Two days after he checked out of a Hong Kong hotel where he told the Guardian newspaper that he had "no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong," Edward Snowden was nowhere to be found today, despite being the central figure in the biggest news story in the world.
Snowden, in his Sunday interview with the newspaper, had said he wanted to avoid the media spotlight, noting he didn't want "the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the US government is doing."
"Spy on the run: girlfriend ill at ease," read one Apple Daily headline above a picture of the 28-year-old Lindsay Mills in a provocative pose taken from her blog, which has since gone offline.
Mills is not believed to be traveling with Snowden, who is thought to still be in Hong Kong.
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Apple Daily quoted unidentified sources with the Hong Kong immigration department as saying they had no record of Snowden leaving the territory. A spokesman for the department, speaking on routine condition of anonymity, said it could not confirm the paper's information because it did not comment on individual cases.
Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who also interviewed Snowden in Hong Kong, has given a series of interviews about the case, but refused to reveal any information about Snowden's location or his future plans.
Despite the uncertainty, Hong Kong supporters of the 29-year-old American have organised a protest march featuring local human rights activists and prominent pro-democracy politicians to pass in front of the US Consulate on Saturday afternoon.
Snowden arrived in Hong Kong from his home in Hawaii on May 20, just after taking leave from his National Security Agency contracting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, which has since fired him.