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                        <title>The Express Tribune</title>
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                        <description>The Express Tribune keeps you up to date with all the latest happenings from Pakistan and across the world!</description>
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			<title>WikiLeaks' Assange gets married in UK high-security jail</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2349321/wikileaks-assange-gets-married-in-uk-high-security-jail</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2349321/wikileaks-assange-gets-married-in-uk-high-security-jail#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 23 Mar 22 19:28:03 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2349321</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The 50-year-old Australian is being held in jail while US authorities seek his extradition to face trial on 18 counts]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange married his long-term partner Stella Moris inside a British high-security prison on Wednesday at a small ceremony attended by just four guests, two official witnesses and two guards.

Assange is being held in jail while US&nbsp;authorities seek his extradition to face trial on 18 counts relating to WikiLeaks&#39; release of vast troves of confidential US&nbsp;military records and diplomatic cables more than a decade ago.

&quot;I am very happy and very sad. I love Julian with all my heart, and I wish he were here,&quot; Moris said outside the gates of Belmarsh prison following the ceremony.

The 50-year-old Australian, who denies any wrongdoing, has been in the southeast London jail since 2019, and before that was holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in the British capital for seven years.

Also read:&nbsp;Assange denied permission to appeal extradition decision

While living at the embassy he fathered two children with Moris, a lawyer more than a decade his junior, whom he met in 2011 when she started work on his legal team. Their relationship began in 2015.

The registrar-led nuptials took place during visiting hours at the prison, where some of Britain&#39;s most notorious criminals have served sentences, including child murderer Ian Huntley. Afterwards, the guests were asked to leave immediately.

For the occasion, Moris wore a lilac satin wedding dress and Assange a kilt - a nod to his family ties to Scotland - which were created by British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, who has campaigned against his extradition.

The bridal dress featured an inscription of a personal message from Westwood, and the long veil was embroidered with words such as &quot;valiant&quot;, &quot;relentless&quot; and &quot;free enduring love&quot;.

Also read:&nbsp;Assange suffered &#39;mini-stroke&#39; in prison: Fianc&eacute;e

&quot;To me, Julian is a pure soul and a freedom fighter,&quot; Westwood said.

Outside the jail, Moris cut a wedding cake and gave a speech to supporters who had gathered for the occasion.

&quot;You know what we are going through is cruel and inhuman,&quot; she said. &quot;The love that we have for each other carries us through this situation and any other that will come. He is the most amazing person in the world. He is wonderful and he should be free.&quot;

Assange suffered a blow earlier this month when he was denied permission to launch an appeal at Britain&#39;s Supreme Court against a decision to extradite him. However, he could still challenge the government&#39;s ratification of the extradition.]]>
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			<title>Assange denied permission to appeal extradition decision</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2347933/assange-denied-permission-to-appeal-extradition-decision</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2347933/assange-denied-permission-to-appeal-extradition-decision#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 14 Mar 22 18:40:51 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2347933</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The decision deals a serious blow to Assange's effort to fight his deportation in the courts]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been denied permission to appeal at the Supreme Court against a decision to extradite him to the United States, the court said on Monday.

While Assange&#39;s extradition must still be approved by the government, Monday&#39;s decision deals a serious blow to Assange&#39;s effort to fight his deportation in the courts.

US&nbsp;authorities want Australian-born Assange, 50, to face trial on 18 counts relating to WikiLeaks&#39; release of vast troves of confidential US&nbsp;military records and diplomatic cables which they said had put lives in danger.

In December, the High Court in London overturned a lower court&#39;s ruling that he should not be extradited because his mental health problems meant he would be at risk of suicide, and on Monday the Supreme Court itself said it would not hear a challenge to that ruling.

Also read:&nbsp;US wins appeal over extradition of WikiLeaks founder Assange

&quot;The application has been refused by the Supreme Court and the reason given is that application did not raise an arguable point of law,&quot; a Supreme Court spokesperson said.

The extradition decision will now need to be ratified by interior minister Priti Patel, after which Assange can try to challenge the decision by judicial review. A judicial review involves a judge examining the legitimacy of a public body&#39;s decision.

The High Court had accepted a package of assurances given by the United States, including that Assange would not be held in a so-called &quot;ADX&quot; maximum security prison in Colorado and that he could be transferred to Australia to serve his sentence if convicted. Assange&#39;s lawyers said the decision to extradite Assange based on those pledges was &quot;highly disturbing.&quot;

&quot;We regret that the opportunity has not been taken to consider the troubling circumstances in which Requesting States can provide caveated guarantees after the conclusion of a full evidential hearing,&quot; Assange&#39;s lawyers said in a statement on Monday.]]>
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			<title>US wins appeal over extradition of WikiLeaks founder Assange</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2333318/us-wins-appeal-over-extradition-of-wikileaks-founder-assange</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2333318/us-wins-appeal-over-extradition-of-wikileaks-founder-assange#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 10 Dec 21 10:46:27 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2333318</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Assange is accused of releasing vast troves of 'confidential US military records and diplomatic cables']]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The United States won an appeal in London&rsquo;s High Court to have Wikileaks founder Julian Assange extradited to face criminal charges, including breaking a spying law and conspiring to hack government computers.

&ldquo;The court allows the appeal,&rdquo; Judge Timothy Holroyde said.

The judge said he was satisfied with a package of assurances given by the United States about the conditions of Assange&rsquo;s detention including a pledge not to hold him in a so-called &ldquo;ADX&rdquo; maximum security prison in Colorado and that he would be transferred to Australia to serve his sentence if convicted.

The ruling brings Assange one step closer to being extradited but further hurdles remain.

Judge Holroyde said the case must now be remitted to Westminster Magistrates&rsquo; Court with the direction judges send it to the British government to decide whether or not Assange should be extradited to the United States.

US authorities accuse Australian-born Assange, 50, of 18 counts relating to Wikileaks&rsquo; release of vast troves of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables which they said had put lives in danger.

The United States was appealing against a Jan. 4 ruling by a London District Judge that Assange should not be extradited because he would likely commit suicide in a US prison.

WikiLeaks came to prominence when it published a US military video in 2010 showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. It then released thousands of secret classified files and diplomatic cables.

US prosecutors and Western security officials regard Assange as a reckless and dangerous enemy of the state whose actions imperilled the lives of agents named in the leaked material.

But supporters cast Assange as an anti-establishment hero who has been victimised by the United States for exposing US wrongdoing in Afghanistan and Iraq.]]>
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			<title>WikiLeaks founder Assange denied bail despite US extradition block</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2278941/wikileaks-founder-assange-denied-bail-despite-us-extradition-block</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2278941/wikileaks-founder-assange-denied-bail-despite-us-extradition-block#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jan 21 13:58:49 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[AFP]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2278941</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled that Assange will have to remain in custody in Britain]]>
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				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will have to remain in custody in Britain, pending a US appeal of the decision to block his extradition to face charges for leaking secret documents, a judge in London ruled Wednesday.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser told Westminster Magistrates Court there were &quot;substantial grounds for believing that if Mr Assange is released today he will fail to surrender&quot; for the appeal hearings.

&quot;Mr Assange still has an incentive to abscond from these as yet unresolved proceedings,&quot; she said.

&quot;As a matter of fairness the United States must be able to challenge my decision. If Mr Assange absconds during this process then they will have lost the opportunity to do so.&quot;

The US had earlier urged Baraitser not to release the 49-year-old, while it prepares to challenge Baraitser&#39;s decision on mental health grounds to block his extradition to face charges for publishing secret documents.

Lawyer Clair Dobbin, representing the government in Washington, told the court there were &quot;no conditions that could guarantee his surrender&quot; if he were freed from custody.

&quot;The history of his attempts to evade extradition to the United States demonstrated that he is capable of going to any length to avoid that possibility,&quot; she added.

Assange was in court to hear the application and ruling, two days after an unexpected decision Monday to block his removal to the United States on the grounds he was a suicide risk.

Dobbin said the court &quot;should be under no doubt about his resources to abscond&quot;, pointing to his previous flouting of bail conditions, and an offer of political asylum, notably from Mexico.

But Assange&#39;s lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said he should be freed, after spending 15 months in custody awaiting the extradition proceedings.

&quot;We say after all this time, after the long proceedings over a year... the court has given a decision and the decision has been that he should be discharged,&quot; he added.

- Diplomatic refuge -

Assange is wanted to face 18 charges relating to the 2010 release by WikiLeaks of 500,000 secret files detailing aspects of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Washington claims he helped intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal the 2010 documents before exposing confidential sources around the world.

He faces a possible 175-year sentence if convicted but Assange and his lawyers have long argued the case against him is politically motivated.

He has been held at the high-security Belmarsh prison in southeast London.

A previous request for bail in March on the grounds he was vulnerable to Covid-19 while behind bars was rejected because the judge assessed he was likely to abscond.

Assange sought sanctuary in Ecuador&#39;s embassy in 2012, after Sweden issued an arrest warrant in connection with sexual assault allegations.

He spent seven years at the South American country&#39;s London mission until the government in Quito revoked his citizenship.

British police dragged him out and arrested him in 2019.

He was then sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for breaching his bail terms in connection with the Swedish case, which was later dropped due to lack of evidence.

The UN called the sentence &quot;disproportionate&quot;.

&nbsp;&#39;Criminalising&#39; journalism&nbsp;

Assange&#39;s long-running legal woes have become a cause celebre for media freedom, even though the judge hearing the case said he did have a case to answer.

Baraitser on Monday said he would have been &quot;well aware&quot; of the effects of his leaking of secret documents, and his actions went &quot;well beyond&quot; the role of a journalist.

But she said extradition would be &quot;oppressive&quot; as his mental health would probably deteriorate in the US penal system, &quot;causing him to commit suicide&quot;.

She rejected US experts&#39; testimony that Assange would be protected from self-harm, noting that others such as disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein had managed to kill themselves in custody despite supervision.

UN rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer applauded the decision to block his extradition, and said he should be freed and compensated for his ordeal, which amounted to arbitrary detention.

The United States has called the ruling &quot;extremely disappointing&quot; and has faced calls from WikiLeaks, as well as rights and media freedom groups to drop the appeal.]]>
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			<title>UK judge rejects extradition of 'suicide risk' Assange to United States</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2278649/uk-judge-rejects-extradition-of-suicide-risk-assange-to-united-states</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2278649/uk-judge-rejects-extradition-of-suicide-risk-assange-to-united-states#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 04 Jan 21 14:08:16 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=2278649</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The United States accuses Australian-born Assange, 49, of 18 offenses relating to the release by WikiLeaks]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[A British judge ruled on Monday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges including breaking a spying law, saying his mental health problems meant he would be at risk of suicide.

The United States accuses Australian-born Assange, 49, of 18 offences relating to the release by WikiLeaks of vast troves of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables which it says put lives in danger.

US prosecutors are set to appeal Monday&rsquo;s decision to London&rsquo;s High Court, and ultimately the case could go to the UK Supreme Court. Assange&rsquo;s lawyers will seek bail on Wednesday for their client, who has spent most of the last decade either in prison or self-imposed confinement.

His legal team had argued the entire prosecution was politically motivated, powered by US President Donald Trump&rsquo;s administration, and that Assange&rsquo;s extradition would pose a severe threat to the work of journalists.

While Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected submissions that extradition should be barred because it would breach press freedom or Assange&rsquo;s freedom of speech, she said there was a real risk he would commit suicide if he were held in a US maximum security jail.

Assange, she said, suffered at times from severe depression and had been diagnosed with Asperger&rsquo;s syndrome and autism. Half a razor blade was found in his London prison cell in May 2019, and he had told medical staff about his suicidal thoughts and made plans to end his life.

&ldquo;I find that Mr. Assange&rsquo;s risk of committing suicide, if an extradition order were to be made, to be substantial,&rdquo; Baraitser said in her ruling, delivered at London&rsquo;s Old Bailey court.

&ldquo;The overall impression is of a depressed and sometimes despairing man, who is genuinely fearful about his future,&rdquo; she added, saying he had made regular calls from jail to the Samaritans charity.

Wearing a navy suit and a mask, Assange showed little emotion at the ruling. Outside court, his partner Stella Moris, with whom he had two children while seeking asylum in London&rsquo;s Ecuadorean Embassy, said the decision was a victory but the threat of extradition was still hanging over him.

&ldquo;I call on the president of the United States to end this now: Mr President, tear down these prison walls, let our little boys have their father. Free Julian, free the press, free us all,&rdquo; she said.

US prosecutors and Western security officials regard the Australian-born founder of WikiLeaks as a reckless and dangerous enemy of the state whose actions imperilled the lives of agents whose names were in the leaked material.

The US authorities say more than 100 people were put at risk by the disclosures and about 50 had received assistance, with some fleeing their home countries with their spouses and families to move to the United States or another safe country.

Anti-Establishment Hero

Supporters regard him as an anti-establishment hero who has been victimised because he exposed US&nbsp;wrongdoing in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and say his prosecution is a politically motivated assault on journalism and free speech.

WikiLeaks came to prominence when it published a US&nbsp;military video in 2010 showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff. It then released thousands of secret classified files and diplomatic cables.

The legal saga began soon afterwards when Sweden sought Assange&rsquo;s extradition from Britain over allegations of sex crimes. When he lost that case in 2012, he fled to the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he spent seven years.

When he was finally dragged out in April 2019, he was jailed for breaching British bail conditions although the Swedish case against him had been dropped. Last June, the US&nbsp;Justice Department formally asked Britain to extradite him.In court, his lawyers argued the case was political and an assault on journalism and freedom of speech.

Baraitser rejected that, however, saying there was insufficient evidence that prosecutors had been pressured by Trump&rsquo;s team and there was little evidence of hostility from the US president towards him.

She said there was no evidence that Assange would not get a fair trial in the United States nor that prosecutors were seeking to punish him, and said his actions had gone beyond investigative journalism.

But she said there was a real risk that, if found guilty, he would be held in the ADX Florence maximum security prison (SAM) in almost total isolation, and that he would find a way around their suicide prevention measures.

&ldquo;I am satisfied that, if he is subjected to the extreme conditions of SAMs, Mr. Assange&rsquo;s mental health will deteriorate to the point where he will commit suicide,&rdquo; Baraitser said.]]>
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			<title>US Senate committee concludes Russia used Manafort, WikiLeaks to boost Trump in 2016</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2260119/us-senate-committee-concludes-russia-used-manafort-wikileaks-to-boost-trump-in-2016</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2260119/us-senate-committee-concludes-russia-used-manafort-wikileaks-to-boost-trump-in-2016#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 20 16:47:15 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks published thousands of emails hacked from Clinton’s campaign, weeks before the 2016 election]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Russia used Republican political operative Paul Manafort, the WikiLeaks website and others to try to influence the 2016 US presidential election to help now-US&nbsp;President Donald Trump&rsquo;s campaign, a Senate intelligence panel report said on Tuesday.

WikiLeaks played a key role in Russia&rsquo;s effort to assist Republican Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton and likely knew it was helping Russian intelligence, said the report, which is likely to be the most definitive public account of the 2016 election controversy.

The report found President Vladimir Putin personally directed the Russian efforts to hack computer networks and accounts affiliated with the Democratic Party and leak information damaging to Clinton.

The panel, formally called the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, also alleged Manafort collaborated with Russians, including oligarch Oleg Deripaska and an alleged Russian intelligence operative, Konstantin Kilimnik, before during and after the election.

The panel found Manafort&rsquo;s role and proximity to Trump created opportunities for Russian intelligence, saying his &ldquo;high-level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services... represented a grave counterintelligence threat.&rdquo;

It was not clear what effect, if any, the report might have on the current US&nbsp;presidential campaign in which Trump faces Democrat Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 US election.

