Assange walks free after nine days in jail

The WikiLeaks founder celebrates as he emerges to speak to the media on the steps of the high court Link to this video The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, walked free after nine days in jail last night when a high court judge released him on bail. However, the judge warned him that he is almost certain to be extradited to Sweden to face sex assault allegations. The court refused an attempt by the Crown Prosecution Service to stop Assange being freed, but imposed tougher bail conditions than previously outlined by a lower court, which meant his lawyers had to scramble to meet them before he was returned to prison for another night. Finally Assange emerged on to the steps of the high court at 5.46pm, as snow began to fall, to make a defiant statement and to thank his supporters. "I hope to continue my work and to continue to protest my innocence in this matter and to reveal, as we get it, as we have not yet, the evidence from these allegations," he said. As well as the prospect of a trial in Sweden, there is a growing consensus among US constitutional lawyers and other legal experts that Assange will be indicted by Washington. After his release he said that even if he were indicted in the US, the spilling of state secrets would continue. He said that WikiLeaks was a "resilient organisation" that could "withstand decapitation attacks". Last week City of Westminster magistrates remanded Assange in custody because they said he posed too high a danger of absconding. On Tuesday his lawyers won a reversal of that decision, with a judge granting him bail on tough conditions – but the CPS appealed. Yesterday at the high court Mr Justice Ouseley rejected the CPS argument that there were no conditions a judge could impose that would stop Assange from fleeing. He ordered the CPS to pay costs but imposed new conditions on Assange. His bail will see him stay at Ellingham Hall in Norfolk, owned by Vaughan Smith, a former army captain, who was approved to provide surety at Tuesday's hearing along with the restaurant designer Sarah Saunders. While at the mansion, Assange must observe a curfew and be tagged. He will have to report daily to a police station, and £200,000 in security, raised by his supporters, has been paid into the court. But there are no restrictions now on his access to the internet or communications, meaning he is much more able to defend himself and WikiLeaks from US anger. The legal victory for Assange yesterday was a small step in what is likely to be a long battle. Ouseley warned him that the Swedish warrant was likely to be upheld, and that he would be extradited to face a trial for the alleged attacks. Assange's mother, Christine, who was in court, said she was "very, very happy". She added: "I can't wait to see my son and to hold him close. I had faith in the British justice system to do the right thing, and that faith has been confirmed today." For hours, it was far from certain that Assange's supporters and lawyers would manage to get him out in time. They had struggled to track down five more people the judge had approved as guarantors that Assange will observe his strict bail conditions. Some had to go to City of Westminster magistrates to sign the official paperwork and others who were out of London had to go to nominated police stations. Among those approved by the high court to act as surety were the Nobel prize winner Sir John Sulston, Lord Evans, an ex-Labour minister and former chairman of Faber & Faber, and the Marchioness of Worcester. Ouseley said he was concerned that some on the list of people willing to act as surety were doing so because they supported WikiLeaks, and would think a greater cause had been served if Assange skipped bail to avoid trial in Sweden. He warned Assange that if he tried to flee he would be "found to have exploited quite ruthlessly those who have put their trust in him and to have let them down". On Channel 4 News last night, Assange maintained he was the victim of a conspiracy orchestrated by the US with the assistance of the Swedish intelligence service. "There is an ongoing attempt by the US to extradite me to the US and that extradition is much more likely to occur if I am already in Sweden." He said his Swedish legal team had now been passed evidence relating to the rape charges against him. "There has never been a single page provided to me in English and, until two weeks ago, not a single page whatsoever provided in any form to my Swedish counsel – even in Swedish. This is a clear, clear abuse of process." Assange later described the rape allegations against him as "a very successful smear campaign and a very wrong one". Speaking on BBC 2's Newsnight, he said information relating to accusations had been leaked either by "the Swedish prosecution service or some organisations that have obtained selective material". He said: "My lawyers informed me this afternoon there will be another smear attempt relating to this investigation some time tomorrow." Speaking outside Ellingham Hall later, Assange said his lawyers in Sweden had got hold of 100 pages of material related to the allegations but he had yet to receive a comprehensive English translation. He said there could also be an attempt by the US to charge him with spying. "We have heard today from one of my US lawyers, yet to be confirmed, but a serious matter, that there may be a US indictment for espionage for me, coming from a secret US grand jury investigation," he told Sky TV. "Obviously it is extremely serious, and one of the concerns that we have had since I have been in the UK is whether the extradition proceeding to Sweden, which is occurring in a very strange and unusual way, is actually an attempt to get me into a jurisdiction which will then make it easier to extradite me to the United States."

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Julian Assange bail decision made by UK authorities, not Sweden

The decision to have Julian Assange sent to a London jail and kept there was taken by the British authorities and not by prosecutors in Sweden, as previously thought, the Guardian has learned.

The Crown Prosecution Service will go to the high court tomorrow to seek the reversal of a decision to free the WikiLeaks founder on bail, made yesterday by a judge at City of Westminster magistrates court.

It had been widely thought Sweden had made the decision to oppose bail, with the CPS acting merely as its representative. But today the Swedish prosecutor's office told the Guardian it had "not got a view at all on bail" and that Britain had made the decision to oppose bail.

Lawyers for Assange reacted to the news with shock and said CPS officials had told them this week it was Sweden which had asked them to ensure he was kept in prison.

Karin Rosander, director of communications for Sweden's prosecutor's office, told the Guardian: "The decision was made by the British prosecutor. I got it confirmed by the CPS this morning that the decision to appeal the granting of bail was entirely a matter for the CPS. The Swedish prosecutors are not entitled to make decisions within Britain. It is entirely up to the British authorities to handle it."

