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London, United Kingdom (AHN) – International protest is building about the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange this week. Assange is being held in a British jail awaiting extradition to Sweden on rape charges.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department is seeking to extradite him to the United States to face espionage charges after his Web site released more than 250,000 documents that exposed secret State Department communications. However, political leaders in Australia, Brazil, Russia and elsewhere say Assange is a political prisoner who is being punished for exercising rights of the free press.

Some of the harshest criticism is coming from Australia, where hundreds of people rallied Thursday in three cities to protest Assange’s arrest. Assange is an Australian citizen.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said Assange was merely doing the job of any journalist by publishing the documents. “The blame for any violations of the law should fall on the persons who gave the documents to Wikileaks,” Rudd said. “The Americans are responsible for that.”

The State Department communications, called “cables,” described Rudd as a “control freak” and said that he made mistakes as Australia’s foreign minister.

Rudd said he was unconcerned about the criticisms.

He also said Australia would offer consular help to Assange.

Consular help refers to sending diplomats to meet with a citizen of their own country who is arrested abroad to determine whether legal assistance can be arranged.

In Brazil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva described the arrest of Assange as a crime.

“I want to express my protest against this offense against free expression,” Lula said. “I will use the presidential blog to express my protest.”

He also encouraged the international news media to be more vigorous in defending Assange.

“The young man who is giving so much trouble to the diplomacy of the United States was arrested and so far I have not seen any protest defending free expression,” Lula said.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin described the U.S. government’s efforts to prosecute Assange as hypocritical.

“If it is full democracy, then why have they hidden Mr. Assange in prison,” Putin said during a press conference Thursday. “That’s what, democracy?”

Putin’s remarks appear to be a response to a February 2010 cable from Defense Secretary Robert Gates that said, “Russian democracy has disappeared and the government is an oligarchy run by the security services.”

In Mexico, the Journalists Club put up a plaque in their Mexico City headquarters honoring Assange for his “contribution to the conscience of mankind.”

The State Department documents published by Wikileaks described Mexico’s difficulties in managing its war with drug cartels. The cables described the government’s efforts as ineffective, often corrupt and divided among competing administrators.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Research Service is saying any U.S. prosecution of Assange would face unprecedented legal and diplomatic challenges.

A 24-page report from the government agency examines how the Justice Department could apply U.S. criminal laws to a foreign news operation.

“We are aware of no case in which a publisher of information obtained through unauthorized disclosure by a government employee has been prosecuted for publishing it,” the report said.

The prosecution of Assange creates First Amendment and diplomatic hurdles “based on concerns about government censorship,” the report said.

Some members of Congress, such as Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I.-Conn) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), say Assange should be prosecuted under the Espionage Act of 1917.

However, the Congressional Research Service report said no single law forbids the news media from publishing diplomatic cables only a “patchwork” of statutes that leave unclear answers.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The State Department on Tuesday rubbished voices in the blogosphere calling for ouster of the top U.S. diplomat in the light of damaging reports from leaked State Department cables published by WikiLeaks.

The leaked cables have noted request from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to U.S. diplomats around the world to collect personal data of foreign leaders.

Asked to clarify the subject, P.J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, told journalists, “By tradition, any document that leaves the Department of State has the Secretary of State’s name on it. She is responsible, but she was not the author of that particular document, and the contents of that came from outside the Department of State.”

Crowley reiterated his earlier views that, “Diplomats are diplomats. That is their job. Diplomats are not intelligence assets.” He added, “it is useful for them to know what is of interest across the government, but this doesn’t change the day-to-day duties of any diplomat anywhere.”

On the alleged directives to collect biometric data and DNA, Crowley told journalists, “There are entities within our government that have certain responsibilities. It is – it’s one thing for that community to provide a wish list across the government that helps people understand what is useful,” noting, “It takes a leap of faith to say that fundamentally changes the day-to-day responsibilities of our diplomats. It doesn’t.”

Crowley requested of journalists to “Please do not infer from one document that this fundamentally changes the role – nothing has changed based on a document that has been issued through the Department for a number of years.”

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The United States on Saturday responded with counter proposals to a letter from WikiLeaks requesting information about the persons mentioned in the thousands of documents set for release by the website.

