he might have nsa leaker edward snowden on board. he's blaming obama for forcing them to take action. they will never be able to intimidate or scare bolivia. liberate yourselves from the imperialism of the americans. not happy this morning. as for snowden, he remains in moscow at the airport. no country has accepted his request for asylum. >>> the u.s. postal service tracking your mail for federal law enforcement. two programs allow them to photograph every piece of mail processed in the united states. 160 billion last year alone. itis not known how long they keep the images. reports suggest the mail is subject to the same kind of scrutiny the nsa gives phone calls and e-mails. >>> senator john mccain is in kabul this morning with an unannounced visit. he's expected to meet servicemen there. >>> an update. a man related to two u.s. senators being remembered this morning. his body was found wednesday in wyoming after going missing after a hike. he's the brother of mark udall and the cousin of tom udall. the family says the death is a

the nsa bugged some of their offices. the head of the european union ordered a full security sweep of all eu buildings to check for evidence of that and they want an explanation from the u.s. government, secret documents published alleged that the united states put those devices, those tapping devices in eu buildings in washington, d.c., brussels and the united nations also saying that they hacked into eu computer networks. >>> they thought they were going to die. a spirit airlines flight from detroit to dallas. it had to make a nose dive to avoid a plane. none of the passengers on board were injured. the two aircraft came within a mile and a half horizontally. a series of close calls led them to recommend new rules to prevent planes from getting this close to each other in the air. >>> same-sex couples now have new access to immigration rights. this morning, after homeland secretary janet napolitano says they will be treated the same when it comes to green card applications. it comes on the heels of the decision banning

those revelations in nsa documents leaked. the parliament asking for a full clarification from the obama administration. >>> snowden is hold up in moscow and may not be leaving anytime soon. ecuador will not take action until snowden arrives on soil or at one of their embassies. the president of ecuador says it's up to russia to decide what happens next. vladimir putin called for snowden to leave the country. his american passport has been revoked. he has not asked for a travel visa elsewhere. >>> a new future in politics for wikileaks founder julian assange. he's planning a run for the australian senate. the wrinkle? he's not in australia. he spent the last year living in ecuador trying to avoid going to sweden. he grew up in australia but hasn't been back since 2010. >>> scary moments at a car show in poland. look at this. >> oh, my. >> awful. that swedish luxury car skidded into the crowd that was lined up to watch. some 17 people hurt. none of the injuries are said to be life threatening which is amazing. the accident is u

we will take you live to cairo. >>> the hunt for nsa leaker edward snowden gets bizarre. forcing down the plane of a president. so was a world leader trying to sneak snowden out of russia? this international fiasco playing out before cameras this morning. >>> and this is just bizarre. dennis rodman, nba superstar, reality show winner, world peacemaker? not even close. why the retired hall of famer thinks he should be in the running for the nobel prize. >> top three he says. at least top three. unreal. >>> welcome back to "early start" everyone, i'm john berman. >> i'm poppy harlow. it's 31 minutes past the hour. more now this morning, political crisis in egypt that is turning more dangerous and more deadly by the hour. overnight, clashes at cairo university have left at least 16 people ted. hundreds were injured as supporters of president mohamed morsi squared off with their opponents who want the president out. morsi is refusing to bend, saying he is the legitimately legislated president. now the clock is ticking. the egyptian military has given morsi just a few more hou

nsa leaker edward snowden has made a request officially for asylum in russia. he's been stuck in an airport for weeks now. he's expected to take up to three months before the government responds. >>> microsoft is appealing to eric holder to allow the tech giants to share more information with the public about how it handles nsa requests for customer information. in a blog, it said microsoft tried to open up a request for information sharing only to be denied. there were quote significant inaccuracies about leeblged documents. it denies giving the government direct access to any of its products. >>> this is in one of those "you've got to see this" category. are you paying -- >> sorry! >> stole my thunder. what is it -- >> i'm sorry. >> everybody at home watching, sometimes, the rod and reel just aren't enough. a fisherman in nantucket hooked a seven-foot, 200-pound shark and spent about 45 minutes trying to reel it in. he had no success. finally, he handed the pole to his cousin, ran into the water and wrestled shark to shore. he took some pictures and then let

