WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his entourage of lawyers, supporters, protesters and journalists are headed back to a London court for a showdown between the secret-spilling computer hacker and Swedish authorities who want him extradited to face sex crimes allegations.

A two-day hearing that begins Monday will decide Assange's legal fate. It will also keep the spotlight away from WikiLeaks' revelations and on its opinion-dividing frontman.

Assange is accused of sexual misconduct by two women he met during a visit to Stockholm last year. At Belmarsh Magistrates' Court, a high-security judicial outpost beside a prison, defense lawyers will argue that he should not be extradited because he has not been charged with a crime, because of flaws in Swedish prosecutors' case — and because a ticket to Sweden could land him in Guantanamo Bay or on U.S. death row.
American officials are trying to build a criminal case against WikiLeaks, which has angered Washington by publishing a trove of leaked diplomatic cables and secret U.S. military files. Assange's lawyers claim the Swedish prosecution is linked to the leaks and politically motivated.

Preliminary defense arguments released by Assange's legal team claim "there is a real risk that, if extradited to Sweden, the U.S. will seek his extradition and/or illegal rendition to the USA, where there will be a real risk of him being detained at Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere."
The document adds that "there is a real risk that he could be made subject to the death penalty" if sent to the United States. Under European law, suspects cannot be extradited to jurisdictions where they may face execution.
Many legal experts say the Guantanamo claims are fanciful, and Sweden strongly denies coming under American pressure.
Nils Rekke, head of the legal department at the Swedish prosecutor's office in Stockholm, said Assange would be protected from transfer to the U.S. by strict European rules.

Israelis Torn

Ohio college student killed, 11 wounded, university says

A student at Ohio's Youngstown State University was killed and 11 others, including six students, were wounded in an off-campus shooting Sunday morning, university officials said.

No further details were immediately available about the shooting in the northeast Ohio city, and the condition of the wounded was not known. University spokesman Ron Cole said there was no threat to the campus, but campus police have stepped up their presence "as a precaution."
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OMG!!! Aguilera flubs national anthem at Super Bowl

Christina Aguilera helped kick off Sunday’s Super Bowl with a singer’s nightmare, flubbing the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner" about 40 seconds into the song as tens of millions prepared to watch the game between the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Details inside.


Standing at midfield at Texas' Cowboys Stadium, the singer-actress mixed a previously sung clause with the one she was supposed to be on.
Here's what she sang, with the error in bold:
"O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
What so proudly we watched at the twilight’s last [unintelligible].”
That fourth line was supposed to be: "O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming."
In a statement released by her publicist, Aguilera explained what happened: "I got so lost in the moment of the song that I lost my place," the singer said. "I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through."
Aguilera isn't the first person to have trouble with the song, as Time magazine's "Top 10 Worst National-Anthem Renditions" will remind us.
The list includes Michael Bolton's effort at a 2003 playoff baseball game in Boston's Fenway Park, where he had to pause midsong and check some notes before correctly getting through the same line that troubled Aguilera.
Aguilera sang the national anthem twice during last year's NBA finals.
She delivered both performances without incident.

Happy Birthday Ronald Reagan

Mystery over claims of naked Silvio Berlusconi photographs

Lawyers for Silvio Berlusconi have filed legal actions over investigations that have allegedly found photographs of him naked in the company of two women.  The pictures are alleged to have been taken by one or more of the showgirls who attended the Italian prime minister’s so-called “bunga bunga” parties at his mansion outside Milan.

An Italian newspaper reported that the existence of the images had prompted a bidding war between magazines and photo agencies, with a starting price of €1million (£840,000).
The premier’s legal team said that the pictures, if they even existed, “would be fakes, manipulated pictures, photo montages”. They have nonetheless filed complaints with judicial authorities and Italy’s privacy watchdog as a precaution against publication.
The premier’s legal team said that the pictures, if they even existed, “would be fakes, manipulated pictures, photo montages”. They have nonetheless filed complaints with judicial authorities and Italy’s privacy watchdog as a precaution against publication.

Investigators seized computers and mobile phones from young women whom Mr Berlusconi, 74, allegedly installed as a “harem” in an upmarket apartment complex in Milan. They are examining the devices to see whether they contain still or video images of the prime minister’s home, Villa San Martino.

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