As a result, she said, Sweden will not be submitting any new evidence or arguments to the high court hearing tomorrow morning. "The Swedish authorities are not involved in these proceedings. We have not got a view at all on bail."

After the Swedish statement was put to the CPS, it confirmed that all decisions concerning the opposing of bail being granted to Assange had been taken by its lawyers. It said: "In all extradition cases, decisions on bail issues are always taken by the domestic prosecuting authority. It would not be practical for prosecutors in a foreign jurisdiction … to make such decisions."

Last week Sweden issued a warrant for Assange's arrest and extradition over sexual assault allegations. On 7 December the British prosecutor, Gemma Lindfield, convinced the senior district court judge Howard Riddle that Assange must be kept in custody because he was a flight risk.

Yesterday the judge accepted that Assange could be released on bail, but he was kept in Wandsworth prison after the CPS said it wanted to appeal against the decision to grant bail to a higher court.

The CPS's formal grounds of appeal for the hearing tomorrow morning, seen by the Guardian, will say that Assange must be kept in prison until a decision is made whether to extradite him, which could take months.

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Taliban claim responsibility for Pakistan blasts that killed 50

The Taliban claimed responsibility Monday for two explosions targeting a government building in Pakistan's tribal region, a Taliban leader said.

The blasts killed 50 people and injured at least 70 others, according to Shamas Ul Islam, a senior government official in Mohmand Agency.

Umar Khalid, head of the Pakistani Taliban in Mohmand Agency, said pamphlets had been distributed in the area 20 days ago warning members of peace committees or Lashkars (tribal militias) to abandon any efforts to join the government in fighting militants or face "consequences."

"We will continue to attack all pro-government officials and their supporters who try to join any peace committees or Lashkars," Khalid said.

The blasts occurred as government officials were about to meet with members of a volunteer militia group established to fight militants in the area, said Maqsood Amin, another senior government official in Mohmand Agency.

Among those killed in the blasts was Haji Kachkol Khan, a senior leader of the peace committeee, Islam said.

Amin said two suicide bombers were responsible for the blasts. One detonated inside the building and another outside the building's gate, he said.

The explosions occurred in the agency's headquarters of Ghalanai, Pakistan. A curfew has been imposed in Ghalanai as a preventive measure, Islam said.

The victims were taken to a local hospital after the blast, said Mohammad Zafar, a senior medical officer.

Monday's attacks were not the first time anti-Taliban and pro-government militias have been targeted in Pakistan. The attacks have been increasing over the past year, but Monday's was one of the deadliest attacks this year. A November 5 suicide attack targeting a mosque in Dera Adam Khel, where locals had formed an anti-Taliban militia, killed 67 people. In July, another suicide attack killed more than 100 people, also in Mohmand Agency.

Mohmand is one of seven semi-autonomous tribal agencies along the 1,500-mile border that Pakistan shares with Afghanistan.

The Pakistani military has been battling insurgents in the area for some time.

The attacks underscore that when locals decide to take a stand against the Taliban, there are sometimes deadly consequences. The Taliban usually warns locals against taking such actions, as they did in Monday's attacks. The Pakistani government has said that such suicide attacks are a sign that the Taliban is growing desperate and becoming more aware that Pakistanis are taking a stand against them.

In a statement, the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan condemned the attacks. "While details of these suicide attacks are still being verified, it is clear this vicious crime killed and wounded many innocent people," the statement said. "Our thoughts and sympathies are with the individuals and families affected by these inhumane acts."

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Julian Assange ready to meet police, says his lawyer

A lawyer working for Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange has said he is trying to arrange for his client to meet the police.

The Metropolitan Police have received a European arrest warrant for Mr Assange from Sweden.

The Australian denies allegations he sexually assaulted two women in Sweden.

Mr Assange's lawyer, Mark Stephens, has criticised the Swedish prosecutors, saying Mr Assange had been offering to meet since August.

He said they had offered to put Mr Assange up for interview at the Swedish embassy, by video conference recorded in Sweden or at Scotland Yard.

Mr Stephens said: "So far the Swedish prosecutor has declined to take up those offers.

"That's obviously to be regretted, and is deeply unsatisfactory both for the women who made the complaints, and indeed for Julian Assange, whose name's been so comprehensively traduced, particularly in the last seven days in the week while the cables have been released."

Mr Stephens said: "I haven't even seen the warrant yet. We have got 10 days to do this and a lot of complex schedules to organise."

Security review

Meanwhile, Downing Street issued strong criticism of Wikileaks for publishing secret diplomatic cables identifying important facilities.

The cables include sites and factories in Britain which the US says are vital to its security.

Security officials say the sites could now become terrorist targets and Foreign Secretary William Hague says the release of the information could have put lives at risk.

The list includes pipelines, communication and transport hubs.

Several UK sites are listed, from Cornwall to Scotland, including key satellite communications sites and the places where transatlantic cables make landfall.

A number of BAE Systems plants involved in joint weapons programmes with the Americans are listed, along with a marine engineering firm in Edinburgh which is said to be "critical" for nuclear-powered submarines.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Theresa May has said all government departments have been told to carry out a security review following the publication of the secret US diplomatic cables on the Wikileaks website.

She told MPs that the prime minister's security adviser, Sir Peter Ricketts, had written "to all departments to ask them to look again at their information security and to provide him with an assurance about the level of that information security".

The Swiss post office bank, PostFinance, has also frozen Mr Assange's bank accounts.

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Swiss cut off bank account for WikiLeaks' Assange

The Swiss postal system stripped WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of a key fundraising tool Monday, accusing him of lying and immediately shutting down one of his bank accounts.

The swift action by Postfinance, the financial arm of Swiss Post, came after it determined the "Australian citizen provided false information regarding his place of residence during the account opening process."

