this is In the News.European officials have traveled to Washingtonseeking more information about American spying programs.On Tuesday, the director of the National Security Agency,Army General Keith Alexander,defended the NSA at a hearing in Congress.He denied accusations that the NSA collectedthe records of millions of French and Spanish telephone calls."Those screenshots that show,or at least lead people to believe that we, NSA,or the United States, collected that information is false.And it's false that it was collected on European citizens.It was neither."The accusations follow information leaks by Edward Snowden,the former NSA contract worker who has been given asylum in Russia.General Alexander said the agency has received targeted informationfrom phone calls by some Europeans, through NATO allies."The sources of the metadata include data legally collectedby NSA under its various authorities,as well as data provided to NSA by foreign partners.To be perfectly clear,this is not information that we collected on European citizens."Metadata would include details about a call,but not the contents of the call.But earlier reports said intelligence officialslistened to the calls of as many as 35 world leaders,including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.The European Parliament sent a delegation to Washington to express anger.The delegation met with members of Congress and government officials.Parliament member Jan Philipp Albrecht told VOAthat the spying on Chancellor Merkel was simply too much."Now people are really concerned.They see that it's not any longer connected to a terrorist threat,because Angela Merkel is not a terrorist,or not part of a terrorist ring.And they think that there was a red line crossed,which is now spying on everybody about everything."Mr. Albrecht called for American legislationto balance national security needswith the responsibility to protect basic civil rights.On Tuesday, American lawmakers held a hearingon possible changes to NSA spying programs.Mike Rogers is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.He says it is overly simplistic to thinkthat other countries do not operate their own spying programs.But another Republican Party lawmaker, Senator Susan Collins,took a different position.In her words, "Friends do not spy on friends."Later in the week, the Washington Post reported that the NSAsecretly broke into the communication networks of Google and Yahoo.Both Internet companies said they have not approvedthe reported actions involving their communication links.General Alexander has said his agencydoes not enter Google and Yahoo servers.He said the NSA gains access to data by "court order."Paul Tiao formerly served as an adviserto the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.He says all the publicity has made the NSA's job harder."NSA is facing significant challenges,both in terms of its public reputation,the level of trust that the public has in NSA,and then also policy issues, legislation that's pendingthat the new NSA director is going to have to deal with.That could change the nature of NSA's authoritywith respect to its intelligence collection mission."Obama administration officialshave promised to examine the NSA's programs.White House Press Secretary Jay Carney saysthe review will be completed by the end of the year.And that's In the News from VOA Learning English.