HONG KONG: US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden sought shelter among Hong Kong refugees after he leaked a huge trove of secret documents in the southern Chinese city, reports said on Wednesday.
The former intelligence contractor had quit his job with the National Security Agency and traveled to Hong Kong in May 2013 where he initiated one of the largest data leaks in US history, fueling a firestorm over the issue of mass surveillance.
Although Snowden stayed in an upscale hotel before the leak, little was known of his situation afterward.
But a report Wednesday revealed he had been given shelter by the city’s 11,000 asylum-seekers.
Many of Hong Kong’s refugees are forced to live in slum-like conditions, the last place anyone would look for one of the highest-profile US fugitives.
The 33-year-old stayed with at least four refugees, according to a New York Times report. It added they were all clients of lawyer Robert Tibbo, who helped hide Snowden.
“It was clear that if Mr. Snowden was placed with a refugee family, this was the last place the government and the majority of Hong Kong society would expect him to be,” Tibbo told the Times.
One Filipino woman with whom Snowden stayed, Vanessa Mae Bondalian Rodel, described him as “scared and very worried.”
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Fugitive Snowden took shelter among Hong Kong refugees
Fugitive Snowden took shelter among Hong Kong refugees
Approval of Norwegian royals tumbles after repeated scandals
- Just 60 percent of Norwegians support the royal family, down 10 points from a month earlier
OSLO: The Norwegian royal family’s popularity has fallen to its lowest ever after a series of scandals, according to a poll published Saturday by public broadcaster NRK.
Just 60 percent of Norwegians support the royal family, down 10 points from a month earlier, a level “that has never been so low,” according to NRK.
Princess Mette-Marit, who married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, appears multiple times in the millions of pages released by the US Department of Justice, revealing an unsuspected complicity between her and the convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Her son, Marius Borg Hoiby, born from a brief relationship prior to her marriage to Haakon, is on trial for 38 charges, including four counts of rape and violence.
The 29-year-old, who is not a member of the royal family, denies the most serious accusations.
In another opinion poll published by TV2 at the end of January, 47.6 percent of respondents said that Mette-Marit should not become queen, while only 28.9 percent said she should.
King Harald, who turned 89 on Saturday, remains the most popular member of the royal family, according to the poll, which was conducted by the Norstat institute on a sample of more than a thousand people.
Just 60 percent of Norwegians support the royal family, down 10 points from a month earlier, a level “that has never been so low,” according to NRK.
Princess Mette-Marit, who married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, appears multiple times in the millions of pages released by the US Department of Justice, revealing an unsuspected complicity between her and the convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Her son, Marius Borg Hoiby, born from a brief relationship prior to her marriage to Haakon, is on trial for 38 charges, including four counts of rape and violence.
The 29-year-old, who is not a member of the royal family, denies the most serious accusations.
In another opinion poll published by TV2 at the end of January, 47.6 percent of respondents said that Mette-Marit should not become queen, while only 28.9 percent said she should.
King Harald, who turned 89 on Saturday, remains the most popular member of the royal family, according to the poll, which was conducted by the Norstat institute on a sample of more than a thousand people.
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