Assange had told Postfinance he lived in Geneva but could offer no proof that he was a Swiss resident, a requirement of opening such an account.

Postfinance spokesman Alex Josty told The Associated Press the account was closed Monday afternoon and there would be "no criminal consequences" for misleading authorities.

"That's his money, he will get his money back," Josty said. "We just close the account and that's it."

The setback leaves Assange with only a few options for raising money for his secret-spilling site through a Swiss-Icelandic credit card processing center and accounts in Iceland and Germany.

WikiLeaks has been under intense international scrutiny over its disclosure of a mountain of classified U.S. diplomatic cables, after previously releasing tens of thousands of classified U.S. military documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The unprecedented disclosures have embarrassed the U.S. and other governments worldwide and prompted U.S. officials to pressure the WikiLeaks site and its facilitators.

A Swiss website, wikileaks.ch, has been handling much of the traffic from WikiLeaks after other Internet service and online payment providers began severing ties with the organization.

WikiLeaks' Swedish servers came under suspected attack again Monday, the latest in a series of online computer assaults that have knocked the secret-spilling group across the Web.

WikiLeaks, in a tweet to its followers, confirmed it was having difficulty with its PRQ severs but did not elaborate.

"We are investigating the cause," it said.

While U.S. officials are investigating whether they can charge Assange, the 39-year-old Australian faces sexual misconduct allegations connected to his stay in Sweden over the summer.

The Swedish case has been described by his British lawyer Mark Stephens as a political stunt, but it could eventually lead to his extradition from Britain to Sweden. A European arrest warrant was issued for Assange last week and it is currently working its way through the British legal system.

Extradition experts say such warrants can take weeks or even months to lead to an arrest, although high profile cases tend to move faster. The BBC said the Swedish warrant was now with London's Scotland Yard — suggesting that matters were developing quickly.

The broadcaster didn't cite its source, and the police force declined comment.

Scotland Yard would still have to seek a warrant at Westminster and City Magistrates' Court, which handles extradition, before Assange were detained. Such a move would not be announced ahead of time.

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'Carmel fire in most stable state since blaze broke out'

Firefighter spokesman says fire will take days to put out; int'l aircraft resume operations to put out flames; 5 million trees destroyed.

  The Carmel Mountain Range blaze was under better control on Sunday morning, Fire Chief Shimon Romah told Army Radio. While saying that this was the best state the fire-fighting teams had found themselves in since the blaze began on Thursday, he added that only cautious optimism should be exercised as fires still raged.

In a statement on Sunday morning, Boaz Rakia, spokesperson for the firefighters, said that although there was a hope that the fires would be under control by Sunday night, it would still be a number of days before all the fires were put out. The Carmel blaze has scorched over 12,000 acres (50,000 dunams), killed 41 people and injured scores.

More than thirty fire-fighting aircraft resumed operations early on Sunday morning, and prepared to drop fire-fighting materials and water on the four remaining areas of fire in Israel's North.  Among the aircraft was the Evergreen Supertanker aircraft that landed in Israel overnight, expected to take flight around lunchtime. The privately owned US Boeing 747, the largest fire-fighting aircraft in the world – landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport and was set to make its first flight over the fire at around 6 a.m, a senior IAF officer said. The plane can carry 80 tons of water and fire retardant.

On Saturday night, the Israel police predicted that the fire, the worst in the country’s history, would hopefully be brought under control if not completely doused by the end of Sunday.

The expectation was that the blaze, which has ravaged 50,000 dunams (12,500 acres) in and around the Carmel Mountain Range and killed 41 Israelis, would be largely defeated with the arrival of the last of 33 aircraft dispatched to the emergency effort by countries from around the world.

“Our assessment is that we will be able to put out the worst of the fire by Sunday afternoon with 33 planes that will be here from around the world,” the IAF officer said, although emergency personnel have cautioned that new fires may continue to emerge over the coming few days.

As the sun set on Saturday evening over the scarred and still burning Carmel mountains, police and firefighters took cautious satisfaction in significant progress that had been made after some 60 hours of relentless battle against the monstrous inferno.

But with fire-fighting planes unable to fly at night, new blazes continued to erupt into the night. Forces took up defensive positions around Haifa, Usfiya and other communities, while hoping that the nocturnal winds would not undo all of their hard work.

Several key developments took place over the weekend. All 41 casualties of the fire were identified by forensic officers at the L. Greenberg Institute for Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir, and a series of funerals were held. More will take place on Sunday.

The majority of the dead were Israel Prisons Service staff who were burned alive in their bus near Beit Oren on Thursday.

The dead also included two policemen who had tried to assist the bus passengers, named as Ch.-Supt. Yitzhak Melina, 46, and the Northern District’s Operations Branch manager Dep.-Cmdr. Lior Boker, 57. He was posthumously promoted to Asst.- Cmdr by Police Insp.-Gen. David Cohen.

The body of Elad Riven, 16, of Haifa, who was a volunteer in the Fire Service and had rushed to assist at the scene of the tragedy, was also identified. Haifa police chief Dep.- Cmdr. Ahuva Tomer remained in critical condition at the Rambam Medical Center.

Police arrested two brothers from Usfiya, aged 14 and 16, suspected of having started the blaze by failing to douse a bonfire around which they had been playing and smoking on Thursday morning. The pair are suspected of negligence rather than deliberate arson. Arson is suspected at several other points where fires have erupted since the initial blaze took hold.

By Saturday night, more than 17,000 people had been evacuated from 15 communities, and five million trees had been destroyed, police said.

A fleet of international assistance aircraft from Russia, Greece, France, Bulgaria, Britain, Italy and Turkey flew sortie after sortie over the flames, dropping large quantities of water and fire retardants, before returning for more runs. On the ground, besieged firefighters managed to beat the fires back from Nir Etzion, Ein Hod, Haifa’s Denya neighborhood, and the Tirat Hacarmel-Atlit area.

