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Happy New Year 2012

on December 31, 2011

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Scenes from across the world - London, Viena, Germany, Sidney, Beijing - 2012

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Assange Requests Ecuadorian Asylum

Julian Assange has formally requested asylum in Ecuador in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden , where he faces an investigation for rape and sexual molestation. Assange, the bombastic founder of Wikileaks , fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Tuesday. He had been under house arrest in England while awaiting the outcome of an appeal of his extradition to Sweden, where prosecutors wish to question Assange. Assange had appealed his extradition to the European Court of Justice after losing on appeal in the Supreme Court of England , but the European Court had not yet decided whether to take up the appeal. Assange is supposed to be extradited to Stockholm by June 28. Swedish prosecutors wish to interview Assange about two cases of alleged rape and sexual molestation, in which Assange allegedly refused to wear a condom as requested by his partners, and hid the fact until they were done with intercourse. Assange has claimed he is innocent of all charges, and that the case is no...

UN gets Syrian Assurance

Kofi Annan , The UN and Arab League envoy to Syria , has said he has received assurances from Damascus that it will respect the ceasefire plan he has previously proposed. Mr Annan who has been visiting Iran said there could be "improved conditions on the ground" by Thursday morning. However the Syrian government had previously failed to withdraw troops and weaponry from large population centres as it had agreed. So far at least 100 people have been reported dead. Three people were killed on Wednesday after violent shelling in the city of Homs and the Deraa province. Mr Annan told reporters in Tehran that he had received "further clarifications" from the government of President Bashar al-Assad on how it intended to suspend hostilities, and respect his six-point peace plan. Mr Annan said "We have been in touch with them and have had positive answers from them and have also approached governments with influence to ensure that all parties respect the ceasefi...

SOPA AND PIPA GONE, NOW THE OPEN ACT?

In the wake of widespread online protest, the House and the Senate have stopped both the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in their tracks. Just this Friday morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced that he has canceled next week’s Senate vote on PIPA, which is now indeed opposed by many of its co-sponsors. Shortly afterwards, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said that SOPA will not be taken up as planned and that legislators must “wait until there is wider agreement on a solution.” Reid indeed acknowledged that ”recent events” — the blackout on Wikipedia and other sites including Reddit and the other protests involving an estimated 115,000 websites this past Wednesday — had played a role in his decision to postpone the vote. PIPA sponsor Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, agreed to the change of course only “reluctantly,” painting a dire picture of how Chinese an...

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