PM: WikiLeaks has not broken Australian law

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SYDNEY – Police in Australia have concluded that WikiLeaks and its Australian-born founder Julian Assange have not broken any laws in his home country by publishing classified U.S. documents, the government said Friday.

The finding has no direct bearing on investigations in the United States into the original leaking of the thousands of classified diplomatic documents to Assange's organization, or the sexual assault allegations for which he is wanted in Sweden.

But it will come as good news to Assange, who has complained of persecution by the Australian government over the publication of the documents, which have outraged Washington and been condemned by the United States and its allies.

Assange has not said he wants to return to Australia, though his mother and son both live in the country.

The government said last month it had ordered Australian Federal Police to determine whether WikiLeaks had broke any Australian laws by publishing the U.S. cables. Reports of documents obtained by WikiLeaks have included classified reports from the U.S. Embassy in Canberra to the State Department.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Friday said the police had now reported back to the government.

"The advice is that there has been no breaches of Australian law," Gillard told reporters.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland gave a little more information, saying in a statement that, on the current information available, police had not identified any criminal offenses within Australia's jurisdiction so no formal investigation had been launched.

Gillard again condemned WikiLeaks for publishing the documents, saying it was "grossly irresponsible." The government has said publication of the internal documents could harm relations between governments.

She said whoever leaked the documents to WikiLeaks had clearly broken U.S. laws. She said that theft was appropriately being investigated by U.S. authorities. Australian officials have said they are assisting U.S. authorities in that investigation.

Assange was released on bail Thursday from a London jail, where he was being held in connection to the Swedish sexual molestation allegations. Assange has denied any wrongdoing, but has said that he is concerned that if he goes to Sweden he may eventually be sent to the United States on charges related to the leaks.

No such charges have been laid, but U.S. officials are investigating whether Assange could be charged in U.S. court under the Espionage Act or face other crimes — such as theft of government property or receipt of stolen government property.

The U.S. government suspects WikiLeaks received the documents from an Army private, Bradley Manning, who is in the brig on charges of leaking other classified documents to the organization.

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WikiLeaks: Yemen nuclear material was unsecured

CAIRO – A storage facility housing Yemen's radioactive material was unsecured for up to a week after its lone guard was removed and its surveillance camera was broken, a secret U.S. State Department cable released by WikiLeaks revealed Monday.

The message, dated Jan. 9, relates the worries of a Yemeni official, whose name was removed, about the unguarded state of a National Atomic Energy Commission facility. He pushes the U.S. embassy to urge his own government to secure the material.

"Very little now stands between the bad guys and Yemen's nuclear material," the official is quoted as saying in the cable, which appeared on the website of the British Guardian newspaper.

Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, hosts a particularly active branch of Al-Qaida that has not only repeatedly attacked the Yemeni government but attempted several attacks against the U.S. including last year's failed plot to blow up an airliner in Detroit on Christmas.

On Jan. 7, Yemeni Foreign Abu Bakr al-Qirbi told the ambassador that "no radioactive material was currently stored in Sanaa and that all 'radioactive waste' was shipped to Syria."

According to the cable, the radioactive material was used by local universities for agricultural research, Sanaa hospital and by international oil companies.

The facility's lone guard was removed on Dec. 30, 2009, reported the cable and its single closed circuit TV camera had been broken for the last six months.

Yemeni officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the cable.

The cable said the embassy would push senior Yemeni officials to provide an accounting of its radioactive materials and ensure storage facilities were secure.