. >>> the house voted down a proposal to restrict the nsa phone surveillance. they have been lobbying lawmakers to turn aside an amountment for the spending bill. stop terrorists. however despite it failing, the overall nearly $600 million defense spending bill did pass. >>> four f-16 fighter jets will not be heading to egypt yet. the pentagon is delaying it as the administration continues after they overthrew president morsi. >>> pope francis, today, meets the poor in rio de janeiro. police are expected to be out in force during this visit. 20% of rio's residents live there. the pope is said to have specifically asked to see one in person during this trip to brazil. >>> tropical storm dorey is the fourth named storm. forecasters are keeping a close watch on it. indra petersons is one of the forecasters. what is the storm headed our way? >> good morning. it's interesting because it's early in the season. there are a lot of things to inhibit its growth. it's a strong, tropical storm. it is trying so hard to hold together. winds moving at 16 miles per hour. it's

they assisted the nsa in finding ways to get around enkripgs. skoo skype, now owned by microsoft. they said they only gave access to comply with court orders. >>> anni albuquerque couple are lucky. the scariest part, kendra, weeks away from giving birth. >> it was getting close. we decided to end the fireworks and go inside. right when we decided to do that, i guess the next thing we know is we woke up on the ground. >> when i woke up, i didn't think she was going to be alive when i got to the hospital. i fell right on her. >> the baby, there she is, doing fine. kimberly samantha rose is healthy. she was delivered by an emergency c-section. mom and dad on the mend. they have a new nickname for the daughter, flash. >> the father is ian gordon. a beautiful name for that lucky girl. >>> vie leapt protest expected as the ousted president faces new accusations. reza spoke exclusively with morsi's son. >>> floods wipe out communities in china. you will see a dramatic rescue, next. i'm gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. i think your friends will understand. oh...n

that the nsa allows low level contractors access to detailed phone and e-mail records without approval. >>> they were rivals, then colleagues. today they will be dining companions. president obama and former secretary of state hillary clinton will share a noontime private lunch at the house. no press will be present. it's not clear what they might talk about though it's always possible the 2016 presidential race could come up. >> pass the salt and the baton. that might be the issue there. >>> from the east coast to hawaii, there is extreme weather to tell you about. the philadelphia area is drying out after more than 8 inches of rain fell sunday. that is a record. heavy rains in the carolinas are being blamed for two deaths there and hawaii, meanwhile, is bracing for tropical storm flossie. andrew peterson is tracking all of this for us. >> this is the big one. >> unbelievable how much is going on. we'll start with flossie. you can tell how much it's weakened. it's winding down and tearing apart cooler water and sheer which is winds at different speeds. 50-mile-per-hour winds. it's mov

. >>> we could find out more as soon as today about the nsa surveillance program. the agency plans to declassify additional information about the programs and the top secret court that oversees anti-terror operations. not clear what will be unveiled or how much information the obama administration will make public. >> edward snowden's father is defending his son as the nsa leaker seeks temporary asylum in russia. he tells anderson cooper on "360" his son should not return unless he gets assurances he will get a fair trial and people are focusing too much on the leaks and not enough on the programs the leaks revealed. >> he's not living a comfortable life at this point. i know my son. i know he loves his country. what he believed is that this information, the american people needed to be aware of what their government was doing to them. spying upon them. >> meantime, edward snowden remains holed up at a moscow airport. they have received his asylum request that would let him leave the country. >>> a verdict is expected in the case of an army private who admitted lea

. >>> nsa leaker edward snowden is holed up in moscow for weeks now. venezuela is the most likely landing spot for him, the question is, how will snowden, who is wanted here in the u.s. get to latin america without being intercepted? bill black is live for us. good morning, bill. >> reporter: good morning, john. edward snowden has no easy options for getting to venezuela. we saw recently flying the direct route across europe is not an option because they stopped the bolivian president's plane. that leaves a journey to the south and west, through the at least and across africa. it's highly problematic. he'll have to jump from country to country trying to avoid u.s. allies. countries prepared to help get edward snowden back. the only guaranteed option that does not cross is a long route via the arctic and the atlantic. around 6,800 miles mostly over an ocean on one tank of fuel, very difficult. assuming he doesn't have access to an aircraft that can perform that trip, his options become very limited, very quickly. at the moment, venezuela had not shown a

