US-linked snooping claim nonsense: UK

In his first remarks on the subject,Foreign Secretary William Hague said the two countries did share intelligence but that GCHQs work was governed by a very strong legal framework. The idea that in GCHQ people are sitting around working out how to circumvent a UK law with another agency in another country is fanciful, Hague told BBC TV on Sunday. It is nonsense.

Promising he would give a statement on the subject to the lower house of Britains parliament on Monday,Hague said there was no threat to privacy or peoples civil liberties. He was limited in what he could disclose,he said.

Of course we share a lot of information with the US, he said,adding that the two countries enjoyed an exceptional intelligence sharing relationship. But if information arrives in the UK from the US its governed by our laws.

The British government is under pressure to reveal more details of how Britain and the US share intelligence after the reports,based on a leak,suggested such cooperation ran much deeper than was previously known. Any intelligence gathering was authorised,necessary,proportionate and targeted, Hague added,saying he personally authorised GCHQ intercepts most days of the week.

White House plays down data collection

WASHINgTON:The Obama administration tried Saturday to marshal new evidence in defence of its collection of private Internet and telephone data,arguing that a secret programme called PRISM is simply an internal government computer system designed to sort through court-supervised collection of data,and that Congress has been briefed 13 times on it since 2009.

James R Clapper Jr,the director of national intelligence,insisted PRISM was not an undisclosed collection or data mining program. He said the government does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of telephone and Internet providers,and information is turned over only under court order,when there is a documented,foreign intelligence purpose for acquisition of the data. NYT

Role of Aus,NZ govts in data mining questioned

CANBERRA,WELLINGTON: Unease over a clandestine US data collection programme has rippled across the Pacific to two of Washingtons major allies,Australia and New Zealand,raising concerns about whether they have cooperated with secret electronic data mining.

Both Canberra and Wellington share intelligence with the US,Britain and Canada. But both Pacific neighbours now face awkward questions about the so-called PRISM programme that the US government says is aimed primarily at foreigners.

Australias influential Greens party called on the government to clarify whether Canberras own intelligence agencies had access to the NSA-gathered data,which according to Guardian newspaper included search history,emails,file transfers and live chats.

Well examine carefully any implications in what has emerged for the security and privacy of Australians, Australias Foreign Minister Bob Carr said on Sunday.

In New Zealand,Internet file-sharing tycoon Kim Dotcom,who is fighting extradition to the US,took to Twitter on Sunday to highlight what he alleged was the role of NSA surveillance in his own case,and the cooperation of Government Communications and Security Bureau.