Tag: Evening Edition

China called the award in Oslo a “political farce.”

President Barack Obama, a Peace Prize laureate last year, called for the prompt release of 54-year-old Liu, who was jailed last year for 11 years for subversion.

The wave of support for Julian Assange, currently in a British jail as Sweden seeks his extradition on rape charges, came as hackers — dubbed “hack-tivists” — stepped up cyber attacks on those opposed to WikiLeaks.

But after taking down the websites of Visa, Mastercard and others, supporters of the whistleblower website tried but failed to knock online retail giant Amazon.com offline.

Supporters of popular singer Michel Martelly took to the streets after Tuesday night’s results showed he had been narrowly beaten into third place in the race for the presidency of the impoverished Caribbean nation.

Instead, President Rene Preval’s handpicked protege Jude Celestin defied all predictions to snap up second place and a coveted slot in January’s run-off in which he will battle a former first lady for the nation’s top job.

The elusive 39-year-old Australian said he would fight an extradition request by Swedish authorities as he appeared in court in London just hours after he emerged from a month in hiding and surrendered to police.

Filmmaker Ken Loach, socialite Jemima Khan and campaigning journalist John Pilger each offered to put up part of his bail but a judge in London refused, saying a court would review the situation at a hearing on December 14.

The bombers badly damaged an administration compound in Ghalanai, the main town in the district of Mohmand, about 175 kilometres (110 miles) northwest of Islamabad and which has been hard hit by Islamist violence.

A purported Pakistani Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack, threatening death to anyone who forms militias against the Islamists.

Former South African president Mbeki stepped in to try to head off violence after both the incumbent Gbagbo and his old rival Alassane Ouattara swore themselves in as president following a disputed runoff vote on November 28 in the divided country.

But after Mbeki held emergency talks with the two rivals, Ouattara upped the ante, pressing the mediator to demand Gbagbo quit as his own allies declared they had formed a new government.

WikiLeaks is already fighting to stay on the Internet. It had to switch its domain to Switzerland because its original web address was shut down by a US provider, as it continues to release tens of thousands of classified US diplomatic cables.

At the same time Sweden has issued an amended international arrest warrant for WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, who is believed to be in Britain, and The Times newspaper, citing police sources, reported he could be arrested next week.

As the fallout grew from its release of secret US diplomatic cables, the whistleblower site found new domain names in a string of European countries after its original wikileaks.org address was shut down by an American provider.

The elusive Assange, who is believed to be in hiding in Britain, faced fresh trouble as Swedish prosecutors sent out a new international arrest warrant for the 39-year-old Australian over sex assault allegations.

In a historic conclusion to two years of frenzied lobbying, world football chief Sepp Blatter revealed the surprise winners following a secret ballot of 22 FIFA executive committee members in Zurich.

The announcement means the World Cup will be staged in two countries which have never hosted the event before following the 2014 tournament in Brazil.