This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33106044

The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Merkel phone tapping probe dropped Snowden NSA: Germany drops Merkel phone-tapping probe
(35 minutes later)
Germany drops investigation into alleged tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone by US security agency Germany has dropped an investigation into alleged tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone by the US National Security Agency (NSA).
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version. The office of federal prosecutor Harald Range said the NSA had failed to provide enough evidence to justify legal action.
If you want to receive Breaking News alerts via email, or on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App then details on how to do so are available on this help page. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on Twitter to get the latest alerts. The allegations of NSA phone-tapping came out in the secrets leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden about large-scale US surveillance in 2013.
German-US ties were severely strained.
When the allegations were made the White House gave no outright denial, but said Mrs Merkel's phone was not being bugged currently and would not be in future.
On 4 June last year Mr Range said "sufficient factual evidence exists that unknown members of the US intelligence services spied on the mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel".
But in December he revealed that the investigation was not going well and he had not obtained enough evidence to succeed in court.