Julian Assange to seek bail

Lawyers for Julian Assange, held in Britain over allegations of sex crimes in Sweden, will try again on Tuesday (today) to win bail for the WikiLeaks founder who provoked US fury by publishing secret diplomatic cables.

The 39-year-old Australian handed himself in to British police last week after Sweden issued a European arrest warrant. br<>Assange was accused this year of sexual misconduct by two female Swedish WikiLeaks volunteers during a stay in Sweden. A Swedish prosecutor wants to question him about the accusations.Assange, who denies the allegations, was remanded in custody at an initial British court hearing last week. Assange and his lawyers have voiced fears that US prosecutors may be preparing to indict him for espionage after the WikiLeaks website published details of some of a trove of 250,000 secret U.S. documents it has obtained.

I came to Sweden as a refugee publisher involved with an extraordinary publishing fight with the Pentagon, where people were being detained and there is an attempt to prosecute me for espionage, Assange said in a documentary broadcast on Swedish public television on Sunday.The US Justice Department has been looking into a range of criminal charges, including violations of the 1917 Espionage Act that could be filed in the WikiLeaks case.

NHA chairman, aides held from Karachi court

Staff Report

KARACHI: The chairman of National Highway Authority (NHA) along with his aides have been arrested from the court premises on the orders of the Additional District and Sessions Judge Saturday.

The contractor and another man managed to escape.

This happened during the hearing of Shershah Bridge case. The court was requested for the bail of the involved men in the case but court ordered police to arrest them instead of granting bail to them.

Chaudhry Altaf, the chairman NHA, and two others were arrested. Trend Pk

Cameron set to win most seats

LONDON: In the first election since 1974 with no party gaining a majority, Cameron’s Conservatives were forecast to have won 305 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, the national exit poll showed. Labour was forecast to take 255 and Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats 61, the poll showed.

The projection, if confirmed by actual results, may initiate a period of maneuvering as Brown seeks to remain in power through a coalition with other parties while Cameron asserts his right to form the next government.

“The outcome of this country’s vote isn’t yet known,” Brown said in his home district of Kirkcaldy after his re-election to Parliament was announced. “My duty to the country coming out of this election is to play my part in Britain having a strong, stable and principled government.”

Cameron’s margin was probably enough to force Brown to resign, even though passing his program of spending cuts to tackle a record budget deficit and folding the U.K. financial regulator into the Bank of England would require the support of other parties, said Mark Wickham-Jones, a professor of politics at Bristol University.

“If this exit poll is correct, Gordon Brown is out,” said Wickham-Jones. “Cameron is going to try and govern, but it’s going to be a very difficult time, very stormy.”

The pound rose 0.3 percent against the dollar, reversing a decline, to $1.4873 at 1:55 a.m. in London. Gilt futures expiring in June, which began trading at 1 a.m., opened higher, rising 0.4 percent to 117.70.

A minority government “seems likely to lead to some volatility in asset prices unless and until the ability of the new government to operate effectively is established,” said Simon Hayes, chief U.K. economist at Barclays Capital, in a note.

The minority government produced by the February 1974 election lasted eight months before another vote in October.

If the exit polls are borne out, Labour would have their lowest number of seats since 1987, prompting speculation Brown, 59, who took over from Tony Blair in June 2007 after spending 10 years as chancellor of the exchequer, may quit as leader.

“Gordon will know whether he should stay on or not,” Home Secretary Alan Johnson told media. “Gordon deserves the dignity to actually look at these things and make up his mind.”

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson signalled the prospect of forging a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, saying that Brown retained the first shot at forming a government if the opposition failed to gain majority.

“The rules are, if it’s a hung parliament, it’s not the party with the largest number of seats that has the first go, it’s the sitting government,” he said.

Brown appealed to the Liberal Democrats, one of whose top priorities is reforming the voting system. In Kirkcaldy, he said a coalition would “implement our commitments to far-reaching political reform, for which there is a growing consensus.”

A Brown spokesman said it was too soon to comment on a possible coalition, saying discussions would depend on final results.

Even without their own majority, Conservative leaders said Brown shouldn’t hesitate to relinquish control. Based on the exit polls, a coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats still wouldn’t have a majority.

