Germany expels top U.S. intel official over spying allegations

The German government on Thursday ordered the top U.S. intel official in the country to leave in the wake of two alleged instances of American spying. The extreme move came after Germany arrested one man and began investigating another for allegedly passing along secret information to the U.S.

"The government takes the matter very seriously," an official in Berlin said, with Chancellor Angela Merkel adding that the U.S. and Germany had "very different approaches" to intelligence gathering.

The expulsion is a low point for diplomatic relations between the two countries, which began to sour when leaked documents from Edward Snowden revealed the National Security Agency had bugged Merkel's phone.

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