Citing WikiLeaks’ request for information regarding individuals who may be at “significant risk of harm” in a letter to U.S. Ambassador Louis B. Susman, U.S. State Department legal adviser Harold Koh wrote back, “We will not engage in a negotiation regarding the further release or dissemination of illegally obtained U.S. government classified materials.”

“As you know, if any of the materials you intend to publish were provided by any government officials, or any intermediary without proper authorization, they were provided in violation of U.S. law and without regard for the grave consequences of this action,” Koh continued.

“It is our understanding from conversations with representatives from The New York Times, The Guardian [newspaper of Britain] and Der Speigel [newspaper of Germany], that WikiLeaks also has provided approximately 250,000 documents to each of them for publication, furthering the illegal dissemination of classified documents,” the State Department noted.

The State Department asked WikiLeaks to: “1) ensure WikiLeaks ceases publishing any and all such materials; 2) ensure WikiLeaks returns any and all classified U.S. government material in its possession; and 3) remove and destroy all records of this material from WikiLeaks’ databases.”

On Wednesday the U.S. admitted preparations for another WikiLeaks release of classified U.S. documents that could harm relations with friendly countries around the world.

Stating that the release is believed to offer sensitive classified documents, P.J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, told journalists then, “We’ve known all along that WikiLeaks has in its possession State Department cables. We are prepared if this upcoming tranche of documents includes State Department cables.”

The U.S. diplomatic missions are informing other countries to do damage control as Crowley admitted, “We are in touch with our posts around the world. They have begun the process of notifying governments that release of documents is possible in the near future.”

Typical diplomatic cables contain analyses of situations, as well as records of discussions between U.S. diplomats and foreign officials in what Crowley called “diplomacy in action.”

“Inherent in this day-to-day action is trust that we can convey our perspective to other governments in confidence and that they can convey their perspective on events to us,” Crowley said at a short off-camera briefing, adding, “And when this confidence is betrayed and ends up on the front pages of newspapers or lead stories on television and radio it has an impact.”

Crowley also informed the journalists that the State Department would be informing U.S. lawmakers about the situation arising out the leaks, saying, “Many of you are aware, we have had similar conversations with members of the Hill to let them know what we are prepared for. This is going to be unhelpful.”

The WikiLeaks release is expected to be the largest leak ever of classified documents.

In October, WikiLeaks published nearly 400,000 classified U.S. military documents related to the war in Iraq, but WikiLeaks said on Twitter last Sunday that the next one will be seven times the size of the Iraq War logs.

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Ed Miliband has pledged to make Labour the party of people’s “hopes and aspirations” as he launched a major review of its policies in the wake of the general election defeat.

In his first address to the party’s national policy forum as leader, he said it had to recognise the need for change and move “beyond New Labour”.

Unveiling 22 policy inquiries, Miliband told the forum, meeting in Gillingham, Kent, that the same old stance would not restore trust in the party.

“We have to show again we are the people who are the idealists, we are the people who are the optimists, we are the people who can represent the hopes, the dreams, the aspirations of the British people,” he said. “So please join us on this journey. Join us on this journey which makes us once again the people’s party, the party of people’s hopes and aspirations, back on people’s side, back in power making for the fairer, the more equal, the more just country we believe in.”

Miliband said that while there was deep anger at the “broken promises” of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, Labour could not afford simply to wait for the coalition to “screw up”.

“I know that we have got to change in order to win,” he said.

“There is no short cut or quick fix to this. We shouldn’t mistake the anger we feel at what the coalition is doing to the country for a sense that it isn’t as much about us as it is about them.

“The strategy that says wait for them to screw it up, simply be a strong opposition, is not a strategy that is going to work for us. We need to do that hard thinking of our own.”

Miliband said that he made no apology for speaking up for what he describes as the “squeezed middle”.

“People were feeling squeezed before this government. They are feeling much, much more squeezed now this government is in power,” he said.

“So it is about standing up for the hopes and aspirations of people. That must be our mission, to narrow the gap between the dreams that people can see around them and their chances of realising them.”

He indicated that he was ready to reform the system which elected him party leader, saying that a system where some members had multiple votes should be a “thing of the past”.

