Freya Petersen

Julian Assange Formally Announces Candidacy For Australian Senate

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he had formally founded a political party and would contest a seat in the Australian senate.

Freya Petersen
By Freya Petersen
Julian Assange

BRISBANE, Australia — Julian Assange said Thursday that he had founded a political party, named WikiLeaks after his anti-secrecy organization, and would contest a seat in the Australian Senate in upcoming national elections, Australia's ABC reported. Assange nominated his party's seven other candidates via the WikiLeaks website from the

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Radioactive Water Leaking From Fukushima Into Pacific Ocean, TEPCO Says

The operator of Japan’s crippled nuclear plant has admitted for the first time that radioactive groundwater has leaked out into the Pacific Ocean.

Freya Petersen
By Freya Petersen

The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), on Monday admitted that radioactive groundwater had leaked out to Pacific Ocean, fueling fears of contamination. Earlier this month TEPCO said groundwater samples taken at the Fukushima showed levels of possibly cancer-causing caesium-134

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US Court Of Appeals: Genital Searches Of Guantanamo Inmates Can Continue

The Obama administration had appealed a ruling of a federal judge who called the practice “religiously and culturally abhorrent.”

Freya Petersen
By Freya Petersen
A detainee is escorted to interrogation by U.S. military guards in the temporary detention facility Camp X-Ray at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)

The government can continue genital searches of inmates at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled. The Obama administration, which considers the genital searches essential to security at Guantanamo, had appealed a ruling of a federal judge who called the practice "religiously and culturally

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Russian Experts: Rebels Probably Used Chemical Weapons Used In Syria

A team of Russian experts made the assessment after visited Khan al-Assal, near Aleppo, where Syria claimed rebels had used chemical weapons.

Freya Petersen
By Freya Petersen
In this Saturday, Nov. 17, 2012 photo, Syrian residents mourn a rebel fighter during his funeral after he was killed by rocket fire on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria. (AP Photo/Narciso Contreras)

Chemical weapons were "clearly" used in Syria — but most likely by Syrian rebels, not the Syrian army, according to Moscow's ambassador to the United Nations. A team of Russian experts made the assessment after visited Khan al-Assal, near Aleppo, where Syria claimed rebels had used chemical weapons in a March attack, CNN wrote. The attack

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Official: Japan Dodged Global Financial Crash Because Of Bankers’ Poor English

Aso said bankers did not speak English well enough to understand the complex financial instruments that undid other major global players.

Freya Petersen
By Freya Petersen

Japan can thank a poor grasp of English among the country's bankers for the country's weathering the 2008 global credit crisis virtually unscathed, according to Finance Minister Taro Aso. Aso said senior Japanese bankers did not speak English well enough to understand the complex financial instruments that brought the other major global players

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Where In The World Is Edward Snowden, Part 2?

He boarded a flight bound for Russia, yet Russia’s foreign minister insisted that he had not crossed the Russian border.

Freya Petersen
By Freya Petersen

Russia has called U.S. claims that it aided Edward Snowden, the fugitive National Security Agency whistleblower, "unfounded and unacceptable." Though Snowdon boarded a flight from Hong Kong to Moscow on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted Tuesday that he had not crossed the Russian border. That may mean that Snowden never

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Rare Sumatran Elephants Found Dead In Indonesia, With WWF Accusing Poachers

Environmentalists accuse poachers of poisoning two critically-endangered Sumatran elephants found dead in Indonesia’s Tesso Nilo national park.

Freya Petersen
By Freya Petersen

Two critically-endangered Sumatran elephants have been found dead in Indonesia's Tesso Nilo national park, with environmentalists accusing poachers of poisoning them. Three elephants have now been found dead in Tesso Nilo, on Sumatra island, in the past month. The Riau chapter of the World Wildlife Fund said the carcasses of a male, aged

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