The progress soon found expression in a police directive allowing residents of Kfar Galim, Kibbutz Hahotrim, Moshav Magdim, Denya and Tirat Hacarmel to return to their homes. Ein Hod, Nir Etzion, Ein Chud, and Yemin Orde remained off limits though.

Police also reopened Route 4 to traffic in both directions. Some homes in Ein Hod and Nir Ezion were savaged by the fires, while other evacuees returned to homes that were left unscathed.

Soon after nightfall Saturday, firefighters spokesman Boaz Arkia told The Jerusalem Post that the fire remained active in the eastern section of the mountain ridge, around Usfiya, Daliat al- Carmel, Beit Oren and a wildlife reserve.

“We are now focused on defending the communities here. Tonight is very problematic for us because the winds are changing direction and will become stronger. We must wait until morning to reassess the situation,” Arkia said. “We hope to get real control in the next 48 hours,” he added.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s lease of the Evergreen supertanker – the only fire-fighting plane capable of operating during nighttime – could just break the balance in favor of the firefighters when it arrives, Arkia said.

“We can see the fires rage at night in real time, but now we can’t do anything about it. When this plane comes into service, things will change.”

Arkia said fire crews remained dedicated and enjoyed high morale despite severe exhaustion.

“We’re working in shifts to allow them some respite – they are, after all human beings. But we are fully committed. “We don’t break so easily,” he said.

The IDF increased its involvement over the weekend, coordinating the arrival of dozens of foreign airplanes and helicopters.

Starting Friday morning, the air force began receiving the foreign aerial support that had been sent to Israel and dispatched air traffic control officers to the command center set up at Haifa University to coordinate relief efforts.

The IAF is expecting additional aircraft from Switzerland, Russia, the Netherlands, France, Azerbaijan and Romania.

“The IDF is concentrating its efforts with the other fire-fighting forces,” Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said on Saturday.

“Today, we are all firefighters,” he added.

Firefighters from Bulgaria were sent to the Home Front Command’s training base, from which they will depart for specific missions. The Association for the Well-Being of Israel’s Soldiers opened its vacation village in Givat Olga to other volunteers who had come from overseas to assist in efforts to put out the Carmel fire.

On Friday night, shortly after midnight, four Border Policemen were hospitalized for smoke inhalation, but were said to be in good condition. The officers were encircled by flames as they accompanied three fire trucks near Ein Hod. The beleaguered forces were led to safety by a police helicopter flying overhead.

Throughout the day on Friday, fires threatened Usfiya, Bet Oren and Nir Etzion before being beaten back. Police expressed exasperation after members of the public ignored directives and returned to their homes after being evacuated – forcing officers to return and evacuate them once more, using force, and sometimes handcuffing the residents to lead them away in Beit Oren and Denya.

A stream of onlookers also created a dangerous nuisance for police, interfering with the work of emergency services and endangering traffic on Route 4, where several drivers pulled over to watch and photograph the flames above.

In Atlit, residents were told on Friday to close their windows and turn on their air conditioners to avoid smoke inhalation. The fires threatened to engulf the Ya’arot Hacarmel hotel in the mountain ridge, though the structure emerged largely unharmed.

Meanwhile, as criticism mounted at the poor state of the Fire Service following years of neglect, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch hinted that the service would soon come under the auspices of his ministry in a centralized manner.

“The fire service will not continue in its present form, and will be revised,” a ministry statement said. “In recent weeks...the minister examined plans to bring the service under his authority, though it is too soon to discuss this now. The issue will be examined when the fires are out.”

State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss told State Control Committee chairman Yoel Hasson that he intends to submit to the committee a report on the condition of Israel’s fire-fighting capabilities and the performance of government ministries regarding the subject.

According to a statement issued Saturday evening by Hasson’s spokesman, the MK would then be able, based on Lindenstrauss’s report, to implement a clause in the State Comptroller Law that allows him to independently appoint a State Commission of Inquiry to examine the government’s performance regarding the Fire and Rescue Service.

All Rights Reserved For Live With News                2010

A senior officer from the Home Front Command said that the IDF and Defense Ministry had been aware “for years” of the deficiencies in Israel’s Fire and Rescue Service.

According to the officer, the shortages in the fire service’s resources were apparent during the nationwide civil defense exercises – called Turning Point – that Israel has held annually since the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

“The fact that there are problems with the fire service is not new and needs to be dealt with,” the officer said.

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WikiLeaks cables: Our troops 'do an excellent job' in Sangin, insists MoD

MoD defends Helmand operations after revelations that Karzai and US commander of Nato troops had criticised British efforts

The Ministry of Defence defended the conduct of operations in Helmand yesterday after revelations that the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, and the US commander of Nato troops had accused British troops of failing.

The criticism centred on a failure of the British military to impose security and to connect with Afghan civilians during a four-year stewardship of Helmand, Afghanistan's largest and most troubled provice. They came to light in a series of secret dispatches from the leaked US diplomatic cables. The town of Sangin has claimed more British lives than any other in Afghanistan. But US general Dan McNeill, who led Nato forces in Afganistan in 2007-2008, is recorded as "particularly dismayed" by the British effort which had "made a mess of things" in the province.

An MoD spokesman said: "UK forces did an excellent job in Sangin, an area which has always been and continues to be uniquely challenging, delivering progress by increasing security and taking the fight to the insurgency. That work is now being continued by the US marines as part of a hugely increased Isaf [the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force] presence across the whole of Helmand province."

