BBC News with Jerry Smit

The German authorities have said they suspect US intelligence agencies may have been monitoring Chancellor Angela Merkel’s private mobile phone calls. Mrs. Merkel reportedly spoke to President Obama today asking for immediate clarification. Nick Bryant reports.

The call to Barack Obama was initiated by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel after learning that US intelligence may have targeted her private mobile phone. She demanded immediate and comprehensive clarification from the president and said that if her suspicion turned out to be true then it would represent a grave breach of trust and be totally unacceptable. Clearly the German government believe the allegation is plausible enough to confront the White House. During the conversation President Obama tried to assure her that America is not monitoring and will not monitor her communications but the White House has not said whether this denial applies to possible past surveillance.

The Russian authorities have dropped charges of piracy against the 30 people detained on a Greenpeace ship in the Arctic last month during a protest against oil drilling. Investigators say they will now be trialed on hooliganism. Here is Daniel Sandford.

The Investigative Committee, Russia’s equivalent of the FBI is running this investigation. Late in the evening it suddenly put out a statement. It’s said that investigators were in the process of changing the charge phase by all 30 Greenpeace activists from piracy to hooliganism. The new charge carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison instead of 15 but the investigators didn’t rule out more serious charges at a later date in particular the use of violence against officials. All the Greenpeace activists have been denied bail so far and have been in detention for five weeks at first on that ship and then in the jail in the Arctic port of Murmansk.

A judge has started hearing arguments in the largest municipal insolvency case in the United States with the once booming city of Detroit seeking bankruptcy protection. The city owes its creditors around 18 billion dollars but the bankruptcy filing has been fiercely opposed by retirees, pension funds and unions. Signori Hussein reports.

Hundreds marched in front of the Federal Courthouse chanting angrily at what’s left of their city. This was the cradle of America’s automobile industry but decades of decline have left Detroit broke and unable to fulfill its promises to its workers. If Detroit is successful, creditors would have to accept pennies on the dollar and some 23,000 retired city workers would see major changes to their pensions and benefits.

Large parts of Syria have been hit by a power cut after a series of explosions near Damascus airport. Residents say the entire capital has been plunged into darkness. Officials have blamed the attack on opponents of president Bashar al-Assad.

News from the BBC

The Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif says he’s urged President Barack Obama to stop drone strikes in his country. He was speaking to journalists after the two men met at the White House in Washington. The use of remotely operated planes to attack militants is usually controversial in Pakistan. Human rights groups say many of the attacks killed civilians and children who are not involved in militant acts.

Irish police have returned to their families two children they removed earlier in the week after a DNA test showed allegations about them not being with their real parents were not true. Rights group has said the case’s reflected deeply ingrained anti-Roma prejudices. Andy Martin has more.

Child protection officers went to a house in southwest Dublin on Monday following a tip-off that a blond- haired girl appeared to be living with a Roma family. Two adults in the house insisted that a seven-year-old girl with fair hair and blue eyes was their daughter, the officers however were unpersuaded and the child was taken into an emergency care. DNA tests have now shown the couple to be the girl’s parents. Another child removed from a different Roma household in the Irish Midlands yesterday has been returned to his family.

The Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh has confirmed that his Islamist-led government is prepared to resign once it is completed negotiations with the opposition on forming a caretaker administration. Their talks are aimed at ending months of crisis that scraped Tunisia since the assassination of two opposition politicians earlier this year. Mr. Laarayedh’s comments follow a march by several thousand activists in the capital Tunis calling for his government to step down.

The President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro says he will make the 8th of December a holiday in honor of the late Hugo Chavez. Writing on Twitter, Mr. Maduro said it should be a day of loyalty to the former President to be marked by as he put it ‘love in action’.

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