GERMAN PROSECUTORS LAUNCH PROBE INTO SPYING CHARGES

Berlin, May 4: Germany's top public prosecutor will look into accusations that the country's BND foreign intelligence agency violated laws by helping the United States spy on officials and firms in Europe, including Airbus group, the federal prosecutors office said.

A spokesman for the prosecutors office confirmed weekend media reports that an investigation had been launched as opposition politicians demanded more information about the unfolding scandal from Chancellor Angela Merkel's government.

"A preliminary investigation has been started," the spokesman said. In a related development, federal prosecutor Harald Range himself will be questioned by a parliamentary committee looking into the affair in Berlin on Wednesday.

Der Spiegel magazine said the BND helped the U. S. National Security Agency over at least 10 years, embarrassing Germany and upsetting many in a country where surveillance is a sensitive topic due to abuses by the Nazis and the East German Stasi.

The magazine also reported that in 2013 the BND ordered staff to delete 12,000 internet “selectors” — IP addresses, email addresses and phone numbers of German government officials -- that it had been tracking for the NSA.