Em Oslo, cadeira vazia marca entrega de Nobel da Paz a dissidente chinês

Da cadeia, Liu Xiaobao dedica prêmio às ‘almas perdidas’ no massacre da Praça da Paz Celestial, de 1989; sob pressão da China, 16 países não vão ao evento, que pela primeira vez em 75 anos se realiza sem o agraciado ou um representante dele

11 de dezembro de 2010 | 5h 03

NYT e AP

O dissidente chinês Liu Xiaobo foi premiado ontem com o Nobel da Paz em uma cerimônia realizada em Oslo, na Noruega. Mas uma cadeira vazia marcou sua ausência. De sua cela de prisão, na China, ele dedicou o prêmio às "almas perdidas" no massacre da Praça da Paz Celestial, em 1989. Irritada com a indicação de Liu, Pequim qualificou o prêmio de "farsa política".

Pela primeira vez em 75 anos, nenhum representante do vencedor compareceu para receber a medalha, um diploma e o cheque de US$ 1,5 milhão. A última vez que isso ocorreu foi em 1935, quando Adolf Hitler impediu que o conde Carl von Ossietzky, preso em um campo de concentração, comparecesse à cerimônia. Destacando a ausência, Thorbjorn Jagland, presidente do Comitê do Nobel, foi ovacionado ao dizer que o fato mostrava o quanto o prêmio era apropriado: "A China precisa estar preparada para receber críticas."

Representantes das mais de 60 missões diplomáticas credenciadas em Oslo comparecem normalmente à cerimônia. Este ano, porém, 17 embaixadores, incluindo os de China, Rússia, Venezuela e Cuba, não foram. Sem ninguém para receber o Nobel, Jagland colocou a medalha e o diploma sobre uma cadeira vazia, onde havia uma foto de Liu sorridente.

O presidente dos EUA, Barack Obama, que recebeu o prêmio em 2009, emitiu uma declaração dizendo que Liu era muito mais "merecedor" do prêmio do que ele foi. "Liu nos lembra que a dignidade humana depende também do avanço de democracia", disse Obama, que pediu a libertação imediata de Liu, preso no ano passado após ser sentenciado a 11 anos por subversão.

Mas Pequim demonstrou irritação desde o momento em que Liu foi indicado, chamou os membros do comitê do Nobel de "palhaços" e suspendeu por tempo indeterminado as negociações comerciais com a Noruega - os dois países não se falam oficialmente desde outubro, quando Liu foi anunciado como escolhido para receber o prêmio.

Esta semana, em Pequim, tapumes foram colocados diante do prédio de Liu para bloquear a visão dos cinegrafistas estrangeiros que ali se aglomeram. A mulher do dissidente, Liu Xia, tem sido mantida incomunicável desde o anúncio do prêmio.

Membros da família e cerca de 300 amigos e conhecidos estão sob estrita vigilância. A censura atingiu também a CNN e a BBC, que tiveram suas transmissões bloqueadas. A vigilância na Praça da Paz Celestial foi reforçada. O esquema de segurança está sendo comparado ao da Olimpíada, em 2008, e ao da cerimônia dos 60 anos da Revolução Chinesa, no ano passado.

Esta não foi a primeira vez que um dissidente famoso recebeu o prêmio. O físico soviético Andrei Sakharov, o líder sindical polonês Lech Walesa e a ativista birmanesa Aung San Suu Kyi também foram laureados e representados na cerimônia por parentes próximos.

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#news: Assange Distances Himself From #WikiLeaks Cyber Attacks

By Judith Miller

AP

Oct. 23: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks during a news conference in London. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell recently referred to Assange as a high-tech terrorist.

Julian Assange, the jailed founder of WikiLeaks, is distancing himself from the cyber-attacks on MasterCard, Visa, and other organizations deemed hostile to him and WikiLeaks.

In a telephone interview with FoxNews.com on Thursday evening, Mark Stephens, a defense attorney for Assange, said his client, whom he visited in a London jail Thursday, denied responsibility for or knowledge of the attacks on various companies and organizations that been subjected to on-line attacks since Assange was arrested and denied bail on Tuesday.

“He told me that he did not order the attacks and that he was surprised by them,” Stephens said. “He said he was not happy about the cyber-attacks…because he believes in openness and free speech."