Opinion polls show former vice president Biden has built an expansive lead in nearly every battleground state that Trump won narrowly in 2016, as the Republican&rsquo;s approval numbers tumble amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Russia&rsquo;s alleged election interference, which Moscow denies, sparked a two-year-long US&nbsp;investigation headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Mueller found no conclusive evidence of coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign in a report released last year. He pointed at 10 instances in which Trump may have attempted to impede his investigation but did not say whether this amounted to obstruction of justice.

Trump and his supporters have consistently bristled at suggestions foreign interference helped his upset 2016 victory and sought to discredit the intelligence agencies&rsquo; findings as the politically charged work of a &ldquo;deep state.&rdquo;

Founded by Julian Assange, WikiLeaks published thousands of emails hacked from Clinton&rsquo;s campaign and a top campaign aide in the weeks before the 2016 election, yielding a drum beat of negative coverage about the Democrat.

&ldquo;WikiLeaks actively sought, and played, a key role in the Russian campaign and very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort, the report said, saying the panel found &ldquo;significant indications that Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have benefited from Russian government support.&rdquo;

As Russian military intelligence and WikiLeaks released the hacked documents, the report said Trump&rsquo;s campaign sought advance notice, devised messaging strategies to amplify them &ldquo;and encouraged further theft of information and ... leaks.&rdquo;

&ldquo;The Trump campaign publicly undermined the attribution of the hack-and-leak campaign to Russia and was indifferent to whether it and WikiLeaks were furthering a Russian election interference effort,&rdquo; the report added.

The committee could not establish the extent to which Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone had real inside access to WikiLeaks materials, the report said.]]>
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			<title>US urged to stop cyber theft, attacks on China</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2185072/us-urged-stop-cyber-theft-attacks-china</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2185072/us-urged-stop-cyber-theft-attacks-china#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 26 Mar 20 20:29:28 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[xinhua.]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[US, in violation of international law and basic norms,has been engaging in large-scale indiscriminate cyber theft]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[A Chinese defense ministry spokesperson on Thursday urged the United States to stop cyber theft and attacks on China and to restore peace, security, openness and cooperation in cyberspace.

Ren Guoqiang made the remarks at a Ministry of National Defence press conference when asked to comment on a Reuters report that findings and analysis of antivirus firm Qihoo 360 revealed the Central Intelligence Agency hackers have engaged in an 11-year-long cyber infiltration and attack program against China's aviation sectors, scientific research organizations, internet companies and government agencies.

Experts warn about eating habits during quarantine

The United States, in violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations, has been engaging in large-scale, organised and indiscriminate cyber theft, surveillance and attacks against foreign governments, enterprises and individuals, the spokesperson said.

"It is a repeat offender widely known to the international community," Ren added.

From WikiLeaks and the Edward Snowden case to the Switzerland-based Crypto AG case and the Qihoo 360 report findings, facts have shown that the United States is the world's number one secret stealer, the spokesman said.

"Once again we strongly urge the US side to immediately stop cyber theft and attacks on China and to restore peace, security, openness and cooperation in cyberspace," Ren said.]]>
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			<title>Doctors fear Assange 'could die' in UK jail</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2106132/doctors-fear-assange-die-uk-jail</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/2106132/doctors-fear-assange-die-uk-jail#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 25 Nov 19 07:22:28 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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			<description>
				<![CDATA[As the 48-year-old Australian is still fighting a US bid to extradite him from Britain]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[More than 60 doctors wrote an open letter published on Monday saying they feared Julian Assange's health was so bad that the WikiLeaks founder could die inside a top-security British jail.

The 48-year-old Australian is still fighting a US bid to extradite him from Britain on charges filed under the Espionage Act that could see him given a sentence of up to 175 years in a US prison.

In the letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel, Britain's interior minister, the doctors call for Assange to be moved from Belmarsh prison in southeast London to a university teaching hospital.

They based their assessment on "harrowing eyewitness accounts" of his October 21 court appearance in London and a November 1 report by Nils Melzer, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture.

The independent UN rights expert said Assange's "continued exposure to arbitrariness and abuse may soon end up costing his life".

Assange used WikiLeaks to publish classified military and diplomatic files in 2010 about US bombing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq that proved highly embarrassing to the US government.

"We write this open letter, as medical doctors, to express our serious concerns about the physical and mental health of Julian Assange," the doctors said in their 16-page open letter.

They said they had "concerns about Mr Assange's fitness" to go through the full extradition hearing, which is set for February.

"Mr Assange requires urgent expert medical assessment of both his physical and psychological state of health," the wrote.

"Any medical treatment indicated should be administered in a properly equipped and expertly staffed university teaching hospital (tertiary care).

"Were such urgent assessment and treatment not to take place, we have real concerns, on the evidence currently available, that Mr Assange could die in prison. The medical situation is thereby urgent. There is no time to lose."

The doctors are from the United States, Australia, Britain, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Sri Lanka, Poland.

At his first appearance in public for six months, in a court hearing last month, Assange seemed frail.

He also appeared confused whenever he was asked to talk at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London.

He seemed to have difficulties recalling his birth date, and at the end of the hearing told District Judge Vanessa Baraitser that he had not understood what had happened in court.

He also complained about the conditions in which he was being kept in Belmarsh.

It was his first public appearance since being dramatically dragged from Ecuador's embassy in April.

Swedish prosecutors said last Tuesday they had dropped their investigation into a 2010 rape allegation, even though they found the plaintiff's claim "credible".]]>
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			<title>British Home Secretary Sajid Javid signs US bid to extradite Assange</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1991761/british-home-secretary-sajid-javid-signs-us-bid-extradite-assange</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1991761/british-home-secretary-sajid-javid-signs-us-bid-extradite-assange#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 13 Jun 19 11:19:54 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1991761</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[A final decision on whether WikiLeaks founder can be extradited will rest with the courts]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Britain's interior minister said Thursday he had certified the US request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on espionage grounds in a procedural move that opens the way for a court battle.

The US Justice Department confirmed on Tuesday that it had submitted a formal extradition request. British Home Secretary Sajid Javid said he signed it on Wednesday.

Julian Assange says he does not want to be extradited to the United States

The final decision on whether Assange can be extradited will rest with the courts. The next hearing in the Australian former computer hacker's case is on Friday.

The 47-year-old had been sheltering in Ecuador's embassy in London for seven years until his arrest on April 11 when Quito finally withdrew his asylum.

He is now serving a 50-week sentence in jail for skipping bail when he entered the embassy in 2012.

"I'm very pleased that the police were finally able to apprehend him and now he's rightly behind bars because he broke UK law," Javid told BBC radio.

"There's an extradition request from the US that is before the courts tomorrow but yesterday I... certified it.

"I want to see justice done at all times and we've got a legitimate extradition request, so I've signed it, but the... decision is now with the courts."

If basic criteria are met, the home secretary must certify a valid extradition request from the US before the courts make a decision on whether the person can be extradited.

The secretary then decides whether to order extradition.

Assange, who is being held in the top-security Belmarsh prison in southeast London, is not expected to attend Friday's hearing in person but could take part via video-link, although it will be largely procedural.

The "first real confrontation of arguments" in court will not be for several weeks or months, according to WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson.

Washington has accused Assange of violating the US Espionage Act by publishing military and diplomatic files in 2010.

Julian Assange sentenced to 50 weeks in British jail for skipping bail

The 18 charges reject his claim he was simply a publisher receiving leaked material - which would be protected under press freedom legislation.

The case has upset some US and other world media, which argue that Assange's activities differ very little from their own. They fear his case could set a precedent for limiting free speech and media rights.]]>
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			<title>US charges Julian Assange with violating Espionage Act</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1979570/us-charges-julian-assange-violating-espionage-act</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1979570/us-charges-julian-assange-violating-espionage-act#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 24 May 19 06:31:54 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1979570</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Wikileaks, Reporters Without Borders and other media rights groups denounce charges as attack on press freedom]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The Justice Department on Thursday charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with violating the US Espionage Act by publishing military and diplomatic files in 2010, rejecting his claim that he is a journalist.

The department unveiled 17 new charges against Assange, accusing him of directing and abetting intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in stealing secret US files, and also recklessly exposing confidential sources in the Middle East and China who were named in the files.

The charges against Assange, now 18 in total, reject his claim that he was simply a publisher receiving leaked material from Manning, an action that is protected under the US Constitution's First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of the press.

A new indictment alleges that Assange actively conspired with Manning to steal the hundreds of thousands of classified files "with reason to believe that the information was to be used to the injury of the United States or the advantage of a foreign nation," the Justice Department said.

It also said that Assange rejected the US State Department's warning in 2010 to redact the names of its and the US military's confidential sources in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Iran and China, sources it said included journalists, religious leaders, human rights advocates, and political dissidents.

Julian Assange says he does not want to be extradited to the United States

"Assange's actions risked serious harm to United States national security to the benefit of our adversaries and put the unredacted named human sources at a grave and imminent risk of serious physical harm and/or arbitrary detention," the department said.

"The department takes seriously the role of journalists in our democracy," said Assistant Attorney General John Demers. "But Julian Assange is no journalist."

A native of Australia, Assange, 47, is currently in prison in Britain for jumping bail, and faces a US extradition request when he is released 11 months from now.

But it is not yet clear whether the British government will honor that request, and the new charges could complicate it.

WikiLeaks blasted the charges, saying the threatened reporters broadly.

"This is madness. It is the end of national security journalism and the first amendment," the group tweeted.

Wikileaks later denounced the charges as "an unprecedented attack on the global free press" and an "extraterritorial application of US law," saying in a statement that the "Department of Justice wants to imprison Assange for crimes allegedly committed outside of the United States."

Media rights groups also reacted sharply.

"The charges brought against Julian Assange under the Espionage Act pose a direct threat to press freedom and investigative journalism, both of which are undermined when those who inform the public are prosecuted for sounding the alarm," said Reporters Without Borders.

The charges escalate the US government's effort to crack down on leakers of national security materials.

While the previous administration of president Barack Obama pursued leakers, including Manning, it appeared to draw the line on transparency groups like WikiLeaks, not wanting to enter a battle over press freedom.

But after WikiLeaks played an important role in the Russia meddling operation in the 2016 US election, publishing materials stolen by Russian hackers that were damaging to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Washington officials began to paint the group as acting in concert with US enemies.

In 2017, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, at the time director of the CIA, called WikiLeaks a "non-state hostile intelligence service."

WikiLeaks put itself on the map as a potent force in 2010 when it began publishing the files extracted from classified US databases by Manning, then a low-level US army intelligence analyst angered by the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The documents, videos, and communications exposed possible war crimes, torture, and secret military operations, as well as unveiling the often-unseemly behind-the-scenes activities, discussions and analyses of US diplomacy.

The 40-page indictment paints Assange specifically as a co-conspirator of Manning, who was sentenced in 2013 under the Espionage Act to 35 years in prison for the leaks, her claim of being a "whistleblower" rejected.

Her sentence was commuted by Obama in 2017. But she was sent back to jail earlier this year for refusing to cooperate with the investigation into Assange.

The Justice Department said that in 2009, before Manning acted, WikiLeaks publicly solicited specific classified materials involving the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq so that it could publish the materials.

"Assange wanted the 'Most Wanted Leaks' list to encourage and cause individuals to illegally obtain and disclose protected information," the indictment says.

It says Assange went far beyond the actions of a simple publisher.

"No responsible act of journalism would purposely publish the names of individuals he or she knew to be confidential sources in war zones, exposing them to the gravest of dangers," said Demers.]]>
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			<title>Julian Assange in UK court over US extradition request</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1964017/julian-assange-uk-court-us-extradition-request</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1964017/julian-assange-uk-court-us-extradition-request#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 02 May 19 08:05:00 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1964017</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[US indictment accuses him of helping crack a password stored on Department of Defence computers in 2010]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces an initial hearing in London on Thursday over an extradition request from the United States, a day after he was jailed for 50 weeks for jumping bail.

The US wants to extradite the Australian whistleblower, who was arrested on April 11 after spending seven years in Ecuador's London embassy, to face charges of 'conspiracy' for working with former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

The US indictment, which was only revealed following his dramatic arrest for breaching bail, accuses him of helping crack a password stored on Department of Defence computers in March 2010. The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.

Manning passed hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, exposing US military wrong-doing in the Iraq war and diplomatic secrets about scores of countries.

Julian Assange sentenced to 50 weeks in British jail for skipping bail

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said on Wednesday that all efforts would now be focussed on preventing Assange's extradition to the US.

"It will be a question of life and death," he warned.

Assange's supporters believe that more serious charges could be filed if he is transferred to the US, and he fears the death penalty.

Hrafnsson was speaking outside London's Southwark Crown Court, where a British judge handed Assange a 50-week jail term for breaching a British court order when he sought refuge in the embassy in June 2012.

At the time, Swedish authorities wanted to extradite Assange over claims of sexual assault and rape, which he denied. He claimed the allegations were a pretext to transfer him to the United States.

There is no longer an active investigation in Sweden and the extradition request has lapsed, but Assange was still accountable for breaching British law, leading to him being dragged shouting from the embassy by police when Ecuador gave him up last month.

The 47-year-old, his shaggy beard neatly trimmed, raised his fist to supporters in the public gallery at Southwark Crown Court as he was taken down to the cells.

In a letter read out on his behalf, Assange expressed regret, saying: "I did what I thought at the time was the best or perhaps the only thing that I could have done."

"I apologise unreservedly," he said.

Assange lawyer accuses Washington of 'persecution'

Assange's team is fighting his extradition and the process could take years.

WikiLeaks is also back in the news in the United States, over its alleged role in the leak of Hillary Clinton's emails in 2016 US presidential election.

The Swedish claims against Assange date back to 2010, when he was at the centre of a global storm over WikiLeaks' exposures.

The sexual assault claim expired in 2015, but while the rape claim was dropped in 2017, the alleged victim wants the case reopened.

If Stockholm makes a formal extradition request, Britain must decide whether to consider it before or after that of the United States.]]>
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			<title>UN rights experts condemn Assange arrest</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1948440/un-rights-experts-condemn-assange-arrest</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1948440/un-rights-experts-condemn-assange-arrest#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 19 13:42:11 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1948440</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[British police, acting on behalf of Washington, arrested the WikiLeaks founder at Ecuador's embassy in London]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[UN human rights experts rallied to Julian Assange on Thursday, criticising Ecuador and Britain over his arrest and warning of grave consequences should he be extradited to the United States.

British police, acting on behalf of Washington, arrested the WikiLeaks founder at Ecuador's embassy in London after Quito terminated the diplomatic protection he had held for nearly seven years.

The United Nations special rapporteur on arbitrary, summary or extrajudicial killings, Agnes Callamard, said Ecuador's decision "has exposed Mr Assange to a real risk of serious violations of his human rights".

She noted that those risks stemmed from the increased likelihood of Assange being extradited to the US, where he could be tried over the publication of classified US defence material.

Separately, the UN rapporteur on the right to privacy, Joe Cannataci, said he would not change his previously announced intention to meet Assange later this month or to investigate his claims that his privacy had been violated.

https://twitter.com/AgnesCallamard/status/1116335113103716352

The arrest merely means that "instead of visiting Mr Assange and speaking to him at the Embassy of the Republic of Ecuador in London, I will visit him and speak to him in a police station or elsewhere in the UK where he may be held in custody," Cannataci said in a statement.

The rights expert said that if Assange is sent to the US, he will redirect his request for access to Washington.

Assange's supporters earlier this week accused Ecuador's authorities of gathering thousands of photographs and videos from inside his apartment at the embassy.

