Evening Edition

The 39-year-old founder of the whistle-blowing website is fighting extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations that he sexually assaulted two women, which he denies.

But speaking outside Ellingham Hall, a friend’s mansion in eastern England, where he must live while on bail, Assange said he was more concerned about potential moves from US authorities.

“I hope to continue my work and continue to protest my innocence in this matter and to reveal as we get it — which we have not yet — the evidence from these allegations,” Assange said Thursday on the steps of the High Court where he was greeted by a media scrum.

Assange and his lawyers insist that moves to extradite him from Britain to Sweden to face questioning over allegations he sexually assaulted two women are politically motivated.

The United States, the European Union and Ivory Coast’s West African allies demanded Gbagbo hand over power to his adversary Alassane Ouattara, after a day of bloodshed on the streets of Abidjan left between 11 and 30 people dead.

Ouattara’s supporters had vowed to return to streets to renew a bid to seize control of state television but, despite reports of sporadic gunfire, the sprawling seaport was eerily quiet following Thursday’s violence.

In the Abidjan suburb of Abobo, crowds gathered shortly after dawn around the bodies of two young men, their skulls shattered by bullets, the latest victims in a battle that has left between 11 and 30 dead.

One lay barefoot in his underpants, his head lolling on a congealed blood trail, the other was spread-eagled by the roadside, his slip-ons cast aside.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy, speaking at the close of a two-day EU summit, said plans to rewrite a key treaty and to set up the emergency rescue fund from mid-2013 would make the eurozone “more crisis-proof.”

The successor to a temporary, IMF-backed trillion-dollar facility created after a debt crisis rocked Greece, would anchor “a comprehensive response to any challenges, as part of the eurozone’s new economic governance.”

With Portugal and possibly even Spain predicted to need financial aid after Greece and Ireland, the European Union said it is “ready to do whatever is required to ensure the stability of the euro area.”

“It’s their way of saying they are prepared to put lots of money on the table,” explained a senior EU diplomat of conclusions being finessed by heads of state and government over dinner at a Brussels summit.

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy said plans for the 27 states to rewrite their treaty and set up a permanent emergency rescue fund from mid-2013 would make the world’s biggest tariff-free trading bloc “more crisis-proof.”

The successor to a temporary, IMF-backed trillion-dollar facility created after the crisis was unleashed in Greece, would anchor “a comprehensive response to any challenges, as part of the eurozone’s new economic governance.”

The public debt rose 16.3 percent to 611.2 billion euros (808 billion dollars) in the third quarter from the same time last year, and it now the equivalent of 57.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), it highest proportion since 2000.

The figure is still below the limit of 60 percent of GDP imposed on European Union members but it is up from the 53.2 percent posted at the end of 2009.

Moody’s Investors Service cut its rating on Ireland by five notches from Aa2 to Baa1, citing increased uncertainties over the country’s economy and public finances. Moody’s added that the Baa1 rating outlook was negative.

Moody’s action makes follows similar but less drastic ratings downgrades by its peers, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, adding to the pressure as investors demand a higher return to buy Irish government bonds.

The changes would also see Tokyo boost its southern forces and submarine fleet and upgrade its fighter jets as part of a shift in its defence focus from the Soviet Cold War threat to southern islands nearer China.

The cabinet of officially pacifist Japan approved the National Defence Programme Guidelines months after a territorial row flared up with China and weeks after North Korea launched a deadly artillery strike against South Korea.

Hudson Valley Foie Gras and neighboring farm La Belle in New York state and California’s Sonoma Foie Gras are the countries’ only three producers of the controversial gastronomic treat, known universally by its French name.

Together they produce 300 tons a year, five times more than output 30 years ago, although, even including 130 tons from Canada, it is a pittance compared to the 19,000 ton annual French avalanche of foie gras.

The Securities and Exchange Commission launched the new phase of its investigation by sending out a fresh round of subpoenas last week to big banks including Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Wells Fargo & Co, the sources said.

Months ago, the SEC began looking into the banks’ foreclosure practices following allegations that mortgage servicers were using shoddy paperwork to evict delinquent borrowers from their homes.

