WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange lost a legal bid on Tuesday to persuade British authorities to drop further action against him for breaching his bail conditions when he walked into the Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2012.

The ruling means Assange remains in a legal and diplomatic impasse, with no way out of the embassy where he has been living for almost six years unless he decides to face the prospect of arrest by British police.

Assange, 46, entered Ecuador&#39;s embassy in June 2012 after skipping bail to avoid being sent to Sweden to face an allegation of rape, which he denied. The Swedish case was dropped in May last year, but Britain still has a warrant out for his arrest over the breach of bail terms.

&quot;I find arrest is a proportionate response even though Mr Assange has restricted his own freedom for a number of years,&quot; judge Emma Arbuthnot, the chief magistrate of England and Wales, said in her ruling at Westminster Magistrates Court.

Assange says he fears that if he hands himself in he could be extradited to the United States to be prosecuted for publishing US&nbsp;diplomatic and military secrets on WikiLeaks.

There is no public record or evidence demonstrating any US&nbsp;criminal charges are pending against Assange, but he and his supporters believe US&nbsp;prosecutors could have a sealed, therefore secret, indictment against him.

His lawyers had argued in a court hearing last week that it was no longer in the interests of justice for British authorities to seek to arrest and prosecute him for skipping bail, but the judge rejected their points.

&quot;Defendants on bail up and down the country, and requested persons facing extradition, come to court to face the consequences of their own choices. He should have the courage to do so too,&quot; she said.

&quot;The impression I have ... is that he is a man who wants to impose his terms on the course of justice.&quot;

Assange, who is very active on Twitter, appeared to be closely following the hearing from within the embassy. He sent a number of tweets while the judge was reading out her ruling, one of them commenting that it did not seem to be going well for him and others linking to articles favourable to him.

In one passage from her ruling, the judge said she did not accept the argument of Assange&#39;s lawyers that he had no access to sunlight. She said she had seen photographs of him on the embassy balcony.

&quot;Pulling security to get me safely on the balcony six times in six years for a few minutes turns into this,&quot; Assange tweeted in response.

Assange&#39;s supporters regard him as a champion of freedom of speech who has exposed inconvenient truths at great personal cost. His critics say that some of the WikiLeaks material posted online endangered lives in several countries, and that he has been too eager to side with autocratic regimes in his determination to criticise the United States.

The ruling means Assange remains in a legal and diplomatic impasse, with no way out of the embassy where he has been living for almost six years

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange lost a legal bid on Tuesday to persuade British authorities to drop further action against him for breaching his bail conditions when he walked into the Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2012. The ruling means Assange remains in a legal and diplomatic impasse, with no way out of the embassy where he has been living for almost six years unless he decides to face the prospect of arrest by British police. Assange, 46, entered Ecuador's embassy in June 2012 after skipping bail to avoid being sent to Sweden to face an allegation of rape, which he denied. The Swedish case was dropped in May last year, but Britain still has a warrant out for his arrest over the breach of bail terms. "I find arrest is a proportionate response even though Mr Assange has restricted his own freedom for a number of years," judge Emma Arbuthnot, the chief magistrate of England and Wales, said in her ruling at Westminster Magistrates Court. Assange says he fears that if he hands himself in he could be extradited to the United States to be prosecuted for publishing US diplomatic and military secrets on WikiLeaks. There is no public record or evidence demonstrating any US criminal charges are pending against Assange, but he and his supporters believe US prosecutors could have a sealed, therefore secret, indictment against him. His lawyers had argued in a court hearing last week that it was no longer in the interests of justice for British authorities to seek to arrest and prosecute him for skipping bail, but the judge rejected their points. "Defendants on bail up and down the country, and requested persons facing extradition, come to court to face the consequences of their own choices. He should have the courage to do so too," she said. "The impression I have ... is that he is a man who wants to impose his terms on the course of justice." Assange, who is very active on Twitter, appeared to be closely following the hearing from within the embassy. He sent a number of tweets while the judge was reading out her ruling, one of them commenting that it did not seem to be going well for him and others linking to articles favourable to him. In one passage from her ruling, the judge said she did not accept the argument of Assange's lawyers that he had no access to sunlight. She said she had seen photographs of him on the embassy balcony. "Pulling security to get me safely on the balcony six times in six years for a few minutes turns into this," Assange tweeted in response. Assange's supporters regard him as a champion of freedom of speech who has exposed inconvenient truths at great personal cost. His critics say that some of the WikiLeaks material posted online endangered lives in several countries, and that he has been too eager to side with autocratic regimes in his determination to criticise the United States.

WikiLeaks founder Assange loses bid to halt UK legal action against him

Two doctors have said the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange&#39;s six-year confinement in the Ecuadorean embassy in London is &quot;dangerous&quot; for his health.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The doctors came to their conclusion -- and made it public in the Guardian newspaper -- after spending 20 hours over three days with Assange in October.&nbsp;

&quot;While the results of the evaluation are protected by doctor-patient confidentiality, it is our professional opinion that his continued confinement is dangerous physically and mentally to him, and a clear infringement of his human right to healthcare,&quot; the doctors wrote in the Guardian.

The doctors&#39; announcement has led to speculation that Assange is pushing to get to Ecuador. He was recently given Ecuadorean citizenship but should he step out of the country&#39;s embassy in London, he may well find the UK, US, and Swedish authorities waiting to arrest him.&nbsp;

Sweden has dropped rape and assault charges against Assange but he worries the Swedish authorities may pick him up for violating his bail plea and not showing up in court. (Assange had turned up at the Ecuadorean embassy asking for asylum after the charges.)&nbsp;&nbsp;

Assange is wanted in the US for making classified state documents public. And the UK is an ally.&nbsp;

The doctor duo -- Sondra Crosby, a doctor and associate professor at Boston University&#39;s school of medicine and public health, and Brock Chisholm, a London-based clinical psychologist -- renewed calls for Assange to be given safe passage to a hospital.

The clinicians called for the British Medical Association and others to lobby the UK government to provide healthcare, but noted most doctors are unwilling to enter the embassy to treat him.

&quot;Our assessment reveals that he has had no access to sunlight, appropriate ventilation or outside space for over five and-a-half years,&quot; the doctors added.

&quot;This has taken a considerable physical as well as psychological toll.&quot;

Wikileaks in 2016 released medical records claiming its founder&#39;s mental health was at risk then if he remained in the embassy, predicting it was &quot;highly likely&quot; his mental health would deteriorate.

Ecuador gave Assange citizenship in December, and asked the UK to recognise him as a diplomat. That would have given Assange diplomatic immunity from arrest.&nbsp;

The UK refused, which leaves Assange stuck at the Ecuadorean embassy in London.&nbsp;

He has been there since 2012.&nbsp;

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year said Assange&#39;s arrest was a US &quot;priority&quot;.

Ecuadoran President Lenin Moreno said Wednesday that his country and Britain are seeking an arrangement that guarantees Assange&#39;s life and safety from US reprisal and also allows for him to be &quot;punished for the mistake he made&quot; in releasing classified US documents.

Moreno did not elaborate. But newspaper reports had only a few days earlier quoted him as called Assange a &quot;nuisance&quot;.&nbsp;

The reports also quoted Moreno as saying Assange was an &quot;inherited problem&quot; (from Moreno&#39;s successor) and that Moreno wanted him out of his country&#39;s embassy in London.&nbsp;

(With inputs from AFP)

'It is our professional opinion that his continued confinement is dangerous physically and mentally to him,' the doctors wrote in the Guardian newspaper

Two doctors have said the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's six-year confinement in the Ecuadorean embassy in London is "dangerous" for his health. The doctors came to their conclusion -- and made it public in the Guardian newspaper -- after spending 20 hours over three days with Assange in October. "While the results of the evaluation are protected by doctor-patient confidentiality, it is our professional opinion that his continued confinement is dangerous physically and mentally to him, and a clear infringement of his human right to healthcare," the doctors wrote in the Guardian. The doctors' announcement has led to speculation that Assange is pushing to get to Ecuador. He was recently given Ecuadorean citizenship but should he step out of the country's embassy in London, he may well find the UK, US, and Swedish authorities waiting to arrest him. Sweden has dropped rape and assault charges against Assange but he worries the Swedish authorities may pick him up for violating his bail plea and not showing up in court. (Assange had turned up at the Ecuadorean embassy asking for asylum after the charges.) Assange is wanted in the US for making classified state documents public. And the UK is an ally. The doctor duo -- Sondra Crosby, a doctor and associate professor at Boston University's school of medicine and public health, and Brock Chisholm, a London-based clinical psychologist -- renewed calls for Assange to be given safe passage to a hospital. The clinicians called for the British Medical Association and others to lobby the UK government to provide healthcare, but noted most doctors are unwilling to enter the embassy to treat him. "Our assessment reveals that he has had no access to sunlight, appropriate ventilation or outside space for over five and-a-half years," the doctors added. "This has taken a considerable physical as well as psychological toll." Wikileaks in 2016 released medical records claiming its founder's mental health was at risk then if he remained in the embassy, predicting it was "highly likely" his mental health would deteriorate. Ecuador gave Assange citizenship in December, and asked the UK to recognise him as a diplomat. That would have given Assange diplomatic immunity from arrest. The UK refused, which leaves Assange stuck at the Ecuadorean embassy in London. He has been there since 2012. US Attorney General Jeff Sessions last year said Assange's arrest was a US "priority". Ecuadoran President Lenin Moreno said Wednesday that his country and Britain are seeking an arrangement that guarantees Assange's life and safety from US reprisal and also allows for him to be "punished for the mistake he made" in releasing classified US documents. Moreno did not elaborate. But newspaper reports had only a few days earlier quoted him as called Assange a "nuisance". The reports also quoted Moreno as saying Assange was an "inherited problem" (from Moreno's successor) and that Moreno wanted him out of his country's embassy in London. (With inputs from AFP)

Assange confinement at Ecuador embassy 'dangerous' for his health, say doctors

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange may leave the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, following a British court&#39;s judgement on the final arrest warrant against him.

The court&#39;s verdict will clear whether the warrant against Assange will be dropped nor not.

Assange entered the Ecuadoran embassy to dodge a European arrest warrant and extradition to Sweden over a 2010 probe in the Scandinavian country into rape and sexual assault allegations.

If the court rules in Assange&#39;s favour, it would be for the first time that he would step out of embassy since seeking asylum there in June 2012. &nbsp;

The 46-year-old has been holed up there for more than five years.

His lawyers have made an application to Westminster Magistrates&#39; Court for the UK warrant to be withdrawn, saying it had lost its purpose and its function.

However, the UK Crown Prosecution Service claims the warrant should still stand and the Wikileaks founder should not be rewarded for having waited out the claims against him.

Sweden dropped its investigation last year, but British police are still seeking to arrest Assange for failing to surrender to a court after violating bail terms during his battle against extradition.&nbsp;

Assange entered the Ecuadoran embassy to dodge a European arrest warrant

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange may leave the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, following a British court's judgement on the final arrest warrant against him. The court's verdict will clear whether the warrant against Assange will be dropped nor not. Assange entered the Ecuadoran embassy to dodge a European arrest warrant and extradition to Sweden over a 2010 probe in the Scandinavian country into rape and sexual assault allegations. If the court rules in Assange's favour, it would be for the first time that he would step out of embassy since seeking asylum there in June 2012. The 46-year-old has been holed up there for more than five years. His lawyers have made an application to Westminster Magistrates' Court for the UK warrant to be withdrawn, saying it had lost its purpose and its function. However, the UK Crown Prosecution Service claims the warrant should still stand and the Wikileaks founder should not be rewarded for having waited out the claims against him. Sweden dropped its investigation last year, but British police are still seeking to arrest Assange for failing to surrender to a court after violating bail terms during his battle against extradition.

British court to decide today on lifting of Julian Assange arrest warrant

A British judge on Tuesday said she would issue a further ruling on February 13 on whether an arrest warrant for <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-loses-bid-to-have-uk-arrest-warrant-dropped-32027" target="_blank">Wikileaks founder Julian Assange</a> for breaching his bail conditions should be kept in place.

Judge Emma Arbuthnot earlier ruled out a bid by Assange to cancel the warrant outright but his lawyers have made a new application asking her to consider whether it is in the &quot;public interest&quot; to maintain it.

Judge Emma Arbuthnot earlier ruled out a bid by Assange to cancel the warrant outright

A British judge on Tuesday said she would issue a further ruling on February 13 on whether an arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for breaching his bail conditions should be kept in place. Judge Emma Arbuthnot earlier ruled out a bid by Assange to cancel the warrant outright but his lawyers have made a new application asking her to consider whether it is in the "public interest" to maintain it.

UK court to issue new ruling on Assange on February 13

A British court on Tuesday rejected a legal attempt by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to have a warrant for his arrest quashed.

Assange, 46, has been holed up inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London for more than five years because he fears extradition to the United States.

If he were to leave, he would face arrest by British police for skipping bail in June 2012 by seeking refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden to face an allegation of rape, which he denied.

The Swedish case has since been dropped but in the eyes of the British authorities, Assange remains in breach of his bail conditions.

Assange has said he feared Sweden would hand him over to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks&#39; publication of a large trove of classified military and diplomatic documents - one of the largest information leaks in US&nbsp;history.

His lawyer told a hearing at London&#39;s Westminster Magistrates&#39; Court last week that the UK arrest warrant issued for breaching bail conditions should be dropped because Swedish prosecutors had dropped their investigation and withdrawn their bid to have him extradited.

However, the court announced on Tuesday his application had been rejected.

&quot;I am not persuaded that the warrant should be withdrawn,&quot; said judge Emma Arbuthnot, the chief magistrate of England and Wales.

After the decision, Assange&rsquo;s lawyer Mark Summers asked her to consider whether it would be in the public interest to continue pursuing his client for breach of bail conditions.

Arbuthnot said normally such issues would only be considered if somebody were brought to court to explain their failure to surrender to bail.

Summers replied: &ldquo;There are exceptional circumstances.&rdquo;

Assange, 46, has been holed up inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London for more than five years because he fears extradition to the United States

A British court on Tuesday rejected a legal attempt by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to have a warrant for his arrest quashed. Assange, 46, has been holed up inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London for more than five years because he fears extradition to the United States. If he were to leave, he would face arrest by British police for skipping bail in June 2012 by seeking refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden to face an allegation of rape, which he denied. The Swedish case has since been dropped but in the eyes of the British authorities, Assange remains in breach of his bail conditions. Assange has said he feared Sweden would hand him over to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks' publication of a large trove of classified military and diplomatic documents - one of the largest information leaks in US history. His lawyer told a hearing at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court last week that the UK arrest warrant issued for breaching bail conditions should be dropped because Swedish prosecutors had dropped their investigation and withdrawn their bid to have him extradited. However, the court announced on Tuesday his application had been rejected. "I am not persuaded that the warrant should be withdrawn," said judge Emma Arbuthnot, the chief magistrate of England and Wales. After the decision, Assange’s lawyer Mark Summers asked her to consider whether it would be in the public interest to continue pursuing his client for breach of bail conditions. Arbuthnot said normally such issues would only be considered if somebody were brought to court to explain their failure to surrender to bail. Summers replied: “There are exceptional circumstances.”

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange loses bid to have UK arrest warrant dropped

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/we-are-sensitive-to-special-status-demands-raised-by-andhra-mps-government-32001">We are sensitive to demands of special status raised by Andhra MPs: Government</a>

MPs of the Telegu Desam Party and YSR Congress protested in the Lok Sabha on Monday demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh.&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/1-policeman-killed-as-terrorists-fire-shots-inside-srinagar-hospital-pakistani-terrorist-flees-31962">Second</a><a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/1-policeman-killed-as-terrorists-fire-shots-inside-srinagar-hospital-pakistani-terrorist-flees-31962"> policeman injured in Srinagar hospital attack dies</a>

One policeman was killed and another got critically after an imprisoned Pakistani terrorist on Tuesday fired at them inside Srinagar&#39;s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital before fleeing from the spot.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/south-asia/supreme-courts-order-is-unconstitutional-maldives-president-yameen-31993">Maldives: Top justices arrested, President Yameen accuses judges of plotting to overthrow him</a>

Maldives&#39; President Abdulla Yameen has called the Supreme Court&#39;s order unconstitutional. Yameen quashed the Supreme Court&#39;s directive to release nine prisoners noting that there were several obstacles to enforcing the apex court&#39;s ruling which the government was not able to communicate with the court.&nbsp;

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/spacex-poised-to-launch-worlds-most-powerful-rocket-31995">SpaceX poised to launch &#39;world&#39;s most powerful rocket&#39;</a>

SpaceX is poised for the first test launch Tuesday of its Falcon Heavy, which aims to become the world&#39;s most powerful rocket, capable of ferrying people to the Moon or Mars some day.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/british-court-to-decide-today-on-lifting-of-julian-assange-arrest-warrant-32000">British court to decide today on lifting of Julian Assange arrest warrant</a>

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange may leave the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, following a British court&#39;s judgement on the final arrest warrant against him.

We are sensitive to demands of special status raised by Andhra MPs: Government MPs of the Telegu Desam Party and YSR Congress protested in the Lok Sabha on Monday demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh. Second policeman injured in Srinagar hospital attack dies One policeman was killed and another got critically after an imprisoned Pakistani terrorist on Tuesday fired at them inside Srinagar's Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital before fleeing from the spot. Maldives: Top justices arrested, President Yameen accuses judges of plotting to overthrow him Maldives' President Abdulla Yameen has called the Supreme Court's order unconstitutional. Yameen quashed the Supreme Court's directive to release nine prisoners noting that there were several obstacles to enforcing the apex court's ruling which the government was not able to communicate with the court. SpaceX poised to launch 'world's most powerful rocket' SpaceX is poised for the first test launch Tuesday of its Falcon Heavy, which aims to become the world's most powerful rocket, capable of ferrying people to the Moon or Mars some day. British court to decide today on lifting of Julian Assange arrest warrant Wikileaks founder Julian Assange may leave the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, following a British court's judgement on the final arrest warrant against him.