Cannataci said that prior to the arrest he was in contact with Assange's legal team concerning "significant new evidence of violations of Mr. Assange's privacy," and planned further investigations of any possible privacy breaches.]]>
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			<title>Assange arrested in London after 7 years in Ecuador embassy, US seeks extradition</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1948313/wikileaks-julian-assange-arrested-uk-police</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1948313/wikileaks-julian-assange-arrested-uk-police#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 19 09:49:15 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1948313</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Police said they arrested Assange after being 'invited into the Ecuadorean embassy']]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by British police and carried out of the Ecuadorean embassy on Thursday after his South American hosts abruptly revoked his seven-year asylum, paving the way for his extradition to the United States.

The United States alleged Assange engaged in a 2010 conspiracy with Chelsea Manning, who served seven years in military prison for leaking classified data, and charged him with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion with a maximum penalty of five years.

An agitated, frail-looking Assange with white hair and a white beard was carried head first out of the embassy shortly after 0900 GMT by at least seven men to a waiting police van.

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1116283186860953600

"The whole House will welcome the news this morning that the Metropolitan Police have arrested Julian Assange, arrested for breach of bail after nearly seven years in the Ecuadorean embassy," Prime Minister Theresa May told parliament to cheers and cries of "Hear, hear!" from lawmakers.

Police said they arrested Assange, 47, after being invited into the embassy following the Ecuadorean government's withdrawal of asylum.

US prosecutors press witnesses to testify against Assange: WikiLeaks

The arrests, after nearly seven years holed up in a few cramped rooms at the embassy, mark one of the most peculiar turns in a tumultuous life that has transformed the Australian programmer into a rebel wanted by the United States.

Assange's supporters said Ecuador had betrayed him at the behest of Washington, that the termination of his asylum was illegal and that they feared he would ultimately end up on trial in the United States.

To some, Assange is a hero for exposing what supporters cast as abuse of power by modern states and for championing free speech. But to others, he is a dangerous rebel who has undermined US security.

Assange gave a thumbs up in handcuffs as he was taken from a police station, and he later appeared in Westminster Magistrates' Court.

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1116311109550710784

WikiLeaks angered Washington by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables that laid bare often highly critical US appraisals of world leaders, from Russian President Vladimir Putin to members of the Saudi royal family.

Assange made international headlines in early 2010 when WikiLeaks published a classified US military video showing a 2007 attack by Apache helicopters in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters news staff.

It was not immediately clear what specifically prompted Ecuador to end Assange's stay in the embassy, or the extent of the diplomacy that led to the arrest. The Kremlin said it hoped his rights would not be violated.

Assange in June 2012 took refuge in Ecuador's London embassy, behind the luxury department store Harrods, to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation.

Sweden dropped that investigation in 2017, but Assange was arrested on Thursday for breaking the rules of his original bail in London.

Friends of Assange said the solitude he had experienced in the embassy had hurt him most.

"It was a miserable existence and I could see it was a strain on him, but a strain he managed rather well," said Vaughan Smith, a friend who visited Assange. "The thing that was most difficult for Julian was the solitude."

"He was very tough, but the last year in particular was very difficult. He was constantly being surveilled and spied upon. There was no privacy for him."

WikiLeaks said Ecuador had illegally terminated his political asylum in violation of international law.

Julian Assange charged in US: WikiLeaks

"Assange's critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom," said Edward Snowden, a former US National Security Agency contractor who fled to Moscow after revealing massive US intelligence gathering.

Assange's relationship with his hosts collapsed after Ecuador accused him of leaking information about President Lenin Moreno's personal life.

Moreno said Assange's diplomatic asylum status had been cancelled for a repeated violation of conventions. He said he had asked Britain to guarantee that Assange would not be extradited to any country where he might face torture or the death penalty.

"The British government has confirmed it in writing," Moreno said. "The asylum of Mr Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable."

UNITED STATES?

Due to a clerical error, a document filed by federal prosecutors in Virginia in an unrelated 2018 investigation revealed that Assange had secretly been indicted by US authorities.

Prosecutors have acknowledged the authenticity of the document but have refused to confirm or deny that Assange has been criminally charged under US federal law.

Britain said no man was above the law.

"Julian Assange is no hero, he has hidden from the truth for years and years," British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said.

"It's not so much Julian Assange being held hostage in the Ecuadorean embassy, it's actually Julian Assange holding the Ecuadorean embassy hostage in a situation that was absolutely intolerable for them."

A Swedish lawyer representing the alleged rape victim said she would push to have prosecutors reopen the investigation.

But Sven-Erik Alhem, a retired senior prosecutor and chairman of NGO Victim Support Sweden, said he thought that may be difficult.

"I'd think it would be fairly uphill to reopen the investigation, mainly because testimonies usually weaken with time and it's now been 10 years. On top of that, the statute of limitation is drawing near," he said.

https://youtu.be/stTMt1tLT4g]]>
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			<title>US prosecutors press witnesses to testify against Assange: WikiLeaks</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1895627/us-prosecutors-press-witnesses-testify-assange-wikileaks</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1895627/us-prosecutors-press-witnesses-testify-assange-wikileaks#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 24 Jan 19 05:56:08 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1895627</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[In connection with what WikiLeaks says were secret criminal charges filed by the Trump administration]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[US federal prosecutors have stepped up efforts to pressure witnesses to testify against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, WikiLeaks said on Wednesday, in connection with what it said were secret criminal charges filed by the Trump administration.

WikiLeaks did not mention any names in its public statement. But Assange’s lawyers identified some of those contacted in a document asking the human rights arm of the Organisation of American States to demand that the charges be unsealed.

New tell-all book depicts 'out of control' Trump White House staff

Reuters obtained excerpts of the document filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and spoke to one of the persons named.

President Barack Obama’s administration extensively investigated Assange and WikiLeaks after it published hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables and secret documents detailing US-led military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The administration ultimately decided not to prosecute, however, on the grounds the group’s work was too similar to journalistic activities protected by the US Constitution’s First Amendment.

Late last year, a court filing by prosecutors in an unrelated case referred to a sealed American indictment of Assange. Prosecutors said the filing was made in error and declined to confirm whether any charges had been filed.

Donald Trump praised WikiLeaks during his 2016 presidential campaign for publishing material about Hillary Clinton. Not long after Trump took office, however, then-CIA director Mike Pompeo, now Secretary of State, publicly called it a “non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.”

Russia frees model from police custody who claimed Trump secrets

Assange, an Australian national, has taken refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him as part of a sexual assault investigation that was eventually dropped.

A spokesperson for the federal prosecutors’ office in Alexandria, Virginia, which has taken the lead for several years in investigations into WikiLeaks, did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

According to the document filed to the human rights commission, one of the people contacted by Alexandria prosecutors was Jacob Appelbaum, a Berlin-based US computer expert and hacker.

Appelbaum told Reuters that while prosecutors offered him broad immunity from prosecution, he had no interest in cooperating or testifying before a grand jury.

Another potential witness targeted by US prosecutors was David House, a Massachusetts computer programmer, the document said. House was involved in setting up a group to support Chelsea Manning, a US soldier who passed on military communications to WikiLeaks and was jailed by US authorities.

Student in Trump hat denies mocking Native American activist in videotaped encounter

House could not be reached. The American Civil Liberties Union which represented him in connection with the Manning case did not respond to requests for comment.

The Justice Department also contacted American activist and computer scientist, Jason Katz. Katz, who has lived in Iceland since 2011, did not respond to a request for comment sent to that country’s Pirate Party, of which he was a founding member.]]>
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			<title>Julian Assange charged in US: WikiLeaks</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1848452/julian-assange-charged-us-wikileaks</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1848452/julian-assange-charged-us-wikileaks#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 16 Nov 18 07:32:55 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1848452</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Prosecutors reveal existence of sealed indictment in a court filing of an unrelated case]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was behind a massive dump of classified US documents in 2010, has been charged in the United States, WikiLeaks said Thursday.

Prosecutors revealed the existence of the sealed indictment inadvertently in a court filing in an unrelated case, WikiLeaks said.

The exact nature of the charges against Assange was not immediately known.

Ecuador no longer to intervene with UK for WikiLeaks Assange: Foreign minister

"SCOOP: US Department of Justice 'accidentally' reveals existence of sealed charges (or a draft for them) against WikiLeaks' publisher Julian Assange in apparent cut-and-paste error in an unrelated case also at the Eastern District of Virginia," Wikileaks wrote on Twitter.

The still unsealed charges against Assange were disclosed by Assistant US Attorney Kellen Dwyer as she made a filing in the unrelated case and urged a judge to keep that filing sealed.

Assange sues Ecuador over 'fundamental rights'

Dwyer wrote, "due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged," according to The Washington Post.

Later, Dwyer wrote the charges would "need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested."

US media were alerted late Thursday to the inadvertent disclosure thanks to a tweet from Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. He is known to follow court filings closely.]]>
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			<title>Assange sues Ecuador over 'fundamental rights'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1829707/assange-sues-ecuador-fundamental-rights</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1829707/assange-sues-ecuador-fundamental-rights#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 19 Oct 18 19:05:17 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
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				<![CDATA[Ecuador government issued no immediate statement in response]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sued the Ecuador government on Friday for violating his "fundamental rights" and limiting his access to the outside world while in an asylum at its London embassy.

The 47-year-old Australian's legal action comes with speculation mounting that Ecuador is preparing to end its standoff with the British government by terminating his high-profile stay.

Assange found refuge in the embassy in 2012 after a British judge ruled he should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault.

That case has since been dropped but Assange fears being extradited to the United States to face charges over the WikiLeaks website's release of troves of sensitive US government files.

WikiLeaks said its general counsel arrived in Ecuador on Thursday to launch a legal case against the government for "violating (Assange's) fundamental rights and freedom".

Ecuador gives Assange citizenship, seeks solution with Britain

"The move comes almost seven months after Ecuador threatened to remove his protection and summarily cut off his access to the outside world, including by refusing to allow journalists and human rights organisations to see him," WikiLeaks said.

It added that the embassy was requiring Assange's visitors -- including journalists and lawyers -- to disclose "private or political details such as their social media usernames".

The Ecuador government issued no immediate statement in response.
Quito confirmed blocking Assange's internet and mobile phone access in March after accusing him of breaking "a written committment" not to interfere in Ecuador's foreign policies.

A protocol governing Assange's stay at the embassy —revealed by Ecuadoran internet site Codigo Vidrio and never denied by Quito -- warns that further breaches will lead to "termination of asylum."
The website reported that the embassy intends to stop paying for

Assange's food and medical care in December.
WikiLeaks lawyer Baltasar Garzon told a press conference in Ecuador on Thursday that Assange's conditions were "inhuman".

Assange's communications to be partly restored by Ecuador govt

"It is not a comfortable situation, it is an inhuman situation, because the solution that should already have been reached by the involved states is extending over time," said the lawyer.

"We have to find a solution, to comply with what is established by the international law and certainly not aggravate the humanitarian situation of an individual, as I say, who is not deprived of liberty."
Britain's Press Association news agency said the case is expected to be heard in Ecuador next week.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in March 2017 that arresting Assange for leaking sensitive US government files through his websites was a "priority".]]>
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			<title>Assange's communications to be partly restored by Ecuador govt</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1826159/assanges-communications-partly-restored-ecuador-govt</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1826159/assanges-communications-partly-restored-ecuador-govt#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 15 Oct 18 06:36:07 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1826159</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The Wikileaks founder has been holed up at the embassy since 2012]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The Ecuadorian government will partially restore communications for Julian Assange at the country's embassy in London, Wikileaks said.

The Wikileaks founder, who has been holed up at the embassy since 2012, was stopped from using the internet or a mobile phone to communicate with the outside world in March.

"Ecuador has told WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange that it will remove the isolation regime imposed on him following meetings between two senior UN officials and Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno on Friday," Wikileaks said in a statement on Sunday.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, Wikileaks editor in chief, described the move as 'positive' but said it is "of grave concern that his freedom to express his opinions is still limited".

The decision to cut off Assange's communications was taken because the Australian had broken a 2017 promise to not interfere in other countries' affairs while in the mission, the Ecuadorian government said at the time.

It came days after he used Twitter to challenge Britain's accusation that Russia was responsible for the nerve agent poisoning of a Russian former double agent in the English city of Salisbury.

He also attacked the arrest in Germany of former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont under an EU warrant issued by Spain over Puigdemont's failed bid last year to declare independence for his Spanish region.

Ecuador installed a jammer to prevent him from accessing email and restricted the number of visitors he can receive.

Assange took refuge in the diplomatic mission in 2012 after a British judge ruled he should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault there.

Assange claims the accusations were politically motivated and could lead to him being extradited to the United States to face imprisonment over WikiLeaks' publication of secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.

Sweden dropped its investigation last year, but British authorities say they still want to arrest him for breaching his bail conditions.]]>
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			<title>Dutch investigators search for missing WikiLeaks associate in Norway</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1799850/dutch-investigators-search-missing-wikileaks-associate-norway</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1799850/dutch-investigators-search-missing-wikileaks-associate-norway#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 10 Sep 18 17:07:27 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1799850</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Arjen Kamphuis, 47, Dutch cyber security expert has been missing since August 20]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The Norwegian police on Monday said Dutch investigators were helping them search for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's associate Arjen Kamphuis, who mysteriously disappeared in northern Norway three weeks ago.

The 47-year-old Dutch cyber security expert has been missing since August 20 when he left his hotel in the northern Norwegian town of Bodo, triggering numerous conspiracy theories on social media.

Two Dutch investigators have arrived in Bodo to help the investigation, the Norwegian police said in a statement on Monday, adding they would stay there for the rest of the week.

"Kamphuis has still not been found and the case is open for different outcomes, but we still haven't found anything that indicates that a crime has been committed," they added.

Enforced disappearance: Three family members of missing persons activist whisked away

WikiLeaks, which publishes secret information, tweeted on September 2 that his disappearance was "strange".

In photos circulating on social networks, Kamphuis can be seen wearing glasses with half-long blond hair and a thin beard.

WikiLeaks said he had a ticket for a flight departing on August 22 from Trondheim, a city located more than 700 kilometres (435 miles) south of Bodo, but he did not catch it.

A phone linked to Kamphuis was briefly switched on in an area near the southwestern city of Stavanger, located 1,600 kilometres from Bodo, late on August 30, the police said but could not confirm if he was using it.

Assange has been holed up at Ecuador's embassy in London since 2012 when he was granted political asylum as he feared extradition to the United States to face trial over WikiLeaks' publication of secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.]]>
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			<title>Ecuador spied on Assange at London embassy, says report</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1711552/ecuador-spied-assange-london-embassy-says-report</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1711552/ecuador-spied-assange-london-embassy-says-report#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 16 May 18 10:58:51 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1711552</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Equador spent millions of dollars to protect and monitor Assange's activities]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Ecuador spied on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at its London embassy where he has been living since 2012, initially to support him but things changed after he hacked the mission's computers, the Guardian reported Wednesday.

The newspaper said Ecuador employed an international security company and undercover agents to monitor his visitors, embassy staff and even the British police at the embassy in London's luxury Knightsbridge area.

Ecuador gives Assange citizenship, seeks solution with Britain

It estimated the budget spent on the operation, referred to initially as ‘Operation Guest’ and later ‘Operation Hotel’ at $5 million (4.2 million euros). The snooping was initially intended to protect Assange from the risk of being taken away by British police but later became a full-blown spying operation.

The operation had the support of then Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa, the paper reported, adding that it has since been wound down under the country's new leader Lenin Moreno who took power last year.

The security team recorded Assange's daily activities and his interactions with embassy staff and visitors, including fellow hackers, activists and lawyers. They stayed in a rented flat near the embassy at a cost of £2,800 a month, the paper said.

