Flight to Cuba for which Snowden booked departs

MOSCOW (AP) ? A plane took off from Moscow Monday headed for Cuba, but the seat booked by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden was empty, and there was no sign of him elsewhere on board.

An Aeroflot representative who wouldn't give her name told The Associated Press that Snowden wasn't on flight SU150 to Havana. AP reporters on the flight couldn't him.

The Interfax news agency also quoted an unidentified Russian security source in Moscow as saying that Snowden wasn't on the plane.

The airline said earlier Snowden registered for the flight using his U.S. passport, which American officials say has been annulled.

Snowden arrived in Moscow on Sunday from Hong Kong, where he had been hiding for several weeks to evade U.S. justice. Ecuador is considering Snowden's asylum application.

After spending a night in Moscow's airport, the former National Security Agency contractor ? and admitted leaker of state secrets ? had been expected to fly to Cuba and Venezuela en route to possible asylum in Ecuador.

Snowden, also a former CIA technician, fled Hong Kong to dodge U.S. efforts to extradite him on espionage charges. Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said his government had received an asylum request, adding Monday that the decision "has to do with freedom of expression and with the security of citizens around the world." The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks also said it would help Snowden.

Ecuador has rejected the United States' previous efforts at cooperation, and has been helping WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange avoid prosecution by allowing him to stay at its embassy in London.

Snowden gave documents to The Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers disclosing U.S. surveillance programs that collect vast amounts of phone records and online data in the name of foreign intelligence, often sweeping up information on American citizens. Officials have the ability to collect phone and Internet information broadly but need a warrant to examine specific cases where they believe terrorism is involved.

Snowden had been in hiding for several weeks in Hong Kong, a former British colony with a high degree of autonomy from mainland China. The United States formally sought Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong to face espionage charges but was rebuffed; Hong Kong officials said the U.S. request did not fully comply with their laws.

The Justice Department rejected that claim, saying its request met all of the requirements of the extradition treaty between the U.S. and Hong Kong. During conversations last week, including a phone call Wednesday between Attorney General Eric Holder and Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen, Hong Kong officials never raised any issues regarding sufficiency of the U.S. request, a Justice representative said.

The United States was in touch through diplomatic and law enforcement channels with countries that Snowden could travel through or to, reminding them that Snowden is wanted on criminal charges and reiterating Washington's position that Snowden should only be permitted to travel back to the U.S., a State Department official said. Snowden's U.S. passport has been revoked.

U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.

Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said, "Given our intensified cooperation after the Boston marathon bombings and our history of working with Russia on law enforcement matters ? including returning numerous high-level criminals back to Russia at the request of the Russian government ? we expect the Russian government to look at all options available to expel Mr. Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged."

Still, the United States is likely to have problems interrupting Snowden's passage. The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, but does with Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador. Even with an extradition agreement though, any country could give Snowden a political exemption.

The likelihood that any of these countries would stop Snowden from traveling on to Ecuador seemed remote. While diplomatic tensions have thawed in recent years, Cuba and the United States are hardly allies after a half-century of distrust. Another country that could see Snowden pass through, Venezuela, could prove difficult, as well. Former President Hugo Chavez was a sworn enemy of the United States and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, earlier this year called President Barack Obama "grand chief of devils." The two countries do not exchange ambassadors.

Snowden's options aren't numerous, said Assange's lawyer, Michael Ratner.

"You have to have a country that's going to stand up to the United States," Ratner said. "You're not talking about a huge range of countries here."

It also wasn't clear Snowden was finished disclosing highly classified information.

Snowden has perhaps more than 200 sensitive documents, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

___

Associated Press White House Correspondent Julie Pace and Associated Press writers Philip Elliott, Matthew Lee and Frederic J. Frommer in Washington, Lynn Berry in Moscow, Kevin Chan in Hong Kong and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

___

Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/philip_elliott

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/flight-cuba-snowden-booked-departs-105616986.html

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Snowden expected to fly to Cuba, U.S. urges his detention

By Lidia Kelly and James Pomfret

MOSCOW/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden is expected to try to fly to Cuba on Monday while he waits to hear if Ecuador will grant him asylum, so far eluding Washington's efforts to extradite him on espionage charges.