WION Evening News Brief, February 6, 2018

Wikileaks founder <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/swedish-prosecutors-drop-rape-probe-against-assange-uk-police-to-execute-arrest-warrant-15787">Julian Assange has been denied </a>diplomatic status by the UK which was requested by the Ecuador&nbsp;government, reports said, a move would have helped&nbsp;Assange&nbsp;to leave Britain&nbsp;without being arrested.

Assange has been <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/assange-accuses-cia-of-devastating-incompetence-over-leaks-says-has-more-information-on-hacking-operation-13221">holed up in the Ecuador embassy in</a> London since 2012 over rape allegations in Sweden even though the country withdrew the charge two years ago.

Reports had emerged in the past few days with Ecuador foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa reportedly told the media that the current situation was &ldquo;not sustainable&rdquo; and indicated a third-party solution to the ongoing diplomatic crisis with the UK.

Espinosa had said &quot;no solution&quot; could be achieved without &quot;international cooperation&quot; and cooperation of the UK.

The Wikileaks founder could be arrested by UK authorities for violating bail conditions. Assange feels once he is arrested he might be extradited to the US where he facing charges for leaking classified US documents.

Assange has been living inside the Ecuador embassy claiming &quot;political asylum&quot; even as UK police officials continue to monitor his movements from outside, posted just outside the embassy.

A United Nations panel had earlier said that Assange was being &quot;arbitrarily detained&quot; but it was rejected by UK authorities.

Assange has been holed up in the Ecuador embassy in London since 2012 over rape allegations in Sweden

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been denied diplomatic status by the UK which was requested by the Ecuador government, reports said, a move would have helped Assange to leave Britain without being arrested. Assange has been holed up in the Ecuador embassy in London since 2012 over rape allegations in Sweden even though the country withdrew the charge two years ago. Reports had emerged in the past few days with Ecuador foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa reportedly told the media that the current situation was “not sustainable” and indicated a third-party solution to the ongoing diplomatic crisis with the UK. Espinosa had said "no solution" could be achieved without "international cooperation" and cooperation of the UK. The Wikileaks founder could be arrested by UK authorities for violating bail conditions. Assange feels once he is arrested he might be extradited to the US where he facing charges for leaking classified US documents. Assange has been living inside the Ecuador embassy claiming "political asylum" even as UK police officials continue to monitor his movements from outside, posted just outside the embassy. A United Nations panel had earlier said that Assange was being "arbitrarily detained" but it was rejected by UK authorities.

UK denies diplomatic status to Assange: Report

Ecuador has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.&nbsp;

Assange has been sheltering at <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/julian-assange-denied-diplomatic-status-by-uk-29259" target="_blank">Ecuador&#39;s London embassy for the past five years</a> in order to evade arrest.&nbsp;

Ecuador&#39;s Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said Thursday at a press conference in Quito that Assange had been made an Ecuadorian citizen on December 12.&nbsp;

AFP reported that Ecuador has requested Britain to recognise Assange as a diplomat which would give him immunity from arrest, a request which Britain has refused.&nbsp;

Julian Assange, faces rape and sexual assault allegations in Sweden.&nbsp;

Assange has always denied the sexual assault allegations against him, claiming the sex was consensual and that the case was politically motivated to get him extradited to the US over massive Wikileaks dumps of secret US military reports that year.

A United Nations panel had concluded in 2016 that Assange was under arbitrary detention. But the British government has maintained he must face justice in UK courts over his breach of bail conditions.

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit journalistic organisation that publishes secret information, news leaks and classified media from anonymous sources.

Assange has been sheltering at Ecuador's London embassy for the past five years in order to evade arrest

Ecuador has granted citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange has been sheltering at Ecuador's London embassy for the past five years in order to evade arrest. Ecuador's Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa said Thursday at a press conference in Quito that Assange had been made an Ecuadorian citizen on December 12. AFP reported that Ecuador has requested Britain to recognise Assange as a diplomat which would give him immunity from arrest, a request which Britain has refused. Julian Assange, faces rape and sexual assault allegations in Sweden. Assange has always denied the sexual assault allegations against him, claiming the sex was consensual and that the case was politically motivated to get him extradited to the US over massive Wikileaks dumps of secret US military reports that year. A United Nations panel had concluded in 2016 that Assange was under arbitrary detention. But the British government has maintained he must face justice in UK courts over his breach of bail conditions. WikiLeaks is an international non-profit journalistic organisation that publishes secret information, news leaks and classified media from anonymous sources.

Ecuador grants citizenship to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid arrest and extradition to the US, was today denied diplomatic status by the UK government.

The anti-secrecy group&#39;s chief has been based at the Ecuador embassy in central London since 2012 after he lost appeals against sexual assault charges in Sweden.

The request for diplomatic status was made on behalf of the 46-year-old campaigner by the Ecuadorean government, which has reportedly issued a passport to the Australian national after he had sought political asylum from the South American country five and a half years ago.

&quot;The government of Ecuador recently requested diplomatic status for Assange here in the UK. The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter,&quot; said a spokesperson for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

&quot;Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice,&quot; the spokesperson added.

According to media reports from Ecuador earlier this week, Assange has been registered to the province of Pichincha, which covers the capital Quito.

The public database of the country&#39;s internal revenue service indicates that the travel document was delivered to Assange on December 21, indicating that the country is preparing for the campaigner&#39;s exit from his London hideout.

Ecuador foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa has said that the country is seeking a neutral third-party nation&#39;s mediation to revolve what she described as an &quot;untenable&quot; situation.

While the grant of a passport has not been officially confirmed, it is seen as part of a process to get Assange out of the UK by giving him a role at the embassy that confers diplomatic immunity.

The rape allegation against the computer programmer had followed a Wikileaks conference in Stockholm in 2010.

Assange has always denied the sexual assault allegations against him, claiming the sex was consensual and that the case was politically motivated to get him extradited to the US over massive Wikileaks dumps of secret US military reports that year.

Swedish prosecutors have since dropped their investigation into the allegations but Assange still faces arrest by Scotland Yard for breaching bail conditions if he steps outside the embassy. 
Assange also fears he will be extradited to the US if he leaves the building over a sealed indictment ordering his arrest.

A United Nations panel had concluded in 2016 that Assange was under arbitrary detention. But the British government has maintained he must face justice in UK courts over his breach of bail conditions.

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit journalistic organisation that publishes secret information, news leaks and classified media from anonymous sources.

Assange has been based at the Ecuador embassy in central London since 2012

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid arrest and extradition to the US, was today denied diplomatic status by the UK government. The anti-secrecy group's chief has been based at the Ecuador embassy in central London since 2012 after he lost appeals against sexual assault charges in Sweden. The request for diplomatic status was made on behalf of the 46-year-old campaigner by the Ecuadorean government, which has reportedly issued a passport to the Australian national after he had sought political asylum from the South American country five and a half years ago. "The government of Ecuador recently requested diplomatic status for Assange here in the UK. The UK did not grant that request, nor are we in talks with Ecuador on this matter," said a spokesperson for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). "Ecuador knows that the way to resolve this issue is for Julian Assange to leave the embassy to face justice," the spokesperson added. According to media reports from Ecuador earlier this week, Assange has been registered to the province of Pichincha, which covers the capital Quito. The public database of the country's internal revenue service indicates that the travel document was delivered to Assange on December 21, indicating that the country is preparing for the campaigner's exit from his London hideout. Ecuador foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa has said that the country is seeking a neutral third-party nation's mediation to revolve what she described as an "untenable" situation. While the grant of a passport has not been officially confirmed, it is seen as part of a process to get Assange out of the UK by giving him a role at the embassy that confers diplomatic immunity. The rape allegation against the computer programmer had followed a Wikileaks conference in Stockholm in 2010. Assange has always denied the sexual assault allegations against him, claiming the sex was consensual and that the case was politically motivated to get him extradited to the US over massive Wikileaks dumps of secret US military reports that year. Swedish prosecutors have since dropped their investigation into the allegations but Assange still faces arrest by Scotland Yard for breaching bail conditions if he steps outside the embassy. Assange also fears he will be extradited to the US if he leaves the building over a sealed indictment ordering his arrest. A United Nations panel had concluded in 2016 that Assange was under arbitrary detention. But the British government has maintained he must face justice in UK courts over his breach of bail conditions. WikiLeaks is an international non-profit journalistic organisation that publishes secret information, news leaks and classified media from anonymous sources.

Julian Assange denied diplomatic status by UK

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/hillary-clintons-childhood-and-how-it-shaped-her-politics-8189" target="_blank">Hillary Clinton&nbsp;</a>Monday&nbsp;accused<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/wikileaks-releases-20000-emails-of-democratic-party-officials-working-against-bernie-sanders-3076" target="_blank"> WikiLeaks</a> of working with Russia to deflect attention away from an infamous tape of <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/trump-faces-uphill-battle-in-second-us-presidential-debate-with-clinton-7288" target="_blank">Donald Trump </a>bragging about groping women in the run-up to the US presidential election.

The former secretary of state&#39;s devastating election loss to Trump remains raw and she again lashed out at WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his alleged role in damaging her candidacy.

&quot;Assange has become a kind of nihilistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator,&quot; she said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

&quot;WikiLeaks is unfortunately now practically a fully-owned subsidiary of Russian intelligence.&quot;

The US intelligence community concluded Putin ordered an influence campaign to discredit Clinton and had a &quot;clear preference&quot; for Trump in last year&#39;s poll.

Clinton used the bombshell Trump tape as an example of how WikiLeaks allegedly tried to deflect attention away from a bad news story, resurrecting the incident in the wake of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein&#39;s fall from grace over his treatment of women.

In the 2005 videotape, which surfaced in October last year, Trump brags about being able to get away with<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/sexual-harassment-charges-against-donald-trump-what-south-asian-women-think-8245" target="_blank"> groping women</a>.

&quot;When you&#39;re a star, they let you do it,&quot; he said. &quot;Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything,&quot; Trump added.

Trump said the comments were &quot;locker-room banter&quot;. Several women subsequently accused him of sexual misconduct, which he denounced as lies.

Within hours of the tape emerging, WikiLeaks published more than 2,000 hacked emails from the personal account of Clinton&#39;s campaign chair John Podesta, which she said blunted its impact.

&quot;WikiLeaks, which in the world in which we find ourselves promised hidden information, promised some kind of secret that might be of influence, was a very clever, diabolical response to the Hollywood Access tape,&quot; she said, referring to the Trump recording.&nbsp;

&quot;And I&#39;ve no doubt in my mind that there was some communication if not coordination to drop those the first time in response to the Hollywood Access tape.&quot;

Clinton claimed WikiLeaks&#39; actions were motivated by Assange&#39;s personal dislike of her.

&quot;I had a lot of history with him because I was secretary of state when WikiLeaks published a lot of very sensitive information from our State Department and our Defence Department,&quot; she said.

&quot;If he&#39;s such a martyr of free speech, why doesn&#39;t WikilLaks ever publish anything coming out of Russia? You don&#39;t see damaging, negative information coming out about the Kremlin on Wikileaks,&quot; Clinton added.

Australian Assange, who has spent five years inside the Ecuador embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges, has denied Russia was the source behind the leaked documents.

'WikiLeaks is unfortunately now practically a fully-owned subsidiary of Russian intelligence,' said Clinton

Hillary Clinton Monday accused WikiLeaks of working with Russia to deflect attention away from an infamous tape of Donald Trump bragging about groping women in the run-up to the US presidential election. The former secretary of state's devastating election loss to Trump remains raw and she again lashed out at WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his alleged role in damaging her candidacy. "Assange has become a kind of nihilistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator," she said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin. "WikiLeaks is unfortunately now practically a fully-owned subsidiary of Russian intelligence." The US intelligence community concluded Putin ordered an influence campaign to discredit Clinton and had a "clear preference" for Trump in last year's poll. Clinton used the bombshell Trump tape as an example of how WikiLeaks allegedly tried to deflect attention away from a bad news story, resurrecting the incident in the wake of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein's fall from grace over his treatment of women. In the 2005 videotape, which surfaced in October last year, Trump brags about being able to get away with groping women. "When you're a star, they let you do it," he said. "Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything," Trump added. Trump said the comments were "locker-room banter". Several women subsequently accused him of sexual misconduct, which he denounced as lies. Within hours of the tape emerging, WikiLeaks published more than 2,000 hacked emails from the personal account of Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta, which she said blunted its impact. "WikiLeaks, which in the world in which we find ourselves promised hidden information, promised some kind of secret that might be of influence, was a very clever, diabolical response to the Hollywood Access tape," she said, referring to the Trump recording. "And I've no doubt in my mind that there was some communication if not coordination to drop those the first time in response to the Hollywood Access tape." Clinton claimed WikiLeaks' actions were motivated by Assange's personal dislike of her. "I had a lot of history with him because I was secretary of state when WikiLeaks published a lot of very sensitive information from our State Department and our Defence Department," she said. "If he's such a martyr of free speech, why doesn't WikilLaks ever publish anything coming out of Russia? You don't see damaging, negative information coming out about the Kremlin on Wikileaks," Clinton added. Australian Assange, who has spent five years inside the Ecuador embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges, has denied Russia was the source behind the leaked documents.

Clinton says WikiLeaks worked with Russia to deflect attention from infamous Trump tape

&quot;No matter where I am, I can&#39;t forget this man isolated in the Ecuadorian Embassy. &nbsp;A man risking so much with such little gratitude.

Thinking of Julian makes me wonder, what is the sexiest quality in a man? Surely the sexiest qualities in a man are bravery and courage. Sexiness in a man is showing strength. Having convictions and having the courage to stand by them.&quot;

This is 90s Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, 49, writing about Julian Assange&nbsp;in an article titled:<a href="http://www.pamelaandersonfoundation.org/news/2017/6/17/why-my-heart-stands-with-julian"> Why My Heart Stands With Julian</a>

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange,45,&nbsp;has been holed up in the Ecuadorean&nbsp;embassy in London for the past five&nbsp;years on rape charges, <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/swedish-prosecutors-drop-rape-probe-against-assange-uk-police-to-execute-arrest-warrant-15787">although Sweden dropped the charges against him last month, US &amp; UK are still ready to arrest him</a> for leaking the &quot;Manning Cables&quot; released in April 2010&nbsp;documenting US atrocities in Afghanistan, Iraq and for leaking several million diplomatic cables and making public the US operation in Guant&aacute;namo prison.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/un-panel-rejects-britains-request-to-review-assange-ruling-9550">Also Read:&nbsp;UN panel rejects Britain&#39;s request to review Assange ruling</a>

Pamela Anderson, it seems has decided to take it upon herself to free Assange, in an Instagram message on May 20, the former Baywatch star wrote:&nbsp;&nbsp;A victory - yes&nbsp;but still angry - #julianassange 
Detained&nbsp;without charge for 7 years while missing his children grow...

The picture soon went viral as Assange and Pamela were seen to be visibly close.

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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BUTtT6hFahY/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">A victory - yes but still angry - #julianassange Detained without charge for 7 years while missing his children grow... I hope people have some remorse about unfounded judgements towards a good man, father, and friend of the truth ?? #cia #uk #usa</a>

<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A post shared by The Pamela Anderson Foundation (@pamelaanderson) on <time datetime="2017-05-20T08:45:38+00:00" style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;">May 20, 2017 at 1:45am PDT</time>
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Critics, however, wonder if this is Pamela&#39;s way to garner some much-needed publicity since she is out of the big league in Hollywood and no longer the &quot;most wanted&quot; in the reality TV circuit. Pamela has of course been visiting the Ecuadorean embassy quite frequently to meet Assange.

We have more than - A &#39;&#39;Romantic Life&quot;

&nbsp;

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I&#39;d rather dampen any romance rumours - Lessen it&#39;s gravitas - I&#39;m already at a disadvantage - (perception) It&#39;s a distraction. when so much is at stake. (Others)
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Her Twitter handle @pamfoundation&nbsp;is full of Retweets on &quot;Assange news&quot;, makes us wonder what are her &quot;real&quot; intentions, is it, love or publicity? Pamela, please answer, the world desperately wants to know...

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Critics wonder if this is Pamela's way to garner some much-needed publicity

"No matter where I am, I can't forget this man isolated in the Ecuadorian Embassy. A man risking so much with such little gratitude. Thinking of Julian makes me wonder, what is the sexiest quality in a man? Surely the sexiest qualities in a man are bravery and courage. Sexiness in a man is showing strength. Having convictions and having the courage to stand by them." This is 90s Baywatch star Pamela Anderson, 49, writing about Julian Assange in an article titled: Why My Heart Stands With Julian Wikileaks founder Julian Assange,45, has been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for the past five years on rape charges, although Sweden dropped the charges against him last month, US & UK are still ready to arrest him for leaking the "Manning Cables" released in April 2010 documenting US atrocities in Afghanistan, Iraq and for leaking several million diplomatic cables and making public the US operation in Guantánamo prison. Also Read: UN panel rejects Britain's request to review Assange ruling Pamela Anderson, it seems has decided to take it upon herself to free Assange, in an Instagram message on May 20, the former Baywatch star wrote: A victory - yes but still angry - #julianassange Detained without charge for 7 years while missing his children grow... The picture soon went viral as Assange and Pamela were seen to be visibly close. A victory - yes but still angry - #julianassange Detained without charge for 7 years while missing his children grow... I hope people have some remorse about unfounded judgements towards a good man, father, and friend of the truth ?? #cia #uk #usa A post shared by The Pamela Anderson Foundation (@pamelaanderson) on May 20, 2017 at 1:45am PDT × Critics, however, wonder if this is Pamela's way to garner some much-needed publicity since she is out of the big league in Hollywood and no longer the "most wanted" in the reality TV circuit. Pamela has of course been visiting the Ecuadorean embassy quite frequently to meet Assange. We have more than - A ''Romantic Life" I'd rather dampen any romance rumours - Lessen it's gravitas - I'm already at a disadvantage - (perception) It's a distraction. when so much is at stake. (Others) × Her Twitter handle @pamfoundation is full of Retweets on "Assange news", makes us wonder what are her "real" intentions, is it, love or publicity? Pamela, please answer, the world desperately wants to know...