“It’s pretty clear that Labour cannot continue in government,” said George Osborne, the Conservatives’ Treasury spokesman. Labour politicians “need to get real, they’ve been rejected by the British people.”

Going into the vote, Labour had 345 seats and the Conservatives had 193.

In a sign of the breadth of the Conservative gains, the opposition took the Kingswood district in Gloucestershire from Labour. Its 9.4 percentage-point swing from Labour would give them a majority in Parliament if repeated across the country.

Voting was marred because long lines prevented some from casting their ballots before doors closed. Polling stations in Leeds, Ealing, Lewisham and Hackney were among those with such difficulties, the media reported.

In Sheffield, the local election official, John Mothersole, wrote an apology to residents who were unable to vote.

“We got this wrong and I would like to apologize,” he said in a statement on the city council’s website. “We were faced with a difficult situation with the numbers of people and a large amount of students turning up to vote without polling cards.”

Cameron, 43, who would be the youngest prime minister since the Earl of Liverpool in 1812, led his party to the biggest net gain of seats in 79 years. Osborne, 38, would be the youngest chancellor since Randolph Churchill in 1886.

They argued during the campaign that a record budget deficit, build-up of public debt and slumping economy demanded Brown’s ejection by voters. The parties clashed on the pace of spending reductions, with Brown saying Cameron’s pledge to enact cuts this year risked a double-dip recession.

While Cameron won’t have enough seats to push through his legislative agenda, he may not seek a formal partnership with Clegg, according to Philip Norton, professor of government at Hull University and a Conservative member of the House of Lords.

“If you’re a few short, you can still govern as a minority,” said Norton. “You could probably survive quite a while as a government without doing any deals.”

The exit poll was generated from surveys by GfKNOP and Ipsos-MORI at 130 polling stations across the country. While the poll accurately predicted Labour’s majority in 2005, it underestimated by nine the number of seats the Liberal Democrats won.

26 killed in south Sudan tribal fighting

KHARTOUM: Clashes over livestock between members of two large tribes killed 26 people in the south Sudan state of Warrap on Wednesday, a senior officer in the south Sudan armed forces said.

“Nuer coming from Mayom county (in the southern state of Unity) attacked Dinka in (neighbouring) Warrap state. Eleven Nuer were killed and 15 Dinka,” said Malaak Auyen Ajok, spokesman for the former rebel Sudan People”s Liberation Army.

“This involved fighting over livestock,” he said, adding that no more details were immediately available.

The Nuer and the Dinka, each divided into clans, are the two most important tribes in south Sudan, a vast impoverished region that will hold a referendum in January on whether to remain part of Sudan.

The Sudanese press in recent days has spoken of increasing tensions between armed groups in Warrap.

Speaking of the same incident, the United Nations” Miraya FM radio said 20 people had been killed in East Tonj and North Tonj counties in Warrap.

Autonomous south Sudan is struggling to recover from the 22-year civil war with the north that ended in 2005, during which an estimated two million people were killed in a conflict fuelled by ethnicity, ideology, religion and resources such as oil.

The region is also plagued by local clashes between rival ethnic groups, often sparked by cattle rustling and disputes over natural resources, with others in retaliation for previous attacks.

More than 400 people have been killed across the south in cattle raids and revenge attacks this year, according to the United Nations.

Among them, more than 140 people have been killed in Warrap, one of the most violence-ridden states.

India is Involved in Balochistan: PM Gilani

LAHORE, Pakistan News: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that, India is involved in Balochistan and Orakzai operation is under consideration. He said this while talking to the media after addressing GC University.

Prime Minister said that government wants to strengthen parliament to such an extent that any constitution could not harm it.

Talking about Balochistan the Prime Minister said that they are thinking about amnesty for all.

Yousuf Raza Gilani further added that government’s spirits are high to eradicate terrorism. He said that with the help of the youth government will solve all the problems.

The Prime Minister announced donation of 10 crores to GC University and said that GC University have produced great scholars and government will try its level best to improve the standard of education in the country.

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India is Involved in Balochistan: PM Gilani was first posted on December 12, 2009 at 2:40 pm.