Miliband said that the Labour party needed to become again a “campaigning force” throughout the country.

“We have to be a party rooted in people’s lives,” he said. “We need to become a movement again. We have to reach out to people.”

He announced the formation of a series of working groups, chaired by shadow cabinet ministers, intended to lay the ground for a new policy programme to take Labour into the next general election.

The shadow chancellor, Alan Johnson, will chair working groups on “rebalancing our economy for growth, jobs and sustainability” and “making the banking and finance sector work for our economy”.

John Denham, the shadow business secretary, will lead on a group on productivity and regional imbalance.

Other shadow cabinet members will be looking at constitutional reform, the police, family, the elderly, schools, civil liberties, housing and political reform. Tessa Jowell will lead a group under the heading, “Family life. What helps?”.

Miliband has appealed to universities, think-tanks, charities and other independent institutions to come forward with ideas that the party can incorporate into its reform agenda.

The first tranche of reviews will lead to a state of the nation document in 2011, Modern Britain’s Ambitions, before further specific policy work is done, which will form the basis of detailed policy-making leading up to the next general election manifesto.

A party spokesman said: “We want this process to be rooted in real people’s lives. We want it to lead to real change in our movement.

“Ed is determined that Labour mustn’t retreat into a discussion with itself. He wants Labour to reach out in a way it was never able to do while in government, and draw on the best ideas from across the political landscape.” Ed Miliband Labour Liberal Democrats Conservatives Alan Johnson John Denham Tessa Jowell David Batty guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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VA lending options are funded through the federal government with the United States, and serve to advantage individuals men and women who’ve served their nation as soldiers in war. The loan possibilities readily available to veterans are really appealing, making it fairly effortless for them to acquire housing as soon as they return from war. You can find minimal requirements that figure out regardless of whether a veteran can really qualify for any VA mortgage. For one of the most component, a veteran who has served on active duty and has an honorable discharge after a minimum of 90 times can apply for the VA house mortgage. Additionally, any veteran who served throughout the war for 181 times peacetime also can apply.

VA home loans are presented by exclusive lenders, banking institutions and home loan firms which have arrive on board for this useful and useful trigger. With VA property loans, borrowers can finance 100% on the home’s value and really purchase it with $0 down payment. This impressively compares to banks that want massive down obligations of 10 to 20% for typical residence financial loans. This alone goes to demonstrate how the country is dedicated to ensuring its war veterans are properly taken care of when they get house.

It is a lot simpler to qualify for the VA loan than it is for any standard loan mainly because it’s backed 100% through the federal government with the United States of America. Like a outcome, financial institutions have far more relaxed lending guidelines for VA applicants. Not to mention, VA household mortgage prices are very much reduced, running anywhere among 0.5 to 1% reduce than traditional lending options.

VA household financial loans offer reduced prices and decrease monthly obligations. Furthermore, no private home loan insurance is required, mainly because you will find also feasible possibilities for insuring as soon as you’ve a loan. The only issue that truly restricts you may be the reality that the veteran should reside within the home that they’re purchasing. Needless to say, this is not definitely a element for a lot of veterans, simply because in some cases it will be the very first time which they very own a house.

VA residence financial loans are just one particular on the things that indicates how very much patriotism there’s amongst the American individuals, federal government incorporated. The mere truth that this alternative has been extended to people who have served the country in war indicates just why the dedication and commitment noticed is there.

Dublin, Ireland, United Kingdom (AHN) – Ireland’s debt crisis and austerity plan has fueled uncertainty among traders, causing the euro to continue its slide in value against the dollar.

The European Union’s common currency is now down to two-month lows at $1.3314; it has fallen by more than three cents this week alone. News of the proposed bailout had caused the euro to rise in trading on Monday; however, it dropped again in trading on Tuesday and has continued to drop.

Ireland’s four-year austerity plan relies on a combination of spending cuts and tax increases to save $20 billion (15 billion euros) and reduce that nation’s government deficit.

However, currency traders are skeptical, fearing that the Irish government is too optimistic and that the plan will not work. In addition, traders also fear that the debt crisis will spread to other nations within the euro zone that have high government deficits.

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