A growing list of companies and organizations -- from MasterCard to the Swedish Prosecutor’s Service, which issued an international arrest warrant for him, have suffered on-line attacks by what appears to be hackers sympathetic to Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks. But Stephens said that Assange did not know or approve of such cyber-offensives.

The cyberattacks on the companies appear to have been coordinated by “Anonymous,” a loosely affiliated activist Internet hackers who have singled out other groups for such attacks before, among them, the Church of Scientology.

In a press release issued Friday, members of Anonymous described themselves as "an Internet gathering," and took steps to qualify the meaning behind the attacks.

"We do not want to steal your personal information or credit card numbers. We also do not seek to attack critical infrastructure of companies such as Mastercard, Visa, PayPal or Amazon. Our current goal is to raise awareness about WikiLeaks and the underhanded methods employed by the above companies to impair WIkiLeaks' ability to function."

The group's identity remains unknown, but someone is coordinating its actions -- someone who may be held accountable, said Alex Cox, a principal research analyst at Netwitness and a former police officer.

"Who's responsible? Is it the person who voluntarily joined or the person who's controlling the bots?" Cox suggested that with the legality of the hacks in question, some Anonymous members may have second thoughts about their actions.

"Now you've got a lot of these guys involved, who may be teenagers in their mom's house with their mom's modem, saying 'someone got busted. I'm not going to do this anymore,' " Cox told FoxNews.com.

Stephens said that Assange himself disapproved of such hacking, “as a victim of cyber-crimes himself.”

Stephens said that he was referring recent attacks that have been launched against various Wikileak sites and servers following Assange’s clash with the U.S. government over WikiLeaks’ release of thousands of secret American diplomatic cables.

Stephens said that WikiLeaks’ technicians believe that the attacks on Wikileak websites appear to be coming from Russia and China. Stephens said he could only speculate about why either state would target WikiLeaks, but that internet experts who worked with WikiLeaks had concluded that the attacks on their sites seemed to be originating there.

The charge is surprising, since Russia has been critical of Assange’s detention.

Speaking at a press conference in Moscow Thursday, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin blamed Washington for Assange’s arrest. “If you have a democracy, then it should be full,” Putin said.

“Why did they put Assange in prison? Is it a democracy? We have a saying here: ‘Whoever’s cow it was that mooed, yours should remain quiet.’ So I would like to shoot the puck back at our American friends.” Assange hasn’t been formally charged with a crime.

But he was turned himself in and was arrested in London in response to an arrested warrant issued by Sweden, which seeks to question him about allegations by three women of rape, molestation, and unlawful coercion. Assange has previously acknowledged sexual encounters with the Swedish women, but denied that there was any assault or coercion involved.

Stephens said that Assange was “cheerful and in good spirits” despite what his lawyer termed “rather Victorian conditions.”

He said that Assange had not permitted to exercise and that he is being held in a single cell in the prison where the Anglo-Irish writer Oscar Wilde was once detained. He said that prison authorities had not given Assange the internet-disabled computer that those who are being detained, but have not been convicted of a crime are usually entitled to have if they can pay for it. Mr. Stephens said he would seek bail once again for Assange at a hearing on Tuesday. His first appeal was rejected by a judge who considered Assange, an Australian national who has been roaming from country to country without a fixed address, a flight risk.

Stephens also asserted that Assange definitely considers himself a journalist and has publicly identified himself as the co-editor of WikiLeaks, whose websites claims it is a news organization dedicated to disseminating news of interest and value to the public. He said that prior to publishing the American diplomat cables, Assange had tried seeking the cooperation of the U.S. government in redacting information that might harm individuals.

He referred specifically to the Index on Censorship, a British-based organization --and in which he is a trustee -- that has published what purports to be excerpts of correspondence between Assange and Harold Koh, the State Department's Legal Adviser about such cooperation.

On its web site, the Index publishes what it calls Assange's "last-minute attempt" to secure American guidance in editing the cables. In a letter dated Nov. 26th to Louis Susman, Washington's ambassador to London, Assange says he would be "grateful" for Washington's assistance in identifying any "specific instances, (record numbers or names) where it considers the publication of information would put individual persons at significant risk of harm that has not already been addressed."

In what the Index of Censorship says is Washington's rejection of help the next day, Nov. 27th, Koh replies that the U.S. Government "will not engage in a negotiations regarding the further release or dissemination of illegally obtained U.S. Government classified materials."

