The French President Francois Hollande has said there will be no negotiations with the United States until Washington guarantees it will stop spying on its allies. Secret files suggesting that US intelligence had kept America’s allies under surveillance were leaked to the European media by Edward Snowden. President Obama defended the US.
"Wherever there is an intelligence service, here’s one thing that they are going to be doing. They are seeking additional insight beyond what’s available through open sources. If that weren’t the case, then there’d be no use for an intelligence service. And I guarantee that in European capitals, there are people who are interested in, if not what I had for breakfast, at least what my talking points might be, should I end up meeting with their leaders. That’s how intelligence services operate.”
The director of the scandal-hit Vatican bank and his deputy have resigned three days after the arrest of a senior cleric accused of plotting to smuggle $26m. The Vatican said Paolo Cipriani and his deputy Massimo Tulli stepped down in the interest of the bank and of the Holy See.
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A suicide bomb attack inside a Shiite mosque in Iraq has killed at least 22 people. The evening attack happened in the town of Muqdadiyah about 80km north-east of the capital Baghdad in Diyala province. Iraq has been suffering its worst sectarian violence in several years.