US says sorry for snooping allegations against British intelligence

London - The Republican president offered no evidence for the allegation, which an Obama spokesman said was "simply false".

British Prime Minister Theresa May has received assurances from the White House it would not repeat allegations that Britain's GCHQ spy agency had helped former US president Barack Obama eavesdrop on Donald Trump, her spokesman said on Friday.
A spokesman for May said that the charge, made on Tuesday by Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano, that the UK's intelligence agency GCHQ had helped Obama to wire tap Trump after his victory in last year's US presidential election, was "ridiculous".
"We've made clear to the administration that these claims are ridiculous and they should be ignored and we've received assurances that these allegations will not be repeated," May's spokesman told reporters.
"We have a close special relationship with the White House and that allows us to raise concerns as and when they arise as was true in this case."
Representatives for the White House did not immediately reply to a request seeking comment following May's spokesman's remarks.
Trump, who became president in January, tweeted earlier this month that his Democratic predecessor had wiretapped him during the late stages of the 2016 campaign. The Republican president offered no evidence for the allegation, which an Obama spokesman said was "simply false".
On the Fox & Friends programme, Napolitano, a political commentator and former New Jersey judge, said that rather than ordering US agencies to spy on Trump, Obama had obtained transcripts of Trump's conversations from GCHQ so there were "no American fingerprints" on it.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Thursday quoted Napolitano's comments about GCHQ when he spoke to the media.
Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, citing unnamed intelligence sources, reported on its website that Spicer and Trump's national security adviser Lieutenant General Herbert McMaster had made formal apologies to Britain.
In a rare public statement, Britain's GCHQ, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, the equivalent of the US National Security Agency which monitors overseas electronic communications, said the claims should be ignored. - Reuters
Fake tweet
New York - McDonald's says it has determined that its account was "hacked by an external source" after it sent a message calling Donald Trump "a disgusting excuse of a President."
The tweet to Trump on Thursday from the official account for McDonald's Corp. has since been deleted but was captured in screenshots. The message said it would love to have President Obama back and "also you have tiny hands."
The tweet was also temporarily pinned to the top of the McDonald's account so that it would be the top message people see. - AP
Top senators see no proof for Trump Tower wiretap claim
washington - President Donald Trump's explosive allegation that his predecessor wiretapped his Manhattan skyscraper wilted further on Thursday as two high-ranking senators and the top Republican in Congress said they saw no evidence to back the claim.
The Trump's administration is facing calls to either shore up, or drop, the unsubstantiated claim that Barack Obama ordered the phones tapped at Trump Tower during the election campaign.
Upping the pressure, a statement from both the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Richard Burr, and the committee's Democratic vice chair Mark Warner, said they had seen no information to support Trump's allegation, made in a tweet on March 4.
"Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016," they said. The clear verdict from the committee leaders comes a day after two heads of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said they had received no information to back the Trump tweets.
Their rebuttal of Trump's claim was further echoed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, the top Republican on Capitol Hill, who told CNN on Thursday that "we have not seen any evidence that there was a wiretap" - although he also argued the false claims would not damage Trump's credibility.
"I think the president's going to be marked and judged by his record," he said.
Trump sparked a furore with the March 4 tweets that accused Obama of ordering a wiretap on the New York skyscraper where he and his family live and run his real estate empire. - AFP