DHAKA: The imbroglio over the tapping of Angela Merkel’s phone deepened on Sunday, after a US denial that president Barack Obama was personally informed for years of electronic surveillance against the German chancellor.

As a sense of betrayal spread in European capitals about spying activities conducted against world leaders and ordinary citizens, German media reports said tapping of Dr Merkel’s phone may have begun as early as 2002.

Bild am Sonntag newspaper quoted US intelligence sources as saying that America’s National Security Agency chief General Keith Alexander had briefed Obama on the operation against Dr Merkel in 2010.

‘Obama did not halt the operation but rather let it continue,’ the newspaper quoted a high-ranking NSA official as saying, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1250 HRS, OCT 28, 2013
RoR/BSK