But Dianne Feinstein, writing in the Wall Street Journal, said that Assange's attempt was a little too late and railed against him for dismissing the Koh's warnings --citing how Koh said the document dump would endanger national security the following ways:

• "Place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals—from journalists to human rights activists and bloggers to soldiers to individuals providing information to further peace and security;

• "Place at risk on-going military operations, including operations to stop terrorists, traffickers in human beings and illicit arms, violent criminal enterprises and other actors that threaten global security; and,

• "Place at risk on-going cooperation between countries—partners, allies and common stakeholders—to confront common challenges from terrorism to pandemic diseases to nuclear proliferation that threaten global stability."

In his response to Koh's letter on Nov. 28th --the day the cables were released -- Assange is quoted as saying the Koh's refusal to help redact the documents "leads me to conclude that the supposed risks are entirely fanciful and you are instead concerned to suppress evidence of human rights abuse and other criminal behavior."

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News: Roadside bomb kills 15 civilians in Afghanistan

AP

Dec. 10: Several hundred demonstrators shouted for justice and peace Friday in the Afghan capital, just hours before a suicide car bomber blew himself up in the east killing two civilians.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – A roadside bomb planted by the Taliban has killed 15 civilians in a dangerous and remote region of southern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.

The attack happened Friday afternoon as a pickup truck carrying villagers to a nearby bazaar rolled over the bomb, detonating it in the Khan Neshin district of Helmand province, said Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for the provincial governor.

"It was a very heavy explosion, the vehicle was destroyed," Ahmadi told The Associated Press by telephone from Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. Ahmadi said all the victims were men.

Calls to the area where the explosion happened did not go through Saturday.

The governor's office in Helmand province released a statement blaming the attack on "the enemy of people and the country."

NATO forces have poured troops into the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, making some progress in routing the Taliban. But fighting and insurgent attacks have continued.

Also Saturday, a suicide bomber blew up a stolen police car that had been packed with explosives, injuring at least 14 people near an army checkpoint in northern Afghanistan.

Muhbobullah Sayedi, the spokesman for the governor of Kunduz province, said the force of the blast Saturday morning destroyed several nearby homes. The only person killed was the suicide bomber.

Five Afghan soldiers and nine civilians were injured.

Several of the civilians were in their homes at the time of the blast, Sayedi said.

The attack happened in Chahar Dara district, the most volatile district in the northern region.

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News: Iran airs new confession by woman in stoning case

TEHRAN, Iran – An Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery confessed to helping a man kill her husband and re-enacted the alleged crime in an interview broadcast Friday by Iranian state television — an apparent effort by the government to deflect international criticism over the case.

It was the fourth time Sakineh Mohammedi Ashtiani has been shown on TV as Tehran has faced an international outcry over the announcement that she would be stoned to death, the latest source of friction between Iran and the West.

Authorities announced her conviction in the murder case only after the uproar over the stoning sentence erupted last summer, and her lawyer — who has since been arrested — said she was never formally put on trial for the killing and was tortured into confessing. Iranian authorities could use the murder charge to justify executing Ashtiani by hanging instead of stoning.

In the new footage broadcast on English-language Press TV, the 43-year-old mother of two was brought from the prison to her home outside the city of Tabriz in northwestern Iran where she was shown acting out the alleged December 2005 killing, complete with an actor portraying her husband.

Ashtiani, dressed in black with a beige scarf covering her hair, described how she began an affair with another man identified as Isa Taheri. She said she gave her husband an injection that rendered him unconscious, then Taheri came to her house and electrocuted him.

Amnesty International criticized the broadcast, which was announced by Press TV earlier Friday, saying it violated international standards for a fair trial by having Ashtiani implicate herself in a crime.

"If the authorities are seeking to use this 'confession' to try to construct a new case against her, for a crime that she's already been tried and sentenced for, we would condemn this in the strongest terms," Philip Luther, deputy director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Program, said in a statement.

Ashtiani was convicted in 2006 of having an "illicit relationship" with two men after the murder of her husband the year before and was sentenced at that time to 99 lashes. Later that year, she was also convicted of adultery and sentenced to be stoned, even though she retracted a confession that she says was made under duress.

After coming under intense demands from Western politicians and rights groups to free Ashtiani, Iran put her stoning sentence for adultery on hold in July for review by the supreme court. It wasn't until more than a month later that her purported confession to involvement in the murder was aired and Iranian officials announced she had been convicted.

