Briton Is Charged in Memo Leak

LONDON — Police charged a former British intelligence employee with breaking state secrecy laws Thursday, after she was linked to the disclosure of a memo in which U.S. officials allegedly asked for British help in eavesdropping on U.N. envoys. At the time, the U.S. still hoped to win United Nations backing for the Iraq war.

Katharine Gun, 29, who worked as a Government Communications Headquarters translator, was arrested in March after a British newspaper published the memo. In it, the intelligence agency was asked for help bugging the telephones of delegates of key countries on the U.N. Security Council. The agency uses high-tech equipment to monitor international communications.