Is Pamela Anderson dating Julian Assange?

Swedish prosecutors Friday dropped a seven-year rape investigation into Julian Assange, a legal victory for the WikiLeaks founder who has been holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012.

&quot;Director of Public Prosecution, Marianne Ny, has today decided to discontinue the investigation regarding suspected rape by Julian Assange,&quot; the prosecutor&#39;s office said in a statement.&nbsp;

Friday was the deadline for the public prosecutor&#39;s office to either renew or lift Assange&#39;s arrest warrant before a Stockholm court.

British police told Reuters&nbsp;separately that it was still under obligation to arrest Assange were he to leave the embassy.

&quot;Westminster Magistrates&#39; Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Julian Assange following him failing to surrender to the court on the 29 June 2012,&quot; British police told Reuters.

&quot;The Metropolitan Police Service is obliged to execute that warrant should he leave the Embassy,&quot; the police added.

A British government source would not confirm or deny if the United States had made a request to extradite Assange until an arrest had been made.

Shortly after the decision, Assange posted a picture of himself smiling broadly, without comment.

Ny and Chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren are to brief reporters on the decision at 12:00pm (1000 GMT) on Friday.

The 45-year-old Australian has always denied the 2010 allegations, which he feared would see him extradited to the United States and tried over the leaking of hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents.

He has been living at the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012 and risks being arrested by British police if he steps out of the building.

British police have said they will arrest Assange as soon as he walks out of the embassy because he has broken his conditions for bail -- a relatively minor offence under British law -- by failing to surrender on June 29, 2012 for extradition to Sweden.

Assange&#39;s Swedish lawyer last month filed a new motion demanding that the arrest warrant be lifted after US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in April that arresting Assange would be &quot;a priority&quot;.

&quot;This implies that we can now demonstrate that the US has a will to take action... this is why we ask for the arrest warrant to be cancelled so that Julian Assange can fly to Ecuador and enjoy his political asylum,&quot; lawyer Per Samuelsson told AFP at the time.

The accusation against Assange dated from August 2010 when the alleged victim, who says she met him at a WikiLeaks conference in Stockholm a few days earlier, filed a complaint.&nbsp;

She accused him of having sex with her as she slept without using a condom despite repeatedly having denied him unprotected sex.&nbsp;

Endless delays&nbsp;

&quot;I am entirely innocent,&quot; Assange wrote in a 19-page testimony released in December 2016.

He argues that the sex was consensual and has denounced the accusations as &quot;politically motived&quot;.&nbsp;

The investigation had suffered from multiple procedural complications since it began.

The statute of limitations on the rape allegation expires in August 2020.

In a letter sent to the Swedish government on May 8, Ecuador condemned &quot;the obvious lack of progress&quot; in the investigation despite Assange&#39;s questioning in the presence of the Swedish prosecutor at the embassy in November 2016.

&quot;It is extremely worrying that six months after the hearing at the Embassy of Ecuador in the United Kingdom, the Swedish prosecutor&#39;s office has not yet decided on the judicial situation of Julian Assange,&quot; the Ecuadoran Foreign Ministry said in the letter seen by AFP.

Swedish judges have refused to take into account the opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which in February 2016 said Assange was effectively &quot;arbitrarily detained&quot; by Sweden and Britain and called for the arrest warrant to be annulled.

&#39;End of nightmare&#39;

A lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange welcomed the decision of Swedish prosecutors Friday to drop a seven-year rape investigation against him, saying it was the &quot;end of his nightmare&quot;.

&quot;We have been waiting a long time for this decision,&quot; Christophe Marchand, a member of Assange&#39;s Brussels-based legal team, told AFP.

&quot;Julian Assange has been a victim of a huge abuse of procedure. We are very pleased and very moved, as this marks the end of his nightmare.&quot;

(AFP)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was accused of rape in 2010

Swedish prosecutors Friday dropped a seven-year rape investigation into Julian Assange, a legal victory for the WikiLeaks founder who has been holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012. "Director of Public Prosecution, Marianne Ny, has today decided to discontinue the investigation regarding suspected rape by Julian Assange," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. Friday was the deadline for the public prosecutor's office to either renew or lift Assange's arrest warrant before a Stockholm court. British police told Reuters separately that it was still under obligation to arrest Assange were he to leave the embassy. "Westminster Magistrates' Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Julian Assange following him failing to surrender to the court on the 29 June 2012," British police told Reuters. "The Metropolitan Police Service is obliged to execute that warrant should he leave the Embassy," the police added. A British government source would not confirm or deny if the United States had made a request to extradite Assange until an arrest had been made. Shortly after the decision, Assange posted a picture of himself smiling broadly, without comment. Ny and Chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren are to brief reporters on the decision at 12:00pm (1000 GMT) on Friday. The 45-year-old Australian has always denied the 2010 allegations, which he feared would see him extradited to the United States and tried over the leaking of hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents. He has been living at the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012 and risks being arrested by British police if he steps out of the building. British police have said they will arrest Assange as soon as he walks out of the embassy because he has broken his conditions for bail -- a relatively minor offence under British law -- by failing to surrender on June 29, 2012 for extradition to Sweden. Assange's Swedish lawyer last month filed a new motion demanding that the arrest warrant be lifted after US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in April that arresting Assange would be "a priority". "This implies that we can now demonstrate that the US has a will to take action... this is why we ask for the arrest warrant to be cancelled so that Julian Assange can fly to Ecuador and enjoy his political asylum," lawyer Per Samuelsson told AFP at the time. The accusation against Assange dated from August 2010 when the alleged victim, who says she met him at a WikiLeaks conference in Stockholm a few days earlier, filed a complaint. She accused him of having sex with her as she slept without using a condom despite repeatedly having denied him unprotected sex. Endless delays "I am entirely innocent," Assange wrote in a 19-page testimony released in December 2016. He argues that the sex was consensual and has denounced the accusations as "politically motived". The investigation had suffered from multiple procedural complications since it began. The statute of limitations on the rape allegation expires in August 2020. In a letter sent to the Swedish government on May 8, Ecuador condemned "the obvious lack of progress" in the investigation despite Assange's questioning in the presence of the Swedish prosecutor at the embassy in November 2016. "It is extremely worrying that six months after the hearing at the Embassy of Ecuador in the United Kingdom, the Swedish prosecutor's office has not yet decided on the judicial situation of Julian Assange," the Ecuadoran Foreign Ministry said in the letter seen by AFP. Swedish judges have refused to take into account the opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which in February 2016 said Assange was effectively "arbitrarily detained" by Sweden and Britain and called for the arrest warrant to be annulled. 'End of nightmare' A lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange welcomed the decision of Swedish prosecutors Friday to drop a seven-year rape investigation against him, saying it was the "end of his nightmare". "We have been waiting a long time for this decision," Christophe Marchand, a member of Assange's Brussels-based legal team, told AFP. "Julian Assange has been a victim of a huge abuse of procedure. We are very pleased and very moved, as this marks the end of his nightmare." (AFP)

Swedish prosecutors drop rape probe against Assange, UK police to execute arrest warrant

The arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a US &quot;priority,&quot; Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday, as media reports indicated his office was preparing charges against the fugitive anti-hero.

&quot;We are going to step up our effort and already are stepping up our efforts on all leaks,&quot; Sessions, America&#39;s top cop, said at a news conference in response to a reporter&#39;s question about a US priority to arrest Assange. 
 
The Justice Department chief said a rash of leaks of sensitive secrets appeared unprecedented.

&quot;This is a matter that&#39;s gone beyond anything I&#39;m aware of. We have professionals that have been in the security business of the United States for many years that are shocked by the number of leaks and some of them are quite serious,&quot; he said.&nbsp;

&quot;Whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail.&quot;

Prosecutors in recent weeks have been drafting a memo that looks at charges against Assange and members of WikiLeaks that possibly include conspiracy, theft of government property and violations of the Espionage Act, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed US officials familiar with the matter.

Several other media outlets also cited unnamed officials as saying US authorities were preparing charges against Assange. The Justice Department declined to comment on the reports.

Assange, 45, has been holed up at the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012 trying to avoid extradition to Sweden where he faces a rape allegation that he denies.

He fears Sweden would extradite him to the United States to face trial for leaking hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents that first gained attention in 2010.

Assange&#39;s case returned to the spotlight after WikiLeaks was accused of meddling in the US election last year by releasing a damaging trove of hacked emails from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton`s campaign and the Democratic party.

US officials say the emails were hacked with the aid of the Russian government in its bid to influence the US election.

Critics say their release late in the race helped to tip the November 8 election to Republican Donald Trump.

Donald Trump publicly praised WikiLeaks during the 2016 US election.

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9OxbYva_szc" width="560"></iframe>

Trump and his administration have put heat on WikiLeaks after it embarrassed the Central Intelligence Agency last month by releasing a large number of files and computer code from the spy agency`s top-secret hacking operations.&nbsp;

The documents showed how the CIA exploits vulnerabilities in popular computer and networking hardware and software to gather intelligence.

Supporters of WikiLeaks say it&#39;s practicing the constitutional right of freedom of speech and the press.CIA Director Mike Pompeo last week branded WikiLeaks a &quot;hostile intelligence service,&quot; saying it threatens democratic nations and joins hands with dictators.

Pompeo focused on the anti-secrecy group and other leakers of classified information like Edward Snowden as one of the key threats facing the United States.

&quot;WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service. It has encouraged its followers to find jobs at CIA in order to obtain intelligence... And it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States, while seeking support from anti-democratic countries and organizations,&quot; said Pompeo.

&quot;It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is -- a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.&quot;

The day before Pompeo spoke, Assange published an opinion piece in The Washington Post in which he said his group&#39;s mission was the same as America`s most respected newspapers: &quot;to publish newsworthy content.&quot; 
 
&quot;WikiLeaks&#39;s sole interest is expressing constitutionally protected truths,&quot; he said, professing &quot;overwhelming admiration for both America and the idea of America.&quot; 
 
(AFP)

 
&nbsp;

US authorities were preparing charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

The arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a US "priority," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday, as media reports indicated his office was preparing charges against the fugitive anti-hero. "We are going to step up our effort and already are stepping up our efforts on all leaks," Sessions, America's top cop, said at a news conference in response to a reporter's question about a US priority to arrest Assange. The Justice Department chief said a rash of leaks of sensitive secrets appeared unprecedented. "This is a matter that's gone beyond anything I'm aware of. We have professionals that have been in the security business of the United States for many years that are shocked by the number of leaks and some of them are quite serious," he said. "Whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail." Prosecutors in recent weeks have been drafting a memo that looks at charges against Assange and members of WikiLeaks that possibly include conspiracy, theft of government property and violations of the Espionage Act, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed US officials familiar with the matter. Several other media outlets also cited unnamed officials as saying US authorities were preparing charges against Assange. The Justice Department declined to comment on the reports. Assange, 45, has been holed up at the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012 trying to avoid extradition to Sweden where he faces a rape allegation that he denies. He fears Sweden would extradite him to the United States to face trial for leaking hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents that first gained attention in 2010. Assange's case returned to the spotlight after WikiLeaks was accused of meddling in the US election last year by releasing a damaging trove of hacked emails from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton`s campaign and the Democratic party. US officials say the emails were hacked with the aid of the Russian government in its bid to influence the US election. Critics say their release late in the race helped to tip the November 8 election to Republican Donald Trump. Donald Trump publicly praised WikiLeaks during the 2016 US election. Trump and his administration have put heat on WikiLeaks after it embarrassed the Central Intelligence Agency last month by releasing a large number of files and computer code from the spy agency`s top-secret hacking operations. The documents showed how the CIA exploits vulnerabilities in popular computer and networking hardware and software to gather intelligence. Supporters of WikiLeaks say it's practicing the constitutional right of freedom of speech and the press.CIA Director Mike Pompeo last week branded WikiLeaks a "hostile intelligence service," saying it threatens democratic nations and joins hands with dictators. Pompeo focused on the anti-secrecy group and other leakers of classified information like Edward Snowden as one of the key threats facing the United States. "WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service. It has encouraged its followers to find jobs at CIA in order to obtain intelligence... And it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States, while seeking support from anti-democratic countries and organizations," said Pompeo. "It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is -- a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia." The day before Pompeo spoke, Assange published an opinion piece in The Washington Post in which he said his group's mission was the same as America`s most respected newspapers: "to publish newsworthy content." "WikiLeaks's sole interest is expressing constitutionally protected truths," he said, professing "overwhelming admiration for both America and the idea of America." (AFP)

Assange's arrest a priority for US, says attorney general Jeff Sessions

CIA Director Mike Pompeo on Thursday (April 13) called WikiLeaks a non-state &quot;hostile intelligence service&quot; often abetted by state actors, such as Russia during last year&#39;s presidential campaign.

&quot;WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service,&quot; Pompeo told an audience at a Washington think tank.

WikiLeaks released Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential campaign that U.S. intelligence agencies say were hacked by Russia to try to tilt the election against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in favor of Republican Donald Trump, the eventual winner.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the release was not intended to influence the election.

In March, WikiLeaks published documents describing secret Central Intelligence Agency hacking tools and snippets of computer code, but did not publish the full programs that would be needed to conduct cyber exploits against phones, computers and internet-connected televisions.

Assange, a native of Australia, has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, after taking refuge there to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape, which he denies.

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(Reuters)

Russia's GRU intelligence service had used WikiLeaks to distribute hacked material during the 2016 US presidential election, Pompeo added

CIA Director Mike Pompeo on Thursday (April 13) called WikiLeaks a non-state "hostile intelligence service" often abetted by state actors, such as Russia during last year's presidential campaign. "WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service," Pompeo told an audience at a Washington think tank. WikiLeaks released Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential campaign that U.S. intelligence agencies say were hacked by Russia to try to tilt the election against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in favor of Republican Donald Trump, the eventual winner. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the release was not intended to influence the election. In March, WikiLeaks published documents describing secret Central Intelligence Agency hacking tools and snippets of computer code, but did not publish the full programs that would be needed to conduct cyber exploits against phones, computers and internet-connected televisions. Assange, a native of Australia, has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, after taking refuge there to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape, which he denies. × (Reuters)

CIA chief calls WikiLeaks a 'hostile intelligence service'

The FBI possesses information indicating&nbsp;associates of US President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the divulging of information damaging to Hillary Clinton&#39;s presidential campaign, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/22/politics/us-officials-info-suggests-trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians/index.html" target="_blank">CNN </a>reports, citing US officials.

One source told CNN that this is what FBI Director James Comey alluded to when he announced on Monday that not only was the FBI investigating Russian interference in the US election, but the Trump campaign&#39;s ties to Russia.

The information the FBI is now reviewing, CNN reports citing those US officials, includes: human intelligence, travel, business and phone records and accounts of in-person meetings.

US officials told CNN this information intelligence was not taken from the leaked dossier of unverified compiled by Christopher Steele, who was hired by Trump&#39;s opponents (first Republicans, then by Democrats), though that dossier also suggested there was coordination between Russian operatives and the Trump campaign.

These officials have cautioned that the investigation is ongoing and that the information was not conclusive, though it has raised the suspicions of FBI counterintelligence that &quot;coordination&quot; may have taken place.

&quot;Coordination&quot; is a term Comey described during the Monday&#39;s House Intelligence hearing: He made a distinction between two parties actively working together, and one party manipulating a second party into advancing the first party&#39;s interests without them knowing.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Background: Is there anything else&nbsp;to suggest links between Trump and Russia?

Two days after the US election, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/moscow-had-contacts-with-trump-team-during-campaign-russian-diplomat-says/2016/11/10/28fb82fa-a73d-11e6-9bd6-184ab22d218e_story.html?utm_term=.30420cbf06da" target="_blank">Washington Post</a> reported&nbsp;Russian officials saying they &quot;conferred&quot;&nbsp;with the Trump campaign, saying &quot;there were contacts&quot;, during the election.

&quot;Obviously we know most of the people from his entourage,&quot; said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Trump spokesman Hope Hicks said the campaign&nbsp;had &quot;no contact with Russian officials&quot;.

&nbsp;

Yesterday, an <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-22/urgent-manafort-s-plan-to-greatly-benefit-the-putin-government" target="_blank">Associated Press</a> report&nbsp;claimed that Paul Manafort, Trump&#39;s election campaign manager for 143 days, signed a $10 million anual contract&nbsp;in 2006 from a Russian billionaire&nbsp;to advance Russian president&nbsp;Vladimir Putin&#39;s interests.

Manafort <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/paul-manafort-resigns-from-trump-campaign-227197" target="_blank">stepped down</a> from Trump&#39;s campaign after it became known that he lobbied for the pro-Putin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort denies he is&nbsp;linked to Russia.