"Both Afghan leaders (including the governor of Sangin) and the US marines have publicly recognised and paid tribute to the sacrifice and achievements of the UK forces in that area."

Publically, the US has hailed British operations. During the transfer of Helmand to US command earlier this year, Major General Richard Mills called the performance of British troops in the province as "nothing short of magnificent".

But the cables also show negative comments were made by the governor, Gulab Mangal,who told a US team led by vice-president Joe Biden in January 2009 that "I do not have anything against them [the British] but they must leave their bases and engage with the people."

Former defence secretary Geoff Hoon responded yesterday that he had raised concerns about the level of manpower needed for deployment in Helmand. "[I] basically said that we could do this, but only once we had drawn down significant numbers in Iraq," he told the Times. Hoon, who left the MoD in 2005, added: "I was more concerned not about the ability of the men on the ground to do the job; I had no doubt they could do the job.

"My concern was whether we had enough resources overall to both do the job in Iraq, the existing job in Afghanistan (because we were already fairly heavily deployed there) as well as a new one. That was the bit I was bothered about."

The efforts made by British troops were also strongly defended by Anthony Philipson, whose son James was one of the first soldiers to die in Helmand. "We have done the best we could with some of the finest infantry in the world; we have taken terrible casualties. Yes, the place is still a hotbed of violence, but I think it always will be."

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Top U.S. military officer presses China over North Korea

(Reuters) - China's push for new talks with North Korea is no substitute for action after Pyongyang's deadly attack on a South Korean island, and Beijing should use its influence to calm the situation, the top U.S. military officer said on Wednesday.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said North Korea's "lethal and unprovoked" artillery attack on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong last week was "unacceptable" and threatened the stability of the region.

The attack, the heaviest North Korean bombardment of the South since the 1950-53 Korean War, killed two civilians and two marines and destroyed dozens of houses. South Korean troops fired back minutes afterwards, causing unknown damage.

China has called for a resumption of six-party talks with North Korea over its nuclear program as a way of easing tensions. The foreign ministers of the United States, Japan and South Korea are expected to meet in Washington on Monday to discuss North Korea, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Monday's meeting was expected to touch upon North Korea and other regional security issues and to include U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara and South Korean Foreign Kim Sung-hwan.

Mullen, speaking at a forum on the resumption U.S.-China military-to-military ties, said the United States looked forward to China "assuming its responsibilities for global problem-solving commensurate with its growing capabilities."

"China shares a relationship with the North that is not matched anywhere else in the world. They have much influence and therefore responsibility," he said in a speech at the Center for American Progress think tank.

"Beijing's call for consultations will not substitute for action and I do not believe we should continue to reward North Korea's provocative and destabilizing behavior with bargaining or new incentives," Mullen said. "China is uniquely placed to guide North Korea to a less dangerous place."

SOLIDARITY AND DETERRENCE

Analysts have pointed to several possible motivations for the attack by North Korea, which came months after Pyongyang sank a South Korean navy ship killing 46 sailors and days after it unveiled a new uranium enrichment facility to a visiting U.S. nuclear scientist.

Some analysts say the attack was Pyongyang's attempt to force the resumption of international negotiations that could bring it aid. Others saw it as an attempt to boost the military credentials of the country's leader-in-waiting, Kim Jong-un, the youngest son of ailing leader Kim Jong-il.

Six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program were suspended in December 2008 and have been on hold since then. Pyongyang has indicated it was willing to resume the dialogue, but Washington and Seoul have pressed for it to first take steps to demonstrate a change of behavior.

The United States and South Korea wrapped up a four-day naval exercise on Wednesday that included the aircraft carrier USS George Washington and aimed to show U.S. solidarity with the South following the attack last week.

Mullen said they were aimed at sending a "very powerful signal" of both deterrence and solidarity, adding "we stand strongly with South Korea and remain strongly committed to support South Korea in defense of their territory."

U.S.-China relations have been strained throughout much of 2010, with the two sides clashing over issues from trade and currency to human rights and climate change.

But Beijing and Washington recently agreed to resume military-to-military ties after a six-month break and analysts are hopeful of further improvements to ensure a smooth state visit to the United States by Chinese President Hu Jintao in January.

Mullen said he hoped the resumption of military ties with China would help the two sides better judge each other's intentions "through deep, broad and continuous military-to-military engagement."

He said he would like the senior military leadership of the two countries to interact more frequently so the United States can understand why China is developing some military capabilities that appear to assume Washington is the enemy.

"Why are you developing these capabilities other than thinking that we're the enemy and we're the ones you're going to get in a fight with?" he asked.

"Those are the kinds of discussions I can't have right now because I'm not sitting down with them."

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China Urges Restraint As US, South Korea Plan New Drills

China is appealing for all sides to avoid inflaming tensions with North Korea as the United States and South Korea conclude a major naval exercise in the Yellow Sea.

But South Korean Defense Ministry officials said Wednesday they are in talks for another major exercise with the United States to take place as early as this month.  South Korea is also planning its own live-fire artillery drills to take place next week.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted the military command saying one of the exercises would take place near Daecheong Island, located just south of the two Koreas' disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea. North Korea launched a deadly artillery attack on another island while South Korean forces were conducting a similar drill last week, firing into waters that both countries claim as their own.

In Beijing, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi saying all sides should "keep calm and exercise restraint." He is the highest ranking Chinese official to comment on the crisis.

Show of force

The joint naval exercise ending Wednesday was the largest in a series of drills staged by South Korea and the U.S. in recent months. It involved thousands of sailors, 75 aircraft and 10 warships including the nuclear-powered USS George Washington.

South Korean officials said they have not yet decided on the timing or nature of the next joint exercise. They said it would come later this month or early next year.

