BBC News - Anger in Europe over US-EU bugging claims The US government is facing the fall-out over claims of alleged spying by the US security services on the embassies and missions of its EU allies, including France, Italy and Greece. A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said "bugging friends is unacceptable... we are no longer in the Cold War." French President Francois Hollande indicated that a major US-EU trade deal to be negotiated next week was under threat, unless the US could give a guarantee that its surveillance of the EU had ended. Meanwhile reports from Moscow say Edward Snowden, who faces charges of espionage in the US for disclosing secrets about its surveillance programme, has applied for political asylum in Russia.