Hacked the embassy network?

The paper also cited documents showing that Assange hacked the communications system within the embassy and had his own satellite internet access. "By penetrating the embassy's firewall, Assange was able to access and intercept the official and personal communications of staff," the paper said. WikiLeaks denied Assange had hacked the network.

Ecuador has moved to shut off internet access for Assange in recent months by installing a jammer to prevent him from accessing email and has restricted the number of visitors he can receive.

Whistleblower Julian Assange placed on new restrictions by Ecuador

Assange took refuge in the diplomatic mission in 2012 after a British judge ruled he should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault there. Assange claims the accusations were politically motivated and could lead to him being extradited to the United States to face imprisonment over WikiLeaks' publication of secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.

Sweden dropped its investigation last year, but British authorities say they still want to arrest him for breaching his bail conditions.

Ecuador in December made Assange an Ecuadoran citizen and unsuccessfully tried to register him as a diplomat with immunity as part of its efforts to have him leave the embassy without risk of being detained.]]>
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			<title>WikiLeaks founder Assange loses bid to halt UK legal action against him</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1634069/wikileaks-founder-assange-loses-bid-halt-uk-legal-action</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1634069/wikileaks-founder-assange-loses-bid-halt-uk-legal-action#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Tue, 13 Feb 18 16:31:55 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1634069</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The ruling means Assange remains in a legal and diplomatic impasse, with no way out of the embassy]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange lost a legal bid on Tuesday to persuade British authorities to drop further action against him for breaching his bail conditions when he walked into the Ecuadorean embassy in London in 2012.
The ruling means Assange remains in a legal and diplomatic impasse, with no way out of the embassy where he has been living for almost six years unless he decides to face the prospect of arrest by British police.
Assange, 46, entered Ecuador’s embassy in June 2012 after skipping bail to avoid being sent to Sweden to face an allegation of rape, which he denied. The Swedish case was dropped in May last year, but Britain still has a warrant out for his arrest over the breach of bail terms.
“I find arrest is a proportionate response even though Mr Assange has restricted his own freedom for a number of years,” judge Emma Arbuthnot, the chief magistrate of England and Wales, said in her ruling at Westminster Magistrates Court.

 Assange says he fears that if he hands himself in he could be extradited to the United States to be prosecuted for publishing U.S. diplomatic and military secrets on WikiLeaks.
Assange in new bid to cancel UK arrest warrant
There is no public record or evidence demonstrating any U.S. criminal charges are pending against Assange, but he and his supporters believe U.S. prosecutors could have a sealed, therefore secret, indictment against him.
His lawyers had argued in a court hearing last week that it was no longer in the interests of justice for British authorities to seek to arrest and prosecute him for skipping bail, but the judge rejected their points.
“Defendants on bail up and down the country, and requested persons facing extradition, come to court to face the consequences of their own choices. He should have the courage to do so too,” she said.
“The impression I have ... is that he is a man who wants to impose his terms on the course of justice.”
Wikileaks founder Assange loses bid to have UK arrest warrant dropped
Assange, who is very active on Twitter, appeared to be closely following the hearing from within the embassy. He sent a number of tweets while the judge was reading out her ruling, one of them commenting that it did not seem to be going well for him and others linking to articles favorable to him.
In one passage from her ruling, the judge said she did not accept the argument of Assange’s lawyers that he had no access to sunlight. She said she had seen photographs of him on the embassy balcony.
“Pulling security to get me safely on the balcony six times in six years for a few minutes turns into this,” Assange tweeted in response.
Assange’s supporters regard him as a champion of freedom of speech who has exposed inconvenient truths at great personal cost. His critics say that some of the WikiLeaks material posted online endangered lives in several countries, and that he has been too eager to side with autocratic regimes in his determination to criticize the United States.]]>
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			<title>Assange team hopes UK could declare him persona non grata</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1615335/assange-team-hopes-uk-declare-persona-non-grata</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1615335/assange-team-hopes-uk-declare-persona-non-grata#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 Jan 18 17:16:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1615335</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Assange is trying to use his Ecuadorian diplomatic status to force Britain to declare him persona non grata]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Julian Assange and his advisers are preparing to try to use Ecuador's decision to grant him diplomatic status to force Britain to declare him persona non grata and expel him, a source close to Assange said.

Reuters also has learned that as part of their continuing criminal investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks, investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation recently sought new information about years-old contacts between WikiLeaks and Chelsea Manning, the former US Army private who leaked the website thousands of classified US government documents.

Ecuador announced earlier this month it granted diplomatic status to Assange, who in 2012 took refuge in its London Embassy after British courts ruled he should be extradited to Sweden for questioning in a sexual molestation investigation.

Ecuador president calls Julian Assange a 'problem'

Swedish authorities have now closed their molestation inquiry.

But British authorities have indicated that if he left Ecuador's Embassy, Assange would still be arrested for violating bail conditions, which could put him in a British prison for up to three months.

Assange and his lawyers assert that if he did leave the Embassy, US authorities would then produce criminal charges against him and seek his extradition to the United States, which they believe could result in a lengthy prison term for the WikiLeaks founder.

The source close to Assange said that his legal team were now working on filing a legal case with the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, seeking to have Assange's Ecuadorean diplomatic status affirmed under international law.

Britain's Foreign Office had no immediate comment.

Ecuador's Foreign Ministry said that only the foreign minister, who is traveling in Chile, was authorized to comment on the Assange standoff.

Ecuador gives Assange citizenship, seeks solution with Britain

In a Sunday night television interview, President Lenin Moreno said the foreign ministry was continuing to seek inter-mediation that would help resolve the situation.

"We hope to have a short term solution to this issue, which has really caused us problems," he said.

Depo Akande, an international law professor at Oxford University, said that Ecuador could argue that Britain had no right under international law to reject its declaration that Assange had diplomatic status. "In principle, the UK cannot approve or disapprove" diplomatic status declarations by foreign governments other than for ambassadors or military attaches, Akande said.

He said if Britain were ordered by the International Court to accept Ecuador's decision to treat Assange as a diplomat, and were then to declare him persona non grata, it would then "have to give him facilities to leave" the country unhindered.

Meanwhile, one of Assange's former close associates from WikiLeaks' early days said German criminal investigators recently contacted him seeking answers to questions they had received from the FBI.

Daniel Domscheit-Berg, once regarded with Assange as a WikiLeaks co-founder, told Reuters he was contacted in November by investigators from the federal criminal bureau (BKA), Germany's equivalent of the FBI.

He said the BKA told him they had been asked by the FBI to question him regarding Assange's and WikiLeaks' contacts with Chelsea Manning, who while a US Army private then named Bradley Manning and stationed in Iraq purloined hundreds of thousands of classified US military and diplomatic cables and delivered them to WikiLeaks.

Manning, who was granted clemency by former US President Barack Obama, was released in May from a US military prison in Kansas where she had served a seven year prison term for passing secrets to WikiLeaks.

Manning, who came out as transgender shortly after her sentencing, recently announced she would seek the Democratic Party's nomination for a US Senate seat in Maryland.

Domscheit-Berg said that representatives of a BKA squad that deals with cyber crime and espionage told him the FBI were seeking fresh information about how actively Assange had been involved in persuading Manning to leak US secrets.

He said he informed the BKA he was not interested in helping the FBI.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Ecuador president calls Julian Assange a 'problem'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1614902/ecuador-president-calls-julian-assange-problem</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1614902/ecuador-president-calls-julian-assange-problem#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 22 Jan 18 07:04:38 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category><category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1614902</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks founder seems to be overstaying his welcome]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The president of Ecuador Lenin Moreno on Sunday described WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as an "inherited problem" that has created "more than a nuisance" for his government.
"We hope to have a positive result" on the issue, he said in an interview with television networks.
Earlier this month, Ecuador announced it had granted citizenship to Assange, in an unsuccessful attempt to provide him with diplomatic immunity and usher him out of its London embassy without the threat of arrest by Britain.

Ecuador gives Assange citizenship, seeks solution with Britain

Moreno said his country was continuing to seek mediation involving "important people," without specifying whom he meant.
Assange fled to the embassy in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden for alleged sex crimes, which he denies, and has remained in the building ever since.
Sweden later shelved its investigation, but Assange faces arrest by British authorities for fleeing justice in the Swedish case.
He fears British authorities will then allow his extradition to the United States where he is wanted for publication by WikiLeaks of classified information in 2010.
The WikiLeaks founder has strained the patience of his hosts since taking up the offer of asylum made by then-president Rafael Correa in 2012.
He was publicly reprimanded for interfering in the 2016 US election after publishing hacked emails from the campaign team of Democrat Hillary Clinton.
More recently, he drew the ire of Correa's successor, President Moreno, when he used Twitter to pump out messages of support for Catalonia's independence drive.

UK teen gained access to CIA chief's accounts: court

Moreno was forced to respond to complaints from the Spanish government.
Commenting on the move to designate Assange a diplomat, Moreno said: "This would have been a good result, unfortunately, things did not turn out as the foreign ministry planned and so the problem still exists."
Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa has confirmed that Ecuador will maintain the asylum granted to Assange by the government of former president Rafael Correa.]]>
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			<title>Ecuador gives Assange citizenship, seeks solution with Britain</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1606334/ecuador-gives-assange-citizenship-seeks-solution-britain</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1606334/ecuador-gives-assange-citizenship-seeks-solution-britain#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jan 18 16:54:11 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1606334</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Assange was granted asylum in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape allegations]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was “naturalized” as an Ecuadorean on Dec. 12, at his request, Ecuador’s foreign minister said on Thursday, adding that she was seeking a “dignified” solution to his situation with Britain.

Britain said earlier on Thursday it had refused a request by Ecuador for Assange to be given diplomatic status, a spokesperson for Britain’s Foreign Office said.

'It's not me': Greek PM's partner disputes Wiki profile

Assange has been holed up for more than five years in the Ecuadorean embassy in London where he was granted asylum in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape allegations.

Ecuador’s foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa confirmed Assange’s citizenship request at a press conference in Quito. She said she feared for threats to Assange’s life coming from third party states.]]>
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			<title>Assange lawyer says UK breaking international law</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1442824/assange-lawyer-says-uk-breaking-international-law</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1442824/assange-lawyer-says-uk-breaking-international-law#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 23 Jun 17 07:05:34 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1442824</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[British police said they would still arrest him if he tried to leave the embassy even after rape charges bring dropped]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Julian Assange's lawyer accused Britain on Thursday of breaking international law by denying the WikiLeaks founder safe passage out of the country if he leaves Ecuador's embassy in London.

Arrest of WikiLeaks's Assange a 'priority': US top cop

"Britain is... violating all the norms of international law, human rights and humanitarian law," said Baltasar Garzon, a Spanish ex-judge who leads Assange's defense team.

He spoke in the Ecuadoran capital at an event marking the fifth anniversary since Assange sought asylum in the embassy to avoid arrest on Swedish rape charges.

The Australian, 45, has always denied the rape allegations.
Assange feared that if he gave himself up to the Swedish authorities, he would be extradited to the United States and put on trial for WikiLeaks' publishing of hundreds of thousands of leaked secret US military documents and diplomatic cables in 2010.

Ecuador urged Britain to grant him safe passage to its territory after Swedish prosecutors last month dropped their rape probe against him.

British police said they would still arrest him if he tried to leave the embassy, though British prosecutors have not revealed whether they have received a US request to extradite him.

CIA chief says WikiLeaks is 'hostile intelligence service'

"It is a scheme to justify waiting until the United States formally bring charges," Garzon said. He said his team would take the case to the UN committee on torture and other UN bodies.]]>
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			<title>CIA could potentially hack your router, according to WikiLeaks</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1437125/cia-potentially-hack-router-according-wikileaks</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1437125/cia-potentially-hack-router-according-wikileaks#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 16 Jun 17 09:45:33 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Tech Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1437125</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks previously published publications on CIA hacking tools including information on targeting Apple and Samsung]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Compromising a router has been the most effective strategy to orchestrate a cyber attack, with router devices offering total access and few security measures.

According to a new document published by WikiLeaks, the CIA has been building and maintaining a host of tools to bypass routers. The documents revealed that a programme called Cherry Blossom was being developed which uses a modified version of a given router’s firmware to turn the device into a surveillance tool for the CIA.

Once the programme functions, Cherry Blossom will let agents monitor the target’s internet traffic, passwords, and may even succeed in redirecting the user to the desired web page.

Shadow Brokers threaten to release Windows 10 hacking tools

WikiLeaks previously released publications on CIA hacking tools, including information on targeting Apple and Samsung.



The WikiLeaks document is dated back to 2012 so it's not clear what CIA did with such technology.

Different versions of Cherry Blossom exist, each tailored to a specific brand and model of router.

“As of August 2012, CB-implanted firmwares can be built for roughly 25 different devices from 10 different manufacturers, including Asus, Belkin, Buffalo, Dell, DLink, Linksys, Motorola, Netgear, Senao, and US Robotics,” according to the leaked manual.

The manual also goes into detail on how CIA agents would typically install the modified firmware on a given device. “In typical operation,” another passage reads, “a wireless device of interest is implanted with Cherry Blossom firmware, either using the Claymore tool or via a supply chain operation.”

WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning released from prison

With increased occurrences of cyber attacks and potentially devastating repercussions seen globally, this technology certainly has a role to play. However, whether CIA used it in a preemptive manner or a preventive manner remains to be seen.

There is also reason to believe the NSA was employing similar tactics with documents published in 2015 by Edward Snowden detailing efforts by the UK’s GCHQ to exploit vulnerabilities in 13 models of Juniper firewalls.]]>
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			<title>More smoke, fewer mirrors</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1431560/smoke-fewer-mirrors</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1431560/smoke-fewer-mirrors#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 10 Jun 17 05:00:39 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1431560</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The WikiLeaks saga]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The WikiLeaks saga is one of those gifts that just keep on giving. The latest local twist to just one of innumerable tails is that former interior minister Rehman Malik has written to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif asking him to form a judicial commission in order to investigate the WikiLeaks allegation that the Americans were given access to the national identity database during the course of his tenure. As the saying goes — be careful what you wish for. A brief perusal of the colourful career of Mr Malik suggests that there is a cemetery full of skeletons ripe for exhumation in the event of any investigation of anything he has touched or been associated with in government.

The latest request for the services of an increasingly stretched judiciary concerns a diplomatic cable which was leaked in 2011 and tweeted by WikiLeaks on June 6th. If there is a single thing that characterises all the WikiLeaks material it is that its veracity is unchallenged. This material is not faked or made up; it is a genuine record of events and documents, this latest leak being no exception. The cable details meetings between the former US Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and a range of senior Pakistani officials, including Mr Malik. The sensitivity lies in the reveal that Prime Minister Gilani and Rehman Malik went to the American Embassy and offered up of their own free will access to the National Database and Registration Agency (NADRA). The leaked item concludes, ‘It seems to me that that is a theft of some national treasure of Pakistan…’

Indeed it may well be, and Mr Malik — and Mr Gilani for that matter — need to tread very carefully before seeking to look into in public the contents of a WikiLeak because they are dangerously packed with that trickiest of commodities — the truth.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2017.

Like Opinion &amp; Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.]]>
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			<title>WikiLeaks tweets reminder that 'US and UK had stolen NADRA records'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1429538/wikileaks-tweets-reminder-that-us-and-uk-had-stolen-nadra-records</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1429538/wikileaks-tweets-reminder-that-us-and-uk-had-stolen-nadra-records#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 07 Jun 17 12:34:32 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[news.desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Pakistan]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1429538</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Tweets link to Julian Assange's interview with PTI chairman Imran Khan in 2013]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks, in connection with the recently leaked National Security Agency report leak, has shared its old revelation again that the United States and the United Kingdom had &quot;stolen&quot; Pakistani citizens&#39; identification records.