he hopes the nsa leaker will leave the country as soon as he can. he doesn't know what will happen. snowden was not invited to russia and he'd have to stop his political activities if he wanted to stay. he's believed to be living at moscow's airport. >>> no deal in the senate to avoid the nuclear option. it's a democratic plan to end filibusters of nominees. the senators attended a rare, private meeting and failed to come up with a deal. they will keep talking until the deadline later this morning. after that, democrats plan to change the rules of appointing nominees simpler. >> the constitution is very, very specific. the founding fathers talked about supermajority. they mention presidential nominations. majority. majority. founding fathers wanted up or down vote. it's what we have been crying for now for years. >> two cabinet member nominees and five appointees come up for vote this is morning. republicans have been stalling the confirmation process for months now. >>> charges for a former staff minnesota congresswoman michele bachmann. police aren't saying what was taken, but the

. >>> the future of nsa leaker edward snowden very unclear again this morning. there were reports tuesday that he had accepted an asylum offer from venezuela, but that led to a day of backtracking. snowden is still believed to be stuck at the airport. phil beck live for us in the capital with the latest on this every-twisting and turning story. good morning, phil. >> reporter: good morning, john. yes, it was a senior member of parliament who announced that snowden accepted an offer from venezuela. that tweet was quickly deleted. and then followed up with, it is simply not true. he has not formally accepted that offer. so a lot of confusion there. we know he's been offered protection by three countries. so far has not accepted any of them. for the moment, chooses to remain at the moscow airport somewhere in transit where he's been for 2 1/2 weeks now. when he does choose to move on, the logistical challenge remains the same. how will he do it? traveling through the airspace of countries probably willing to help the united states to get him back. but we might be l

nsa director keith alexander was on capitol hill tuesday trying to convince lawmakers to vote against it. >>> the house is also expected to vote on two amendments blocking funding for syria and egypt to give any money or weapons to the rebels. >> in the meantime, egypt still on edge, as it has been since mohamed morsi was ousted as president. a dozen people, including 11 police officers were injured in the latest violence. the result of a bomb explosion near a police station near cairo. dozens of people have been killed, thousands injured since morsi was forced out by egypt's military july 3rd. >>> we are learning now that three u.s. soldiers were among the eight killed as afghan and u.s. soldiers were on joint patrol near the main highway tleegd kabul. at least three more americans were wounded in that blast. >>> pope francis continuing his trip to brazil. increased security for security. his motorcade was interrupted a couple times. today, francis will visit a catholic shrine and a hospital that serves drug addicts. later this week, the pope is going to hold two masses each drawing

the nsa contractor is said to be at the moscow airport where he's been stuck for two weeks. >>> could tropical storm chantel cause problems for this country? it's expected to affect barbados and st. lucia. winds are 40 miles per hour. strengthening could happen in a day or two and affect the mainland usa by the end of the week. chad, i have been doing your work here. i need to let the professional do his job. >> the water is warm enough. the first couple of storms you ever get in june, even early july, they don't have a big chance. here, because we are close to the equator, this has a chance to get stronger, maybe make a run at the dominican republic and up to the u.s. if it stays on a southern track and doesn't get affected by the islands, haiti is tall. lots of mountains in haiti. if it stays on the southern part, it doesn't get affected here. it could be a stronger system, possibly running over cuba. if you are out at an airport this morning and didn't expect tok because you planned on flying yesterday, you are not alone. there are many people out there that didn't get to go where

. >> the nsa is working on making it harder for employees to steal data. >>> improve pilot training according to the transport ministry. officials submitted plans to make the improvements and they were preparing to implement them when flight 214 crashed at san francisco international airport. >>> airline flight from boston to tokyo had to return because of a fuel pump problem. the pilot burned off fuel after five hours of taking off. a problem with lithium battery fires grounded the fleet in january. just last week, a fire broke out on an empty 757 boeing parked at london heathrow airport. >>> demolition crews knocked down the wrong house. the property was supposed to be demolished, but they leveled a home down the street leaving one neighbor scratching his head. >> i saw an excavator taking a house down. i wondered why. it wasn't that bad. the one next door needed tore down for years. >> it belonged to his grandmother. no word on how the city plans to compensate him or what happens to the house that was supposed to be demolished in the first place. luckily no one lived there. >>> two jurors