Moody’s cut Ireland’s rating by a stunning five notches during a European Union summit meant to restore confidence in the euro zone by creating a permanent financial safety net from 2013 and vowing to do whatever it takes to protect the euro.

Moody’s cut Ireland’s rating to Baa1, three notches above junk, with a negative outlook from Aa2 and warned further downgrades could follow if Dublin was unable to stabilize its debt situation, caused by a banking crash after a decade-long property bubble burst.

The 39-year-old Australian computer expert, whom Swedish authorities want to question over alleged sexual offences, has angered the United States by releasing secret diplomatic cables on his website and teaming up with newspapers around the globe to amplify the impact of the disclosures.

Speaking to reporters from the grounds of the English country house where he was sent after his release on bail this week, Assange gave no hint of what charge he might face.

The West African state has been in turmoil since the November 28 vote in which Gbagbo claimed victory with backing from the nation’s top legal body, rejecting as fraudulent results showing he lost by a near 8 percent margin to rival Alassane Ouattara.

Rebels loyal to Ouattara exchanged fire with the army in Abidjan and elsewhere on Thursday while protests in Abidjan left at least 20 dead, raising worries of a return to all-out conflict in a country still split after a 2002-03 civil war.

The five-page summary of the two-month review, which did not mention Afghan President Hamid Karzai at all, was released on Thursday but has been criticized by Afghans and aid groups as overly optimistic.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s review found NATO-led forces were making headway against the Taliban but serious challenges remained. It said the insurgents’ momentum had been arrested in much of Afghanistan and reversed in some areas.

She presses a button and the trade is done in less than a second, costing her only $9.99 — a mark of the easiest and cheapest era yet for individuals to participate in U.S. capital markets.

Qin, 40, who describes her strategy as “impulsive,” said she recently purchased 300 shares of Bank of America. Though she didn’t realize it at the time, the amateur trader likely got a tad better deal on the stock than even the most sophisticated Wall Street traders.

After Congress failed to pass a climate change law last year, California is the vanguard of the nation’s effort to address global warming and its bid to build alternative energy and related industries.

California has mandated that a third of its electricity come from renewable sources like solar and wind. It is also encouraging “low carbon” auto fuels, like some biofuels and natural gas, and on Thursday approved rules for the carbon market.

Authorities said another person, a former employee of Dell Inc, had pleaded guilty on December 10 to charges he had provided inside information about the company from late 2007 to August 2010 to research firms and hedge fund managers.

The case stems from a more than two-year investigation of hedge funds that intensified on November 22 when federal agents raided Loch Capital Management in Boston, Diamondback Capital Management in Stamford, Connecticut and Level Global Investors in New York. All said they were not targets of the probe.

The surprise agreement looked likely to end a high-stakes game of chicken that could have led to a shutdown of wide swaths of the government if Congress had not agreed on a spending bill by Saturday night.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said nine Republicans had agreed to back the bill but their support evaporated in recent days.

Dozens of firms, such as IntercontinentalExchange Inc, hope to qualify as swap trading venues as the opaque swaps market is forced onto the public stage as part of a Wall Street financial overhaul mandated by the U.S. Congress.

How market regulators define these swap execution facilities, or SEFs, will determine who will be allowed to compete in what is expected to be the lucrative business of trading and brokering the swap contracts.

A draft proposal to apply position limits across commodity futures and swaps markets ran into objections both from commissioners who want the agency to act quicker to crack down and those who fear moving too fast will damage the market.

The surprise set-back for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s most contentious reform is the latest sign of slowing progress in implementing the sweeping Dodd-Frank bill, the biggest regulatory overhaul since the Great Depression. Republicans have stepped up calls to tap the brakes.

The agency took heed of fierce objections raised by Wall Street since it first put forward a plan to cap the influx of investor capital that some blamed for driving oil and grain prices to record highs in 2008.

But the core principle remained unchanged: restricting the number of swaps and futures contracts that speculators can hold in energy, metals and agricultural derivative markets, a rule it estimated could affect nearly 80 agricultural traders and dozens of metals and energy players.