In a major embarrassment for U.S. President Barack Obama, an aircraft carrying Snowden landed in Moscow on Sunday from Hong Kong after the Chinese territory allowed him to leave despite requests from Washington that he be arrested.

The White House said it expected the Russian government to send Snowden back to the United States. It had also lodged "strong objections" to Hong Kong and China over the decision to allow Snowden, who exposed secret U.S. government surveillance programs, to flee.

"We expect the Russian Government to look at all options available to expel Mr. Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

Obama had been trying to reset ties with Russia and build a partnership with China, but the leaders of both countries were willing to snub the American president in a month when each had held talks with Obama.

Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, on a trip to the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, said Snowden had sought asylum in his country. He declined to say what the Ecuadorean government would do, but added the request would be analyzed with a "lot of responsibility". An aide said the minister would hold a news conference around 7.00 p.m. local time (8 a.m. EDT) in Hanoi.

A source at Russian airline Aeroflot said Snowden was booked on a flight scheduled to depart for Havana on Monday at 2:05 p.m. (6.05 a.m. EDT). Snowden is believed to be in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. Cuba said it had no information on the issue.

"HAND OF BEIJING"

A State Department official said Washington had told countries in the Western Hemisphere that Snowden "should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel, other than is necessary to return him to the United States".

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said Russian President Vladimir Putin likely knew and approved of Snowden's flight to Russia and predicted "serious consequences" for a U.S.-Russian relationship already strained over Syria and human rights.

"Putin always seems almost eager to stick a finger in the eye of the United States - whether it is Syria, Iran and now of course with Snowden," Schumer, a senior Senate Democrat, told CNN's "State of the Union". He also saw "the hand of Beijing" in Hong Kong's decision to let Snowden leave.

China Foreign Ministry, however, expressed "grave concern" over Snowden's allegations that the United States had hacked into computers in China, saying it had taken up the issue with Washington.

The statement came after Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper quoted Snowden as offering new details about U.S. surveillance activities.

These included accusations of U.S. hacking of Chinese mobile phone firms and the targeting of China's elite Tsinghua University, the alma mater of many of China's top leaders including President Xi Jinping.

The Obama administration has previously painted the United States as a victim of Chinese government computer hacking.

At a summit this month, Obama called on Xi to acknowledge the threat posed by "cyber-enabled espionage" against the United States and to investigate the problem.

ECUADOR ROLE

Ecuador and Cuba are members of the ALBA bloc, an alliance of leftist governments in Latin America that pride themselves on their "anti-imperialist" credentials. Venezuela is also part of the group.

Ecuador has been sheltering the founder of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, at its London embassy for the past year.

The New York Times quoted Assange as saying in an interview that his group had arranged for Snowden to travel on a "special refugee document" issued by Ecuador last Monday.

U.S. sources said Washington had revoked Snowden's passport. The New York Times said his passport was annulled a day before he left Hong Kong to try to thwart his escape.

WikiLeaks said Snowden was accompanied by diplomats and Sarah Harrison, a British legal researcher working for WikiLeaks.

Ecuador's ambassador to Russia, Patricio Alberto Chavez Zavala, told reporters at a Moscow airport hotel he would speak with Snowden and Harrison.

Hours later, shortly after midnight on Sunday, the ambassador emerged from a business-class lounge near the hotel and refused to say whether he had met Snowden or make any other comment.

U.S. FINDS HONG KONG DECISION "TROUBLING"

Snowden, who had worked at a U.S. National Security Agency facility in Hawaii, had been hiding in Hong Kong, the former British colony that returned to China in 1997, since leaking details about secret U.S. surveillance programs to news media.

U.S. officials had been in contact with Hong Kong since June 10, and had expressed optimism about cooperation.

Snowden has been charged with theft of federal government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person, with the latter two charges falling under the U.S. Espionage Act.

In a statement announcing Snowden's departure, Hong Kong authorities said they were seeking clarification from Washington about reports of U.S. spying on government computers in the territory.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong government said it had allowed the departure of Snowden as the U.S. request for his arrest did not comply with the law.

A Justice Department official said at no point in discussions through Friday did Hong Kong raise issues about the sufficiency of the U.S. arrest request.

"In light of this, we find their decision to be particularly troubling," the official said.

Adding to the mystery, a Hong Kong lawyer representing Snowden said on Monday a middle man claiming to represent the Hong Kong government told Snowden he should leave.