&ldquo;We discovered a cable in 2009 from the US Embassy in Islamabad&hellip; Prime Minister [Yousaf Raza] Gilani and Interior Minister [Rehman] Malik offered to share National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) [records],&rdquo; Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing organisation, had informed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan while interviewing the latter in 2013.



Assange claimed that a front company, the International Identity Services, was set up in the UK and hired as consultants for NADRA to &quot;squirrel out data for all of Pakistan&quot;. &ldquo;It seems to me that that is a theft of some national treasure of Pakistan, the entire Pakistani database registry of its people,&rdquo; he said.


NSA hacked Pakistani mobile networks: WikiLeaks

In a tweet, the organisation shared the link to the interview&#39;s complete transcript saying: &ldquo;If yesterday&#39;s NSA report is accurate it is not unusual; US and MI6 [British spy agency] set up a front to steal all of Pakistan&#39;s voters.&rdquo;



If yesterday&#39;s NSA report is accurate it is not unusual; US+MI6 set up a front to steal all of Pakistan&#39;s voters https://t.co/T0Gc6hyyHr pic.twitter.com/oERYoferNo
&mdash; WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 6, 2017





Commenting on the disclosure, the PTI chief had told Assange: &quot;It&rsquo;s the most shameful period of our history. Never has a country&rsquo;s ruling elite betrayed its people so much as this current ruling elite &ndash; and for personal benefits, because all of them have bank accounts abroad, they have money lying abroad &ndash; and guess what? ‒ the Americans know all about the accounts. They&rsquo;re illegal, money siphoned off from here.&quot;

The cable cites the then interior minister Rehman Malik as telling the then Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano that his ministry had already submitted for legal review the possibility of sharing passenger name record data on passengers traveling to and from Pakistan to the U.S. and Canada.]]>
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			<title>Assange says ready to talk to UK and US after Sweden rape case dropped</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1414230/assange-says-ready-talk-uk-us-sweden-rape-case-dropped</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1414230/assange-says-ready-talk-uk-us-sweden-rape-case-dropped#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 19 May 17 16:24:32 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1414230</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[My legal staff have contacted the UK authorities and we hope to engage in a dialogue, says Wikileaks' founder]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Wikileaks' Julian Assange said on Friday he was prepared to talk to Britain and the United States after Sweden dropped a probe into an allegation of rape against him, but he defended his right to remain in Ecuador's embassy in London.

Appearing at the balcony of the central London embassy where he has spent five years, Assange criticised Western governments, but said he was prepared to enter into dialogue with London and Washington.

Swedish prosecutor drops rape probe against WikiLeaks's Assange

"My legal staff have contacted the United Kingdom authorities and we hope to engage in a dialogue about what is the best way forward," he said after raising a clenched fist in a gesture of victory.

"While there have been extremely threatening remarks made, I'm always happy to engage in a dialogue with the Department of Justice about what has occurred," he added.]]>
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			<title>Chelsea Manning shares first picture of herself since release</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1413851/chelsea-manning-shares-first-picture-since-release</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1413851/chelsea-manning-shares-first-picture-since-release#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 19 May 17 07:20:17 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1413851</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The portrait shows the 29-year old in a short-cropped hair wearing red lipstick and a dark deep-V-neck sweater]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Chelsea Manning, the transgender US Army soldier responsible for a massive leak of classified material, shared a photo of herself for the first time since she was released from prison.

The portrait, which Manning shared on her Twitter and Instagram accounts @xychelsea87, shows the 29-year old in a short-cropped hair wearing red lipstick and a dark deep-V-neck sweater. She included the caption: "Okay, so here I am everyone!! #HelloWorld"
Okay, so here I am everyone!! =Phttps://t.co/NuyZlcWfd9#HelloWorld pic.twitter.com/gKsMFTYukO

— Chelsea Manning (@xychelsea) May 18, 2017
Manning was released from a US military prison on Wednesday, seven years after being arrested for passing secrets to WikiLeaks in the largest breach of classified information in US history.

Newly-freed Chelsea Manning says putting past behind her

Manning was convicted by a court-martial in 2013 of espionage and other offences for furnishing more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to WikiLeaks, an international organisation that publishes such information from anonymous sources, while she was an intelligence analyst in Iraq.

Many on social media congratulated Manning's newfound freedom.]]>
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			<title>Swedish prosecutor drops rape probe against WikiLeaks's Assange</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1413813/swedish-prosecutors-decide-lifting-assange-warrant</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1413813/swedish-prosecutors-decide-lifting-assange-warrant#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 19 May 17 06:25:33 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1413813</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Accusation against Assange dates from August 2010 when the alleged victim filed a complaint]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Swedish prosecutors on Friday dropped a seven-year rape investigation into Julian Assange, a legal victory for the WikiLeaks founder who has been holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012.

"Director of Public Prosecution, Marianne Ny, has today decided to discontinue the investigation regarding suspected rape by Julian Assange," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Friday was the deadline for the public prosecutor's office to either renew or lift Assange's arrest warrant before a Stockholm court.
Shortly after the decision, Assange posted a picture of himself smiling broadly, without comment.

https://twitter.com/JulianAssange/status/865496201839337472

Ny and Chief Prosecutor Ingrid Isgren are to brief reporters on the decision at 1000 GMT on Friday.

The 45-year-old Australian has always denied the 2010 allegations, which he feared would see him extradited to the United States and tried over the leaking of hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents. He has been living at the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012 and risks being arrested by British police if he steps out of the building.

'Risk': Inside the inner sanctum of Wikileaks' Assange

British police have said they will arrest Assange as soon as he walks out of the embassy because he has broken his conditions for bail - a relatively minor offence under British law - by failing to surrender on June 29, 2012 for extradition to Sweden. Assange's Swedish lawyer last month filed a new motion demanding that the arrest warrant be lifted after US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in April that arresting Assange would be "a priority".

"This implies that we can now demonstrate that the US has a will to take action... this is why we ask for the arrest warrant to be cancelled so that Julian Assange can fly to Ecuador and enjoy his political asylum," lawyer Per Samuelsson told AFP at the time.

The accusation against Assange dated from August 2010 when the alleged victim, who says she met him at a WikiLeaks conference in Stockholm a few days earlier, filed a complaint. She accused him of having sex with her as she slept without using a condom despite repeatedly having denied him unprotected sex.

CIA chief says WikiLeaks is 'hostile intelligence service'

"I am entirely innocent," Assange wrote in a 19-page testimony released in December 2016. He argues that the sex was consensual and has denounced the accusations as "politically motived".

The investigation had suffered from multiple procedural complications since it began. The statute of limitations on the rape allegation expires in August 2020.

In a letter sent to the Swedish government on May 8, Ecuador condemned "the obvious lack of progress" in the investigation despite Assange's questioning in the presence of the Swedish prosecutor at the embassy in November 2016.

"It is extremely worrying that six months after the hearing at the Embassy of Ecuador in the United Kingdom, the Swedish prosecutor's office has not yet decided on the judicial situation of Julian Assange," the Ecuadoran Foreign Ministry said in the letter seen by AFP.

Swedish judges have refused to take into account the opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which in February 2016 said Assange was effectively "arbitrarily detained" by Sweden and Britain and called for the arrest warrant to be annulled.

&nbsp;]]>
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			<title>Newly-freed Chelsea Manning says putting past behind her</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1412322/newly-freed-chelsea-manning-says-putting-past-behind</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1412322/newly-freed-chelsea-manning-says-putting-past-behind#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 17 May 17 15:36:25 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1412322</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The 29-year-old transgender served seven of a 35-year sentence for giving US secrets to WikiLeaks]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Chelsea Manning, the transgender army private who jailed for giving US secrets to WikiLeaks, said on Wednesday she was looking to put the past behind her as she walked free from a maximum-security prison in Kansas.

"After another anxious four months of waiting, the day has finally arrived. I am looking forward to so much!" Manning, whose sentence was commuted by former president Barack Obama, said in a statement via her legal team.

WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning released from prison

"Whatever is ahead of me, is far more important than the past," said the 29-year-old, who served seven of a 35-year sentence over one of the largest leaks of classified documents in US history.

"I'm figuring things out right now - which is exciting, awkward, fun, and all new for me," she added.]]>
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			<title>WikiLeaks source Chelsea Manning released from prison</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1412184/wikileaks-source-chelsea-manning-set-released</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1412184/wikileaks-source-chelsea-manning-set-released#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 17 May 17 10:42:12 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1412184</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Manning attempted suicide twice last year alone and went on a hunger strike to denounce disciplinary measures]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Chelsea Manning, the transgender army private jailed for one of the largest leaks of classified documents in US history, was released from prison Wednesday, a US Army spokesperson said.

Manning "has been released from the United States Disciplinary Barracks" at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, spokesperson Cynthia Smith said in a brief statement.

WikiLeaks says the CIA can see your Whatsapp messages

In July 2010, Manning - then a male soldier known as Bradley - was arrested over the release of a huge trove of more than 700,000 classified military and diplomatic documents via WikiLeaks.

Manning, now 29, was serving a 35-year sentence for the leak but president Barack Obama commuted her sentence before leaving office and she was released after seven years in prison.

White house House says Trump 'extremely concerned' about WikiLeaks CIA breach

Manning attempted suicide twice last year alone and went on a hunger strike to denounce disciplinary measures to which she was subjected, including stints in solitary confinement.
https://twitter.com/xychelsea/status/864215328649342978

"Two more days until the freedom of civilian life," Manning tweeted Monday. "Now hunting for private #healthcare like millions of Americans."]]>
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			<title>'Risk': Inside the inner sanctum of Wikileaks' Assange</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1407965/risk-inside-inner-sanctum-wikileaks-assange</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1407965/risk-inside-inner-sanctum-wikileaks-assange#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 12 May 17 10:59:40 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[news.desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1407965</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks, founded by Assange in 2006, specializes in large-scale breaches of classified data]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The enigmatic champion of a global movement for transparency and democracy. A Russian stooge. A West-hating attention-seeker. A cold fish with questionable attitudes and alleged diabolical sexual mores.
Julian Assange has been labeled all of these - and many things besides - since starting out as a media-savvy Robin Hood figure, wrestling facts from the powerful and serving them up unexpurgated for the masses.

Now, a fugitive from justice dogged by accusations of sexual assault and living a hermetic existence in London's Ecuadoran embassy for the last five years, he cuts a more embattled, slippery figure. "Risk," a new documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras, starts out as an unsettlingly ambivalent portrait of the award-winning iconoclast but ends up revealing a darker side to Assange.

Filmed over six tumultuous years and taking in the 2016 US presidential election, it takes viewers closer than any previous film crew into Assange's inner sanctum. "This is not the film I thought I was making. I thought I could ignore the contradictions, I thought they were not part of the story. I was wrong. They are becoming the story," Poitras says in a voiceover.

NSA hacked Pakistani mobile networks: WikiLeaks

US cable network Showtime announced in April it had partnered with Neon to roll out the film at 36 US locations during May, before a television premiere later in summer. WikiLeaks, founded by Assange in 2006, specializes in large-scale breaches of classified data that have made headlines around the world, as well as challenging the ethics of security services.

The 45-year-old computer programmer has claimed political asylum at the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012, having taken refuge to avoid being sent to Sweden. There is an international arrest warrant out to get him to face allegations of unlawful coercion, sexual molestation and rape dating back to 2010.

Poitras's profile of Assange, who denies any wrongdoing, is a follow-up to her Academy Award-winning "Citizenfour" (2014), about fugitive leaker Edward Snowden and the NSA spying scandal.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of "Risk" is its success in shedding light on the ugly misogyny that runs through so much of the tech world, showing Assange describing the sexual assault allegations against him as the product of a feminist conspiracy.

He even suggests that if the alleged victims said sorry to him, he would "apologize for anything I did or didn't do to hurt their feelings."
"Risk" also gets up-close with security expert and close Assange ally Jacob Appelbaum, revealing that he is also facing accusations of sexual misconduct, which he too denies.

Assange doesn't accept that he and Poitras fell out, but appears through messages she reads out on camera to become colder with her, bruised by the fact that she didn't use WikiLeaks to publish Snowden's NSA material. "That kind of created I think, as you see in the film, a tension between myself and Julian," the 53-year-old said during a Q&amp;A following the North American premiere at the Art of the Real festival in New York last week.

Google claims many exploits from WikiLeaks’ CIA documents already fixed

At its height, WikiLeaks could claim to have provided valuable insights into the war on terror, helped bring about the Arab Spring and shone a light on civilian deaths in Iraq. Regardless of Assange's plummeting stock in the bourse of public opinion, the organization he founded remains undeniably relevant - a potent force in geopolitics.

"Risk" underlines its continued influence in the confusion surrounding Assange's intervention in the US presidential election, and his suspected ties with Russia and with members of the Trump campaign. In July WikiLeaks published 20,000 hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee, some innocuous but others hugely damaging to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.
By October, WikiLeaks was publishing thousands of emails from Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, prompting effusive praise from then-candidate Donald Trump.

Assange denies that Russia or any other state was behind the leak.
Despite its focus on the murky world of espionage, "Risk" does have its lighter side, including a hilarious cameo by Lady Gaga paying a visit to Assange. But had Poitras filmed for a few more months, her documentary could have had a romantic coda.

In a bizarre twist in the Assange saga, ex-Baywatch star Pamela Anderson has recently emerged as a rumored love interest of the secretive Australian, and in a poem posted on her website she complains about the "narrow lens Laura has picked." The 49-year-old actress has reportedly visited the fugitive several times in recent months.]]>
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			<title>WikiLeaks and bots help amplify Macron leaks: researchers</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1403516/us-far-right-activists-wikileaks-bots-help-amplify-macron-leaks-researchers</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1403516/us-far-right-activists-wikileaks-bots-help-amplify-macron-leaks-researchers#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 07 May 17 05:52:17 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1403516</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Thousands of documents belonging to Macron's En Marche! movement were dumped online]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[US far-right activists helped amplify a leak of hacked emails belonging to leading French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron's campaign, some researchers said on Saturday, with automated bots and the Twitter account of WikiLeaks also propelling a leak that came two days before France's presidential vote.

The rapid spread on Twitter, Facebook and the messaging forum 4chan of emails and other campaign documents that Macron's campaign said on Friday had been stolen recalled the effort by right-wing activists and Russian state media to promote hacked documents embarrassing to Democratic US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton last year.

It also renewed questions whether social media companies have done enough to limit fake accounts or spammed content on their platforms and how media organizations should report on hacked information.

Twitter declined to comment on whether it had taken any specific action in response to the Macron leak. Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

Macron blasts huge hacking attack just before French vote

Analysis conducted by The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab published on Saturday found that the hashtag #MacronLeaks reached 47,000 tweets in three and a half hours after it was first used by Jack Posobiec, a writer in Washington for the far-right news organization The Rebel. Posobiec's online biography said he coordinated grassroots organizing for a group that supported US President Donald Trump's campaign.

Posobiec's initial tweet on the Macron documents was retweeted fifteen times within one minute and 87 times in five minutes, Atlantic Council senior fellow Ben Nimmo wrote in a blog published on Medium.

Posobiec is prolific on Twitter, where he has a large following of more than 100,000 accounts. Contacted by Reuters, Posobiec said he did not operate bots and that he used his account to share a post he saw on 4chan.

Bots helped move the hashtag from the United States to France, according to Nimmo, where surveys show far-right leader Marine Le Pen trailing Macron by more than 20 points heading into Sunday's election.

