US spy agency accused of bugging UN headquarters

The US National Security Agency has bugged the United Nations’ New York headquarters, Germany’s Der Spiegel weekly said yesterday in the latest in a series of reports on US spying that has strained relations between Washington and its allies.

Citing secret US files that the magazine has seen, stemming from fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, Der Spiegel said the revelations proved how systematically the United States spied on other states and institutions.

Der Spiegel said the documents showed that US intelligence agents bugged both other states and institutions including the European Union and the UN’s Vienna -based nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).