BACKGROUND
The US government may have been monitoring German chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone for more than 10 years, according to a report by Der Spiegel based on internal documents from the National Security Agency (NSA). President Barack Obama told Merkel that he was not aware her phone was being bugged, or he would have stopped it. However, he declined to say whether her phone had been monitored in the past. Full story >>
THE CARTOON
This cartoon by Dave Granlund shows the famous moment in 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell made the first ever phone call in his Boston laboratory, summoning his assistant Watson from the next room. Bell's actual words were, "Mr. Watson—Come here—I want to see you." In this version he adds, " I think NSA has hacked into my phone!"
VOCABULARY
If you hack into someone's mobile phone, you intercept their calls or access their voicemail so that you can listen to them without their knowledge. • Rebecca Brookes is in court facing five charges including conspiring to illegally access voicemails. She was editor of the News of the World when it allegedly hacked into Milly Dowler's phone.
ALSO SEE
• Merkel NSA (Cagle Post cartoon collection)