French electoral law forbids candidates from commenting during Saturday and until polling stations close on Sunday.

WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group that published hacked emails belonging to Democrats during the 2016 presidential election, provided the largest boost of attention on Twitter to the Macron emails, Nimmo said.

The group did not publish the information itself but tweeted about the leak at least 15 times.

'Macronleaks': Hackers find flaw in French cyber-fortress

"As the dominant publication in the field we were hours ahead of all other major outlets," WikiLeaks said in a private Twitter message to a Reuters reporter. "That's what our readers expect."

Difficult to attribute

Some researchers also observed the use of identical phrasing in blogs about the leaks, which they alleged was aimed at driving Alphabet Inc's Google search result rankings. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

About nine gigabytes of data purporting to be documents from the Macron campaign were posted on Pastebin, a site that allows anonymous document sharing.

Other recent high-profile political leaks, including those during the US presidential election, have often been dumped by WikiLeaks, which has a sizeable online following and international recognition.

"There is a noticeable lack of a persona taking credit for this," said John Hultquist, a cyber researcher at FireEye, adding that such an absence made attribution more difficult.

The US cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint told Reuters late Friday that an initial review of the Macron leaks indicated that APT 28, a group tied to the GRU, the Russian military intelligence unit, may be behind the leak, though evidence was not yet conclusive. Among other indicators, the firm said metadata contained in one of the leaked files showed it had been modified by someone who works in the technology industry in Moscow.

Google warns users of massive Google Docs phishing scam

But other cyber researchers said that analysis was premature, and western security officials contacted by Reuters were cautious about assigning any attribution. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied accusations it has attempted to use cyber attacks to meddle in either the French or US elections.

The Macron leaks prompted swift alarm in the United States, where many believed Russian President Vladimir Putin was again trying to put his thumb on the scales of a Western election.

US intelligence agencies concluded that Putin ordered the hacking of Democratic emails during the US election to benefit Republican Trump, who has been at times dismissive of those findings and resurfaced his claim earlier this week that China could have been responsible.

US Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement to Reuters that the Macron leak demonstrates the urgency of his panel's investigation into Russia's alleged interference in last year's US election.

Noting the Macron dump may contain fake documents mixed in with authentic material, as some analysts have suggested, Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that the leak may represent "yet another dangerous escalation of cyber interference in a Western nation's democracy."]]>
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			<title>Arrest of WikiLeaks's Assange a 'priority': US top cop</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1389870/arrest-wikileakss-assange-priority-us-top-cop</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1389870/arrest-wikileakss-assange-priority-us-top-cop#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 21 Apr 17 05:59:31 +0500</pubDate>
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				<![CDATA[afp]]>
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			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1389870</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Assange's case returned to the spotlight after WikiLeaks was accused of meddling in the US election last year]]>
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				<![CDATA[The arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a US 'priority', Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Thursday, as media reports indicated his office was preparing charges against the fugitive anti-hero.

"We are going to step up our effort and already are stepping up our efforts on all leaks," Sessions, America's top cop, said at a news conference in response to a reporter's question about a US priority to arrest Assange. The Justice Department chief said a rash of leaks of sensitive secrets appeared unprecedented.

Assange accuses CIA of 'devastating incompetence' over leaks

"This is a matter that's gone beyond anything I'm aware of. We have professionals that have been in the security business of the United States for many years that are shocked by the number of leaks and some of them are quite serious," he said. "Whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail."

Prosecutors in recent weeks have been drafting a memo that looks at charges against Assange and members of WikiLeaks that possibly include conspiracy, theft of government property and violations of the Espionage Act, the Washington Post reported, citing unnamed US officials familiar with the matter. Several other media outlets also cited unnamed officials as saying US authorities were preparing charges against Assange. The Justice Department declined to comment on the reports.

Assange, 45, has been holed up at the Ecuadoran embassy in London since 2012 trying to avoid extradition to Sweden where he faces a rape allegation that he denies. He fears Sweden would extradite him to the United States to face trial for leaking hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents that first gained attention in 2010.

CIA chief says WikiLeaks is 'hostile intelligence service'

Assange's case returned to the spotlight after WikiLeaks was accused of meddling in the US election last year by releasing a damaging trove of hacked emails from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic party. US officials say the emails were hacked with the aid of the Russian government in its bid to influence the US election.

Critics say their release late in the race helped to tip the November 8 election to Republican Donald Trump. Trump and his administration have put heat on WikiLeaks after it embarrassed the Central Intelligence Agency last month by releasing a large number of files and computer code from the spy agency's top-secret hacking operations.

The documents showed how the CIA exploits vulnerabilities in popular computer and networking hardware and software to gather intelligence. Supporters of WikiLeaks say it's practicing the constitutional right of freedom of speech and the press.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo last week branded WikiLeaks a "hostile intelligence service," saying it threatens democratic nations and joins hands with dictators. Pompeo focused on the anti-secrecy group and other leakers of classified information like Edward Snowden as one of the key threats facing the United States.

WikiLeaks reveals how CIA hacks iPhones, MacBooks

"WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service. It has encouraged its followers to find jobs at CIA in order to obtain intelligence... And it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States, while seeking support from anti-democratic countries and organizations," said Pompeo. "It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is - a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia."

The day before Pompeo spoke, Assange published an opinion piece in The Washington Post in which he said his group's mission was the same as America's most respected newspapers: "to publish newsworthy content."

"WikiLeaks's sole interest is expressing constitutionally protected truths," he said, professing "overwhelming admiration for both America and the idea of America."]]>
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			<title>Hacked files suggest NSA penetrated SWIFT banking network, Mideast banks</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1384513/hacked-files-suggest-nsa-penetrated-swift-banking-network-mideast-banks</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1384513/hacked-files-suggest-nsa-penetrated-swift-banking-network-mideast-banks#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sat, 15 Apr 17 09:03:16 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1384513</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[NSA exploited vulnerabilities in a range of Microsoft Windows products widely used on computers around the world]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Files released by the mysterious hacker Shadow Brokers suggested Friday the US National Security Agency had penetrated the SWIFT banking network and monitored a number of Middle East banks.

The files, according to computer security analysts, also showed the NSA had found and exploited numerous vulnerabilities in a range of Microsoft Windows products widely used on computers around the world.

WikiLeaks reveals how CIA hacks iPhones, MacBooks

Analysts generally accepted the files, which show someone exploiting so-called "zero-day" or hitherto unknown vulnerabilities in common software and hardware, came from the NSA.

They are believed stolen from a hyper-secret hacking unit dubbed the "Equation Group" at the key US signals intelligence agency.

"The tools and exploits released today have been specifically designed to target earlier versions of Windows operating system," said security specialist Pierluigi Paganini on the Security Affairs website.

They "suggest the NSA was targeting the SWIFT banking system of several banks around the world."

Symantec attributes 40 cyber attacks to CIA-linked hacking tools

The files appear to indicate that the NSA had infiltrated two of SWIFT's service bureaus, including EastNets, which provides technology services in the Middle East for the Belgium-based SWIFT and for individual financial institutions.

Via that entry point the agency appears to have monitored transactions involving several banks and financial institutions in Kuwait, Dubai, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen and Qatar.

In a statement on its website EastNets rejected the allegations.

"The reports of an alleged hacker-compromised EastNets Service Bureau network is totally false and unfounded," it said.

"We can confirm that no EastNets customer data has been compromised in any way."

SWIFT said in a statement that the allegations involve only its service bureaus and not its own network.

"There is no impact on SWIFT's infrastructure or data, however we understand that communications between these service bureaus and their customers may previously have been accessed by unauthorized third parties."

"We have no evidence to suggest that there has ever been any unauthorized access to our network or messaging services."

Shadow Brokers first surfaced last year offering for sale a suite of hacking tools from the NSA. There were no takers at the price stated of tens of millions of dollars, and since then the hacker or hackers have leaked bits of the trove for free.

Analysts say many of the exploits revealed appear to be three years old or more, but have some unknown vulnerabilities that could still be used by other hackers.

No one has yet discovered the identity of Shadow Brokers, or of the hackers that gained access to the NSA materials.]]>
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			<title>CIA chief says WikiLeaks is 'hostile intelligence service'</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1383562/cia-chief-says-wikileaks-hostile-intelligence-service</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1383562/cia-chief-says-wikileaks-hostile-intelligence-service#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 14 Apr 17 07:16:35 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category><category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1383562</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Claims Wikileaks founder Assange helps enemies of the United States]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo on Thursday branded WikiLeaks a "hostile intelligence service," saying it threatens democratic nations and joins hands with dictators.

In his first public remarks since becoming chief of the US spy agency in February, Pompeo focused on the anti-secrecy group and other leakers of classified information like Edward Snowden as one of the key threats facing the United States.

WikiLeaks reveals how CIA hacks iPhones, MacBooks

"WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service. It has encouraged its followers to find jobs at CIA in order to obtain intelligence...  And it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States, while seeking support from anti-democratic countries and organizations," said Pompeo.

"It is time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is -- a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia."

Pompeo compared WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange to leakers of the pre-internet days like former CIA official Philip Agee.

Agee's exposing the identities of undercover CIA agents was blamed for the assassination of the agency's Athens station chief in 1974.

Symantec attributes 40 cyber attacks to CIA-linked hacking tools

On Wednesday Assange published an opinion piece in the Washington Post in which he said his group's mission was the same as America's most respected newspapers: "to publish newsworthy content."

"WikiLeaks' sole interest is expressing constitutionally protected truths," he said, professing "overwhelming admiration for both America and the idea of America."

While it has released secret materials from around the world, WikiLeaks's notoriety comes from its US-related scoops. In 2010 it published 251,000 classified cables from US embassies around the world.

WikiLeaks says the CIA can see your Whatsapp messages

Last year it published files and communications from the Democratic Party, damaging presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign. US intelligence says that release was part of a Russian plot to aid eventual election victor Donald Trump.

And last month the CIA was embarrassed and its operations damaged by WikiLeaks's release of a large number of files and computer code from the agency's top secret hacking operations.

They showed how the CIA exploits vulnerabilities in popular computer and networking hardware and software to gather intelligence.

Counterintelligence investigators continue to try to find out who stole the files and handed them to WikiLeaks.

Assange meanwhile criticized the US agency for not telling the tech industry and authorities about those vulnerabilities so they can be fixed.

Pompeo said Assange portrays himself as a crusader but in fact helps enemies of the United States, including aiding Russia's interference in last year's presidential election.

"Assange and his ilk make common cause with dictators today. Yes, they try unsuccessfully to cloak themselves and their actions in the language of liberty and privacy; in reality, however, they champion nothing but their own celebrity. Their currency is clickbait; their moral compass, nonexistent."

However, Pompeo did not comment on how Trump has previously lavished praise on Assange for the information he has released.

Nor did Pompeo mention that he himself had cited and linked to WikiLeaks in a tweet attacking the Democratic Party. Pompeo at the time was a Republican congressman and member of the House Intelligence Committee.

The CIA declined to comment on that.]]>
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			<title>Symantec attributes 40 cyber attacks to CIA-linked hacking tools</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1379974/symantec-attributes-40-cyber-attacks-cia-linked-hacking-tools</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1379974/symantec-attributes-40-cyber-attacks-cia-linked-hacking-tools#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 10 Apr 17 14:59:31 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category><category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1379974</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The files posted by WikiLeaks appear to show internal CIA discussions of various tools for hacking]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Past cyber attacks on scores of organisations around the world were conducted with top-secret hacking tools that were exposed recently by the Web publisher Wikileaks, the security researcher Symantec Corp said on Monday.

That means the attacks were likely conducted by the US Central Intelligence Agency. The files posted by WikiLeaks appear to show internal CIA discussions of various tools for hacking into phones, computers and other electronic gear, along with programming code for some of them, and multiple people familiar with the matter have told Reuters that the documents came from the CIA or its contractors.

Symantec said it had connected at least 40 attacks in 16 countries to the tools obtained by WikiLeaks, though it followed company policy by not formally blaming the CIA.

The CIA has not confirmed the Wikileaks documents are genuine. But agency spokesperson Heather Fritz Horniak said that any WikiLeaks disclosures aimed at damaging the intelligence community "not only jeopardise US personnel and operations, but also equip our adversaries with tools and information to do us harm.

NSA hacked Pakistani mobile networks: WikiLeaks

"It is important to note that CIA is legally prohibited from conducting electronic surveillance targeting individuals here at home, including our fellow Americans, and CIA does not do so," Horniak said.

She declined to comment on the specifics of Symantec's research.

The CIA tools described by Wikileaks do not involve mass surveillance, and all of the targets were government entities or had legitimate national security value for other reasons, Symantec researcher Eric Chien said ahead of Monday's publication.

In part because some of the targets are US allies in Europe, "there are organisations in there that people would be surprised were targets," Chien said.

Symantec said sectors targeted by operations employing the tools included financial, telecommunications, energy, aerospace, information technology, education, and natural resources.

Besides Europe, countries were hit in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. One computer was infected in the United States in what was likely an accident - the infection was removed within hours. All the programmes were used to open back doors, collect and remove copies of files, rather than to destroy anything.

Russian computer scientist arrested in Spain

The eavesdropping tools were created at least as far back as 2011 and possibly as long ago as 2007, Chien said. He said the WikiLeaks documents are so complete that they likely encompass the CIA’s entire hacking toolkit, including many taking advantage of previously unknown flaws.

The CIA is best-known for its human intelligence sources and analysis, not vast electronic operations. For that reason, being forced to build new tools is a setback but not a catastrophe.

It could lead to awkward conversations, however, as more allies realize the Americans were spying and confront them.

Separately, a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers on Saturday released another batch of pilfered National Security Agency hacking tools, along with a blog post criticising President Donald Trump for attacking Syria and moving away from his conservative political base.

It is unclear who is behind the Shadow Brokers or how the group obtained the files.]]>
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			<title>Assange taunts Ecuador opponent after election</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1372697/assange-taunts-ecuador-opponent-election</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1372697/assange-taunts-ecuador-opponent-election#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Mon, 03 Apr 17 04:28:37 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1372697</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Lasso alleged fraud and said he would contest the result]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange waded into Ecuador's contested presidential election Sunday, tweeting his congratulations to the ruling socialist party's candidate and telling his rival he should leave the country.

Assange, who has been holed up in Ecuador's London embassy since 2012, had a personal stake in the race: opposition candidate Guillermo Lasso had threatened to kick him out of the embassy within 30 days if he won the election.

Ecuador decides its future, and maybe Assange's, in runoff

The 45-year-old Australian buoyantly turned that threat around on Lasso as official results showed the conservative ex-banker on track to lose.

"I cordially invite Lasso to leave Ecuador within 30 days (with or without his tax haven millions)," he wrote on Twitter.

That was a reference to WikiLeaks's accusation that Lasso is linked to the Panama Papers tax haven scandal.

"Assange yes, Lasso no," he added in Spanish.

Assange fled to Ecuador's embassy in June 2012 to avoid arrest and extradition to Sweden, where he faces a rape allegation.

The WikiLeaks founder, who denies the allegation, says he fears Sweden would send him to the United States to face trial for leaking hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents in 2010.

Outgoing President Rafael Correa, a fiery critic of the US, granted Assange asylum. Moreno, Correa's former vice president, has vowed to uphold it.

Assange accuses CIA of 'devastating incompetence' over leaks

The National Electoral Council said Moreno had 51.07 percent of the vote to 48.93 percent for Lasso, with 94.2 percent of precincts reporting.

