Snowden has limited options for asylum 
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW, June 29
Nearly a month after Edward Snowden exposed top secret US surveillance programmes, the former spy agency contractor looks no closer to winning asylum to evade prosecution at home - and his options appear to be narrowing.

Egypt tense before rallies, American among 3 dead
Cairo/Alexandria, June 29 
After violence in Egypt that killed three persons, including an American student, cities were quiet as protesters prepared for rallies on Sunday, which they hope can unseat the Islamist President. The army was on alert across the country and warned it would step in if deadlocked politicians lost control of the streets. 

Kabul, June 29
British Prime Minister David Cameron flew into Afghanistan on Saturday to try to reinvigorate stalled peace talks with the Taliban and reassure Afghans that foreign troops will not cut and run next year.

Cameron visited troops in the southern province of Helmand before meeting President Hamid Karzai as the Afghan government and international powers try to revive peace efforts that recently collapsed in ignominy.

"You can argue about whether the settlement we put in place after 2001 could have been better arranged. Of course, you can make that argument," Cameron told Sky News in response to remarks by General Nick Carter, the senior British officer in Afghanistan.

Carter told Saturday's Guardian newspaper that an opportunity to try to bring peace to Afghanistan was missed when the Taliban were on the defensive in 2002 after they were ousted following the 9/11 attacks.

"The Taliban were on the run," Carter said. "At that stage, if we had been very prescient, we might have spotted that a final political solution would have involved getting all Afghans to sit at the table and talk about their future."

"The Taliban are beginning to realise that they are not going to secure a role in Afghanistan's future through terror and violence, but by giving up their arms and engaging in a political process," Cameron told reporters in Kabul.

Cameron later reached Pakistan on a two-day visit, during which he will hold wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari. — Agencies

Cairo, June 29
Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi held rival rallies in Cairo today as the country braced for massive protests tomorrow to call for the Islamist leader's ouster.

While the protests in Cairo remained peaceful, deadly clashes erupted in the port city of Alexandria where protesters set fire to headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, which supports Mursi.

Islamists are a staging a sit-in to abort the planned protests by the opposition on the day Mursi, the first civil elected President, would complete a year in power.

The rallies follow days of deadly clashes in cities across the country that have left at least seven persons dead and hundreds injured.

Mursi's opponents are demanding that the President step down and early elections be held. They say the President has been caring for Islamists only and not all Egyptians, including non-Muslims.

In response to the protests, the government has deployed military security forces to patrol the streets, state media reported.

Mursi's supporters said they would resort to violence rather than let the first Muslim Brotherhood President go.His supporters believe that Mursi was not given a fair chance as the media is against him along with remnants of the old regime of former strongman Hosni Mubarak. — PTI 

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW, June 29
Nearly a month after Edward Snowden exposed top secret US surveillance programmes, the former spy agency contractor looks no closer to winning asylum to evade prosecution at home - and his options appear to be narrowing.

Stuck in legal limbo in a Moscow airport transit area and facing uncertainty over whether any of the destinations he is said to be contemplating — Ecuador, Venezuela and Cuba — will let him in, Snowden seems to be at the mercy of geopolitical forces beyond his control.

Unseen in public since arriving in Moscow last weekend, much remains unclear about Snowden's overtures to various countries and how they have responded behind the scenes.

Russia may no longer have sufficient reason to continue harbouring Snowden if, as is widely believed, its intelligence services have already questioned him about the classified documents that he has admitted to taking from the National Security Agency.

The leftist government of Ecuador is reviewing Snowden's asylum request, though officials have sent mixed signals, suggesting the process could drag on for weeks.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has spoken favourably of granting refuge to Snowden but has taken no action. Even if Ecuador or Venezuela decide to take Snowden, there is no guarantee that communist Cuba, the likely transit point for any flight from Moscow to those South American countries, would let him pass through and further complicate its own thorny relations with the United States. — Reuters

Cairo/Alexandria, June 29 
After violence in Egypt that killed three persons, including an American student, cities were quiet as protesters prepared for rallies on Sunday, which they hope can unseat the Islamist President. The army was on alert across the country and warned it would step in if deadlocked politicians lost control of the streets. 

Several offices of President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood were attacked on Friday, including the office in Alexandria where two men died, including a 21-year-old American man. 

In Port Said on the Suez Canal, an explosion during an anti-Mursi protest killed another man, the police said. 

The US, which has called for compromise, is evacuating non-essential diplomatic staff and warning citizens to avoid Egypt. A source at the Cairo airport said many US personnel and their families left for Germany on Saturday.

In Cairo, a few hundred activists from rival factions were camping out in separate places. Islamist supporters were still outside a suburban mosque where they had gathered in thousands on Friday to vent anger and fear over a return of army-backed rule.

At the Tahrir Square, seat of the uprising of early 2011, flags and tents formed a base camp for protesters. They hoped for millions on the streets under slogans accusing Mursi and the Brotherhood of hijacking the revolution against Hosni Mubarak to entrench their own rule. — Reuters