Snowden to leave Moscow airport

Russia's Federal Migration Service has issued a document allowing US fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden to leave the transit zone at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport where he remains stranded for weeks, Russia's Ria Novosti news agency said. Snowden, a former defense contractor and leaker of classified surveillance programs of the US National Security Agency (NSA), is charged with espionage, theft and conversion of government property and wanted by the US officials. He had initially fled to Hong Kong and then flew to Moscow. He has been staying in transit zone since arriving from Hong Kong on 23 June. Before requesting temporary asylum from Russia, Snowden had also asked Ecuador for asylum.