privacy,” said Max Schrems on learning of the judgement. “It clarifies that mass surveillance violates our fundamental rights.”

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A Sydney teenager from the same school as the 15-year-old who shot dead a police worker on Friday has been arrested on his way to class.

Police said the boy was asked about alleged social media posts, but became threatening and intimidated officers.

Facebook posts which local media say were written by the boy, who has not been named, defended and praised teen gunman Farhad Jabar’s actions.

Jabar was shot dead by police after killing police veteran Curtis Cheng. New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione on Saturday said Jabar’s actions were politically motivated and therefore linked to terrorism.

The boy detained on Tuesday was taken away in handcuffs for further questioning at Parramatta Police Station.

He told the Australian Broadcasting Corps that police had taken offence to him filming them on his phone as they patrolled outside the school. Media reports said he had written posts on Facebook saying the nearby Merryland police station “is next”.

The arrest comes as classes resumed for the first time since Friday’s shooting, and the end of school holidays. The NSW Department of Education is offering counselling to Arthur Phillip High School students and staff.

Police accountant Curtis Cheng, 58, was gunned down on the street as he headed home for the long weekend.
Floral tributes were laid for Mr Cheng outside the New South Wales Police Headquarters over the weekend, which is 300m from Arthur Phillip High, by friends, colleagues and even strangers.

Afghan forces called in the air strike that hit a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) clinic in Kunduz, killing 22 people, a US general says.

Gen John Campbell admitted that no US forces had been under fire at the time, reversing an earlier statement.

MSF says Afghan attempts to justify the strike amount to “an admission of a war crime”. Afghan forces backed by the US have retaken much of Kunduz, which was overrun by the Taliban last week.

Twelve MSF staff members and 10 patients were killed when the hospital was hit on Saturday by a US airstrike. MSF says it was a lifeline for thousands in the city and in northern Afghanistan. “We have now learned that on 3 October, Afghan forces advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from US air forces,” said Gen Campbell, the top commander of the US-led Nato coalition in Afghanistan. “An air strike was then called to eliminate the Taliban threat and several civilians were accidentally struck.” He expressed his “deepest condolences” over the civilian deaths.

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India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged German companies to invest in India, on the concluding day of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit.

Mr Modi said his government had “worked aggressively” to make India an easy place to do business. Germany has already pledged more than 1bn euros ($1.12bn; £74m) to India to develop solar projects.

Mr Modi has launched the “Make in India” campaign to boost manufacturing at home and create millions of jobs.

On Tuesday, Chancellor Merkel and Mr Modi toured a German engineering factory in India’s technology hub of Bangalore. Mr Modi called on German firms to invest in Asia’s third largest economy to provide jobs for millions of young people. He said his government was determined to turn India into a manufacturing hub, saying it had fast-tracked clearances for foreign companies to set up businesses. “One of the biggest challenges in India today is to productively employ our youth,” Mr Modi told a meeting of business leaders.

The two leaders held talks in Delhi on Monday during Ms Merkel’s first visit to India since Mr Modi’s party stormed to power in May last year promising to reform and revive the economy.

The two leaders also discussed terrorism, defence, arms cooperation and the stalled free trade agreement negotiations between India and the European Union which, if implemented, will boost bilateral commerce.