GERMANY: Wikileaks Insider Claims Assange Was... A Cat Abuser.

AFP/

   Perhaps the strangest revelation so far about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange ( pictured below).
    He is NOT cat friendly.

     A new book by former Wikileaks insider Daniel Domscheit-Berg (pictured) claims that Assange abused his cat.
    "Ever since Julian lived with me in Wiesbaden he (the cat) has suffered from psychosis. Julian would constantly attack the animal. He would spread out his fingers like a fork and grab the cat's throat."

BRASIL: Newspaper Says WikiLeak's Assange May Seek Asylum In Rio; Lula Refuses To Extradite Italian Terrorist Cesare Battisti; Huge Tupi Oil Field Will Be Renamed After Lula.

BUZZFLASH/ NIKOLAS KOZLOFF /

   The Spanish newspaper El Pais reports that Julian Assange is considering Brasil as a new home and WikiLeaks base.
   Assange reportedly said: Brasil... "is sufficiently large so as to resist U.S. pressure; the country has the requisite economic and military means to do so." He added that Brasil "is not like China or Russia which are intolerant toward freedom of the press."
    Outgoing President "Lula" da Silva has defended Assange, calling him a champion of free expression. "I don't know if they put up signs like those from Westerns saying, 'wanted dead or alive.'The man was arrested and I'm not seeing any protest defending freedom of expression...Instead of blaming the person who disclosed it, blame the person who wrote this nonsense. Otherwise, we wouldn't have the scandal we now have."
     But that's Lula. What does president-elect Dilma Rousseff think about WikiLeaks and Assange?
   Also, as Kozloff explains, Brasil does not come off looking strong nor innocent in some of the cables, especially during the GW Bush years.

ALSO:  The media report that Lula da Silva will not extradite former Italian terrorist Cesare Battisti, posing a possible challenge to Brasil's ties with Italy.
    Brasil's supreme court ruled last year that Battisti should be extradited on murder convictions in Italy but gave the final decision to Lula.
    Battisti denies killing anyone and says he is being persecuted politically in Italy. He faces life in prison there for murders in the 1970s when he belonged to a guerrilla group.
FOR DETAILS, SEE:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/29/brazilian-president-extradite-cesare-battisti

ALSO:    Oil giant Petrobras has announced that it will rename its biggest offshore Tupi oil field after outgoing President Lula da Silva. Brasil's the crown jewel in the so-called subsalt oil fields will now be known simply as the "Lula." President Lula da Silva responded by saying : "I'm proud," he told reporters. "But it's not my name -- it's a (mollusk)."
FOR DETAILS, SEE:
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFN2928116520101229

BRASIL: Lula da Silva Defends Jailed WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange.

BLOOMBERG/
    Irascible and unpredictable, outgoing President Lula da Silva is  defending jailed controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
     Lula claims Assange did less harm than the authors of the classified documents and offered his “solidarity” with the jailed Australian national.
    “I’m surprised they arrested the man and I didn’t see any protest,” said Lula. “The guy was just posting what he read.”Lula also said that WikiLeaks “exposed a diplomacy that seemed to be untouchable.”