In New York, diplomats say China is blocking efforts at the United Nations Security Council to draw up a statement condemning North Korea for its attack on Yeonpyeong island and its development of a uranium enrichment facility.

Diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity told news services that China was unwilling to permit the use of the word "condemn" or say North Korea is in "violation" of U.N. resolutions.

Early last week, North Korea fired more than 100 artillery shells at a military garrison on the island, killing two South Korean marines and two civilians and causing widespread damage. South Korea since then has reinforced its garrison and evacuated most of the island's civilian residents.

North Korean nuclear buildup

Earlier this month, a U.S. scientist said he was shown a sophisticated uranium enrichment facility in North Korea and that he had seen more than 1,000 centrifuges in operation. Pyongyang has since claimed the facility has "thousands" of working centrifuges.

North Korea says the uranium is being enriched to power a light water reactor under construction, but foreign officials fear it could be used to make fuel for nuclear weapons.

Crisis talks

Diplomatic efforts to diffuse the tension continue on several fronts.

Foreign ministers from the United States, South Korea and Japan are to meet in Washington next week, and the issue could also come up with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at an international conference this week in Kazakhstan.

Choe Thae Bok, a close confidante of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, is in Beijing for talks, and Japan said Tuesday it was sending a senior official to China to exchange views on the situation.

China is pressing for an urgent conference to be attended by China, the United States, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas. But Washington and Tokyo have shown little interest, saying North Korea must first show it is serious about giving up its nuclear programs.

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China Repeats Call for Korean Calm as U.S. Carrier Patrols Sea

China repeated its call for calm and restraint on the Korean peninsula as a U.S. aircraft carrier patrolled its coast and a North Korean official visited Beijing.

“The parties concerned should keep calm and exercise restraint, and work to bring the situation back onto the track of dialogue and negotiation,” the official Xinhua News Agency cited Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi as saying today at a forum in Beijing.

The comments coincide with top North Korean official Choe Thae Bok’s meeting in Beijing today with a member of China’s legislature. China on Nov. 28 proposed "emergency consultations" with negotiators from the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and the U.S. to defuse tensions following North Korea’s artillery attack on a South Korean island last week that killed four people.

A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier is now conducting exercises in the Yellow Sea off the Korean coast with the South Korean navy in a show of force meant to demonstrate solidarity between the two allies. Choe is chairman of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly.

Yang said holding six-nation talks in Beijing would "help ease the current tension," according to Xinhua. Japan has rejected the proposal, while White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Nov. 29 that the U.S. wasn’t interested “in stabilizing the region through a series of P.R. activities.” South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it would consider China’s call for talks "very cautiously."

China is the host of the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. Last week Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special envoy for the Korean nuclear issue, said the negotiations won’t start up again until North Korea takes actions to curb its uranium-enrichment program. Yesterday North Korea confirmed it had such a program, though it said it was for peaceful energy use.

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US, Japan, South Korea to meet soon over crisis

Seoul, South Korea -- Government ministers from the United States, Japan and South Korea will sit down in Washington early next month to grapple with the tensions in the Koreas, South Korea's Foreign Affairs Ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry did not provide further details about the date of the meeting, but it comes as China continues to call for an emergency meeting of the six major powers involved in talks about the Korean peninsula.

This diplomatic activity reflects efforts to lower anxieties in the Koreas, which have been at a boiling point since last Tuesday, when four people died and 18 others were injured in a North Korean artillery barrage that targeted Yeonpyeong Island in South Korea's part of the Yellow Sea.

The war of words got louder when South Korea and the United States launched joint anti-submarine military exercises in the Yellow Sea on Monday, a move that drew North Korean ire.

Being North Korea's largest trading partner and strongest ally, China has been urged by the international community to confront the crisis. It has been meeting with both North and South Korea and it has engaged in diplomacy over the matter.

A top Chinese envoy met with South Korea's president on Sunday and a top North Korean official arrived in Beijing, China, on Tuesday, the first visit to China by a North Korean official since last week's shelling of Yeonpyeong Island.

Choe Tae Bok, chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, is on a five-day visit to China.

And over the weekend China called for an emergency meeting of the six major powers which have been involved in talks about North Korea's nuclear program to discuss the latest crisis. The six are China, Russia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, and the United States.

Hong Lei, a spokesman for China's Foreign Affairs Ministry, told reporters Tuesday that such talks would be an important step in easing tensions.

"We made the proposal to ease the situation and to provide a platform for parties to have dialogue. ...To do this at an early date is in the common interest of all parties," he said.

But right now, the idea is up in the air.

South Korea said Sunday that it did not think the time was right for a resumption of the six-party talks but said it would "bear in mind" the Chinese proposal.

In Washington, a State Department official said that the United States is consulting with its allies but that resumed six-party talks "cannot substitute for action by North Korea to comply with its obligations."

The Japanese government said one of its envoys is in Beijing for discussions on the crisis.

Amid the international attempts to avert warfare, the strident and sabre-rattling rhetoric between the Koreas remained the region's background noise.

North Korea warned Tuesday that the continuing military drills by the United States and South Korea could lead to "all-out war any time."

The firmly-worded message was published by North Korea's state-run KCNA news service.

"If the U.S. and the south Korean war-like forces fire even a shell into the inviolable land and territorial waters of the DPRK, they will have to pay dearly for this," the news service report said. The DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's formal name -- the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

This comes after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak warned Monday that North Korea would face severe consequences if it launched another military attack across its southern border.

"If the North commits any additional provocations against the South, we will make sure that it pays a dear price without fail," Lee said in a nationally televised address. North Korea stepped up its threats recently on its southern rival, as well as the United States, warning that military activities must not infringe on what the communist nation considers its territory.

The crisis is top priority for Seoul.