&nbsp;

As <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/former-trump-advisor-admits-to-innocuous-private-contact-with-russian-dnc-hacker-during-election-13270">WION </a>wrote on March 11, then-Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone has&nbsp;admitted to having direct contact with both Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and the hacker who hacked the Democrats&#39; emails during the US election Guccifer 2.0, who US intelligence says is really just a front for the Russian military intelligence agency.

On Monday&#39;s <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/03/20/1645393/-Comey-confirms-that-Russia-used-WikiLeaks-which-Trump-loves-to-release-hacked-information" target="_blank">hearing</a>, FBI Director James Comey said that the Russians hacked the Democrats and used &quot;cutouts&quot;...&quot;to cover up that they were the ones releasing&quot; the stolen information.

Roger Stone <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/20/politics/kfile-roger-stone-wikileaks-claims/" target="_blank">appeared </a>to have advanced knowledge of the contents of the emails WikiLeaks possessed before they were made public. Roger Stone has denied there was anything illegal or improper in this communication.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Wednesday@HillaryClinton is done. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Wikileaks?src=hash">#Wikileaks</a>.
&mdash; Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerJStoneJr/status/782443074874138624">October 2, 2016</a></blockquote>
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The first time WikiLeaks published Democrat campaign chief John Podesta&#39;s hacked emails came about&nbsp;two hours after the recording of Donald Trump saying he grabbed women &quot;<a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/10/7/13205842/trump-secret-recording-women" target="_blank">by the p*ssy</a>&quot;.

Afterwards, Trump praised WikiLeaks and continued throughout the election to use&nbsp;Podesta&#39;s hacked emails&nbsp;to cudgel Clinton.

During the third presidential debate, Donald Trump spoke directly to Russia, encouraging them to hack his Democrat opponent Hillary Clinton, saying: &quot;Russia, if you&#39;re listening, I hope you&#39;re able to find the 30,000 [Democrat] emails that are missing.&quot;

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gNa2B5zHfbQ" width="560"></iframe>

Trump&#39;s pick for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of the world&#39;s largest publicly traded&nbsp;international oil and gas company ExxonMobil, was personally awarded the &quot;Order of frienship&quot; from Vladimir Putin, given to &quot;reward foreign nationals whose work, deeds and efforts were aimed at the betterment of relations with the Russian Federation and its people&quot;. Despite having one of the most sought after jobs in politics anywhere Tillerson has no prior experience in politics.&nbsp;A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/79fecace-0ee2-11e7-b030-768954394623" target="_blank">report </a>yesterday said Tillerson was &quot;stunned&quot; when he was approached for the job, as he was preparing for retirement.

Several members of Trump&#39;s campaign and White House administration have had contacts with Russian officials&nbsp;and lied about it, including: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had to recuse himself from any Trump-Russia probe after meeting Russian ambassador to the US Sergey&nbsp;Kislyak at least three times despite saying under oath he had never met any Russian officials;&nbsp;National Security Adviser Gen Michael Flynn, who had to resign after he was recorded discussing American sanctions against Russia with Ambassador Kislyak&nbsp;and lying about it, even to Vice President Mike Pence; Carter Page, and JD Gordon.

<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-russian-ambassador-sergey-kislyak-meeting-election-campaign-a7617261.html">Donald Trump</a> himself met with Kislyak, and has both denied and admitted to having a relationship with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCFgYzf4DV4" target="_blank">Vladimir Putin.</a>

(WION)

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

US officials say this after FBI Director Comey announced that the US president is under formal investigation for his links to Russia

The FBI possesses information indicating associates of US President Donald Trump communicated with suspected Russian operatives to possibly coordinate the divulging of information damaging to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, CNN reports, citing US officials. One source told CNN that this is what FBI Director James Comey alluded to when he announced on Monday that not only was the FBI investigating Russian interference in the US election, but the Trump campaign's ties to Russia. The information the FBI is now reviewing, CNN reports citing those US officials, includes: human intelligence, travel, business and phone records and accounts of in-person meetings. US officials told CNN this information intelligence was not taken from the leaked dossier of unverified compiled by Christopher Steele, who was hired by Trump's opponents (first Republicans, then by Democrats), though that dossier also suggested there was coordination between Russian operatives and the Trump campaign. These officials have cautioned that the investigation is ongoing and that the information was not conclusive, though it has raised the suspicions of FBI counterintelligence that "coordination" may have taken place. "Coordination" is a term Comey described during the Monday's House Intelligence hearing: He made a distinction between two parties actively working together, and one party manipulating a second party into advancing the first party's interests without them knowing. Background: Is there anything else to suggest links between Trump and Russia? Two days after the US election, the Washington Post reported Russian officials saying they "conferred" with the Trump campaign, saying "there were contacts", during the election. "Obviously we know most of the people from his entourage," said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Trump spokesman Hope Hicks said the campaign had "no contact with Russian officials". Yesterday, an Associated Press report claimed that Paul Manafort, Trump's election campaign manager for 143 days, signed a $10 million anual contract in 2006 from a Russian billionaire to advance Russian president Vladimir Putin's interests. Manafort stepped down from Trump's campaign after it became known that he lobbied for the pro-Putin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort denies he is linked to Russia. As WION wrote on March 11, then-Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone has admitted to having direct contact with both Julian Assange of WikiLeaks and the hacker who hacked the Democrats' emails during the US election Guccifer 2.0, who US intelligence says is really just a front for the Russian military intelligence agency. On Monday's hearing, FBI Director James Comey said that the Russians hacked the Democrats and used "cutouts"..."to cover up that they were the ones releasing" the stolen information. Roger Stone appeared to have advanced knowledge of the contents of the emails WikiLeaks possessed before they were made public. Roger Stone has denied there was anything illegal or improper in this communication. Wednesday@HillaryClinton is done. #Wikileaks. — Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) October 2, 2016 × The first time WikiLeaks published Democrat campaign chief John Podesta's hacked emails came about two hours after the recording of Donald Trump saying he grabbed women "by the p*ssy". Afterwards, Trump praised WikiLeaks and continued throughout the election to use Podesta's hacked emails to cudgel Clinton. During the third presidential debate, Donald Trump spoke directly to Russia, encouraging them to hack his Democrat opponent Hillary Clinton, saying: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 [Democrat] emails that are missing." Trump's pick for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of the world's largest publicly traded international oil and gas company ExxonMobil, was personally awarded the "Order of frienship" from Vladimir Putin, given to "reward foreign nationals whose work, deeds and efforts were aimed at the betterment of relations with the Russian Federation and its people". Despite having one of the most sought after jobs in politics anywhere Tillerson has no prior experience in politics. A report yesterday said Tillerson was "stunned" when he was approached for the job, as he was preparing for retirement. Several members of Trump's campaign and White House administration have had contacts with Russian officials and lied about it, including: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had to recuse himself from any Trump-Russia probe after meeting Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak at least three times despite saying under oath he had never met any Russian officials; National Security Adviser Gen Michael Flynn, who had to resign after he was recorded discussing American sanctions against Russia with Ambassador Kislyak and lying about it, even to Vice President Mike Pence; Carter Page, and JD Gordon. Donald Trump himself met with Kislyak, and has both denied and admitted to having a relationship with Vladimir Putin. (WION)

New evidence suggests Trump associates may have coordinated with Russian officials: CNN

Former Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone said&nbsp;he had &quot;completely innocuous&quot; private contact during the election with Guccifer 2.0, the online handle involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee,&nbsp;Stone&nbsp;told <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/mar/10/roger-stone-trump-confidant-acknowledges-innocuous/" target="_blank">The Washington Times</a> Friday.

&quot;It was so perfunctory, brief and banal I had forgotten it,&quot; he told The Times. &quot;The content of the exchange is, as you can see completely innocuous and perfunctory,&quot; Mr Stone said. The interaction he provided to The Times&nbsp;consisted of only three messages from his own Twitter account.

US intelligence says&nbsp;that Guccifer 2.0 is not the self-procaimed&nbsp;Romanian&nbsp;hacktivist&nbsp;it claims to be,&nbsp;but really the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency. They claim with high confidence that it hacked the Democrats to interfere in the US election to get Trump elected. It claims that&nbsp;Russian hackers penetrated the DNC and released the documents to WikiLeaks, among other websites, in part of a multi-pronged operation to interfere with the US election.&nbsp;

Last week,&nbsp;Roger Stone also&nbsp;admitted to having a&nbsp;&quot;perfectly legal back channel&quot; to <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/trump-ally-says-he-worked-with-assange-pre-election-to-spread-clinton-emails-in-abusive-twitter-tirade-13089" target="_blank">WikiLeaks</a>. Actually, more than a &quot;back channel&quot;, previously he has said: &quot;I have communicated with Assange&quot;.&nbsp;Watch the video&nbsp;of Stone claiming he&nbsp;commuicated&nbsp;with Assange below:

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Listen to &quot;long time Trump advisor&quot; Roger Stone here... sure seems to know what Assange (Russia) had in store: <a href="https://t.co/EclA0jpXIU">pic.twitter.com/EclA0jpXIU</a>
&mdash; justin kanew (@justin_kanew) <a href="https://twitter.com/justin_kanew/status/838485426050641920">March 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
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This latest admission about Guccifer 2.0 confirms that an official Trump campaign advisor&nbsp;had been&nbsp;in direct contact during the&nbsp;election with both WikiLeaks and the Russian hackers who US intelligence says&nbsp;interfered&nbsp;with the election specifically to benefit Trump.&nbsp;

Mr Stone wrote in an email Thursday night to The Washington Times:&nbsp;&quot;I myself had no contacts or communications with the Russian State, Russian Intelligence, or anyone fronting for them or acting as intermediaries for them.&quot;

The next evening&nbsp;he wrote to The Times again: &quot;Even if [Guccifer 2.0] is/was a Russian asset, my brief Aug. 14 correspondence with him on twitter comes AFTER I wrote about his role in the DNC hacks (Aug 5) and AFTER Wikileaks released the DNC material...How does one collaborate on a matter after the fact?&quot;

Roger Stone wrote an article on August 5 for Breitbart claming that the DNC hack was perpetrated by Guccifer 2.0, not by Russia. The Washington Times was provided &quot;a handful&quot; of copies of direct messages between Stone and Guccifer 2.0.

When asked last month if anyone from his staff had communicated with Russia during his campaign, Mr&nbsp;Trump said: &ldquo;Nobody that I know of&rdquo;.&nbsp;

<h3>Read:&nbsp;<a href="http://Trump campaign communicated with Russian hackers during election, claims report" target="_blank">Trump campaign communicated with Russian hackers during election, claims report</a>.</h3>

&nbsp;

Recently it emerged that at least six members of Trump&#39;s&nbsp;staff met with Russian officials during the election, and lied about it. These include: Paul Manafort, JD Gordon, Carter Page, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, and even <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/donald-trump-himself-met-russian-ambassador-before-election-report-13160" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a> himself. Donald Trump&#39;s Son-in-law and White House advisor Jared Kushner also met with Russian ambassador Serkey Kislyak, but it was after the election.

Both the DNC hack and President Trump&#39;s alleged connections to Russia are being investigated right now by US intelligence.

President Trump and Russian president&nbsp;Vladimir Putin have both denied being involved in the hacks.

(WION)&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Roger Stone said that he communicated directly with Guccifer 2.0, who US intelligence says hacked the Democrats to help get Trump elected

Former Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone said he had "completely innocuous" private contact during the election with Guccifer 2.0, the online handle involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee, Stone told The Washington Times Friday. "It was so perfunctory, brief and banal I had forgotten it," he told The Times. "The content of the exchange is, as you can see completely innocuous and perfunctory," Mr Stone said. The interaction he provided to The Times consisted of only three messages from his own Twitter account. US intelligence says that Guccifer 2.0 is not the self-procaimed Romanian hacktivist it claims to be, but really the GRU, the Russian military intelligence agency. They claim with high confidence that it hacked the Democrats to interfere in the US election to get Trump elected. It claims that Russian hackers penetrated the DNC and released the documents to WikiLeaks, among other websites, in part of a multi-pronged operation to interfere with the US election. Last week, Roger Stone also admitted to having a "perfectly legal back channel" to WikiLeaks. Actually, more than a "back channel", previously he has said: "I have communicated with Assange". Watch the video of Stone claiming he commuicated with Assange below: Listen to "long time Trump advisor" Roger Stone here... sure seems to know what Assange (Russia) had in store: pic.twitter.com/EclA0jpXIU — justin kanew (@justin_kanew) March 5, 2017 × This latest admission about Guccifer 2.0 confirms that an official Trump campaign advisor had been in direct contact during the election with both WikiLeaks and the Russian hackers who US intelligence says interfered with the election specifically to benefit Trump. Mr Stone wrote in an email Thursday night to The Washington Times: "I myself had no contacts or communications with the Russian State, Russian Intelligence, or anyone fronting for them or acting as intermediaries for them." The next evening he wrote to The Times again: "Even if [Guccifer 2.0] is/was a Russian asset, my brief Aug. 14 correspondence with him on twitter comes AFTER I wrote about his role in the DNC hacks (Aug 5) and AFTER Wikileaks released the DNC material...How does one collaborate on a matter after the fact?" Roger Stone wrote an article on August 5 for Breitbart claming that the DNC hack was perpetrated by Guccifer 2.0, not by Russia. The Washington Times was provided "a handful" of copies of direct messages between Stone and Guccifer 2.0. When asked last month if anyone from his staff had communicated with Russia during his campaign, Mr Trump said: “Nobody that I know of”. Read: Trump campaign communicated with Russian hackers during election, claims report. Recently it emerged that at least six members of Trump's staff met with Russian officials during the election, and lied about it. These include: Paul Manafort, JD Gordon, Carter Page, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, and even Donald Trump himself. Donald Trump's Son-in-law and White House advisor Jared Kushner also met with Russian ambassador Serkey Kislyak, but it was after the election. Both the DNC hack and President Trump's alleged connections to Russia are being investigated right now by US intelligence. President Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin have both denied being involved in the hacks. (WION)

Former Trump advisor admits to 'innocuous' private contact with Russian DNC hacker during election

Wikileaks will provide technology companies with exclusive access to CIA hacking tools that it possesses so they can patch software flaws, founder Julian Assange said, presenting Silicon Valley with a potential dilemma on how to deal with the anti-secrecy group.

If the offer is legitimate, it would place technology companies in the unusual position of relying on Assange, a man believed by some US officials and lawmakers to be an untrustworthy pawn of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to share cyber vulnerabilities stockpiled by a secretive US spy agency.

It was not clear how WikiLeaks intended to cooperate with the companies. The group published documents on Tuesday describing secret Central Intelligence Agency hacking tools and snippets of computer code. It did not publish the full programs that would be needed to actually conduct cyber exploits against phones, computers and Internet-connected televisions.

&quot;Considering what we think is the best way to proceed and hearing these calls from some of the manufacturers, we have decided to work with them to give them some exclusive access to the additional technical details that we have so that the fixes can be developed and pushed out, so people can be secure,&quot; Assange said during an online press conference from the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

Assange took refuge at the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape, which he denies. 
Microsoft and Cisco Systems, whose wares are subject to attacks described in the documents, said in response to Assange that they welcomed submissions of any vulnerabilities through normal reporting channels.

&quot;We&#39;ve seen Julian Assange&#39;s statement and have not yet been contacted,&quot; a Microsoft representative said. &quot;Our preferred method for anyone with knowledge of security issues, including the CIA or Wikileaks, is to submit details to us at secure@microsoft.com so we can review information and take any necessary steps to protect customers.&quot; 
Representatives of Alphabet Inc&#39;s Google, Apple, Samsung Electronics and Huawei, whose products were also featured in the CIA catalog, did not answer requests for comment.

Responding to Assange, CIA spokesman Jonathan Liu, said in a statement: &quot;As we&rsquo;ve said previously, Julian Assange is not exactly a bastion of truth and integrity.&quot;

&quot;Despite the efforts of Assange and his ilk, CIA continues to aggressively collect foreign intelligence overseas to protect America from terrorists, hostile nation states and other adversaries.&quot;

WikiLeaks&#39; disclosures this week caused alarmed in the technology world and among consumers because of the potential privacy implications of the cyber espionage tactics that were described.

One file described a programme known as Weeping Angel that purportedly could take over a Samsung smart television, making it appear it was off when in fact it was recording conversations in the room.

Other documents described ways to hack into Apple iPhones, devices running Google&#39;s Android software and other gadgets in a way that could observe communications before they are protected by end-to-end encryption offered by messaging apps like Signal or WhatsApp.

Several companies have already said they are confident that their recent security updates have accounted for the purported flaws described in the CIA documents. Apple said in a statement on Tuesday that &quot;many of the issues&quot; leaked had already been patched in the latest version of its operating system.

WikiLeaks&#39; publication of the documents reignited a debate about whether US intelligence agencies should hoard serious cyber security vulnerabilities rather than share them with the public. An interagency process created under former President Barack Obama called for erring on the side of disclosure.

CIA security

President Donald Trump believes changes are needed to safeguard secrets at the CIA, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a news briefing on Thursday. &quot;He believes that the systems at the CIA are outdated and need to be updated.&quot;

Two US intelligence and law enforcement officials told Reuters on Wednesday that intelligence agencies have been aware since the end of last year of a breach at the CIA, which led to WikiLeaks releasing thousands of pages of information on its website.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said contractors likely breached security and handed over the documents to WikiLeaks. The CIA has declined to comment on the authenticity of the documents leaked, but the officials said they believed the pages about hacking techniques used between 2013 and 2016 were authentic.