Julian Assange spoke from snowbound Ellingham Hall, a supporter’s 10-bedroom country mansion where he is confined on bail as he fights Sweden’s attempt to extradite him on allegations of rape and molestation.

He insisted to television interviewers that he was being subjected to a smear campaign and “what appears to be a secret grand jury investigation against me or our organization.”

The package, signed Friday by President Barack Obama, will save taxpayers, on average, about $3,000 next year.

But many families will be able to save much more by taking advantage of tax breaks for being married, having children, paying for child care, going to college or investing in securities. There are even tax breaks for paying local sales taxes and using mass transit, and a new Social Security tax cut for nearly every worker who earns a wage.

A German company installed the machine Friday at an upscale mall in Boca Raton, a South Florida paradise of palm trees, pink buildings and wealthy retirees.

Thomas Geissler, CEO of Ex Oriente Lux and inventor of the Gold To Go machines, says the majority of buyers will be walk-ups enamored by the novelty. But he says they’re also convenient for more serious investors looking to bypass the hassle of buying gold at pawn shops and over the Internet.

Scientists at the University of Oklahoma hope to extract DNA from the bones, which were found earlier this year by a Delaware group dedicated to the recovery of historic aircraft.

“There’s no guarantee,” said Ric Gillespie, director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery in Delaware. “You only have to say you have a bone that may be human and may be linked to Earhart and people get excited. But it is true that, if they can get DNA, and if they can match it to Amelia Earhart’s DNA, that’s pretty good.”

Legislation to keep the federal government running until mid- to late February was also on the agenda, a matter for negotiations with emboldened Republicans who will take control of the House and add to their numbers in the Senate come January.

President Barack Obama seized one legislative triumph in the lame-duck session as Congress voted early Friday to extend tax cuts and unemployment benefits. He was looking for several more on his wish list – the arms control treaty and repeal of the military gay ban – to close out a politically tough year.

The show of force by backers of President Laurent Gbagbo came a day after they clashed with supporters of opposition figure Alassane Ouattara, who is recognized by the U.S., the U.N., France and the African Union as the legitimate winner of the disputed Nov. 28 runoff balloting. Thursday’s street fighting left up to 30 dead.

International pressure is growing on Gbagbo to give up his claim to power in this West African nation that was once an economic hub because of its role as the world’s top cocoa producer. A 2002-03 civil war split Ivory Coast in two, and many had hoped that the election would help reunite the country.

Nearly $1.3 trillion in unfinished budget work needed to keep the government running was packed into the spending measure, including $158 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gave up on the bill Thursday after several Republicans who had been thinking of voting for it pulled back their support.

Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had thrown his weight against the bill in recent days, saying it was “unbelievable” that Democrats would try to muscle through in the days before Christmas legislation that usually takes months to debate.

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto says the state filed its lawsuit Friday in Clark County District Court as a last resort to try to get the bank to change its ways.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard filed a similar lawsuit. He says settlement talks with Bank of America collapsed Thursday.

The official opening was pushed back 27 days, from Jan. 11 to Feb. 7, because a key actor has missed several previews due to injury and after producers decided that the creative team needs to work out more kinks before allowing critics to weigh in.

“Due to some unforeseeable setbacks, most notably the injury of a principal cast member, it has become clear that we need to give the team more time to fully execute their vision,” lead producer Michael Cohl said in a statement Friday. “I have no intention of cutting a single corner in getting to the finish line.”

The farm towns of the central Helmand River Valley are safer, the Taliban are less intimidating and less capable nearly a year after the region became a test case for a revised U.S. war strategy for Afghanistan, commanders there said Thursday.

But those gains are undercut by the ease with which militants exploit the fluid border with Pakistan.

The tax-cut bill that gained final approval in Congress late Thursday, coming so late in the year, has whipped up a mild panic for accountants, payroll staffs and anyone else who handles taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service released new tax-withholding tables Friday, a little more than two weeks before the new year begins. But payroll processors say the delay in the withholding schedules means the wrong amounts may be taken out of many workers’ paychecks in the first few weeks of January.

A local business owner and enthusiast of everything analog has put out a call for typewriter enthusiasts to bring their working Underwoods and Olivettis to a city pub Saturday for what has been dubbed “Type-In: A Pleasant Afternoon of Manual Typewriting.”

