U.N. says U.S. not spying on it

The United Nations said Wednesday it has received assurances from the U.S. government that U.N. communications networks "are not and will not be monitored" by U.S. intelligence agencies. But chief U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky would not comment on whether the world body had been monitored in the past, as reported by the German magazine Der Spiegel. Nesirky said the United Nations had been in contact with Washington about the reports that surfaced two months ago and has received a guarantee of no eavesdropping. He said, "The U.S. authorities have given assurance that the United Nations communications are not and will not be monitored."

France rejected as implausible assertions by U.S. intelligence agencies Wednesday that they had not collected phone records of millions of European citizens, and a French government spokeswoman said the charges "appear to have been thoroughly substantiated." Neither France nor Spain disputed claims by U.S. intelligence that they collaborated with the National Security Agency to gather and share telephone records collected outside their borders. But France said data collection inside its territory by the NSA appeared to be another matter entirely. Spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said, "More must be done to clarify the practices of U.S. secret services."

Russia denied reports in the Italian media and elsewhere that its spy agencies distributed special USB thumb drives doctored to let them eavesdrop on delegations attending last month's Group of 20 summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia. "We don't know the sources of the information," said Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, according to RIA Novosti, the state news agency. "However, this is undoubtedly nothing but an attempt to shift the focus from issues that truly exist in relations between European capitals and Washington to unsubstantiated, nonexistent issues."