On Tuesday, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported that Lee upbraided Cabinet members "for not having the right sense of crisis at a time when South Korea's national security is at stake."

"We should recognize that (South Korea) is confronting the world's most belligerent group," Lee was quoted as saying.

Citing the country's Defense Ministry Tuesday, Yonhap also reported that South Korea's military "plans to toughen its rules of engagement with North Korea in a way that gives its troops greater leeway to determine the intensity of a counterattack by the level of damage and threats received."

And, a government official quoted by Yonhap, said that owners of homes destroyed in the strike on Yeonpyeong Island will get more compensation than the standard amount paid by the government in the case of natural disasters.

"Due to the special circumstances of this matter, the amount of compensation will be more generous than usual," said an official of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. The official said that the amount will be determined after discussions with the Finance Ministry.

The agency said officials determined that "29 houses were completely wrecked, five destroyed partly and 80 others damaged slightly from artillery rounds."

As for the Yellow Sea exercises, Seoul and Washington postponed the exercises earlier this month because of a tropical storm.

The drills, which are to run through Friday, are "designed to send a clear message of deterrence to North Korea," U.S. Forces Korea have said.

U.S. officials have said the exercises off the western coast of the Korean peninsula are in response to North Korea's sinking of a South Korean warship in March.

In May, a report from South Korea blamed the North for sinking the Cheonan warship with a torpedo, killing 46 sailors.

North Korea denies sinking the ship and says South Korea and the United States are using it as a pretext to conduct the war games.

North Korea's nuclear program as well as its military have long caused jitters in the region, especially during times of crisis.

The country claimed Tuesday that it has "thousands of centrifuges" working to create nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, but international powers are concerned about how the country's military would use such technology.

"The construction of (a) light water reactor is brisk in the DPRK and a modern factory for uranium enrichment equipped with thousands of centrifuges is operating to supply fuel to them. The development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes to meet the need for electricity will be stepped up in the future," the KCNA news service reported.

The North Korean news service report seemed to confirm parts of a statement made last week by Siegfried Hecker, a Stanford University scientist.

In early November, the U.S. scientist said he visited a North Korean nuclear facility at the invitation of the government, which included 2,000 centrifuges, that was producing low-enriched uranium.

Hecker said he was told that facility was configured to produce low-enriched uranium but Hecker wrote that it could "be readily converted to produce highly-enriched uranium (HEU) bomb fuel."

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Criminal investigation underway into leak of classified diplomatic documents

resident Barack Obama was not the only one under attack after returning from his Asian trip. It appears that a highly coordinated smear campaign is also being directed against Michelle Obama. First, mainstream news reports have criticized the First Lady for no longer reaching out to people who are not a part of her "inner circle." They also allege that she is defensive and often keeps to herself. Second, it was leaked that Sarah Palin's new book slams Michelle Obama for her statements during the 2008 election in expressing how proud she was of her country because it felt like hope was making a comeback. (On another occasion, she said, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.")

One must ask if the recent attacks against Michelle Obama are due to her inspiring, cooperative and inclusive message while in Asia. Not only did she visit Asia's largest mosque in Indonesia, the Istiqlal Mosque, but everywhere she went she spoke of peace and religious toleration. While in Mumbai, Michelle Obama danced, sang and played vocabulary games with children from the Indian charity Make a Difference that services orphans and runaways and economically disadvantaged youth. After forming a circle where she played the tambourine, she talked about the importance of education and setting goals. When she invited questions, one child exclaimed that meeting the First Lady of the U.S. was like a dream come true. Michelle Obama replied: "No, you are my dream come true!"

As First Lady, Michelle Obama has taken up many causes within the United States. She has advocated for continued diversity in public education and supports organic gardening and buying organic food, including pursuing a more healthy lifestyle and addressing the sensitive issue of childhood obesity. She has visited numerous homeless shelters and soup kitchens, and continually encourages citizens to commit to some type of national or community service. She has shown a deep concern for veterans and have been a campaigner in assisting military families with certain needs. Not only has Michelle Obama been an outspoken proponent for pay equity laws, but she has attended meetings focusing on improving balancing parenting and a career.

As First Lady, Michelle Obama's global inclusiveness, intelligence, articulation, activism, and role as a mother, is just what the U.S. desperately needs. Since the end of World War II and with the onset of the Cold War, the loss in Vietnam, and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many Americans have turned inwards and have tried to find solutions from manipulative, racially biased, and hate-filled media demagogues. Studies have proven that the tender and early love of a mother creates deep reservoirs of self-confidence and courage throughout one's life. Children who are denied physical and social contact and affirmation have difficulty speaking, walking and integrating into groups, let alone working cooperatively. When children experience their mother as being confident, secure and loving, they are more likely explore and become trustworthy and industrious people.

In the 2000 election, another First Lady, this one from Florida, exclaimed: "It's going to be a great four years...eight years! God bless America."(1) Her speech came immediately after hundreds of thousands of Floridians were wrongly disqualified from voting. Others were either illegally purged from voter registrations, or intimidated at road blocks on their way to vote. Still, Al Gore won the popular vote by 539,898. If not for the ruling of the conservative Supreme Court that usurped 154 million votes, a recount or emergency revote in Florida would have revealed or enabled Al Gore to become president. Instead, "compassionate conservatism" has caused numerous genocidal wars, an economic collapse unparalleled since the Great Depression, a shameful increase in economic disparity, and an intolerance, militancy and exclusiveness not experienced since the days of McCarthyism.