In the footage, Ashtiani said Taheri tied a wire to her husband's foot and another to his waist — events that were simulated for the broadcast — but it took seven tries for him to die. "The seventh time my husband didn't move. He died," she said.

The program, which was accompanied by a warning to viewers, showed close-up stll photographs of the husband's corpse, which appeared burnt.

The re-enactment was part of a half-hour news program about the case, which included interviews with her son, Sajjad Qaderzadeh, and her lawyer Houtan Kian, who also have been arrested. Press TV said two German journalists who were detained after trying to interview Ashtiani's family had declined to answer questions for the program.

The program's narrator said a police report showed Ashtiani had confessed to being involved in the murder of her husband and named Taheri as her accomplice. Police arrested Taheri in connection with the murder, and he also admitted the charge, according to the show.

A German-based Iranian anti-stoning activist named Mina Ahadi claimed Ashtiani had been forced to make the confession, calling it propaganda. "It was all a total lie," she said, speaking from London in a telephone interview.

Ashtiani gave similar details in her previous confession on Aug. 12. She also was shown in two other appearances on state TV saying on Sept. 15 that she hadn't been tortured and on Nov. 15 that she was a sinner. But this was the first time she was shown in the house where the killing occurred.

It also was the first time Ashtiani's face was shown. In previous video of her aired on state TV, her face was blurred. The only previous image of her face was an undated picture released by Western human rights groups that seems to be an ID photo, showing a younger-looking Ashtiani with a black headscarf.

Iran has waged a heavy public campaign aimed at countering international criticism, accusing the West of stirring up controversy to damage the country's Islamic clerical leadership at a time of tension over the country's disputed nuclear program.

Amnesty International researcher Drewery Dyke said the program left him with "the fear the authorities are in the process of constructing the climate in which a new charge can be brought," and he criticized the decision to have Ashtiani re-enact the crime on camera.

Stoning was widely imposed in the years following the 1979 Islamic revolution, and even though Iran's judiciary still regularly hands down such sentences, they are often converted to other punishments. The last known stoning was carried out in 2007.

__

Gamel contributed to this report from Cairo. AP writers Ryan Lucas in Cairo, David Rising in Berlin and Jill Lawless in London also contributed to this report.

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#news:N. Korea sends top diplomat to Russia amid tensions

News

Published: 12.11.10, 08:23 / Israel News

North Korea dispatched its top diplomat to Russia on Saturday amid a flurry of regional diplomacy aimed at defusing tensions over Pyongyang's deadly artillery attack on South Korea. North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun left for Russia, the North's official Korean

Central News Agency reported in a one-sentence report.

No details were given, but Pak on Friday accused South Korea and the United States of pursuing a policy of hostility and confrontation and reiterating that Pyongyang needs its nuclear program to fend them off.

"We once again feel convinced that we have made the right choice in strengthening our defenses with the nuclear deterrent," he said, according to an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax. (AP)

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#news: IMF postpones Ireland bailout loan after parliamentary approval

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on Friday that its executive board had decided to postpone consideration of the proposed Irish bailout loan after the Irish parliamentary debate.

"The Government of Ireland decided to table a motion on the EU- IMF Financial Assistance Program for Ireland in the Irish Parliament. The vote on this motion is scheduled for Wednesday, December 15, 2010. In deference to Ireland's parliamentary process, the IMF has decided to postpone consideration by its Board of the proposed loan under the Extended Fund Facility until after the debate," the IMF said in a statement.

Finance ministers of the 27-member European Union (EU) earlier this week approved the aid package totaling 85 billion euros (113 billion U.S. dollars) to debt-crippled Ireland after an emergency meeting on Nov. 28. According to the aid package, Ireland will draw 62.7 billion euros from the 750-billion-euro safety net set up in May jointly by the EU and the IMF to support Ireland's banking sector and budget financing needs.

A spokesperson of the Washington-based agency noted that assuming parliamentary support for the package, the IMF Managing Director could recommend approval by the IMF Executive Board of the proposed 22.5 billion euros of IMF loan as early as December 16.

The IMF said it welcomed the first implementation measures of the 2011 budget recently been passed by the Irish Parliament to enhance the fiscal consolidation.

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#news: Airbus senior official accused for insider trading

PARIS, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Airbus Chief Operating Officer John Leahy is being investigated for alleged "insider trading" by French authorities, local media reported on Friday.

