US security body stops warrantless watch of American e-mails about foreign targets

Washington

THE National Security Agency (NSA) halted one of the most disputed practices of its warrantless surveillance programme, ending a once-secret form of wiretapping that dates to the Bush administration's post-Sept 11 expansion of national security powers.

The agency is no longer collecting Americans' e-mails and texts exchanged with people overseas that simply mention identifying terms - such as e-mail addresses - for foreigners whom the agency is spying on, but are neither to nor from those targets, it said last Friday.