Journalists await passengers of a flight from Hong Kong while trying to ascertain whether fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden was aboard, at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, June 23, 2013. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
HONG KONG/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden sought asylum in Ecuador on Sunday after Hong Kong allowed his departure for Russia in a blow to Washington's efforts to extradite him on espionage charges.
In a major embarrassment for U.S. President Barack Obama, an aircraft thought to have carried Snowden landed in Moscow on Sunday, and Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino tweeted that Ecuador had received an asylum request from Snowden.
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