The senior Airbus officer, a U.S. citizen, was placed under investigation on November 5, and is suspected to have received privileged information about the financial prospects of Airbus, which linked with the significant delay of super-jumbo A380 in 2006.

The announcement of A380 delay was followed by a plunge in Airbus share prices by 26 percent in June 2006.

Before the share price drop, Leahy, one of the few non- Europeans in Airbus high-level, sold 260,000 shares for 3.1 million euros (4.1 million U.S. dollars) while exercising his options in EADS, Airbus' parent company, according to a report by French stock market supervisor Autorite des Marches Financiers.

When called by Xinhua for comment on the case, Pierre Bayle, the communication director of EADS said he couldn't give more information because he himself heard of the news but now.

If convicted, 60-year-old Leahy will face two years in prison and heavy fine proportional to his gain from the sale of EADS shares, local media reported.

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#news: Iran condemns attacks against nuclear scientists

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Iran strongly condemns the attacks killing Iranian nuclear scientists over the past weeks as "terrorist attacks," the Iranian permanent representative to the UN, Mohammed Khazaee, said in an open letter to UN leaders issued here Friday.

Khazaee said Iran is deeply concerned over "such cruel, inhuman and criminal acts of terrorism against the Iranian scientists."

The Iranian ambassador made the statement in his letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, General Assembly President Joseph Deiss, and Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN who holds the rotating Council presidency for December.

The letter came after major powers -- five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- and Iran agreed on Tuesday to meet again next month on the dispute of the Iranian nuclear program.

Tehran denied the Western allegations that it is developing nuclear weapons, insisting its nuclear program is only for peaceful purpose.

"While reiterating the peaceful nature of Iranian nuclear activities, I would like to emphasize that Iran would not compromise over its inalienable right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and any kind of political and economic pressures or terrorist attacks targeting the Iranian nuclear scientists, could not prevent our nation in exercising this right," Khazaee said.

The Iranian ambassador also noted that UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council are "expected to uphold responsibilities in condemning these inhumane terrorist acts and to take effective steps towards elimination of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations."

On Nov. 29, two Iranian prominent physicists, Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, were targeted in two separate terrorist attacks in the Iranian capital of Tehran. Shahriari was martyred as a result and Abbasi Davani and his wife were seriously injured.

In January this year, Professor Massoud Ali Mohammedi, who is also an Iranian scientist, was assassinated in front of his house.

"Based on the available evidence collected by the relevant Iranian security authorities, certain quarters which have spared no efforts in depriving the Islamic Republic of Iran from its inalienable right to peaceful nuclear energy, are behind the attacks," the Iranian ambassador said.

"As has been claimed by the same circles, these terrorist acts have been carried out as part of the efforts to disrupt Iran's peaceful nuclear program, since they assume that diplomacy alone would not be enough for that purpose," he added.

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#news London tuition fee protest

Yesterday, in central London, thousands of students and others gathered to protest as Britain's Parliament met to vote on a proposal to raise university tuition fees significantly - nearly tripling them - as part of a continuing set of austerity programs. During the protest, several clashes took place between police and protesters, resulting in numerous injuries and 43 arrests. Late in the demonstration, a group of protesters attacked the car of Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall as the couple were inside, being driven to the London Palladium. The car was slightly damaged, the royal couple unharmed, though a bit shaken by the incident. Parliament did end up narrowly approving the measure, and the fee increases are set to take effect in 2012. Collected here are images from London last night. (39 photos total)







A student protester stands on a barrier in Parliament Square on December 9, 2010 in London, England. Parliament was voting on whether to implement the coalition Government's proposals to increase university tuition fees in England from 3,290 GBP to 9,000 GBP. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)


Placards are pictured outside the University of London, on 9 December 2010, as thousands of students prepare to take part in protests against government proposals to let universities triple tuition fees. (LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images) #


A police officer puts on his body armor before a large student protest outside Parliament on December 9, 2010 in London, England. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images) #




British students protest in central London against government plans to triple tuition fees, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) #


A protester stands beside a statue of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Parliament Square in London, on December 9, 2010. (LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images) #




A student protester looks over Parliament Square on December 9, 2010 in London, England. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images) #


Mounted police drive their horses into protesters during student demonstrations in London, on December 9, 2010. (LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images) #