“Against a backdrop of ringtones and whiny hard drives, the analog typewriter, which puts thoughts onto paper in a single step and waits silently while you’re thinking, gains charm by the minute,” said Type-In organizer Michael McGettigan.

Eleanor J. Hill, one of three chairpersons on The Constitution Project’s new panel, said events after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks such as the abuse by American troops of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and complaints of detainee torture will be one focus of the study.

She said it was important in fighting terrorism to project an image of the United States that is consistent with the principles the country was founded upon so that terrorists are not viewed more favorably than Americans in some parts of the world.

The effort, led by newly elected House member Kim Pearson of Des Moines, comes about six weeks after voters removed three other justices from the seven-member court after a campaign that focused on the gay marriage ruling. Those three justices were up for retention elections, in which voters have the option of ousting judges near the end of their terms.

Pearson said the remaining justices should be impeached because they overstepped their authority and violated the state constitution when they overturned a state law that defined marriage as being between one man and one woman. She claimed the court ruling infringed on the Legislature’s role in making laws.

One big concern: He’s looking for locations to hold it.

With the fourth annual New York City Wine & Food Festival looming in nine months, Schrager and his assistants scout an old industrial building on a Hudson River pier. It’s old and rundown, but Schrager pictures it painted and open to the river.

Really, Seriously Very Peeved.

From casual get-togethers to catered affairs, the once-common act of replying to invitations has become an often lost and much lamented cause.

The secret agreement means taxpayers are paying to defend the men in a federal investigation over an interrogation tactic the U.S. now says is torture. The deal is even more generous than the protections the agency typically provides its own officers, giving the two men access to more money to finance their defense.

It has long been known that psychologists Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen created the CIA’s interrogation program. But former U.S. intelligence officials said Mitchell and Jessen also repeatedly subjected terror suspects inside CIA-run secret prisons to waterboarding, a simulated drowning tactic.

The festive farm store is filled with jars of homemade pickles and jams, gift baskets, pies and frozen meats and sausages from the farm. Christmas trees and wreaths line the porch, and they’ve stocked cheeses and maple syrup from other Vermont producers.

Around the country, the holiday shopping season is providing an important winter revenue stream for a number of small farms as they try to diversify. Farms are finding local foods like maple syrup and jam are popular gifts, and some are bringing in money with sales of pies, hams and other dishes for holiday tables.

Precious little oil ever washed up on the berms, according to the commission – a finding corroborated by a log of oil sightings and other government documents obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request.

Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered the berms built over the objections of scientists and federal agencies – and secured money from BP to do it – out of frustration over what he saw as inaction by the Obama administration. During the crisis, Jindal boasted that the sand walls were stopping oil from coming ashore, and the idea proved popular in Louisiana.

The Air Resources Board voted 9-1 to pass the key piece of California’s 2006 climate law – called AB32 – with the hope that other states will follow the lead of the world’s eighth largest economy. State officials also are discussing plans to link the new system with similar ones under way or being planned in Canada, Europe and Asia.

California is launching into a “historic adventure,” said Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the state’s air quality board.

The military jury spent nearly five hours deliberating punishment for Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin on Thursday after three days of court martial proceedings at Fort Meade, outside Baltimore.

Lakin was convicted of disobeying orders – he had pleaded guilty to that count – and missing a flight that would have gotten him to his eventual deployment. An Army commander, Maj. Gen. Karl Horst, still has to approve the sentence returned by the jury. Upon approval of the sentence, Lakin is granted an automatic appeal that would be considered by the Army Court of Criminal Appeals. He was to begin serving his sentence immediately.

The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners hearing ended Thursday night with closing arguments after nearly 30 hours of testimony spanning three days. A hearing officer is expected to decide before next Thursday’s meeting whether Emanuel’s name should be listed on the ballot.

Residency has taken center stage in Emanuel’s bid to get on the Feb. 22 ballot. Some two dozen opponents say he doesn’t have a legal right to run because he doesn’t meet the one-year residency requirement. Emanuel lived for nearly two years in Washington working for Obama.