Albert Ho, who is also a legislator, told reporters he was approached by Snowden several days ago, and that Snowden had sought reassurances from the Hong Kong government on whether he would be able to leave the city freely, if he chose to do so.

Ho said an individual claiming to represent the Hong Kong government had subsequently indicated to Snowden that he was free to leave the city and should do so.

"This is a highly unusual action," said Ho.

Snowden's revelations have become a major problem for Obama, who has found his domestic and international policy agenda sidelined as he scrambled to deflect accusations that U.S. surveillance practices violate privacy protections and civil rights. The president has said the measures were necessary to thwart attacks on the United States.

The latest drama coincides with the court-martial of Bradley Manning, a U.S. soldier accused of providing reams of classified documents to WikiLeaks, which Assange began releasing on the Internet in 2010. The government says the leaks put national security and people's lives at risk.

Documents previously leaked by Snowden revealed that the NSA has access to vast amounts of Internet data such as emails, chat rooms and video from large companies, including Facebook and Google, under a government program known as Prism.

(Additional by Martin Petty in Hanoi; Sui-Lee Weein Beijing; Andrew Cawthorne, Mario Naranjo and Daniel Wallis in Caracas; Alexandra Valencia in Quito; Alexei Anishchuk and Steve Gutterman in Moscow, and Mark Felsenthal, Paul Eckert and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing by Dean Yates; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-warns-countries-against-snowden-travel-014740817.html

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Brazil: Thousands protest anew, but crowds smaller

SAO PAULO (AP) ? Thousands of anti-government demonstrators again took to streets in several Brazilian cities Saturday after the president broke a long silence to promise reforms, but the early protests were smaller than those of recent days and with only scattered reports of violence.

Police estimated about 20,000 demonstrators gathered in a central square in the city of Belo Horizonte, largely to denounce legislation that would limit the power of federal prosecutors to investigate crimes in a country where many are fed up with the high rate of robberies and killings. Many fear the law also would hinder attempts to jail corrupt politicians and other powerful figures.

Rousseff, a former leftist guerrilla who was tortured under Brazil's long military dictatorship, made a televised 10-minute appearance on Friday backing the right to peaceful protest but sharply condemning violence, vandalism and looting.

She also promised to be tougher on corruption and said she would meet with peaceful protesters, governors and the mayors of big cities to create a national plan to improve urban transportation and use oil royalties for investments in education. Much of the anger behind the protests has been aimed at costly bus fares, high taxes and poor public services such as schools and health care.

Many Brazilians, shocked by a week of protests and violence, hoped that Rousseff's words would help soothe tensions and help avoid more violence, but not all were convinced by her promises of action.

Still, a rapidly growing crowd blocked Sao Paulo's main business street, the Avenida Paulista, to press their demands.

Victoria Villela, a 21-year-old university student who joined a rapidly growing crowd of demonstrators blocking Sao Paulo's main business street, the Avenida Paulista, said she was "frustrated and exhausted by the endless corruption of our government.

"It was good Dilma spoke, but this movement has moved to far, there was not much she could really say. All my friends were talking on Facebook about how she said nothing that satisfied them. I think the protests are going to continue for a long time and the crowds will still be huge."

Around her, Fathers held young boys aloft on their shoulders, older women gathered in clusters with their faces bearing yellow and green stripes, color of brazil flag.

In the northeastern city of Salvador, where Brazil's national football team was set to play Italy in a match for the Confederations Cup, some 5,000 protesters gathered about 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the stadium, shouting demands for better schools and transportation and denouncing heavy spending on next year's World Cup.

Rodrigo Costa, a 32-year-old civil engineer in the city, said that it was good just to see a popular movement force "a head of state to go on TV and talk about the problems of the country."

"She didn't touch in all the issues that the people want to see improved," Costa said. "But I think that just in general it was a good message."

Brazil's news media, which had blasted Rousseff in recent days for her lack of response, seemed largely unimpressed with her careful speech, but noted the difficult situation facing a government trying to understand a mass movement with no central leaders and a flood of demands.

With "no objective information about the nature of the organization of the protests" wrote Igor Gielow in a column for Brazil's biggest newspaper, Folha de S. Paulo, "Dilma resorted to an innocuous speech to cool down spirits."

