Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro praised fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden as a brave youth, reiterating his offer to grant him asylum.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro praised fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden as a brave youth, reiterating his offer to grant him asylum.

"If that young man needs humanitarian protection and believes that he can come to Venezuela," then Venezuela "is prepared to protect this brave youth in a humanitarian way and so that humanity can learn the truth," and his ordeal can end, Maduro said.

US authorities want Snowden for leaking details of vast US surveillance programs.
The Kremlin says Snowden has been in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport since he arrived on a flight from Hong Kong on Sunday, though he has not appeared in public and he failed to board a flight to Havana on Monday.

Maduro described Snowden's actions as "the rebellion of truth," and representative of "something that is happening among US youth."