Interpol issues global arrest warrant for Julian Assange
Interpol, the international police organisation, has issued a global arrest warrant for WikiLeaks' Julian Assange, as the activist website continued its US diplomatic cables leaks today.
The 39-year-old Australian was added to the organisation's "wanted" list for alleged sex crimes committed in Sweden this year.
He is suspected of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion, after an investigation by Swedish prosecutors into his encounters with two women in Sweden in August.
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Wanted ... Julian Assange. Photo: Reuters
Mr Assange has denied the accusations, with his British lawyer Mark Stephens saying last month that they were "false and without basis".
Ecuador's Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas yesterdayoffered Mr Assange asylum in his country saying that "we are ready to give him [Mr Assange] residence in Ecuador, with no problems and no conditions".
"We are going to invite him to come to Ecuador so he can freely present the information he possesses and all the documentation, not just over the internet but in a variety of public forums."
Cable leaks embarrassing the US and its allies
The United States has condemned the leaks as a criminal act but has not disputed the authenticity of the published transcripts, which have been chosen for publication by reporters from major world dailies.
The leaks began on Sunday and have already covered several major diplomatic crises, in particular the nuclear stand-off with Iran and allegations of US spying on the UN.
The latest leaks, reported by The New York Times and The Guardian newspapers, focus on Pakistan and reveal US fears about the South Asian country's nuclear arsenal.
They also reveal that Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Kayani mused about forcing out civilian President Asif Ali Zardari.
French daily Le Monde, reporting on a separate group of US cables, revealed that US diplomats called French President "Sarkozy the American".
"Sarkozy is the French politician who most supports the role of the United States in the world," the US embassy in Paris wrote in a 2006 portrait of the right-wing minister shortly before he announced his presidential run.
"His nickname is 'Sarkozy the American' and his affinity for America is authentic and comes from the bottom of his heart," the memo said, predicting an end to the tense relations under the outgoing president, Jacques Chirac.
Sarkozy made no secret of his admiration for Washington as he began his presidency, but some of the French voters who elected him might have been surprised by just how closely he supported then US president George W. Bush.
In the most startling extract from the cables, which have yet to appear on the WikiLeaks website and appear in Le Monde in French translation, the US ambassador writes in 2006 that Sarkozy might send French troops to Iraq.
"Sarkozy declared that France and the international community would have to help the United States resolve the situation in Iraq. Perhaps by replacing the American army with an international force," he wrote.
But the US war in Iraq remained extremely unpopular in France, and nothing came of this idea once Sarkozy was elected, although he did send more French troops to Afghanistan and brought France back into full NATO membership.
Meanwhile, Shares in Bank of America, the largest US bank, tumbled more than 3 percent on Tuesday amid speculation it will be the next target of leaked documents from WikiLeaks.
In an interview published Monday by Forbes magazine, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claimed a fresh "megaleak" will target a major US bank "early next year".
- with AFP (source:smh.co.au)
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