At its height, some 1 million anti-government demonstrators took to the streets nationwide on Thursday night with grievances ranging from public services to the billions of dollars spent preparing for international sports events.

Social media and mass emails were buzzing with calls for a general strike next week. But Brazil's two largest unions, the Central Workers Union and the Union Force, said they knew nothing about such an action, though they do support the protests.

At the protest in Salvador, 32-year-old public worker Mariana Santos said that demonstrators would Rousseff and the rest of Brazil's government accountable if they fail to keep their promises.

"Dilma said she was going to make a pact with unions, students, with everyone, to fix things," Santos said. "If they hold the World Cup and she has not done what she said she will do, the people may decide they don't want the Cup."

___

Associated press writers Tales Azzoni and Ricardo Zuniga in Salvador, Brazil, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-thousands-protest-anew-crowds-smaller-190708200.html

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'Mad Men's' Don Draper: Sexy, but so sad

TV

Anna Chan TODAY

24 minutes ago

Michael Yarish / AMC

Don Draper found himself surrounded by people, yet all alone and sad, in the ninth episode of the season, titled "Better Half."

It's been a long, sad season for Don Draper on "Mad Men." It seemed almost every episode featured at least one shot of the handsome ad man brooding -- and in some cases, even shedding a tear or two.

What's he got to cry about, you say? We hear you: He's a rich, very successful, good-looking guy with a gorgeous wife. As far as viewers can see, he's still got his health too. (At least, we think so. His liver hasn't started failing from all that drinking yet, right?) So why the long face, Don?

Turns out maybe we should cut the guy a little slack. Money and good looks can't buy happiness, after all. (Just a lot of other stuff that makes life a bit easier.)

Dumped
Nobody tells Don Draper what's what! Unless you're his neighbor/mistress, apparently. In the episode titled "Man With a Plan," the ad man does his own version of "50 Shades of Grey" and orders lover Sylvia to stay in her hotel room all day (although it felt more like days), even taking away her book at one point. By the end of that ordeal, she'd had an epiphany and dumped him. His response? Disbelief. Sad face. Begging. And later, more begging on the phone.

Who are you?
Daughter Sally delivered a knife to Don's -- and viewers' -- hearts this year. After the Draper residence is burgled while the adults are away and Sally was left behind to watch her little brothers, she explained to Don why she was duped into believing the thief -- a black woman -- was her grandma. "She said she knew you," Sally told her dad on the phone later. "I asked her everything I know and she had an answer for everything. Then I realized I don't know anything about you." Sad, ponderous face.

All by himself
Don's often surrounded by people, whether he's at the office, having a meal with clients or enjoying a little tryst with someone. When he hooked up with ex-wife Betty while visiting son Bobby at camp, he admitted that he'd missed her, hinting at how unhappy he is in his current marriage. "Why is sex the definition of being close to someone?" he asked. Her reply? "I don't know. But it is for me, it is for most people." Cue the sad face. And by the next morning, they were miles apart again. As Don headed into the diner for breakfast, he saw Betty sitting with her husband, Henry ... and Don shuffled off to sit alone.

Drowning
After smoking some hashish at a Hollywood party, Don started to hallucinate first the happy, then the sad. The vision of a pregnant Megan came to him first, then Dinkins, the soldier he met in the season premiere. Except now, the young man is missing an arm -- and is dead. "Dying doesn't make you whole," Dinkins told Don when asked why the deceased vet was still missing his appendage in the afterlife. "You should see what you look like." And what does the ad man look like? Depressed. And dead. Floating in a pool face-down dead. But fortunately for him, the dead part was a hallucination, but he really was drowning in the pool until Roger dove in and saved him.

Busted
When Don finally got caught cheating with Sylvia, it wasn't by who viewers -- or Don himself -- were probably expecting. It was Sally who walked in on the two lovebirds. This sent Don first into panic mode, which eventually morphed into depression. It became obvious two episodes later, when Don started out the penultimate episode of the season curled up in a fetal position on Sally's bed, and ended the hour the same way, realizing that his actions have cost him a relationship with his little girl.

What Sunday's finale holds for Don's happiness, you'll have to tune in and see at 10 p.m. on AMC.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/mad-mens-don-draper-sexy-successful-so-sad-6C10367555

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