Contractors have been revealed as the source of sensitive government information leaks in recent years, most notably Edward Snowden and Harold Martin, both employed by consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton while working for the National Security Agency.

Assange said he possessed &quot;a lot more information&quot; about the CIA&#39;s cyber arsenal that would be released soon. He criticized the CIA for &quot;devastating incompetence&quot; for not being able to control access to such sensitive material, and asked whether Obama or Trump were made aware of the breaches.

Assange&#39;s group released Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential campaign that US intelligence agencies say were hacked by Russia to try to tilt the election against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. He is regarded with distaste by many in Washington, although Trump, then the Republican candidate, supported the group&#39;s email releases last year.

Ben Sasse, a Republican senator, said in a statement on Thursday that Assange should &quot;spend the rest of his life wearing an orange jumpsuit.&quot; He is &quot;an enemy of the American people and an ally to Vladimir Putin&quot; who has &quot;has dedicated his life&rsquo;s work to endangering innocent lives, abetting despots, and stoking a crisis of confidence in the West,&quot; Sasse said.

(Reuters)

WikiLeaks recently published documents describing secret Central Intelligence Agency hacking tools and snippets of computer code

Wikileaks will provide technology companies with exclusive access to CIA hacking tools that it possesses so they can patch software flaws, founder Julian Assange said, presenting Silicon Valley with a potential dilemma on how to deal with the anti-secrecy group. If the offer is legitimate, it would place technology companies in the unusual position of relying on Assange, a man believed by some US officials and lawmakers to be an untrustworthy pawn of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to share cyber vulnerabilities stockpiled by a secretive US spy agency. It was not clear how WikiLeaks intended to cooperate with the companies. The group published documents on Tuesday describing secret Central Intelligence Agency hacking tools and snippets of computer code. It did not publish the full programs that would be needed to actually conduct cyber exploits against phones, computers and Internet-connected televisions. "Considering what we think is the best way to proceed and hearing these calls from some of the manufacturers, we have decided to work with them to give them some exclusive access to the additional technical details that we have so that the fixes can be developed and pushed out, so people can be secure," Assange said during an online press conference from the Ecuadorean embassy in London. Assange took refuge at the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape, which he denies. Microsoft and Cisco Systems, whose wares are subject to attacks described in the documents, said in response to Assange that they welcomed submissions of any vulnerabilities through normal reporting channels. "We've seen Julian Assange's statement and have not yet been contacted," a Microsoft representative said. "Our preferred method for anyone with knowledge of security issues, including the CIA or Wikileaks, is to submit details to us at secure@microsoft.com so we can review information and take any necessary steps to protect customers." Representatives of Alphabet Inc's Google, Apple, Samsung Electronics and Huawei, whose products were also featured in the CIA catalog, did not answer requests for comment. Responding to Assange, CIA spokesman Jonathan Liu, said in a statement: "As we’ve said previously, Julian Assange is not exactly a bastion of truth and integrity." "Despite the efforts of Assange and his ilk, CIA continues to aggressively collect foreign intelligence overseas to protect America from terrorists, hostile nation states and other adversaries." WikiLeaks' disclosures this week caused alarmed in the technology world and among consumers because of the potential privacy implications of the cyber espionage tactics that were described. One file described a programme known as Weeping Angel that purportedly could take over a Samsung smart television, making it appear it was off when in fact it was recording conversations in the room. Other documents described ways to hack into Apple iPhones, devices running Google's Android software and other gadgets in a way that could observe communications before they are protected by end-to-end encryption offered by messaging apps like Signal or WhatsApp. Several companies have already said they are confident that their recent security updates have accounted for the purported flaws described in the CIA documents. Apple said in a statement on Tuesday that "many of the issues" leaked had already been patched in the latest version of its operating system. WikiLeaks' publication of the documents reignited a debate about whether US intelligence agencies should hoard serious cyber security vulnerabilities rather than share them with the public. An interagency process created under former President Barack Obama called for erring on the side of disclosure. CIA security President Donald Trump believes changes are needed to safeguard secrets at the CIA, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a news briefing on Thursday. "He believes that the systems at the CIA are outdated and need to be updated." Two US intelligence and law enforcement officials told Reuters on Wednesday that intelligence agencies have been aware since the end of last year of a breach at the CIA, which led to WikiLeaks releasing thousands of pages of information on its website. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said contractors likely breached security and handed over the documents to WikiLeaks. The CIA has declined to comment on the authenticity of the documents leaked, but the officials said they believed the pages about hacking techniques used between 2013 and 2016 were authentic. Contractors have been revealed as the source of sensitive government information leaks in recent years, most notably Edward Snowden and Harold Martin, both employed by consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton while working for the National Security Agency. Assange said he possessed "a lot more information" about the CIA's cyber arsenal that would be released soon. He criticized the CIA for "devastating incompetence" for not being able to control access to such sensitive material, and asked whether Obama or Trump were made aware of the breaches. Assange's group released Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential campaign that US intelligence agencies say were hacked by Russia to try to tilt the election against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. He is regarded with distaste by many in Washington, although Trump, then the Republican candidate, supported the group's email releases last year. Ben Sasse, a Republican senator, said in a statement on Thursday that Assange should "spend the rest of his life wearing an orange jumpsuit." He is "an enemy of the American people and an ally to Vladimir Putin" who has "has dedicated his life’s work to endangering innocent lives, abetting despots, and stoking a crisis of confidence in the West," Sasse said. (Reuters)

WikiLeaks offers CIA hacking tools to tech companies: Julian Assange

WikiLeaks founder&nbsp;Julian&nbsp;Assange&nbsp;on Thursday accused the CIA of &quot;devastating incompetence&quot; for keeping hacking secrets in one place and said he would work with tech giants to develop fixes after he leaked them.

&quot;This is a historic act of devastating incompetence, to have created such an arsenal and then stored it all in one place,&quot;&nbsp;Assange&nbsp;told a press conference streamed live from Ecuador&#39;s embassy in London, where he has been living as a fugitive from justice since 2012.

&quot;It is impossible to keep effective control of cyber weapons... If you build them, eventually you will lose them,&quot;&nbsp;Assange&nbsp;said.

He said his&nbsp;website had &quot;a lot more information&quot; about the Central Intelligence Agency&#39;s hacking operation but would hold off on publishing it until WikiLeaks had spoken to tech manufacturers about fixes.

&quot;We have decided to work with them to give them some exclusive access to the additional technical details we have so fixes can be developed and then pushed out.

&quot;Once this material is effectively disarmed by us we will publish additional details about what has been occurring,&quot; he added.

On Tuesday, WikiLeaks published nearly 9,000 documents it said were part of a huge trove leaked from the CIA, describing it as the largest ever publication of secret intelligence materials.

&quot;This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA,&quot; it said.

The documents showed that CIA hackers can turn a TV into a listening device, bypass popular encryption apps, and possibly control one&#39;s car.

Most experts believe the materials to be genuine, and US media said Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is opening a criminal probe into the leak.

The source of the materials remained unclear. The investigation could focus on whether the CIA was sloppy in its controls, or, as The Washington Post reported, it could be &quot;a major mole hunt&quot; for a malicious leaker or turncoat inside the agency.

WikiLeaks itself said the documents, hacking tools and code came from an archive that had circulated among US government hackers and private contractors.

An investigation would come as the CIA is already enmeshed in a politically-charged probe into Russia&#39;s alleged interference in the US election last year in support of President Donald Trump&#39;s campaign.

WikiLeaks, which has stunned the US government with a series of publications of top secret political, diplomatic and intelligence materials in recent years, said Tuesday&#39;s leak was only the first of a series of releases of CIA hacking materials.

(AFP)

On Tuesday, WikiLeaks published nearly 9,000 documents it said were part of a huge trove leaked from the CIA

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday accused the CIA of "devastating incompetence" for keeping hacking secrets in one place and said he would work with tech giants to develop fixes after he leaked them. "This is a historic act of devastating incompetence, to have created such an arsenal and then stored it all in one place," Assange told a press conference streamed live from Ecuador's embassy in London, where he has been living as a fugitive from justice since 2012. "It is impossible to keep effective control of cyber weapons... If you build them, eventually you will lose them," Assange said. He said his website had "a lot more information" about the Central Intelligence Agency's hacking operation but would hold off on publishing it until WikiLeaks had spoken to tech manufacturers about fixes. "We have decided to work with them to give them some exclusive access to the additional technical details we have so fixes can be developed and then pushed out. "Once this material is effectively disarmed by us we will publish additional details about what has been occurring," he added. On Tuesday, WikiLeaks published nearly 9,000 documents it said were part of a huge trove leaked from the CIA, describing it as the largest ever publication of secret intelligence materials. "This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA," it said. The documents showed that CIA hackers can turn a TV into a listening device, bypass popular encryption apps, and possibly control one's car. Most experts believe the materials to be genuine, and US media said Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is opening a criminal probe into the leak. The source of the materials remained unclear. The investigation could focus on whether the CIA was sloppy in its controls, or, as The Washington Post reported, it could be "a major mole hunt" for a malicious leaker or turncoat inside the agency. WikiLeaks itself said the documents, hacking tools and code came from an archive that had circulated among US government hackers and private contractors. An investigation would come as the CIA is already enmeshed in a politically-charged probe into Russia's alleged interference in the US election last year in support of President Donald Trump's campaign. WikiLeaks, which has stunned the US government with a series of publications of top secret political, diplomatic and intelligence materials in recent years, said Tuesday's leak was only the first of a series of releases of CIA hacking materials. (AFP)

Assange accuses CIA of 'devastating incompetence' over leaks, says has more information on hacking operation

Trump was not the only one&nbsp;to have a Twitter meltdown this weekend.

Trump loyalist and former top adviser Roger Stone claimed on Twitter that he had a&nbsp;back channel to&nbsp;work with Julian Assange at Wikileaks&nbsp;to spread damaging leaked Clinton emails.

US intelligence has unanimously said that Russia interfered in the US election in what it called a &quot;multifaceted campaign&quot; of&nbsp;&quot;cyber espionage&quot;, and that&nbsp;Clinton&#39;s emails were obtained&nbsp;by Russian hackers.

Stone&#39;s claim that he worked with Assange&nbsp;to&nbsp;spread Clinton&#39;s emails comes&nbsp;amid growing reports of Trump staffers meeting&nbsp;with Russian officials, then&nbsp;lying about it.

Here is the screengrabbed Tweet that Stone deleted.

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Here&#39;s the screengrab of Roger Stone admitting the Trump campaign colluded with Asange and Wikileaks (I know, real stunner) <a href="https://t.co/TcBrMrSTig">pic.twitter.com/TcBrMrSTig</a>
&mdash; Kriston Capps (@kristoncapps) <a href="https://twitter.com/kristoncapps/status/838259900627156992">March 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
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But he responded to the claim that he did any wrongdoing.&nbsp;

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Attention MSM Losers!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LeftistSpasm?src=hash">#LeftistSpasm</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FakeNews?src=hash">#FakeNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/iKTT5buhlq">pic.twitter.com/iKTT5buhlq</a>
&mdash; Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerJStoneJr/status/838487222454272002">March 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
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While the tone of Stone&#39;s&nbsp;Tweet is defiant, claiming he didn&#39;t hide anything, actually there is video footage of Stone from 2016&nbsp;saying, contrary to the claim in his deleted Tweet, that he did have direct communication&nbsp;with Assange.

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Listen to &quot;long time Trump advisor&quot; Roger Stone here... sure seems to know what Assange (Russia) had in store: <a href="https://t.co/EclA0jpXIU">pic.twitter.com/EclA0jpXIU</a>
&mdash; justin kanew (@justin_kanew) <a href="https://twitter.com/justin_kanew/status/838485426050641920">March 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
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At issue in the investigation into Trump-Russia, conducted by six different US intelligence agencies,&nbsp;is whether anyone in Trump&#39;s campaign actively worked with the Russians against their Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Colluding with a foreign and hostile government to sabotage a national election is illegal.

<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/14/politics/donald-trump-aides-russians-campaign/index.html" target="_blank">CNN </a>reported that Trump staffers were in &quot;constant touch&quot; with Russian officials during the election campaign. The subject of these talks has not been disclosed publicly.

Officials emphasised that it is not unusual for campaign staff and representatives of foreign governments to communicate, but that these communications stood out for their frequency, and for the level of Trump advisers involved.

&nbsp;

Vulgar abuse

Yesterday, Roger Stone also abused&nbsp;the same&nbsp;female&nbsp;citizen journalist, calling her a &quot;stupid, ignorant, ugly bitch&quot; in a now-deleted Tweet.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling denounced the attack in a screen grab:

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This man is an advisor to the leader of the free world. This guy, right here. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/rogerstone?src=hash">#rogerstone</a> <a href="https://t.co/brxqZAfw09">pic.twitter.com/brxqZAfw09</a>
&mdash; J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) <a href="https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/838294536170389504">March 5, 2017</a></blockquote>
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Stone also abused Republican strategist Ana Navarro, calling her&nbsp;&quot;fat and stupid&quot;.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Deflection&nbsp;

Stone&#39;s Twitter meltdown&nbsp;comes as Trump&#39;s campaign is trying hard to deflect attention from their various connections to Russia.

US Attorney General and Trump loyalist Jeff Sessions just recused himself from the investigation into Trump-Russia after it became known that he met with the Russian ambassador twice, and lied about it under oath.

Before that, Trump&#39;s pick to head national security Michael Flynn resigned after it became known that he too met the Russian ambassador and lied about it.&nbsp;

Trump&#39;s son-in-law <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jared-kushner-donald-trump-russia-ambassador-sergey-kislyak-meeting-michael-flynn-white-house-jeff-a7609166.html" target="_blank">Jared Kushner</a>, who is a White House adviser,&nbsp;met&nbsp;the Russian ambassador in Trump Tower. No cameras&nbsp;captured Kislyak entering the building, suggesting he was ushered in a <a href="http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/03/trump-white-house-downplay-failure-reveal-russian-ambassadors-smuggled-visit-trump-tower.html" target="_blank">back door.</a>&nbsp;A White House spokesman denied this was a secret meeting.

Paul Manafort and Trump&#39;s long-time&nbsp;lawyer Michael Cohen also met with Russian officials and failed to disclose it.

&nbsp;

This weekend former Republican adviser <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-russia-republican-pro-putin-ukraine-stance-rnc-ambassador-kislyak-meeting-a7610621.html" target="_blank">JD Gordon</a>&nbsp;claimed that&nbsp;a pro-Russia change in language to the GOP platform came after&nbsp;the Republican convention in Cleveland of July 2016, and was especially ordered to align with Trump&#39;s own personal views. Gordon claimed he and Carter Page, then a Trump adviser who resigned amid his connections to Russia, also <a href="http://www.vox.com/world/2017/3/3/14789354/russian-ambassador-trump-sergey-kislyak" target="_blank">met </a>Kislyak.

The July convention in Cleveland&nbsp;took place shortly after Sessions met the Russian ambassador. In 2015, Sessions was staunchly anti-Russia. Sessions&nbsp;pro-Russia views seem to have set in&nbsp;after meeting Kislyak.

US intelligence also says that the Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak&nbsp;is also Russia&#39;s top spy and spy-recruiter in Washington. The Kremlin has officially <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/02/politics/russia-kislyak-spy-claim-sessions/" target="_blank">denied </a>this claim.

(WION)

Roger Stone's meltdown came as US intelligence investigates Russia's interference in the US election and Trump's connections to Russia

Trump was not the only one to have a Twitter meltdown this weekend. Trump loyalist and former top adviser Roger Stone claimed on Twitter that he had a back channel to work with Julian Assange at Wikileaks to spread damaging leaked Clinton emails. US intelligence has unanimously said that Russia interfered in the US election in what it called a "multifaceted campaign" of "cyber espionage", and that Clinton's emails were obtained by Russian hackers. Stone's claim that he worked with Assange to spread Clinton's emails comes amid growing reports of Trump staffers meeting with Russian officials, then lying about it. Here is the screengrabbed Tweet that Stone deleted. Here's the screengrab of Roger Stone admitting the Trump campaign colluded with Asange and Wikileaks (I know, real stunner) pic.twitter.com/TcBrMrSTig — Kriston Capps (@kristoncapps) March 5, 2017 × But he responded to the claim that he did any wrongdoing. Attention MSM Losers!#LeftistSpasm#FakeNews pic.twitter.com/iKTT5buhlq — Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) March 5, 2017 × While the tone of Stone's Tweet is defiant, claiming he didn't hide anything, actually there is video footage of Stone from 2016 saying, contrary to the claim in his deleted Tweet, that he did have direct communication with Assange. Listen to "long time Trump advisor" Roger Stone here... sure seems to know what Assange (Russia) had in store: pic.twitter.com/EclA0jpXIU — justin kanew (@justin_kanew) March 5, 2017 × At issue in the investigation into Trump-Russia, conducted by six different US intelligence agencies, is whether anyone in Trump's campaign actively worked with the Russians against their Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Colluding with a foreign and hostile government to sabotage a national election is illegal. CNN reported that Trump staffers were in "constant touch" with Russian officials during the election campaign. The subject of these talks has not been disclosed publicly. Officials emphasised that it is not unusual for campaign staff and representatives of foreign governments to communicate, but that these communications stood out for their frequency, and for the level of Trump advisers involved. Vulgar abuse Yesterday, Roger Stone also abused the same female citizen journalist, calling her a "stupid, ignorant, ugly bitch" in a now-deleted Tweet. Harry Potter author JK Rowling denounced the attack in a screen grab: This man is an advisor to the leader of the free world. This guy, right here. #rogerstone pic.twitter.com/brxqZAfw09 — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 5, 2017 × Stone also abused Republican strategist Ana Navarro, calling her "fat and stupid". Deflection Stone's Twitter meltdown comes as Trump's campaign is trying hard to deflect attention from their various connections to Russia. US Attorney General and Trump loyalist Jeff Sessions just recused himself from the investigation into Trump-Russia after it became known that he met with the Russian ambassador twice, and lied about it under oath. Before that, Trump's pick to head national security Michael Flynn resigned after it became known that he too met the Russian ambassador and lied about it. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is a White House adviser, met the Russian ambassador in Trump Tower. No cameras captured Kislyak entering the building, suggesting he was ushered in a back door. A White House spokesman denied this was a secret meeting. Paul Manafort and Trump's long-time lawyer Michael Cohen also met with Russian officials and failed to disclose it. This weekend former Republican adviser JD Gordon claimed that a pro-Russia change in language to the GOP platform came after the Republican convention in Cleveland of July 2016, and was especially ordered to align with Trump's own personal views. Gordon claimed he and Carter Page, then a Trump adviser who resigned amid his connections to Russia, also met Kislyak. The July convention in Cleveland took place shortly after Sessions met the Russian ambassador. In 2015, Sessions was staunchly anti-Russia. Sessions pro-Russia views seem to have set in after meeting Kislyak. US intelligence also says that the Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak is also Russia's top spy and spy-recruiter in Washington. The Kremlin has officially denied this claim. (WION)

Trump ally says he worked with Assange pre-election to spread Clinton emails in abusive Twitter tirade

In a series of retaliatory measure against Russia over vote meddling, the&nbsp;United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on two top Russian intelligence agencies, expelled 35 agents, and ordered the shutting down of two Russian compounds on US soil.

