Julian Assange's wife takes hope as Biden says U.S. considering dropping charges against WikiLeaks founder
CBSN
London - The wife of Julian Assange said Thursday that her husband's legal case "could be moving in the right direction" after President Biden indicated that the U.S. could drop charges against the imprisoned WikiLeaks founder. It came as supporters in several cities rallied to demand the release of Assange on the fifth anniversary of his incarceration in London's high-security Belmarsh prison.
Asked by a reporter on Wednesday as he walked outside the White House about a request from Australia to drop the decade-long U.S. push to prosecute Assange for publishing classified American documents, Mr. Biden replied: "We're considering it."
The proposal would see Assange, an Australian citizen, return home rather than be sent to the U.S. to face espionage charges.
Paris — Ukrainian double European champion weightlifter Oleksandr Pielieshenko was killed in the war against Russia, the Ukrainian weightlifting federation announced Monday. Pielieshenko, 30, won European gold in 2016 and 2017, and narrowly missed out on a medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics where he came fourth in the 85kg category.
New Delhi —Afghanistan's top diplomat in India resigned days after she was reportedly caught by airport authorities smuggling nearly $2 million worth of gold into the country. Zakia Wardak, the Afghan Consul-General in India's financial capital Mumbai, posted a statement on social media announcing her resignation.
Israel's military ordered Palestinians in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah to evacuate Monday ahead of a ground offensive long promised by the Jewish state's leaders. The message was delivered with fliers, phone calls, messages and media broadcasts in Arabic after a weekend that saw hope for a new cease-fire in the seven-month Israel-Hamas war dashed yet again.