When Michelle Obama hosted a town hall meeting with St. Xavier College students in Mumbai, she commented on how wonderful India's cultures and peoples were. After describing her meager upbringing, she told how her parents instilled into her a strong work ethic and the importance of humility and of treating others with dignity and respect. Then, she said the shared responsibilities for building the present and future must be met with education and a reverence for the environment and for the most vulnerable citizens of the world. She also mentioned the importance of healing divisions that too often keep people and nations apart. Michelle Obama concluded by declaring that all children, regardless of their circumstances and where they live, deserve the same chance to get an education and to build productive and meaningful lives.

With deep sorrow and even a sense of shame, one must wonder why the U.S. is one of the few remaining modernized and industrial nations (one could even include emerging countries) of the world that has yet to elect a female head of state. Meanwhile, women who do strive politically are either confined to a "fashion statement" or comparatively demeaned too those who work in the sex industries. Still, women who attempt to lead and initiate beneficial change-like Hillary Rodham Clinton who tried to reform for-profit health care corporations and pharmaceutical monopolies that cause the deaths of forty-thousand Americans each year, including untold misery and suffering for millions who do not have health care benefits-are attacked, derided, ridiculed, and threatened with political suicide.

For one of the first times since the end of World War II, and regarding a nation that has acted sexist, arrogant, belligerent, and which seems to be ignorant and intolerant of other cultures, some Americans are proud of you too Michelle Obama!

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Pressure on US as Clinton faces flak at summit

It will get personal very quickly for Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State. While all of Washington scrambled yesterday to contain the fallout from the leak of secret diplomatic cables, she will have some face-to-face explaining to do when she arrives at a European security summit in Kazakhstan tomorrow.

Of the many very bad things about this latest round of disclosures of how America conducts foreign policy, one is the timing – at least, for Mrs Clinton. After the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe gathering, she travels to the Middle East, which was a focus of many of the leaked cables. Perhaps with that tour in mind, Mrs Clinton vehemently criticised the leaks last night and insisted that America's relationships would not be harmed.

"I am confident that the partnerships that the Obama administration has worked so hard to build will withstand this challenge," she said. "I want to make clear that our policy is not set in these messages but here in Washington." And, she added ominously, the US is "taking aggressive steps to hold responsible those to account".

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U.S. behind disclosures, says Ahmadinejad

DUBAI: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused the U.S. of masterminding the release of thousands of cables by the WikiLeaks website as part of a “psychological warfare” campaign. At a press conference in Tehran on Monday, Mr. Ahamdinejad said the Americans had released the documents intentionally as part of a well organised plan. Asked to elaborate, he said: “Let me first correct you. The material was not leaked, but rather released in an organised way,” Iran's state-run Press TV reported.

A cable of April 20, 2008 released by WikiLeaks cites Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz comparing Iran to the “head of a snake” which needed to be “cut off.” However, in his riposte, the Iranian President stressed that the documents would not affect Tehran's external relations. “The U.S. administration released them and based on them they pass judgment …. [The documents] have no legal value and will not have the political effect they seek,” Press TV quoted him as saying. Mr. Ahmadinejad compared the WikiLeaks disclosure to a “game,” which, in his view is “not worth commenting upon and that no one would waste their time reviewing them”.

In response to King Abdullah's reported comments, a senior diplomatic source in the region told The Hindu, on conditions of anonymity, that Saudi Arabia's position on the developments in the region including Iran has been evolving, especially since the Gaza war which ended in January 2009. He added that Saudi Arabia had “since been working together with countries in the region including Iran to defuse tensions in West Asia's various trouble spots”. “To my mind the cable of April 20, 2008 is outdated and has been overtaken by events,” he observed.

AFP reports from Tehran: The cables also show that Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed as early as 2005 expressed support for military action against Iran. “I believe this guy is going to take us into war,” he said in 2006. “Al-Qaeda is not going to get a nuclear bomb; Iran is a matter of time,” he said in 2009. King Hamad of Bahrain told U.S. General David Petraeus in November 2009: “That [nuclear] programme must be stopped .... The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it.”

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Barack Obama receives 12 stitches after being 'elbowed'

President Barack Obama received 12 stitches in his lip on Friday after being hit in the face with an elbow while playing basketball, the White House said, stating that the injury was an accident. 

The injury was caused by Rey Decerega, director of programmes for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the White House said.

"After being inadvertently hit with an opposing player's elbow in the lip while playing basketball with friends and family, the president received 12 stitches today administered by the White House Medical Unit," said spokesman Robert Gibbs in a statement.

The president played basketball for about two hours at a gym at Fort McNair in Washington on Friday morning. It was a five-on-five contest involving family and friends. Among the players were Mr Obama's nephew, Avery Robinson, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Reggie Love, Mr Obama's personal assistant, who played basketball for Duke University.

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Somali-born teen arrested in US car bomb sting

A Somali-born teenager was arrested yesterday for attempting to detonate what he thought was a car bomb at a Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Oregon, US authorities said.

Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in connection with an alleged plot to bomb the annual event in downtown Portland, the FBI said in a statement late yesterday.

The bomb was a fake and had been provided to Mohamud as part of a long-term sting by the FBI. It also said Mohamud had been in contact with an unnamed individual overseas believed to be involved in terrorist activities.

"The threat was very real. Our investigation shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale," said Arthur Balizan, a senior FBI agent in Oregon.

Agents shadowed Mohamud, who is a naturalized US citizen, for months and met him several times as the plot developed, officials said, adding he had told them that he had thought of waging violent jihad, or holy war, since the age of 15.

He went ahead with the plot despite being given a number of opportunities to drop the idea, the FBI said. It said the affidavit against Mohamud quotes him as saying: "I want whoever is attending that event (in Portland) to leave, to leave either dead or injured."

The arrest came a day after Americans celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday amid heightened security.

Mohamud is expected to make his initial appearance in a federal court in Portland on Monday. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of the charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Federal officials said the public had never been in danger at any time during the operation.

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