&quot;I have ordered a number of actions in response to the Russian government&#39;s aggressive harassment of US officials and cyber operations aimed at the US election,&quot; Obama said.

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<h5>These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm US interests,&#39; said Obama</h5>
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&quot;These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm US interests in violation of established international norms of behaviour.&quot;

Obama imposed sanctions against Russia&#39;s FSB and GRU intelligence agencies and ordered the closing down of two Russian compounds that the US says are used &quot;for intelligence-related purposes&quot;. The 35 intelligence operative -- based at the Russian embassy in Washington and the consulate in San Francisco -- have been declared &quot;persona non grata&quot; and ordered to leave the country within 72 hours.

US officials also moved to close two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland.

The latter facility, a summer house a short drive from the US capital, was once featured in a Washington lifestyle magazine and was described as a stately home surrounded by lush gardens on the banks of the Chester River.&nbsp;

The US government said it is now used &quot;for intelligence-related purposes&quot;.

&quot;All Americans should be alarmed by Russia&#39;s actions,&quot; Obama said.&nbsp;

&quot;Moreover, our diplomats have experienced an unacceptable level of harassment in Moscow by Russian security services and police over the last year. Such activities have consequences.&quot;

The US intelligence community all agree that Russia interfered in US elections to put Trump in the White House. They also believe in Russian hand in the hacking and release of Democratic Party and Clinton staff emails.

People tied to a Russian disinformation campaign that US intelligence officials say targeted Clinton&#39;s campaign may also be named under the plans, according to CNN.

Republican Lindsey Graham said in an interview on Dec. 27 that 99 per cent of US senators believe Russia interfered in the US presidential elections.

Washington accuses the Russian military&#39;s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of hacking information with the intent to interfere with the US election -- and says the Federal Security Service (FSB) helped, AFP reported.

Four individual GRU officers including agency chief Igor Valentinovich Korobov and three other entities will face sanctions.

AFP reported that the US Treasury slapped sanctions on two individuals, Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev and Aleksey Alekseyevich Belan, for &quot;involvement in malicious cyber-enabled activities.&quot;

The sanctions will freeze their assets in the US and block business with US companies.

Obama said that the government will continue to take actions,&#39;some of which will not be publicised&#39;.

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&quot;These actions are not the sum total of our response to Russia&#39;s aggressive activities. We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicised,&quot; Obama said.

&quot;The United States and friends and allies around the world must work together to oppose Russia&#39;s efforts to undermine established international norms of behavior and interfere with democratic governance.&quot;

Trump denied any links with Russia and said,&quot;I think we ought to get on with our lives,&quot; on Wednesday.

The White House had warned Russia to stop cyber-meddling pre-elections, The Washington Post reported.

And about a week before the election, Washington sent a message to Moscow using a special crisis communication channel for the first time, asking it to stop targeting state voter registration and election systems, according to AFP.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow will respond to any &quot;hostile steps&quot; from Washington.

(With inputs from agencies)

Prosecutors said they have now received a transcript of an interview conducted with Assange

In a series of retaliatory measure against Russia over vote meddling, the United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on two top Russian intelligence agencies, expelled 35 agents, and ordered the shutting down of two Russian compounds on US soil. "I have ordered a number of actions in response to the Russian government's aggressive harassment of US officials and cyber operations aimed at the US election," Obama said. These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm US interests,' said Obama × "These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm US interests in violation of established international norms of behaviour." Obama imposed sanctions against Russia's FSB and GRU intelligence agencies and ordered the closing down of two Russian compounds that the US says are used "for intelligence-related purposes". The 35 intelligence operative -- based at the Russian embassy in Washington and the consulate in San Francisco -- have been declared "persona non grata" and ordered to leave the country within 72 hours. US officials also moved to close two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland. The latter facility, a summer house a short drive from the US capital, was once featured in a Washington lifestyle magazine and was described as a stately home surrounded by lush gardens on the banks of the Chester River. The US government said it is now used "for intelligence-related purposes". "All Americans should be alarmed by Russia's actions," Obama said. "Moreover, our diplomats have experienced an unacceptable level of harassment in Moscow by Russian security services and police over the last year. Such activities have consequences." The US intelligence community all agree that Russia interfered in US elections to put Trump in the White House. They also believe in Russian hand in the hacking and release of Democratic Party and Clinton staff emails. People tied to a Russian disinformation campaign that US intelligence officials say targeted Clinton's campaign may also be named under the plans, according to CNN. Republican Lindsey Graham said in an interview on Dec. 27 that 99 per cent of US senators believe Russia interfered in the US presidential elections. Washington accuses the Russian military's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of hacking information with the intent to interfere with the US election -- and says the Federal Security Service (FSB) helped, AFP reported. Four individual GRU officers including agency chief Igor Valentinovich Korobov and three other entities will face sanctions. AFP reported that the US Treasury slapped sanctions on two individuals, Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev and Aleksey Alekseyevich Belan, for "involvement in malicious cyber-enabled activities." The sanctions will freeze their assets in the US and block business with US companies. Obama said that the government will continue to take actions,'some of which will not be publicised'. Obama said that the government will continue to take actions, 'some of which will not be publicised' × "These actions are not the sum total of our response to Russia's aggressive activities. We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicised," Obama said. "The United States and friends and allies around the world must work together to oppose Russia's efforts to undermine established international norms of behavior and interfere with democratic governance." Trump denied any links with Russia and said,"I think we ought to get on with our lives," on Wednesday. The White House had warned Russia to stop cyber-meddling pre-elections, The Washington Post reported. And about a week before the election, Washington sent a message to Moscow using a special crisis communication channel for the first time, asking it to stop targeting state voter registration and election systems, according to AFP. Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow will respond to any "hostile steps" from Washington. (With inputs from agencies)

Sweden will not decide for several weeks on Assange inquiry

Republicans on Saturday rejected reports of a secret CIA assessment finding that Russia sought to tip the US presidential election in Donald Trump&#39;s favor, as a Democratic Senate leader called for an investigation.

&quot;The intelligence is wrong,&quot; Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer told CNN. &quot;It didn&#39;t happen.&quot;

He was referring to a New York Times report saying US intelligence agencies had &quot;high confidence&quot; that Russian hackers infiltrated the Republican National Committee&#39;s computer systems as well as those of Democratic Party organisations, but released information stolen only from the Democrats.

News about the CIA report, first reported by The Washington Post on Friday, drew an extraordinary rebuke from the president-elect&#39;s camp.

&quot;These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,&quot; Trump&#39;s transition team said, launching a broadside against the spy agency.

Trump said the election was over and that it&#39;s &quot;now time to move on and &#39;Make America Great Again.&#39;&quot;

However, senator Chuck Schumer, set to become Democratic minority leader in January, called for a congressional probe into the matter.

&quot;That any country could be meddling in our elections should shake both political parties to their core,&quot; he said Saturday.&nbsp;

&quot;It&#39;s imperative that our intelligence community turns over any relevant information so that Congress can conduct a full investigation.&quot;

The debate simmered as US media reported that ExxonMobil President and CEO Rex Tillerson -- a businessman with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- is Trump&#39;s likely pick for secretary of state.

Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, slammed the idea of Tillerson as top diplomat as &quot;alarming and absurd.&quot;&nbsp;

&quot;With Rex Tillerson as our Secretary of State, the Trump administration would be guaranteeing Russia has a willing accomplice in the president&#39;s cabinet guiding our nation&#39;s foreign policy,&quot; he said in a statement.

&#39;Help Trump get elected&#39;

The reports of Russian interference in the White House vote follow President Barack Obama&#39;s order for a review of all cyberattacks that took place during the 2016 election cycle.

According to The Post, individuals with connections to Moscow provided anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks with emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton&#39;s campaign chief, and others.

WikiLeaks steadily released those emails in the months before the election, damaging Clinton&#39;s White House run.

&quot;It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia&#39;s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,&quot; a US official briefed on an intelligence presentation to key senators told the newspaper. &quot;That&#39;s the consensus view.&quot;

CIA agents told the lawmakers it was &quot;quite clear&quot; that electing Trump was Russia&#39;s goal, according to officials who spoke to the Post.

Russian hackers did not limit their hits to the Democrats, The New York Times reported.

&quot;We now have high confidence that they hacked the D.N.C. and the R.N.C., and conspicuously released no documents&quot; from the Republican organization, one senior administration official told The Times.

It is unclear however when Russia started supporting Trump, &quot;and many intelligence officials -- and former officials in Mrs Clinton&#39;s campaign -- believe that the primary motive of the Russians was to simply disrupt the campaign and undercut confidence in the integrity of the vote,&quot; the newspaper said.

Question marks

The CIA&#39;s assessment falls short of a formal US assessment produced by all 17 intelligence agencies, The Post said.

Intelligence agents cannot prove that Russian officials directed the identified individuals to give WikiLeaks the hacked Democratic emails.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has denied links with Russia&#39;s government.

California Republican Congressman Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of the Trump transition team, said he &quot;does not believe the evidence shows that the Russians interfered in the elections in order to help Trump,&quot; a spokesman told AFP.

However Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the same committee, said &quot;the integrity of our elections is hindered&quot; when Trump and his transition team &quot;minimize or dismiss the intelligence assessments.&quot;

For Schiff, &quot;one would also have to be willfully blind not to see that these Russian actions were uniformly damaging to Secretary Clinton and helpful to Donald Trump.&quot;

Calls for investigations

Democrats in Congress called on US intelligence agencies to provide all information about Russian hacking and disinformation in the election.

The current minority leader, Senator Harry Reid, even accused FBI Director James Comey of knowing about Russian hacking into the Republican servers &quot;for a long time.&quot;

&quot;But he, Comey, who&#39;s a Republican, refused to divulge this information about Russia interfering with the presidential election,&quot; Reid told MSNBC, accusing the FBI director of being &quot;the new J. Edgar Hoover.&quot;

&quot;I think he should be investigated,&quot; he added.

Clinton has blamed Comey for her loss, saying his decision during the campaign&#39;s final weeks to re-open a probe into her email use as secretary of state broke her momentum.

Previous intelligence reports have accused Russia of seeking to undermine the US election, without saying if Moscow favored any candidate.

In an interview Wednesday in Time magazine, Trump was asked if the intelligence was politicized. &quot;I think so,&quot; he said.

&quot;I don&#39;t believe they interfered,&quot; he said. &quot;It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey.&quot;

(AFP)

The Washington Post reported that a secret CIA assessment found Russia sought to tip the US presidential election in Donald Trump's favour

Republicans on Saturday rejected reports of a secret CIA assessment finding that Russia sought to tip the US presidential election in Donald Trump's favor, as a Democratic Senate leader called for an investigation. "The intelligence is wrong," Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer told CNN. "It didn't happen." He was referring to a New York Times report saying US intelligence agencies had "high confidence" that Russian hackers infiltrated the Republican National Committee's computer systems as well as those of Democratic Party organisations, but released information stolen only from the Democrats. News about the CIA report, first reported by The Washington Post on Friday, drew an extraordinary rebuke from the president-elect's camp. "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," Trump's transition team said, launching a broadside against the spy agency. Trump said the election was over and that it's "now time to move on and 'Make America Great Again.'" However, senator Chuck Schumer, set to become Democratic minority leader in January, called for a congressional probe into the matter. "That any country could be meddling in our elections should shake both political parties to their core," he said Saturday. "It's imperative that our intelligence community turns over any relevant information so that Congress can conduct a full investigation." The debate simmered as US media reported that ExxonMobil President and CEO Rex Tillerson -- a businessman with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin -- is Trump's likely pick for secretary of state. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, slammed the idea of Tillerson as top diplomat as "alarming and absurd." "With Rex Tillerson as our Secretary of State, the Trump administration would be guaranteeing Russia has a willing accomplice in the president's cabinet guiding our nation's foreign policy," he said in a statement. 'Help Trump get elected' The reports of Russian interference in the White House vote follow President Barack Obama's order for a review of all cyberattacks that took place during the 2016 election cycle. According to The Post, individuals with connections to Moscow provided anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks with emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign chief, and others. WikiLeaks steadily released those emails in the months before the election, damaging Clinton's White House run. "It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia's goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected," a US official briefed on an intelligence presentation to key senators told the newspaper. "That's the consensus view." CIA agents told the lawmakers it was "quite clear" that electing Trump was Russia's goal, according to officials who spoke to the Post. Russian hackers did not limit their hits to the Democrats, The New York Times reported. "We now have high confidence that they hacked the D.N.C. and the R.N.C., and conspicuously released no documents" from the Republican organization, one senior administration official told The Times. It is unclear however when Russia started supporting Trump, "and many intelligence officials -- and former officials in Mrs Clinton's campaign -- believe that the primary motive of the Russians was to simply disrupt the campaign and undercut confidence in the integrity of the vote," the newspaper said. Question marks The CIA's assessment falls short of a formal US assessment produced by all 17 intelligence agencies, The Post said. Intelligence agents cannot prove that Russian officials directed the identified individuals to give WikiLeaks the hacked Democratic emails. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has denied links with Russia's government. California Republican Congressman Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of the Trump transition team, said he "does not believe the evidence shows that the Russians interfered in the elections in order to help Trump," a spokesman told AFP. However Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the same committee, said "the integrity of our elections is hindered" when Trump and his transition team "minimize or dismiss the intelligence assessments." For Schiff, "one would also have to be willfully blind not to see that these Russian actions were uniformly damaging to Secretary Clinton and helpful to Donald Trump." Calls for investigations Democrats in Congress called on US intelligence agencies to provide all information about Russian hacking and disinformation in the election. The current minority leader, Senator Harry Reid, even accused FBI Director James Comey of knowing about Russian hacking into the Republican servers "for a long time." "But he, Comey, who's a Republican, refused to divulge this information about Russia interfering with the presidential election," Reid told MSNBC, accusing the FBI director of being "the new J. Edgar Hoover." "I think he should be investigated," he added. Clinton has blamed Comey for her loss, saying his decision during the campaign's final weeks to re-open a probe into her email use as secretary of state broke her momentum. Previous intelligence reports have accused Russia of seeking to undermine the US election, without saying if Moscow favored any candidate. In an interview Wednesday in Time magazine, Trump was asked if the intelligence was politicized. "I think so," he said. "I don't believe they interfered," he said. "It could be Russia. And it could be China. And it could be some guy in his home in New Jersey." (AFP)

Republicans dismiss reports of Russian help in Trump's victory

Britain&#39;s request to review United Nations&#39; ruling that Julian Assange is being arbitrarily detained has been rejected, said a statment released in Geneva on Wednesday.

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said it was not changing course as the British request &quot;did not meet the threshold of a review... and (was) thus not admissible&quot;, news agency AFP reported.

Britain had contested the findings, favourable towards Assange, of the UN group working on arbitrary detention published in February.&nbsp;

Assange has taken refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012 to avoid being sent to Sweden. He faces rape allegations in the Scandinavian country.

&ldquo;Julian Assange has never been arbitrarily detained by the UK, and is in fact voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorian embassy. The UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden,&rdquo; UK foreign minister Hugo Swire had said in a statement, The Guardian reported.

The WikiLeaks founder is afraid that Sweden would extradite him to the United States where he would face punishment for leaking classified documents in his website.

The UN panel published its findings on Wednesday.

Assange said in a statement: &quot;Now that all appeals are exhausted I expect that the UK and Sweden will comply with their international obligations and set me free. It is an obvious and grotesque injustice to detain someone for six years who hasn&#39;t even been charged with an offence.&quot;

Earlier in November, he was interrogated by an Ecuadorian prosecutor for two days over the rape allegations on him.

The questions were provided by Swedish officials but the answers were confidential.

A sexual assault probe into Assange was dropped last year after the five-year statute of limitations expired. The Swedish prosecutors, however, still want to question him over the 2010 rape allegation, which carries a 10-year statute of limitations.

Assange insists the sexual encounters in question were consensual.

