July 3 , 2013
North America Edward Snowden broadened his search for sanctuary this week , but finding an escape from his current state of limbo in the Moscow airport is proving difficult and his father is trying to negotiate safe return to the US with guarantees he will not be held without bail and gagging . Tuesday evening a plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was prevented from refueling in Portugal and instead rerouted to Austria because of concerns Snowden was on board . But in Vienna the Austrians searched the plane to insure Snowden was not being carried there , leading to charges from the Bolivians that Austria in effect kidnapped the Bolivian president . The saga goes on as Snowden reportedly has applied for asylum in 21 countries , but so far there are no takers . Poland , Brazil , India and Finland each rejected the petitions outright . Russia agreed to consider Snowden for asylum if only he ’ d stop publishing items from his trove of classified US files ; Snowden balked and withdrew his petition .
President Barack Obama has tried to reassure European allies affronted by reports of US spying by suggesting all the world ' s intelligence services were involved in finding out the thinking of opponents and allies alike . The European Union has demanded the United States explain a report in a German magazine that Washington was spying on the bloc , calling such surveillance shocking if true . French President Francois Hollande said the alleged action was intolerable and could hinder US relations with Paris and the EU and will delay the signing of a multilateral trade agreement ( for at least two weeks ). Obama , on a visit to Tanzania , directed American intelligence to supply all the information requested by European allies regarding the spying allegations , which he said Washington was still evaluating . His secretary of state , John Kerry , who was in Brunei for an Asian security conference , said the United States was not alone in using " lots of activities " to safeguard its security . The Guardian newspaper said on Sunday the United States had also spied on non-European allies , including Japan , South Korea and India - all represented at the Asian security conference . European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso ordered a security sweep of EU buildings . In an article that sparked EU outrage , Der Spiegel said on Saturday that the National Security Agency ( NSA ) bugged EU offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks . On Sunday the German magazine claimed that the US agency taps half a billion phone calls , emails and text messages in Germany in a typical month , much more than any other European peer and