Midday Roundup: Wikileaks founder looks to UN for likely support

Exile update. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up at an embassy in London for three years, might have found support from a UN panel. The Swedish government wants to arrest Assange for sexual misconduct, and the British want to nab him for jumping bail. Assange sought political asylum in Ecuador in 2012 amid a U.S. investigation into Wikileaks’ release of stolen diplomatic cables. He made it as far as the Ecuadorian embassy in London, but is threatened with arrest if he leaves. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is expected to release a report Friday calling Assange’s detention unfair. Assange said he is prepared to face arrest if the UN sides against him in the matter, but “should I prevail and the state parties be found to have acted unlawfully, I expect the immediate return of my passport and the termination of further attempts to arrest me.”

Pledge drive. World leaders gathered in London today to drum up donations to help the victims of Syria’s civil war. Pledges of more than $10 billion in aid came as military bombardments in Syria intensified and tentative peace talks in Geneva were on hold. Delegates from 70 countries discussed their plans for helping Syrians who have sought refuge from the war. The UN and regional countries say they need $9 billion in assistance for 2016 alone. Conference co-host Britain has pledged $1.75 billion in new aid between now and 2020, and the U.S. committed $900 million to bring total U.S. humanitarian spending on the five-year war to $5.1 billion.

Terror target. A drone strike killed a Yemeni al-Qaeda leader Wednesday night, local officials said. Jalal Baliedy headed al-Qaeda in the province and had led several major attacks, including the beheading of soldiers. Washington considers al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch to be the most dangerous offshoot of the network. The group has been blamed for several unsuccessful bomb plots aimed at Americans, including an attempt to bring down a U.S.-bound airliner with explosives hidden in the bomber’s underwear and a second plot to send bombs hidden in printer cartridges on planes headed to the U.S.

In the hot seat. Congress is grilling Martin Shkreli, the former hedge fund manager who hiked the price of a lifesaving drug by 5,000 percent, but getting little cooperation from him. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee summoned Shkreli to testify this morning and berated him for raising the price for Daraprim, the only approved drug for a rare and sometimes deadly parasitic infection. “I call this money blood money … coming out of the pockets of hardworking Americans,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said. Shkreli repeatedly took the Fifth Amendment when questioned by lawmakers during the hearing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.