But Lasso alleged fraud and said he would contest the result.]]>
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			<title>Ecuador decides its future, and maybe Assange's, in runoff</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1370529/ecuador-decides-future-maybe-assanges-runoff</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1370529/ecuador-decides-future-maybe-assanges-runoff#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 31 Mar 17 08:30:30 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1370529</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Opposition leader, Guillermo Lasso, is threatening to revoke Assange's political asylum if he comes into power]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Ecuador votes Sunday in a presidential runoff that will decide whether it follows Latin America's recent shift to the right, and could seal the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The South American oil producer is turning the page on a decade under leftist economist Rafael Correa, a president who presided over an economic boom that has recently gone bust.

The runoff pits the socialist president's designated heir, Lenin Moreno, against conservative ex-banker Guillermo Lasso. Lasso finished second in the first-round vote last month, with 28 percent to Moreno's 39 percent but polls give him a slight edge heading into the runoff, with between 52.1 percent and 57.6 percent of the vote.

Ecuador cuts Julian Assange's internet access: WikiLeaks

Running as the candidate of change, Lasso is vowing to overturn Correa's legacy. That includes threatening to revoke the political asylum Ecuador has granted its most famous guest, Assange, who has been holed up at the country's London embassy since 2012. Correa, an outspoken critic of the United States, let Assange stay at the embassy to avoid arrest and extradition to Sweden over a rape allegation.

The 45-year-old Australian, who denies the accusation, says he fears Sweden would send him to the United States to face trial for leaking hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic documents in 2010.

His case has returned to the spotlight since WikiLeaks was accused of meddling in the US election last year by releasing a damaging trove of hacked emails from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign and her Democratic party. The race is also a barometer of the political climate in Latin America, where more than a decade of leftist dominance has been waning.

Argentina, Brazil and Peru have all shifted to the right in recent months, as the region has sunk into recession and leftist leaders have been tarnished by a string of corruption scandals.

Boosted by high prices for its oil exports, Ecuador registered solid economic growth of 4.4 percent per year on average during the first eight years of Correa's presidency, before tipping into recession in mid-2015.

Sweden asks to question Assange, waits for Ecuador answer

Correa won loyal fans among the poor with generous social benefits that helped reduce the poverty rate from 36.7 percent to 23.3 percent in this country of 16 million people. But he has also faced accusations of corruption and squandering the windfall of the oil boom.

Political analyst Napoleon Saltos of the Central University of Ecuador said the election would be played out between "the vote against the government and the fear among certain parts of the population that they will lose what they gained over the past 10 years."

Lasso, 61, appears to have gained the edge by uniting the opposition vote behind his promises to end tax-and-spend policies and create a million jobs, but with the race too close to call, Moreno, 64, has sought to co-opt the buzzword of "change" for himself.

"We're heading for a change, yes, but a positive change, not a negative change, a change toward the past," he told AFP Wednesday.]]>
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			<title>WikiLeaks reveals how CIA hacks iPhones, MacBooks</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1364568/wikileaks-reveals-cia-hacks-iphones-macbooks</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1364568/wikileaks-reveals-cia-hacks-iphones-macbooks#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 24 Mar 17 08:49:06 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1364568</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Latest documents focus on how CIA targets Apple's popular personal electronics to spy on users]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[The Central Intelligence Agency is able to permanently infect an Apple Mac computer so that even reinstalling the operating system will not erase the bug, according to documents published Thursday by WikiLeaks.

In its second release allegedly from the CIA's arsenal of hacking tools, WikiLeaks also said that it appears the US spy agency has been able since 2008 to insert it bugs onto new and unused iPhones by intervening in Apple's supply and distribution network.

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/844986337384157184

The release follows the initial publication on March 9 by the anti-secrecy group of thousands of pages of instructions and code from what it called the entire CIA arsenal of hacking tools.

Google claims many exploits from WikiLeaks’ CIA documents already fixed

The documents are generally believed to be genuine although the CIA has not acknowledged this.

The publication of the documents sparked a US counterintelligence investigation into how the documents leaked out from the CIA and made their way to WikiLeaks, with some people pointing fingers at the agency's use of private subcontractors as a likely source.

The newest documents focus on how the CIA targets Apple's popular personal electronics to spy on users.

Five easy ways to stop your gadgets from spying on you

They show the CIA developed a tool in 2012 called "Sonic Screwdriver" that can hijack an Apple computer's password-protected boot process from peripheral devices like adapters and USB drives.

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/845086059704827904

By doing so, they can inject a undetectable bug deep into the computer's essential firmware that will not be erased even when the computer is reformatted.

The manual for the "NightSkies" bug shows that the CIA developed it in 2008 to be implanted physically in brand new iPhones.

"While CIA assets are sometimes used to physically infect systems in the custody of a target, it is likely that many CIA physical access attacks have infected the targeted organization's supply chain including by interdicting mail orders and other shipments," WikiLeaks said.

WikiLeaks to share CIA hacking tools with tech companies

The documents provide a glimpse into the workings of the CIA. One showed the agency urgently trying to adapt NightSkies to a certain Apple laptop.

The agency "has the opportunity to gift a MacBook Air to a target that will be implanted with this tool," one 2009 document said.

"The tool will be a beacon/implant that runs in the background of a MacBook Air that provides us with command and control capabilities."]]>
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			<title>Five easy ways to stop your gadgets from spying on you</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1359690/five-easy-ways-stop-gadgets-spying</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1359690/five-easy-ways-stop-gadgets-spying#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Sun, 19 Mar 17 11:37:47 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Tech Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1359690</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The growing use of smart devices has become a cause of concern]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[The growing use of smart devices like air-conditioner and TV have brought convenience to our lives but now they have also become a cause of concern as anything connected to the internet tends to attract the attention of hackers.

Documents recently released by Wikileaks showed how the US premier spy agency, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), developed a huge arsenal of malware that could turn a TV into a listening device, control a car and even bypass security barriers on popular messaging platforms such as WhatsApp.

WikiLeaks says the CIA can see your Whatsapp messages

In such a situation it is paramount that users take their personal privacy seriously. Here are 5 things you can do to protect yourself in our increasingly connected world.

1. Create strong passwords and change them often

Passwords provide the first barrier against any cyber-attack and as such should be extra difficult and impossible to guess. These should include a mix of letters, numbers, and special characters and more importantly should be changed over a certain period to make them even more difficult predict.

A single should never be used for multiple accounts as doing so could make it easier for hackers to gain access to multiple services and devices.

2. Tape your laptop’s camera

Hackers have found ingenious ways that they can use to take over your webcam. Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly keeps his laptop camera taped up.

Covering a laptops camera would then prevent hackers from obtaining any private videos even if your device has been compromised.

3. Limit location access to apps on your smartphone

More and more apps are now using the smartphone’s location feature in order to provide better service to their users. These include the popular social networking website Facebook that uses your location to let you check into a particular place or tag where a photo was taken.

WikiLeaks exposes alleged CIA hacking program

Some apps, however, even keep track of your location when not in use which is a major security breach. Luckily, smartphone users can limit the use of the location feature on their smartphone for each app. Both iOS and Android users can tweak their privacy setting and choose whether specific apps have access to your location all the time, only when they're using the app, or never.

4. Keep software updated

Software updates, among other things, are rolled out to bring critical security fixes and patches for glitches that may be exploited by hacker to take over your device. Therefore, smart devices in general and computers and smartphones in particular should always have the latest software version available.

5. Turn off your tracking feature on Smart TVs

Some of the major TV companies have recently come under fire for monitoring the content viewers watched on the devices without their approval. While keeping your TV disconnected from the internet might be the safest option, this may also limit its functionality. Some smart TVs, however, do provide the options to disable certain data-collecting features prevent manufacturer from snooping.]]>
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			<title>Read this before clicking any image on WhatsApp</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1356106/read-clicking-image-whatsapp</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1356106/read-clicking-image-whatsapp#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Wed, 15 Mar 17 14:40:04 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1356106</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[New vulnerability put hundreds of millions of WhatsApp Web; Telegram Web users at risk of complete account take over]]>
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				<![CDATA[A computer security firm on Wednesday revealed a flaw that could let hackers break into WhatsApp or Telegram messaging accounts using the very encryption intended to protect messages.

Check Point Software Technologies said that it alerted Telegram and Facebook-owned WhatsApp last week, waiting until the vulnerability was patched  before making it public.

Check Point did not specify how many messaging accounts were at risk, but did say the flaw posed a danger to "hundreds of millions" of users accessing the messaging platform from web browsers in computers, as opposed to mobile applications.

WikiLeaks says the CIA can see your Whatsapp messages

"This new vulnerability put hundreds of millions of WhatsApp Web and Telegram Web users at risk of complete account take over," Check Point head of product vulnerability Oded Vanunu said in a release.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="625"] PHOTO COURTESY: CHECK POINT SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES[/caption]

"By simply sending an innocent looking photo, an attacker could gain control over the account, access message history, all photos that were ever shared, and send messages on behalf of the user."

WhatsApp to roll out new business feature

The vulnerability made it possible for an attacker to booby-trap a digital image with malicious code that could spring into action after the picture is clicked on for viewing, according to Check Point.

The malicious code could then hijack an account, and even spread itself like a virus by sending infected messages to those listed as contacts.

WikiLeaks exposes alleged CIA hacking program

WhatsApp and Telegram use end-to-end encryption designed to make certain only senders and recipients can see what is in messages.

The privacy protection had the side effect of preventing the services from being able to discern whether message contents included malicious code, according to Check Point.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="625"] PHOTO COURTESY: CHECK POINT SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES[/caption]

To remedy the situation, both services shifted to finding and blocking viruses before messages are encrypted, the security researchers said.

WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messaging services in the world with more than a billion users. Telegram claims only 100 million or so users, but is often cited as a preferred communications tool of militants because of encryption to keep messages from the eyes of authorities.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments section below.]]>
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			<title>Cyber breach — a new normal?</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1352154/cyber-breach-new-normal</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1352154/cyber-breach-new-normal#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 10 Mar 17 18:09:39 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[M Ziauddin]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Opinion]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1352154</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks has once again caught the world by surprise with the releaseof a large set of files it calls “year zero”]]>
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				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks has once again caught the world by surprise with the release the other day of a large set of files that it calls “year zero” and which mark the biggest exposure of CIA spying secrets ever. The massive set of documents includes a host of hacking secrets.

Here are some of the biggest secrets and pieces of information yet to emerge from the huge dump: The CIA has the ability to break into Android and iPhone handsets, and all kinds of computers. Apps like Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp are rendered entirely insecure. The CIA could also use smart TVs to listen in on conversations that happened around them. The agency is said to have explored hacking into cars and crashing them, allowing 'nearly undetectable assassinations'. And it is said to have hid vulnerabilities that could be used by hackers from other countries or governments.

Something on these lines but lot less sensational was already being anticipated. When global leaders met recently for the World Economic Forum’s annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, there was much talk regarding threats to our everyday lives and businesses from cyber-attacks. Experts aired their concerns at the summit and here are some of their observations:

• Worries about increased hacking of political systems as well as enterprises and organisations.

• Issues of privacy, bullying and trolling as well as the need for a global internet charter.

• Agreement that the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the theme of Davos 2016, is disrupting everything from computing to medicine to manufacturing at a speed that was inconceivable until a few years back.

• Huge opportunities for businesses today in which Internet of Things (IoT) and internet services have created a hyper-connected world that will have a huge impact on every aspect of our lives. This will be a boon for productivity, but it will come with a big price if we can’t build effective cyber-security.

It’s time for corporate directors, government entities and industry groups to band together in a multistakeholder dialogue to collectively fight the ever-growing threat of cyber breaches. The threats posed by hackers, weaponised IoT devices and other forms of cyber-attack are not science fiction – they’re happening now. We need to come together, share our experiences and best practices and ensure the internet remains the incredibly transformative resource that it is today.

During ‘Insiders on cyber-security’ session at Davos (February 8, 2017)  it was pointed out that new technology is making things a lot easier for hackers – ‘witness the recent weaponisation of webcams and other IoT devices used to bring down portions of the internet.’

Meanwhile, the economics of cyber-attacks are said to be skewing favorably to attackers. Exploit kits and other tools are easily acquired and can be reused against multiple targets while the likelihood of detection and punishment is low. All this means governments and businesses have to be more nimble than ever in dealing with threats.

In a cyber-context, it was advised that we should be managing - and preventing - threats before they can do damage. Individuals and organisations have to do what they can to manage risk. It’s important to implement a comprehensive strategy for threat reduction that covers people, process and technology.

This means everything from practicing good online and digital hygiene, to updating operating system software and outdated antivirus programmes, to ensuring that security should be, it was further advised, made part of the design of hardware such as IoT devices.

Organisations and governments also have been told to consider proactively finding weaknesses in their systems by hiring experts - including hackers. From bug bounty programmes, penetration testing and phishing exercises, it’s critical to understand areas that are vulnerable to attack both on a technical and human level.

More than 70% of breaches are said to exploit non-technical vulnerabilities – for example, attacks that trick users into revealing legitimate credentials. Thus, users must devote considerable effort to increase their knowledge and learn to ask the right questions.

Users have been advised to understand, assess, and quantify cyber risks that they face today or in the future. They need to know how technology changes cyber risk exposure.

Finally, while prevention is what should be strived for in today’s world, an organisation and a government have to accept that it will be breached. That’s unfortunately the new normal.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11th, 2017.

Like Opinion &amp; Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.]]>
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			<title>WikiLeaks to share CIA hacking tools with tech companies</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1351690/wikileaks-share-cia-hacking-tools-tech-companies</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1351690/wikileaks-share-cia-hacking-tools-tech-companies#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Fri, 10 Mar 17 08:39:09 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1351690</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Microsoft and Cisco welcomed submissions of any vulnerabilities through normal reporting channels]]>
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				<![CDATA[Wikileaks will provide technology companies with exclusive access to CIA hacking tools that it possesses so they can patch software flaws, founder Julian Assange said on Thursday, presenting Silicon Valley with a potential dilemma on how to deal with the anti-secrecy group.

If the offer is legitimate, it would place technology companies in the unusual position of relying on Assange, a man believed by some US officials and lawmakers to be an untrustworthy pawn of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to share cyber vulnerabilities stockpiled by a secretive US spy agency.

It was not clear how WikiLeaks intended to cooperate with the companies. The group published documents on Tuesday describing secret Central Intelligence Agency hacking tools and snippets of computer code. It did not publish the full programs that would be needed to actually conduct cyber exploits against phones, computers and Internet-connected televisions.

Google claims many exploits from WikiLeaks’ CIA documents already fixed

"Considering what we think is the best way to proceed and hearing these calls from some of the manufacturers, we have decided to work with them to give them some exclusive access to the additional technical details that we have so that the fixes can be developed and pushed out, so people can be secure," Assange said during an online press conference from the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

Assange took refuge at the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape, which he denies.

Microsoft Corp and Cisco Systems Inc, whose wares are subject to attacks described in the documents, said in response to Assange that they welcomed submissions of any vulnerabilities through normal reporting channels.

"We've seen Julian Assange's statement and have not yet been contacted," a Microsoft representative said. "Our preferred method for anyone with knowledge of security issues, including the CIA or Wikileaks, is to submit details to us at secure@microsoft.com so we can review information and take any necessary steps to protect customers."

CIA leak shows how you can install Windows for free

Representatives of Alphabet Inc's Google, Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Huawei, whose products were also featured in the CIA catalog, did not answer requests for comment.

Responding to Assange, CIA spokesperson Jonathan Liu, said in a statement: "As we’ve said previously, Julian Assange is not exactly a bastion of truth and integrity."

"Despite the efforts of Assange and his ilk, CIA continues to aggressively collect foreign intelligence overseas to protect America from terrorists, hostile nation states and other adversaries."

