Edward Snowden

1. Edward Snowden, an employee of defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton at the National Security Agency, arrives in Hong Kong from Hawaii. He carries four laptop computers that enable him to gain access to some of the U.S. government’s most highly-classified secrets.
2. The Guardian publishes its first exclusive based on Snowden’s leak, revealing a secret court order showing that the U.S. government had forced the telecom giant Verizon to hand over the phone records of millions of Americans.
3. A second story reveals the existence of the previously undisclosed programme Prism, which internal NSA documents claim gives the agency “direct access” to data held by Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants. The tech companies deny that they have set up “back door access” to their systems for the U.S. government.
4. Another of Snowden’s leaks reveals the existence of an internal NSA tool — Boundless Informant — that allows it to record and analyse where its data comes from, and raises questions about its repeated assurances to Congress that it cannot keep track of all the surveillance it performs on American communications.
5. Whistleblower Edward Snowden has recalled his application for asylum in Russia even as he remains marooned at a Moscow airport without travel papers for more than a week.Responding to Mr Snowdens’ asylum request filed , Mr Putin said the fugitive American could stay in Russia if he stopped “harming our American partners” by exposing U.S. global secret surveillance.
6. 3 Latin American nations chose courageously to offer asylum to Edward Snowden the whistleblower. Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
7. Venezuela is one of the top options, with its President Nicolas Maduro saying last week that his country was “almost certain” to grant Mr. Snowden asylum if he filed a formal request.
8. With the U.S. cancelling Mr. Snowden’s passport in june 2013, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said his government would not supply him authorised travel documents to exit Moscow airport.
9. NSA leaker Edward Snowden has applied for asylum in Venezuela, Bolivia and other countries, according to WikiLeaks, which has been advising him. Many European countries on the list including Austria, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland said he would have to make his request on their soil.
10. WikiLeaks said requests had also been made to Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Iceland, India, Italy, Ireland and Nicaragua — all of which either gave no response, or rejected the request or said he will have to be in the country for the request to be considered.
11. Edward Snowden is charged by its courts for espionage and leaking classified information.
12. India says ‘no’ to Snowden’s plea.
13. U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden has applied for “temporary asylum” in Russia
14. US whistleblower Edward Snowden has very sensitive “blueprints” detailing how the National Security Agency (NSA) operates that would allow someone who read them to evade or even duplicate NSA surveillance,Glenn Greenwald, a journalist with The Guardian said.
15. National Security Agency whistleblowers Edward Snowden left the transit zone of a Moscow airport and entered Russia after authorities granted him asylum for one year.