(With inputs from AFP)

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said the British request 'did not meet the threshold of a review and (was) thus not admissible'

Britain's request to review United Nations' ruling that Julian Assange is being arbitrarily detained has been rejected, said a statment released in Geneva on Wednesday. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said it was not changing course as the British request "did not meet the threshold of a review... and (was) thus not admissible", news agency AFP reported. Britain had contested the findings, favourable towards Assange, of the UN group working on arbitrary detention published in February. Assange has taken refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012 to avoid being sent to Sweden. He faces rape allegations in the Scandinavian country. “Julian Assange has never been arbitrarily detained by the UK, and is in fact voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorian embassy. The UK continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden,” UK foreign minister Hugo Swire had said in a statement, The Guardian reported. The WikiLeaks founder is afraid that Sweden would extradite him to the United States where he would face punishment for leaking classified documents in his website. The UN panel published its findings on Wednesday. Assange said in a statement: "Now that all appeals are exhausted I expect that the UK and Sweden will comply with their international obligations and set me free. It is an obvious and grotesque injustice to detain someone for six years who hasn't even been charged with an offence." Earlier in November, he was interrogated by an Ecuadorian prosecutor for two days over the rape allegations on him. The questions were provided by Swedish officials but the answers were confidential. A sexual assault probe into Assange was dropped last year after the five-year statute of limitations expired. The Swedish prosecutors, however, still want to question him over the 2010 rape allegation, which carries a 10-year statute of limitations. Assange insists the sexual encounters in question were consensual. (With inputs from AFP)

UN panel rejects Britain's request to review Assange ruling

In the latest twist in the long-running legal battle, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was questioned at the Ecuadoran embassy in London today over a rape allegation against him.

Swedish prosecutor Ingrid Isgren will be present while Assange is questioned by an Ecuadoran prosecutor, which could last for several days. It will be the first time he has been interviewed over the matter since initial questioning by Swedish police at the time of the allegation.&nbsp;

Although the Swedish prosecutors dropped the sexual assault probe against Assange last year after the five-year statute of limitations expired,&nbsp;they still want to question him about the 2010 rape allegation.&nbsp;

&quot;It&#39;s planned to last a few days,&quot; Assange&#39;s lawyer Per Samuelsson told AFP, adding that it was too early to say what might arise from the meeting or what would be made public.

The investigators also plan to take a DNA sample from Assange, subject to his agreement. Assange welcomed the &quot;chance to clear his name&quot; and hopes the investigation will subsequently close. &quot;Julian Assange has always wanted to tell his version to the Swedish police. He wants a chance to clear his name,&quot; Samuelsson told AFP.

Swedish prosecutors had issued a European arrest warrant against Assange over allegations of rape and sexual assault filed by two women who met Assange during a 2010 trip to Sweden.&nbsp;

The 45-year-old who sought refuge in the embassy in June 2012 has denied the claims, saying they were politically motivated, and insisted that his sexual encounters with the two women were consensual. He has been holed up in the embassy for more than four years.&nbsp;

(WION with inputs from AFP) 
&nbsp;

Assange welcomed the 'opportunity to clear his name' as Swedish and Ecuadoran prosecutors reached the embassy in London

In the latest twist in the long-running legal battle, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was questioned at the Ecuadoran embassy in London today over a rape allegation against him. Swedish prosecutor Ingrid Isgren will be present while Assange is questioned by an Ecuadoran prosecutor, which could last for several days. It will be the first time he has been interviewed over the matter since initial questioning by Swedish police at the time of the allegation. Although the Swedish prosecutors dropped the sexual assault probe against Assange last year after the five-year statute of limitations expired, they still want to question him about the 2010 rape allegation. "It's planned to last a few days," Assange's lawyer Per Samuelsson told AFP, adding that it was too early to say what might arise from the meeting or what would be made public. The investigators also plan to take a DNA sample from Assange, subject to his agreement. Assange welcomed the "chance to clear his name" and hopes the investigation will subsequently close. "Julian Assange has always wanted to tell his version to the Swedish police. He wants a chance to clear his name," Samuelsson told AFP. Swedish prosecutors had issued a European arrest warrant against Assange over allegations of rape and sexual assault filed by two women who met Assange during a 2010 trip to Sweden. The 45-year-old who sought refuge in the embassy in June 2012 has denied the claims, saying they were politically motivated, and insisted that his sexual encounters with the two women were consensual. He has been holed up in the embassy for more than four years. (WION with inputs from AFP)

WikiLeaks' Assange faces questioning over 2010 rape allegations

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is to face questioning by prosecutors on Monday at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London over rape allegations made against him.

An Ecuadoran prosecutor, along with Swedish prosecutor Ingrid Isgren and a Swedish police inspector will quiz him at the embassy, officials said.

Assange has been holed up at the embassy since 2012 after Swedish prosecutors issued a European arrest warrant against him. 
&nbsp; 
Two Swedish women, who met Assange in Sweden in 2010, have accused him of rape and sexual assault.

He has said the claims were politically motivated and insists he had only consensual sexual encounters with the women.

A Swedish official source said the questioning was expected to begin at around 1000 GMT. The investigators intend to take a DNA sample, subject to his agreement.

&quot;It&#39;s planned to last a few days,&quot; Assange&#39;s lawyer Per Samuelsson told AFP.

Assange, speaking through his lawyer, has said he welcomes the &quot;chance to clear his name&quot; and hopes the investigation will subsequently close.

(WION with inputs from AFP)

He is being questioned over allegations of rape and sexual assault filed by two women who met him during a 2010 trip to Sweden

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is to face questioning by prosecutors on Monday at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London over rape allegations made against him. An Ecuadoran prosecutor, along with Swedish prosecutor Ingrid Isgren and a Swedish police inspector will quiz him at the embassy, officials said. Assange has been holed up at the embassy since 2012 after Swedish prosecutors issued a European arrest warrant against him. Two Swedish women, who met Assange in Sweden in 2010, have accused him of rape and sexual assault. He has said the claims were politically motivated and insists he had only consensual sexual encounters with the women. A Swedish official source said the questioning was expected to begin at around 1000 GMT. The investigators intend to take a DNA sample, subject to his agreement. "It's planned to last a few days," Assange's lawyer Per Samuelsson told AFP. Assange, speaking through his lawyer, has said he welcomes the "chance to clear his name" and hopes the investigation will subsequently close. (WION with inputs from AFP)

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange faces questioning by prosecutors

Julian Assange will be questioned next week over longstanding rape accusations, Sweden&#39;s public prosecutor&#39;s office announced Monday, saying an Ecuadorian prosecutor would visit the WikiLeaks founder in the embassy where he has been holed up since 2012.

Through his lawyer Assange welcomed the news saying he was looking forward to the &quot;chance to clear his name&quot;.

The Swedish authorities said one of the prosecutors on the case, Ingrid Isgren, as well as a Swedish police inspector would also attend the questioning on November 14 and report the findings to Sweden.&nbsp;

&quot;A DNA sample will also be taken, provided that Julian Assange agrees to it,&quot; the prosecutor&#39;s office said in a statement.&nbsp;

The 45-year-old whistleblower sought refuge in Ecuador&#39;s embassy in London in June 2012, fleeing allegations of rape and sexual assault in Sweden dating back to 2010. Assange denies the claims.

An Australian national, he had refused to travel to Sweden for questioning due to concerns that he would then be extradited to the United States over WikiLeaks&#39; release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

&quot;We have requested this interview repeatedly since 2010,&quot; his lawyer Per Samuelsson told AFP.&nbsp;

&quot;Julian Assange has always wanted to tell his version to the Swedish police. He wants a chance to clear his name,&quot; he said.

&quot;We hope the investigation will be closed then.&quot;

The lawyer added the &quot;shape of the questioning is under discussion.&quot;&nbsp;

A first hearing scheduled for October with the prosecutor Toainga Wilson had been postponed at Assange&#39;s request, citing &quot;his rights to the protection and defense of his person,&quot; according to Ecuadorian prosecutors.

Swedish prosecutors have dropped a sexual assault probe, concerning another woman, against Assange last year after the five-year statute of limitations expired.

But they still want to question him about the 2010 rape allegation, which carries a 10-year statute of limitations.

Assange insists the sexual encounters in question were consensual.

Last month, the Swedish prosecutor&#39;s office rejected Assange&#39;s request to temporarily suspend his arrest warrant so he could leave the Ecuadoran embassy to attend the funeral of mentor Gavin MacFayden.

WikiLeaks has meanwhile returned to the spotlight in recent weeks with the damaging leak of tens of thousands of emails from the US Democratic Party and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton&#39;s campaign. 
 
(AFP)

The WikiLeaks founder sought refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London in June 2012

Julian Assange will be questioned next week over longstanding rape accusations, Sweden's public prosecutor's office announced Monday, saying an Ecuadorian prosecutor would visit the WikiLeaks founder in the embassy where he has been holed up since 2012. Through his lawyer Assange welcomed the news saying he was looking forward to the "chance to clear his name". The Swedish authorities said one of the prosecutors on the case, Ingrid Isgren, as well as a Swedish police inspector would also attend the questioning on November 14 and report the findings to Sweden. "A DNA sample will also be taken, provided that Julian Assange agrees to it," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. The 45-year-old whistleblower sought refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London in June 2012, fleeing allegations of rape and sexual assault in Sweden dating back to 2010. Assange denies the claims. An Australian national, he had refused to travel to Sweden for questioning due to concerns that he would then be extradited to the United States over WikiLeaks' release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. "We have requested this interview repeatedly since 2010," his lawyer Per Samuelsson told AFP. "Julian Assange has always wanted to tell his version to the Swedish police. He wants a chance to clear his name," he said. "We hope the investigation will be closed then." The lawyer added the "shape of the questioning is under discussion." A first hearing scheduled for October with the prosecutor Toainga Wilson had been postponed at Assange's request, citing "his rights to the protection and defense of his person," according to Ecuadorian prosecutors. Swedish prosecutors have dropped a sexual assault probe, concerning another woman, against Assange last year after the five-year statute of limitations expired. But they still want to question him about the 2010 rape allegation, which carries a 10-year statute of limitations. Assange insists the sexual encounters in question were consensual. Last month, the Swedish prosecutor's office rejected Assange's request to temporarily suspend his arrest warrant so he could leave the Ecuadoran embassy to attend the funeral of mentor Gavin MacFayden. WikiLeaks has meanwhile returned to the spotlight in recent weeks with the damaging leak of tens of thousands of emails from the US Democratic Party and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign. (AFP)

Julian Assange to be questioned by Ecuador over rape allegations

According to a new report by <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-hackers-ready-hit-back-if-russia-disrupts-election-n677936">NBC</a>, US military hackers have already penetrated Russia&#39;s electric grid, telecommunications network and the Kremlin&#39;s command systems, making them susceptible to an attack by secret American cyber weapons if the US feels it is necessary. This revelation was provided bya senior intelligence official and by top-secret documents NBC reviewed.

The Clinton campaign has stated&nbsp;that Russia is behind the hacks of Demorat outlets, despite the assertions of WikiLeaks founder, <a href="http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/304243-dnc-hack-investigator-despite-assanges-comments-attack-was-russan">Julian Assange</a>. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has asked Russia to hack and release Clinton&#39;s emails. A presidential candidate calling on a foreign goverment to spy on another presidential candidate and disrupt the election process has been called &quot;treasonous&quot;.

But the purpose of this latest cyber infiltration appears to be different.

American officials have stated&nbsp;publicly that Russia, China and other countries&nbsp;have penetrated&nbsp;and left hidden malware on parts of US critical infrastructure&nbsp;for cyber attacks that could turn out the lights, or turn off the internet across major cities, NBC reports.

It&#39;s been widely assumed that the US&nbsp;has done the same thing to its adversaries. The documents reviewed by NBC News,&nbsp;along with remarks by a senior US&nbsp;intelligence official,&nbsp;confirm that&nbsp;in the case of Russia.

US&nbsp;officials have warned lately that Russia will disrupt the 2016&nbsp;presidential election via cyber attacks. NBC reports that American intelligence officials don&#39;t expect Russia to go so far as to attack critical infrastructure, which could be interpreted as an act of war, but do expect &quot;cyber mischief&quot;.&nbsp;This includes&nbsp;the possible release of fake documents and bogus social media accounts meant to spread misinformation, NBC reports.

On Friday the hacker known as &quot;Guccifer 2.0&quot;,&nbsp;which US&nbsp;officials say is a front for Russian intelligence,&nbsp;tweeted a threat to monitor the US&nbsp;elections &quot;from inside the system&quot;.

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I&#39;ll be an independent observer at the U.S. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Elections2016?src=hash">#Elections2016</a> 
I call on other hackers to monitor the elections from inside the system
&mdash; GUCCIFER 2.0 (@GUCCIFER_2) <a href="https://twitter.com/GUCCIFER_2/status/794575269604589568">November 4, 2016</a></blockquote>
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The US&nbsp;government is&nbsp;combatting the threat in a way that is without precedent for a presidential election. NBC reports that the cyber weapons would only be deployed in the unlikely event the US&nbsp;was first attacked in a significant way, they quote officials as saying.

(WION)

US military hackers have already penetrated Russia's electric grid, telecommunications network and the Kremlin's command systems

According to a new report by NBC, US military hackers have already penetrated Russia's electric grid, telecommunications network and the Kremlin's command systems, making them susceptible to an attack by secret American cyber weapons if the US feels it is necessary. This revelation was provided bya senior intelligence official and by top-secret documents NBC reviewed. The Clinton campaign has stated that Russia is behind the hacks of Demorat outlets, despite the assertions of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has asked Russia to hack and release Clinton's emails. A presidential candidate calling on a foreign goverment to spy on another presidential candidate and disrupt the election process has been called "treasonous". But the purpose of this latest cyber infiltration appears to be different. American officials have stated publicly that Russia, China and other countries have penetrated and left hidden malware on parts of US critical infrastructure for cyber attacks that could turn out the lights, or turn off the internet across major cities, NBC reports. It's been widely assumed that the US has done the same thing to its adversaries. The documents reviewed by NBC News, along with remarks by a senior US intelligence official, confirm that in the case of Russia. US officials have warned lately that Russia will disrupt the 2016 presidential election via cyber attacks. NBC reports that American intelligence officials don't expect Russia to go so far as to attack critical infrastructure, which could be interpreted as an act of war, but do expect "cyber mischief". This includes the possible release of fake documents and bogus social media accounts meant to spread misinformation, NBC reports. On Friday the hacker known as "Guccifer 2.0", which US officials say is a front for Russian intelligence, tweeted a threat to monitor the US elections "from inside the system". I'll be an independent observer at the U.S. #Elections2016 I call on other hackers to monitor the elections from inside the system — GUCCIFER 2.0 (@GUCCIFER_2) November 4, 2016 × The US government is combatting the threat in a way that is without precedent for a presidential election. NBC reports that the cyber weapons would only be deployed in the unlikely event the US was first attacked in a significant way, they quote officials as saying. (WION)

US ready to hack Kremlin if Russia interferes with presidential election: NBC

The snapping of Julian Assange&rsquo;s Internet access is the victory of the Obama administration over Ecuadorians. The restriction on Assange would mean that he will not be able to spill any more information that can hurt the US election. It comes at a time when Ecuador is seeing an opportunity to mend its relationship with the Americans post the US presidential election. It also comes at a time when the US requested Ecuadorians not to interfere in the affairs of the US by putting out the leaks and violating the free election process.

Whistle-blowers aren&rsquo;t protected anywhere. Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are cases in point where corrupt systems will not let whistle-blowers rear their head. If the leak is too big then their life is at risk and before it comes out they will possibly be knocked out. If it ain&rsquo;t big, they get victimised. India is also home to victimisation of whistle-blowers, whether it&rsquo;s corporate or government. For instance, Dinesh Thakur highlighted the issues of fraudulent practices in Ranbaxy concerning drug development, manufacturing, and testing data.

In 2005, Thakur was compelled to resign after exposing the fraud internally. But, later he worked closely with the US Food and Drug Administration and exposed the company. Ranbaxy was fined to the tune of US $500 million. He was able to achieve this only because he took the protection of the US whistle-blowers&rsquo; protection programme. Not everyone has this privilege. Shanmugam Manjunath was killed for exposing adulteration of fuel at few petrol stations in Uttar Pradesh. Satyendra Dubey exposed the corruption in the golden quadrilateral project of National Highway Authority and was later murdered in Gaya, Bihar.

In 2014, the amendments to the Whistleblowers Protection Act were passed in the Lok Sabha. However, little good may come out of this legislation. The Bill is still in pending in Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament. If the amendments come into existence, the whistle-blower will not be able to disclose information protected under the Official Secrets Act and any information that the government is exempted from disclosing under the Right to Information Act.&nbsp;

Under the new Bill, any disclosure that would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India as well as the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, including friendly relations with foreign states or lead to incitement to an offence are excluded. Intellectual property and trade secrets have also been protected. This means that whistle-blower will not be able to complain about corruption, violation of laws, abuse of power, and wasteful government expenditure if the complaint falls foul of these broad exemption categories. The original legislation was heavily problematic and the new one is not close to solving the issue either. India needs harsher punishments for those who are corrupt rather than silencing those who expose them.

According to an affidavit signed in the Supreme Court, between January 2007 and December 2012, the conviction rate of central vigilance office was only 7.3 per cent. Also, the &ldquo;recommended&rdquo; punishments were &ldquo;minor penalties&rdquo; like &ldquo;withholding promotions and increments&rdquo;. If the fear of the system has to be put in place, then the punishment has to be stronger. The challenge in India is corruption. India stands at the 76th place is the corruption perception index. The second most populous country in the world needs to show a far higher degree of honesty and transparency for it to be able to advance towards the path of nationhood.

