Assange extradition hearing set for 2020
LONDON -- A British court has set a date early next year for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face a U.S. extradition attempt over his role in revealing classified government and military information.
The judge at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday set a full extradition hearing for Feb. 25. It is expected to last about five days. Interim hearings are expected in July and October.
Assange, who has been suffering from ill health in prison, appeared in court via video link. He appeared to be tired and showed signs of a possible hand tremor. He was again sporting a gray-white beard after having shaved it off before his last court appearance.
Ben Brandon, a British lawyer representing the U.S. government, told a hearing that the case "related to one of the largest compromises of confidential information in the history of the United States."
U.S. officials are seeking to prosecute Assange under the Espionage Act, blaming him for directing WikiLeaks' publication of a huge trove of secret documents that disclosed the names of people who provided confidential information to American and coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 47-year-old Australian hacker is currently in Belmarsh Prison on the outskirts of London serving a 50-week sentence for jumping bail in Britain. His legal team is appealing that sentence. He also faces questioning from Swedish prosecutors investigating a rape allegation.
Assange faces 18 charges from the U.S., including conspiracy to hack into government computers.
Citing the possible maximum prison term he could face if convicted on all counts, Assange said: "One hundred and seventy-five years of my life is effectively at stake."
Assange complained about what he characterized as inaccurate reporting on his case, citing the BBC in particular, and saying the press has mistakenly reported that he is accused of computer hacking.
However, Brandon told the judge that the U.S. case does include a hacking charge. The judge agreed and said it is her understanding that there is a hacking charge and suggested Assange discuss it with his lawyers.
Bridge section falls; 2 people missing
BEIJING -- An entire section of a roadway bridge plunged into a wide river in southern China, sending two vehicles into the water and leaving two people missing.
Heyuan city police said the 390-foot section collapsed early Friday.
China's Xinhua News Agency reported that two nearby security guards rescued a 44-year-old man and that two other people remained missing.
Footage on state broadcaster China Central Television showed two arches of the six-arch bridge falling apart within seconds and without any apparent warning.
The bridge spans the Dongjiang River in Guangdong province.
The cause of the collapse is under investigation. Southern China has been hit with heavy rains and flooding that have caused 61 deaths, but it wasn't clear if swelling waters were a factor.
Israel retaliates after rocket hits school
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Thousands of Palestinians held protests along the volatile Gaza-Israel frontier Friday, after a night of Israeli retaliatory airstrikes for a rocket that hit a building in southern Israel.
The flare-up, which came after Israel this week closed Gaza's offshore waters to fishermen in response to the launch of incendiary balloons, breaks a month-long lull.
Gaza's health ministry said 46 Palestinian demonstrators were wounded by Israeli fire. It did not elaborate.
Gaza's Hamas rulers started the protests more than a year ago, demanding an end to a crippling blockade Israel and Egypt imposed when the militant group seized the territory by force in 2007.
Earlier Friday, the Israeli military said it struck several militant sites in the Gaza Strip in response to the rocket fire.
The army said Israeli warplanes attacked "terror infrastructure" in Gaza, including military and naval compounds belonging to Hamas.
There was no immediate retaliatory rocket fire from Gaza, or reports of wounded or dead on either side.
The army said the rocket launched late Thursday hit a religious school in the Israeli border city of Sderot.
German burkini ban lifted temporarily
BERLIN -- A German court has lifted a city's ban on the burkini, an all-encompassing swimsuit used by some Muslim women.
Wearing the garments in municipal pools in the western city of Koblenz was forbidden at the beginning of this year after the local council narrowly approved a ban. Officials argued that the suit makes it impossible to check whether wearers have open wounds or diseases.
The rules were challenged by a Syrian asylum-seeker, a pious Muslim who said doctors had recommended that she use a swimming pool to tackle pain caused by a back problem.
Rhineland-Palatinate state's top administrative court said Friday that it has issued an injunction lifting the burkini ban pending fuller consideration of the case. It found the rules violated the German constitution's call for people to be treated equally.
-- Compiled by Democrat-Gazette staff from wire reports
A Section on 06/15/2019