WikiLeaks' disclosures this week caused alarmed in the technology world and among consumers because of the potential privacy implications of the cyber espionage tactics that were described.

One file described a program known as Weeping Angel that purportedly could take over a Samsung smart television, making it appear it was off when in fact it was recording conversations in the room.

What do I need to know about the CIA's hacking programme?

Other documents described ways to hack into Apple iPhones, devices running Google's Android software and other gadgets in a way that could observe communications before they are protected by end-to-end encryption offered by messaging apps like Signal or WhatsApp.

Several companies have already said they are confident that their recent security updates have accounted for the purported flaws described in the CIA documents. Apple said in a statement on Tuesday that "many of the issues" leaked had already been patched in the latest version of its operating system.

WikiLeaks' publication of the documents reignited a debate about whether U.S. intelligence agencies should hoard serious cyber security vulnerabilities rather than share them with the public. An interagency process created under former President Barack Obama called for erring on the side of disclosure.

CIA security 

President Donald Trump believes changes are needed to safeguard secrets at the CIA, White House spokesperson Sean Spicer told a news briefing on Thursday. "He believes that the systems at the CIA are outdated and need to be updated."

Two US intelligence and law enforcement officials told Reuters on Wednesday that intelligence agencies have been aware since the end of last year of a breach at the CIA, which led to WikiLeaks releasing thousands of pages of information on its website.

Tech tools gain traction amid Trump war on leaks

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said contractors likely breached security and handed over the documents to WikiLeaks. The CIA has declined to comment on the authenticity of the documents leaked, but the officials said they believed the pages about hacking techniques used between 2013 and 2016 were authentic.

Contractors have been revealed as the source of sensitive government information leaks in recent years, most notably Edward Snowden and Harold Martin, both employed by consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton while working for the National Security Agency.

Assange said he possessed "a lot more information" about the CIA's cyber arsenal that would be released soon. He criticized the CIA for "devastating incompetence" for not being able to control access to such sensitive material, and asked whether Obama or Trump were made aware of the breaches.

Assange's group released Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential campaign that US intelligence agencies say were hacked by Russia to try to tilt the election against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. He is regarded with distaste by many in Washington, although Trump, then the Republican candidate, supported the group's email releases last year.

Ben Sasse, a Republican senator, said in a statement on Thursday that Assange should "spend the rest of his life wearing an orange jumpsuit." He is "an enemy of the American people and an ally to Vladimir Putin" who has "has dedicated his life’s work to endangering innocent lives, abetting despots, and stoking a crisis of confidence in the West," Sasse said.]]>
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			<title>US government hacking</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1351063/us-government-hacking</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1351063/us-government-hacking#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 09 Mar 17 17:38:36 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[editorial]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[Editorial]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1351063</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[The United States government appears to be obsessed with knowing every bit of information there is to know]]>
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				<![CDATA[The United States government appears to be obsessed with knowing every bit of information there is to know about its own nearly 326,000 million citizens as well as other people around the world. It is behaving quite like the clingy girlfriend or suspecting wife. Intriguingly, with the advent of smart technology in the last decade or so — and getting smarter — the US government is able to track its citizens no matter where they are on the globe, even when their smart devices are turned off. The suspicion that the US government could be listening in on residents’ living room conversations had been there for years but the latest release by the veracious Wikileaks supports that the suspicion might be true. Wikileaks’ documents reveal that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) can access user devices at anytime and anywhere, owing to smart devices that are ‘connected’ and ‘online’ at all times. Little did the public know, the CIA has a team of some seriously skilled hackers — who are frequently facing competition by Russian and North Korean adversaries. It is unnerving that the CIA may be privy to what we do in our bedrooms and bathrooms. Previously, US citizens were paranoid about the US government’s invasive surveillance procedures. Now, the paranoia will turn into chronic stress, sure to impact people’s psychological and physical health. We understand the defence is to maintain homeland security, which no rational mind can dispute. However, the cost of people’s peace of mind is rather high and other avenues to identify terrorists and extremists should be pursued.

This information by Wikileaks has sent computer programmers and scientists back to their research labs with the new challenge of refining encryption software to prevent security breaches. Indeed, there are many loopholes in laws and ethical use of smart technology. The CIA’s practices will reduce people’s trust in smart technology and question ethics, as even encryption does not protect citizens from hacking. There is an urgent need to produce ethics guidelines and draw the line somewhere, even if it is drawn far from where citizens want it to be.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10th, 2017.

Like Opinion &amp; Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.]]>
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			<title>Assange accuses CIA of 'devastating incompetence' over leaks</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1351067/assange-accuses-cia-devastating-incompetence-leaks</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1351067/assange-accuses-cia-devastating-incompetence-leaks#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 09 Mar 17 15:53:28 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[afp]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category><category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1351067</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Says he has more information about the Central Intelligence Agency's hacking operation]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange accused on Thursday the CIA of "devastating incompetence" for keeping hacking secrets in one place and said he would work with tech giants to develop fixes after he leaked them.

"This is a historic act of devastating incompetence, to have created such an arsenal and then stored it all in one place," Assange told a press conference streamed live from Ecuador's embassy in London, where he has been living as a fugitive from justice since 2012.

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/839845394825691138

"It is impossible to keep effective control of cyber weapons... If you build them, eventually you will lose them," Assange said.

He said his anti-secrecy website had "a lot more information" about the Central Intelligence Agency's hacking operation but would hold off on publishing it until WikiLeaks had spoken to tech manufacturers about fixes.

"We have decided to work with them to give them some exclusive access to the additional technical details we have so fixes can be developed and then pushed out.

WikiLeaks exposes alleged CIA hacking program

"Once this material is effectively disarmed by us we will publish additional details about what has been occurring," he added.

On Tuesday, WikiLeaks published nearly 9,000 documents it said were part of a huge trove leaked from the CIA, describing it as the largest ever publication of secret intelligence materials.

"This extraordinary collection, which amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code, gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA," it said.

The documents showed that CIA hackers can turn a TV into a listening device, bypass popular encryption apps, and possibly control one's car.

Most experts believe the materials to be genuine, and US media said Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is opening a criminal probe into the leak.

The source of the materials remained unclear. The investigation could focus on whether the CIA was sloppy in its controls, or, as The Washington Post reported, it could be "a major mole hunt" for a malicious leaker or turncoat inside the agency.

WikiLeaks itself said the documents, hacking tools and code came from an archive that had circulated among US government hackers and private contractors.

An investigation would come as the CIA is already enmeshed in a politically-charged probe into Russia's alleged interference in the US election last year in support of President Donald Trump's campaign.

WikiLeaks, which has stunned the US government with a series of publications of top secret political, diplomatic and intelligence materials in recent years, said Tuesday's leak was only the first of a series of releases of CIA hacking materials.]]>
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			<title>Google claims many exploits from WikiLeaks’ CIA documents already fixed</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1350846/google-claims-many-exploits-wikileaks-cia-documents-already-fixed</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1350846/google-claims-many-exploits-wikileaks-cia-documents-already-fixed#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 09 Mar 17 11:50:07 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[Tech Desk]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category><category><![CDATA[Technology]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1350846</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[Says analysis is ongoing and will implement any further necessary protections]]>
			</description>
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				<![CDATA[Following the Wikileaks dump of CIA documents exposing the agency’s alleged hacking programme, Google said it has fixed many of the vulnerabilities in its Chrome and Android platforms identified in the leaked documents.

In a statement provided to Recode, Google Director of Information Security and Privacy Heather Adkins said the company is confident that the “security updates and protections in both Chrome and Android already shield users from many of these alleged vulnerabilities.”

WikiLeaks exposes alleged CIA hacking program

“Our analysis is ongoing and we will implement any further necessary protections. We've always made security a top priority and we continue to invest in our defences," he added.

The statement came a day after Wikileaks released a trove of CIA documents. Wikileaks claimed that a vast trove of CIA documents representing “the majority of its hacking arsenal” had been leaked within the cyber security community – and that it had received, and released, a part of them. It also claimed that the documents show the CIA has produced more than 1,000 malware systems – viruses, trojans, and other software that can infiltrate and take control of target electronics.

WikiLeaks says the CIA can see your Whatsapp messages

Earlier, Apple also issued a statement saying it has already fixed most of the security flaws in its iOS software identified in the WikiLeaks CIA document dump. “While our initial analysis indicates that many of the issues leaked today were already patched in the latest iOS, we will continue work to rapidly address any identified vulnerabilities. We always urge customers to download the latest iOS to make sure they have the most recent security updates,” the statement added.

https://twitter.com/JohnPaczkowski/status/839308040775987201]]>
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			<title>China expresses concern at revelations in Wikileaks dump of hacked CIA data</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1350741/china-expresses-concern-revelations-wikileaks-dump-hacked-cia-data</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1350741/china-expresses-concern-revelations-wikileaks-dump-hacked-cia-data#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 09 Mar 17 10:04:17 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1350741</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[China is frequently accused by the United States and other countries of hacking attacks]]>
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				<![CDATA[China expressed concern on Thursday over revelations in a trove of data released by Wikileaks purporting to show that the CIA can hack all manner of devices, including those made by Chinese companies.

Dozens of firms rushed to contain the damage from possible security weak points following the anti-secrecy organisation's revelations, although some said they needed more details of what the US intelligence agency was up to.

CIA contractors likely source of latest WikiLeaks release: U.S. officials

Widely-used routers from Silicon Valley-based Cisco were listed as targets, as were those supplied by Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE and Taiwan supplier Zyxel for their devices used in China and Pakistan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said China expressed concern about the reports and reiterated its opposition to all forms of hacking. "We urge the US side to stop listening in, monitoring, stealing secrets and internet hacking against China and other countries," Geng told a daily news briefing.

White house House says Trump ‘extremely concerned’ about WikiLeaks CIA breach

China is frequently accused by the United States and other countries of hacking attacks, which it always denies.

The Chinese government has its own sophisticated domestic surveillance programme and keeps tight control of the internet at home, saying such measures are needed to protect national security and maintain stability.]]>
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			<title>CIA contractors likely source of latest WikiLeaks release: U.S. officials</title>
			<link>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1350437/cia-contractors-likely-source-latest-wikileaks-release-u-s-officials</link>
			<comments>https://tribune.com.pk/story/1350437/cia-contractors-likely-source-latest-wikileaks-release-u-s-officials#comments</comments>
			<pubDate>Thu, 09 Mar 17 06:29:40 +0500</pubDate>
			<dc:creator>
				<![CDATA[reuters]]>
			</dc:creator>
			<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
			<guid isPermaLink="false">https://tribune.com.pk/?p=1350437</guid>
			<description>
				<![CDATA[A person familiar with WikiLeaks’ activities said the group has had the CIA hacking material for months]]>
			</description>
			<content:encoded>
				<![CDATA[Contractors likely breached security and handed over documents describing the Central Intelligence Agency's use of hacking tools to anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, US intelligence and law enforcement officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

Two officials speaking on condition of anonymity said intelligence agencies have been aware since the end of last year of the breach, which led to WikiLeaks releasing thousands of pages of information on its website on Tuesday.

According to the documents, CIA hackers could get into Apple Inc (AAPL.O) iPhones, devices running Google's Android software and other gadgets in order to capture text and voice messages before they were encrypted with sophisticated software.

WikiLeaks says the CIA can see your Whatsapp messages

The White House said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump was "extremely concerned" about the CIA security breach that led to the WikiLeaks release.

"Anybody who leaks classified information will be held to the highest degree of law," spokesman Sean Spicer said.

The two officials told Reuters they believed the published documents about CIA hacking techniques used between 2013 and 2016 were authentic.

One of the officials with knowledge of the investigation said companies that are contractors for the CIA have been checking to see which of their employees had access to the material that WikiLeaks published, and then going over their computer logs, emails and other communications for any evidence of who might be responsible.

On Tuesday in a press release, WikiLeaks itself said the CIA had "lost control" of an archive of hacking methods and it appeared to have been circulated "among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive."

The CIA, which is the United States' civilian foreign intelligence service, declined to comment on the authenticity of purported intelligence documents.

CIA leak shows how you can install Windows for free

The agency said in a statement that its mission was to collect foreign intelligence abroad "to protect America from terrorists, hostile nation states and other adversaries" and to be "innovative, cutting-edge, and the first line of defense in protecting this country from enemies abroad."

The CIA is legally prohibited from surveillance inside the United States and "does not do so", the statement added.

A US government source familiar with the matter said it would be normal for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the CIA both to open investigations into such leaks. U.S. officials previously have confirmed that prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia for years have been conducting a federal grand jury investigation of WikiLeaks and its personnel.

A spokesman for the prosecutors declined to comment on the possibility of that probe being expanded. It is not clear if the investigation of the latest CIA leaks is part of the probe.

Contractors have been revealed as the source of sensitive government information leaks in recent years, most notably Edward Snowden and Harold Thomas Martin, both employed by consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH.N) while working for the National Security Agency.

US Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and a Democrat on the intelligence committee, said the government needed to stop the breaches.

"I think we really need to take a look at the contractor portion of the employee workforce, because you have to be loyal to America to work for an intelligence agency, otherwise don't do it," Feinstein said.

Both US Senate and US House of Representatives intelligence committees have either opened or are expected to open inquiries into the CIA breach, congressional officials said.

Some cyber security experts and technology companies have criticized the government for opting to exploit rather than disclose software vulnerabilities, though an interagency review process set up under former President Barack Obama was intended to err on the side of disclosure.

Those concerns would grow if US authorities did not notify companies that CIA documents describing various hacking techniques had been compromised.

Apple, Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google, Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O) and Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) did not immediately respond when asked if they were notified of a CIA breach before WikiLeaks made its files public.

At Apple, none of the vulnerabilities described in the documents provoked a panic, though analysis was continuing, according to a person who spoke with engineers there.

Google's director of information security and privacy, Heather Adkins, said in a statement: "As we’ve reviewed the documents, we're confident that security updates and protections in both Chrome and Android (operating systems) already shield users from many of these alleged vulnerabilities. Our analysis is ongoing and we will implement any further necessary protections."

White house House says Trump 'extremely concerned' about WikiLeaks CIA breach

One reason the investigation is focused on a potential leak by contractors rather than for example a hack by Russian intelligence, another official said, is that so far there is no evidence that Russian intelligence agencies tried to exploit any of the leaked material before it was published.

One European official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the WikiLeaks material could in fact lead to closer cooperation between European intelligence agencies and U.S. counterparts, which share concerns about Russian intelligence operations.

US intelligence agencies have accused Russia of seeking to tilt last year's US presidential election in Trump's favor, including by hacking into Democratic Party emails. Moscow has denied the allegation.

One major security problem was that the number of contractors with access to information with the highest secrecy classification has "exploded" because of federal budget constraints, the first US official said.

US intelligence agencies have been unable to hire additional permanent staff needed to keep pace with technological advances such as the "internet of things" that connects cars, home security and heating systems and other devices to computer networks, or to pay salaries competitive with the private sector, the official said.

Reuters could not immediately verify the contents of the published documents.

A person familiar with WikiLeaks’ activities said the group has had the CIA hacking material for months, and that the release of the material was in the works "for a long time."

WikiLeaks exposes alleged CIA hacking program

In Germany on Wednesday, the chief federal prosecutor's office said that it would review the WikiLeaks documents because some suggested that the CIA ran a hacking hub from the US consulate in Frankfurt.

"We will initiate an investigation if we see evidence of concrete criminal acts or specific perpetrators," a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office told Reuters.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to visit Washington on March 14 for her first meeting with Trump, who has sharply criticized Berlin for everything from its trade policy to what he considers inadequate levels of military spending.]]>
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