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Twitter Tracks Snowden Asylum Saga From Moscow to Hans Island

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The Twittersphere lit up with posts about fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden Tuesday, as a request for asylum that he sent to nearly two dozen countries fell on deaf ears, leaving the 30-year-old American marooned in the transit area of a Moscow airport for a second week.

WASHINGTON, July 2 (by Karin Zeitvogel for RIA Novosti) – The Twittersphere lit up with posts about fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden Tuesday, as a request for asylum that he sent to nearly two dozen countries fell on deaf ears, leaving the 30-year-old American marooned in the transit area of a Moscow airport for a second week.

According to one Twitter tally, 13 out of 21 countries that Snowden reportedly asked for asylum have rejected his request, including India where External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid cited as a reason the country’s “very careful and restrictive policy on asylums” and insisted “we are not an open house for asylums."

But Twitter user @mojorojo thought there might be another truth behind the rejection. 

Reports that Norway was considering taking Snowden in were tweeted as a soccer transfer.

The Scandinavian land of speed skaters and the Nobel Prize ended up turning Snowden down, as did Ireland, though it’s unlikely that Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny really did say what one Twitter user attributed to him.

As country after country shut the door on him, individuals stepped up to offer Snowden a place to crash.

Snowden was invited to settle on tiny, barren, uninhabited Hans Island, which lies in the Nares Strait between Greenland and Canada’s Ellesmere Island and is claimed by the Danes and Canadians.

But even as Snowden’s search for asylum grabbed global headlines, some Twitter users were beginning to tire of the media furore over the accused leaker.

And others grew weary of seeing the same old headshot of the man the whole world was looking for, but nobody seemed to want to take in.

Meanwhile, some suggested that Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, where Snowden is reportedly hiding out, capitalize on its newfound celebrity by marketing T-shirts.

Still others predicted that the fugitive would turn himself in when he’s had his fill of airport food.

British bookmaker William Hill opened the betting on where Snowden would be in five months’ time, and as of Monday, the odds pointed to him being back in the United States, right where his saga started.

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