The whistleblower who leaked details of top-secret US surveillance programmes has disappeared from sight in Hong Kong - with Russia saying it would consider granting him asylum. Edward Snowden, 29, left his hotel on Monday, ahead of a probable attempt by the US government to have him returned to face charges. Mr Snowden, who was a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), had admitted giving details of the monitoring of phone calls and internet data, from companies such as Google and Facebook, to The Guardian and Washington Post. He checked out of Hong Kong's Mira Hotel, where he was...