&nbsp;

Ecuador is seeing an opportunity to mend its relationship with the Americans post the US presidential election

The snapping of Julian Assange’s Internet access is the victory of the Obama administration over Ecuadorians. The restriction on Assange would mean that he will not be able to spill any more information that can hurt the US election. It comes at a time when Ecuador is seeing an opportunity to mend its relationship with the Americans post the US presidential election. It also comes at a time when the US requested Ecuadorians not to interfere in the affairs of the US by putting out the leaks and violating the free election process. Whistle-blowers aren’t protected anywhere. Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are cases in point where corrupt systems will not let whistle-blowers rear their head. If the leak is too big then their life is at risk and before it comes out they will possibly be knocked out. If it ain’t big, they get victimised. India is also home to victimisation of whistle-blowers, whether it’s corporate or government. For instance, Dinesh Thakur highlighted the issues of fraudulent practices in Ranbaxy concerning drug development, manufacturing, and testing data. In 2005, Thakur was compelled to resign after exposing the fraud internally. But, later he worked closely with the US Food and Drug Administration and exposed the company. Ranbaxy was fined to the tune of US $500 million. He was able to achieve this only because he took the protection of the US whistle-blowers’ protection programme. Not everyone has this privilege. Shanmugam Manjunath was killed for exposing adulteration of fuel at few petrol stations in Uttar Pradesh. Satyendra Dubey exposed the corruption in the golden quadrilateral project of National Highway Authority and was later murdered in Gaya, Bihar. In 2014, the amendments to the Whistleblowers Protection Act were passed in the Lok Sabha. However, little good may come out of this legislation. The Bill is still in pending in Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament. If the amendments come into existence, the whistle-blower will not be able to disclose information protected under the Official Secrets Act and any information that the government is exempted from disclosing under the Right to Information Act. Under the new Bill, any disclosure that would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India as well as the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, including friendly relations with foreign states or lead to incitement to an offence are excluded. Intellectual property and trade secrets have also been protected. This means that whistle-blower will not be able to complain about corruption, violation of laws, abuse of power, and wasteful government expenditure if the complaint falls foul of these broad exemption categories. The original legislation was heavily problematic and the new one is not close to solving the issue either. India needs harsher punishments for those who are corrupt rather than silencing those who expose them. According to an affidavit signed in the Supreme Court, between January 2007 and December 2012, the conviction rate of central vigilance office was only 7.3 per cent. Also, the “recommended” punishments were “minor penalties” like “withholding promotions and increments”. If the fear of the system has to be put in place, then the punishment has to be stronger. The challenge in India is corruption. India stands at the 76th place is the corruption perception index. The second most populous country in the world needs to show a far higher degree of honesty and transparency for it to be able to advance towards the path of nationhood.

WikiLeaks and the tough road for whistleblowers everywhere

Gavin MacFadyen, the founder of the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) and the mentor of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has died of lung cancer at the age of 76. &nbsp;

The CIJ posted a tribute on social media, as well as on their website.

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We are extremely sad to announce the death of Gavin MacFadyen, the CIJ&rsquo;s Founder, Director and its leading light. <a href="https://t.co/F6oAjTtvEu">https://t.co/F6oAjTtvEu</a>
&mdash; CIJ (@cijournalism) <a href="https://twitter.com/cijournalism/status/789919019646218241">October 22, 2016</a></blockquote>
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The document-dumping website WikiLeaks tweeted a tribute on their account, signed &quot;JA&quot;, to indicate that it was personally&nbsp;written by&nbsp;Assange.&nbsp;

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Gavin Macfadyen, beloved director of WikiLeaks, now takes his fists and his fight to battle God. Sock it to him, forever, Gavin. -JA <a href="https://t.co/7zyzs1Qxxk">pic.twitter.com/7zyzs1Qxxk</a>
&mdash; WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) <a href="https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/789987961123188736">October 23, 2016</a></blockquote>
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This Assange post comes as the WikiLeaks founder is said to&nbsp;be without&nbsp;internet access for the last&nbsp;week&nbsp;in his&nbsp;suite in the Ecuadorian embassy.&nbsp;Assange has been holed up in the embassy for more than three years, as he is&nbsp;wanted in connection with a rape allegation&nbsp;and fears&nbsp;he will be extradited to Sweden,&nbsp;and eventually&nbsp;to the US on spy charges, if&nbsp;he steps outside.

WikiLeaks has played a larger role as the end of the 2016 US election approaches, publishing thousands of emails allegedly hacked from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton&#39;s&nbsp;campaign chairman. Together the emails outline the former Secretary of State&#39;s bid for the White House. Neither Clinton nor Podesta himself have verified the authenticity of the emails.

Ecuador claims to have cut off Assange&#39;s internet access, saying it didn&#39;t want to play a role in the 2016 US election. RT reports that, despite the cut, Assange&nbsp;has been able to contact WikiLeaks and is &quot;still in full command&quot;. How much internet access Assange currently has will likely be made apparent in the upcoming days.

Meanwhile, the CIJ website has<a href="http://tcij.org/gavin-macfadyen"> published a message</a> from MacFayden&#39;s wife, also a member of Julian Assange&#39;s Defense Fund, Susan Benn:

&quot;He was the model of what a journalist should be...He spearheaded the creation of a journalistic landscape which has irrevocably lifted the bar for ethical and hard-hitting reporting. Gavin worked tirelessly to hold power to account.

In journalism, especially in the adversarial type practiced by MacFayden,&nbsp;one&#39;s&nbsp;enemies&nbsp;say a lot about you.

In recounting his career, Benn noted that MacFayden&nbsp;had produced over 50 documentaries covering various topics around the world, and that his investigative work&nbsp;aroused the ire of the old Soviet Union and apartheid South Africa so much&nbsp;that they banned him, while&nbsp;he was also&nbsp;attacked by British&nbsp;Neo-Nazi.&nbsp;

In her CIJ post Benn goes on to say, &quot;His life and how he lived it were completely in sync with the principles he held dear and practicsed as a journalist and educator, to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.&quot;

Anonymous, among many others, also took to social media to issue condolences:

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Our deepest condolences Gavin MacFadyen, we&#39;ll never forget your investigative journalism <a href="https://t.co/96yEqNA804">https://t.co/96yEqNA804</a>
&mdash; Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/YourAnonNews/status/789961946644840448">October 22, 2016</a></blockquote>
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(WION)

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The well respected journalist, and founder of the Centre for Investigative Journalism, has died of lung cancer

Gavin MacFadyen, the founder of the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) and the mentor of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has died of lung cancer at the age of 76. The CIJ posted a tribute on social media, as well as on their website. We are extremely sad to announce the death of Gavin MacFadyen, the CIJ’s Founder, Director and its leading light. https://t.co/F6oAjTtvEu — CIJ (@cijournalism) October 22, 2016 × The document-dumping website WikiLeaks tweeted a tribute on their account, signed "JA", to indicate that it was personally written by Assange. Gavin Macfadyen, beloved director of WikiLeaks, now takes his fists and his fight to battle God. Sock it to him, forever, Gavin. -JA pic.twitter.com/7zyzs1Qxxk — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 23, 2016 × This Assange post comes as the WikiLeaks founder is said to be without internet access for the last week in his suite in the Ecuadorian embassy. Assange has been holed up in the embassy for more than three years, as he is wanted in connection with a rape allegation and fears he will be extradited to Sweden, and eventually to the US on spy charges, if he steps outside. WikiLeaks has played a larger role as the end of the 2016 US election approaches, publishing thousands of emails allegedly hacked from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman. Together the emails outline the former Secretary of State's bid for the White House. Neither Clinton nor Podesta himself have verified the authenticity of the emails. Ecuador claims to have cut off Assange's internet access, saying it didn't want to play a role in the 2016 US election. RT reports that, despite the cut, Assange has been able to contact WikiLeaks and is "still in full command". How much internet access Assange currently has will likely be made apparent in the upcoming days. Meanwhile, the CIJ website has published a message from MacFayden's wife, also a member of Julian Assange's Defense Fund, Susan Benn: "He was the model of what a journalist should be...He spearheaded the creation of a journalistic landscape which has irrevocably lifted the bar for ethical and hard-hitting reporting. Gavin worked tirelessly to hold power to account. In journalism, especially in the adversarial type practiced by MacFayden, one's enemies say a lot about you. In recounting his career, Benn noted that MacFayden had produced over 50 documentaries covering various topics around the world, and that his investigative work aroused the ire of the old Soviet Union and apartheid South Africa so much that they banned him, while he was also attacked by British Neo-Nazi. In her CIJ post Benn goes on to say, "His life and how he lived it were completely in sync with the principles he held dear and practicsed as a journalist and educator, to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Anonymous, among many others, also took to social media to issue condolences: Our deepest condolences Gavin MacFadyen, we'll never forget your investigative journalism https://t.co/96yEqNA804 — Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) October 22, 2016 × (WION)

WikiLeaks director and Julian Assange's mentor, Gavin MacFadyen, dead at 76

Ecuador confirmed it has &quot;temporarily restricted&quot; internet access of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for leaking a trove of documents that could impact the US election.

Assange, who has been staying at the Ecuador Embassy since 2012 for publishing secret American documents,&nbsp;released transcripts of Hillary Clinton&#39;s three paid speeches to Goldman Sachs at a time when the US Election Day is just around the corner.

&quot;The government of Ecuador respects the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states. It does not interfere in external electoral processes, nor does it favour any particular candidate,&quot; the Ecuadoran foreign ministry said in a statement.

On Monday, WikiLeaks had claimed that Ecuador had blocked Assange&#39;s internet access because of a request made by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

US denied the WikiLeaks report about them putting pressure on Ecuador to restrict Assange&#39;s internet access.

&quot;Reports that Secretary Kerry had conversations with Ecuadorian officials about this are simply untrue. Period,&quot; State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

Ecuador denied the claims on Wednesday, saying: &quot;Ecuador&#39;s foreign policy responds to sovereign decisions alone and does not yield to pressure from other states.&quot;

The South American nation also insisted that WikiLeaks still had the freedom to carry out its &quot;journalistic activities&quot;.

WikiLeaks hacked&nbsp;Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta&#39;s email account to publish documents that might have a bearing on voters&#39; mind before they go to vote on November 8.&nbsp;

In the latest batch of leaked documents, WikiLeaks published three private, paid speeches Clinton made to Wall Street investment giant Goldman Sachs after standing down as secretary of state and before launching her White House bid.

Clinton&#39;s campaign team has not contested the authenticity of the documents.

(WION with inputs from AFP)

The restriction comes days after the WikiLeaks founder released transcripts of Hillary Clinton's three paid speeches to Goldman Sachs

Ecuador confirmed it has "temporarily restricted" internet access of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for leaking a trove of documents that could impact the US election. Assange, who has been staying at the Ecuador Embassy since 2012 for publishing secret American documents, released transcripts of Hillary Clinton's three paid speeches to Goldman Sachs at a time when the US Election Day is just around the corner. "The government of Ecuador respects the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states. It does not interfere in external electoral processes, nor does it favour any particular candidate," the Ecuadoran foreign ministry said in a statement. On Monday, WikiLeaks had claimed that Ecuador had blocked Assange's internet access because of a request made by US Secretary of State John Kerry. US denied the WikiLeaks report about them putting pressure on Ecuador to restrict Assange's internet access. "Reports that Secretary Kerry had conversations with Ecuadorian officials about this are simply untrue. Period," State Department spokesman John Kirby said. Ecuador denied the claims on Wednesday, saying: "Ecuador's foreign policy responds to sovereign decisions alone and does not yield to pressure from other states." The South American nation also insisted that WikiLeaks still had the freedom to carry out its "journalistic activities". WikiLeaks hacked Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's email account to publish documents that might have a bearing on voters' mind before they go to vote on November 8. In the latest batch of leaked documents, WikiLeaks published three private, paid speeches Clinton made to Wall Street investment giant Goldman Sachs after standing down as secretary of state and before launching her White House bid. Clinton's campaign team has not contested the authenticity of the documents. (WION with inputs from AFP)

Ecuador 'temporarily restricts' Assange's net access for impacting US election

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faced another setback in his legal stand-off with Sweden on Friday. &nbsp; 
 
A Swedish appeals court rejected his request to lift an arrest warrant against Assange over a 2010 rape accusation. 
 
The Stockholm appeals court upheld the earlier ruling by a district court to issue arrest warrant for Assange.&nbsp; 
 
The statement read, &quot;Assange is still detained in absentia. The court shares the assessment of the (lower) district court that Julian Assange is still suspected on probable cause of rape... and that there is a risk that he will evade legal proceedings or a penalty.&quot; 
 
The court said Assange&#39;s four-year embassy sequestration and the earlier passivity of police investigators were the basis for setting aside the detention.&nbsp; 
 
The court observed Assange&#39;s embassy stay &quot;is not a deprivation of liberty and shall not be given any importance in its own right in the assessment of proportionality.&quot; 
 
It also rejected Assange&#39;s request to hold a hearing over the matter.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;However, the relatively serious offence of which he is suspected means that there is a strong public interest (in) the investigation being able to continue,&quot; the court noted. 
 
&quot;At present, continued detention therefore appears to be both effective and necessary so as to be able to move the investigation forward. The reasons for detention therefore still outweigh the intrusion or other detriment that the measure entails for Julian Assange.&quot; 
 
Assange has evaded travel to Stockholm for questioning over the rape allegation, for fear that Sweden will extradite him to the United States over the release of 500,000 secret US military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.&nbsp; 
 
Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since June 2012. 
 
His lawyers have urged Sweden to follow the non-binding ruling of a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. It said Assange&#39;s confinement in the embassy amounted to arbitrary detention by Sweden and Britain. 
 
According to British police, even if Assange&#39;s warrant was lifted, he is still liable to arrest in London for having evaded justice after his appeals against extradition were rejected.&nbsp; 
 
(WION with inputs from agencies) 
 
&nbsp;

Assange has evaded travel to Stockholm for questioning; the Wikileaks founder fears that Sweden will extradite him to the United States

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faced another setback in his legal stand-off with Sweden on Friday. A Swedish appeals court rejected his request to lift an arrest warrant against Assange over a 2010 rape accusation. The Stockholm appeals court upheld the earlier ruling by a district court to issue arrest warrant for Assange. The statement read, "Assange is still detained in absentia. The court shares the assessment of the (lower) district court that Julian Assange is still suspected on probable cause of rape... and that there is a risk that he will evade legal proceedings or a penalty." The court said Assange's four-year embassy sequestration and the earlier passivity of police investigators were the basis for setting aside the detention. The court observed Assange's embassy stay "is not a deprivation of liberty and shall not be given any importance in its own right in the assessment of proportionality." It also rejected Assange's request to hold a hearing over the matter. "However, the relatively serious offence of which he is suspected means that there is a strong public interest (in) the investigation being able to continue," the court noted. "At present, continued detention therefore appears to be both effective and necessary so as to be able to move the investigation forward. The reasons for detention therefore still outweigh the intrusion or other detriment that the measure entails for Julian Assange." Assange has evaded travel to Stockholm for questioning over the rape allegation, for fear that Sweden will extradite him to the United States over the release of 500,000 secret US military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since June 2012. His lawyers have urged Sweden to follow the non-binding ruling of a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. It said Assange's confinement in the embassy amounted to arbitrary detention by Sweden and Britain. According to British police, even if Assange's warrant was lifted, he is still liable to arrest in London for having evaded justice after his appeals against extradition were rejected. (WION with inputs from agencies)

Setback for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Swedish court upholds arrest warrant in 2010 rape case

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Wednesday announced that his&nbsp;organisation planned to release &#39;significant&#39; information regarding the&nbsp;campaign of the United States&#39; Democratic presedential nominee Hillary Clinton before the elections on November 8. 
 
Talking about the data, Assange said, &quot;I think it&rsquo;s significant. You know, it&nbsp;depends on how it catches fire in the public and in the media.&rdquo; 
 
Assange has been living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for five years&nbsp;now to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces sexual assault accusations.&nbsp;He has denied these allegations. 
 
In July this year, WikiLeaks had released audio recordings which it claimed&nbsp;were sourced from the emails of the Democratic National Committee. 
 
&quot;I don&rsquo;t want to give the game away, but it&rsquo;s a variety of documents, from&nbsp;different types of institutions that are associated with the election campaign,&nbsp;some quite unexpected angles, some quite interesting, some even entertaining,&quot;&nbsp;Assange said. 
 
WikiLeaks publishes leaked material, mostly from governments. In 2010, the&nbsp;organisation had published classified US military and diplomatic documents in&nbsp;one of the largest information leaks in US history. 
 
(WION with inputs from agencies)

In July this year, WikiLeaks had released audio recordings which it claimed?were sourced from emails of the Democratic National Committee

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Wednesday announced that his organisation planned to release 'significant' information regarding the campaign of the United States' Democratic presedential nominee Hillary Clinton before the elections on November 8. Talking about the data, Assange said, "I think it’s significant. You know, it depends on how it catches fire in the public and in the media.” Assange has been living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for five years now to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces sexual assault accusations. He has denied these allegations. In July this year, WikiLeaks had released audio recordings which it claimed were sourced from the emails of the Democratic National Committee. "I don’t want to give the game away, but it’s a variety of documents, from different types of institutions that are associated with the election campaign, some quite unexpected angles, some quite interesting, some even entertaining," Assange said. WikiLeaks publishes leaked material, mostly from governments. In 2010, the organisation had published classified US military and diplomatic documents in one of the largest information leaks in US history. (WION with inputs from agencies)

WikiLeaks to release 'significant' Clinton campaign data: Assange

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