Police restrain a protester in London, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) #


A mounted police officer pushes protesters back during a protest against an increase in tuition fees on the edge of Parliament Square in London, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) #


A protester tries to take a police officer's truncheon during a protest outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, central London on December 9, 2010. (REUTERS/Andrew Winning) #



A police officer detains a youth during a protest against an increase in tuition fees on the edge of Parliament Square in London on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo) #



Police officers and student protesters clash during protests on December 9, 2010 in London, England. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) #


A police officer is helped by a medic during a protest in Westminster in central London December 9, 2010. (REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth) #



Police officers clash with student protesters in Parliament Square on December 9, 2010 in London, England. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) #




An injured protester is led away by a police officer during a protest outside the Houses of Parliament in London on December 9, 2010. (REUTERS/Andrew Winning) #



A police officer is covered in paint on December 9, 2010 in London, England. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) #



Police stand in a line near Parliament Square during clashes with student protesters on December 9, 2010 in London, England. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images) #



A demonstrator is carried away by medics during a protest in Westminster in central London December 9, 2010. (REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth) #


Mounted police ride during a protest in Westminster in central London December 9, 2010. (REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth) #


A police rider falls to the ground from his horse in London, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) #



Demonstrators jump off burning park benches during a protest outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, central London December 9, 2010. (REUTERS/Andrew Winning) #






A protester wears a gas mask as a vandalized portakabin is set on fire during student demonstrations in Parliament Square, in London, on December 9, 2010. (LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images) #








A fire burns in Parliament Square, Westminster, London, as students demonstrate against planned tuition fee increases on Thursday Dec. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Gareth Fuller/PA) #




Police officers in riot wear contain student protesters on Westminster Bridge on December 9, 2010 in London, England. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images) #




Police videotape proceedings and stand ready to meet a students demonstration in Parliament Square near the Palace of Westminster about the increase in University fees in London, Thursday, Dec., 9, 2010. (AP Photo / Lefteris Pitarakis) #


Mounted riot police clash with protesters during student demonstrations in Parliament Square, in London, on December 9, 2010. (Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images) #



A student protester stands in front of a fire in Parliament Square on December 9, 2010 in London, England. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images) #




Student protesters try to smash the windows to the Treasury building in Parliament Square on December 9, 2010 in London, England. (Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images) #



Police officers clash with students during protests against an increase in fees in central London, on December 9, 2010. (Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images) #



Police horses charge into a crowd of students demonstrating in Parliament Square near the Palace of Westminster about the increase in University fees in London, Thursday, Dec., 9, 2010. (AP Photo/ Lefteris Pitarakis) #



Protesters attempt to set fire to the Norwegian Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, London, during a protest against the increase in university tuition fees, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) #



British police arrest a youth during scuffles during a protest by students against government plans to triple tuition fees, in central London, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) #



Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall react as their car is attacked, in London, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2010. Angry protesters in London attacked the car containing Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. An Associated Press photographer saw demonstrators kick the car in Regent Street, in the heart of London's shopping district. The car then sped off. Charles' office, Clarence House, confirmed that "their royal highnesses' car was attacked by protesters on the way to their engagement at the London Palladium this evening, but their royal highnesses are unharmed." (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) #




A broken window and splattered paint are pictured on a car used to transport Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall to the London Palladium in London, on December 9, 2010, after it was attacked by protesters during a student demonstration. (TERRY STEPHENS/AFP/Getty Images) #



Riot police hold their shields up to protect windows inside the Treasury in Parliament Square during clashes with student protesters on December 9, 2010 in London, England. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) #


British riot police come under attack from flares as they clash with protesters during student demonstrations in Parliament Square, in London, on December 9, 2010. (CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images) #



The Big Ben clock tower is seen through the broken window of a damaged telephone box the morning after a protest in Westminster, in central London December 10, 2010. (REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth) #



Forensic police carry out investigations in Parliament Square in London, Friday, Dec. 10, 2010. A student protest Thursday over a tuition fee increase caused damage around Parliament. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Barriers are stacked in a pile in front of the Winston Churchill statue in Parliament Square after a protest, in Westminster in central London December 10, 2010. (REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

More links and information

Student protests: The morning after the night before - BBC News, 12/10

Protesters Attack Car Carrying Prince Charles - NYTimes.com, 12/9

Royal attack prompts big questions on UK security - AFP, 12/10

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