Bolivian President's plane diverted over suspicion Snowden on board
A plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales was forced into making an unscheduled stop in Austria after France and Portugal denied the plane passage over their airspace on the belief that document leaker Edward Snowden was on board, reports say.
President Morales was returning home to Bolivia from a visit to Moscow when the plane had to be diverted to Vienna, the BBC reported on Tuesday. It wasn't immediately clear how or why the plane was forced to land in Austria.
The BBC quoted Bolivian foreign minister David Choquehuanca as denying that Snowden was on board the flight, and expressing outrage over the incident. "We don't know who invented this lie, but we want to denounce to the international community this injustice with the plane of President Evo Morales," Choquehuanca told the BBC. Morales had earlier expressed his willingness to offer asylum to Snowden. In comments made to Russia Today (RT) television, Morales had criticized America's "espionage network," which he claimed was being used particularly against developing countries.
