4 Toddlers Stabbed in France

French forensic police officers work at the scene of a stabbing attack in the 'Jardins de l'Europe' park in Annecy, in the French Alps, on June 8, 2023. (Photo by OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP)
French forensic police officers work at the scene of a stabbing attack in the 'Jardins de l'Europe' park in Annecy, in the French Alps, on June 8, 2023. (Photo by OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP)
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4 Toddlers Stabbed in France

French forensic police officers work at the scene of a stabbing attack in the 'Jardins de l'Europe' park in Annecy, in the French Alps, on June 8, 2023. (Photo by OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP)
French forensic police officers work at the scene of a stabbing attack in the 'Jardins de l'Europe' park in Annecy, in the French Alps, on June 8, 2023. (Photo by OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP)

Four toddlers and two adults were stabbed in a knife attack in the tranquil French mountain town of Annecy on Thursday, and the government said the suspected assailant was a Syrian refugee.

Two of the children and one adult were in hospital in a life-threatening condition, while the other victims were less seriously hurt.

A video of the attack, taken by a bystander and verified by Reuters, showed the assailant jump a low wall into a children's playground and repeatedly lunge at a child in a stroller, pushing aside a woman who tries to fend him off.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said the suspected attacker, who was in police custody, was a 31-year old Syrian national who was granted asylum in Sweden 10 years ago. He had entered France legally, she said, and was carrying Swedish identity documents and a Swedish driving license.

The four children were just toddlers, aged between 22 months and three years, Annecy prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis told reporters.

One of them was a British national, another was Dutch, Bonnet-Mathis said.

As the assailant, who wore a blue-chequered headscarf and sunglasses, slashed at his victims, one bystander tried to stop him by throwing his backpack at him, the video showed.

The incident took place at around 0745 GMT in Le Paquier park in Annecy, a town in the French Alps.

"The nation is in shock," President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter, calling the attack "an act of absolute cowardice.”

In Paris, lawmakers interrupted a debate to hold a moment of silence for the victims.



The assembly president, Yaël Braun-Pivet, said: "There are some very young children who are in critical condition, and I invite you to respect a minute of silence for them, for their families, and so that, we hope, the consequences of this very grave attack do not lead to the nation grieving.”



Assange Heads to Australia after US Guilty Plea

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves the US Federal Courthouse in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, on June 26, 2024. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves the US Federal Courthouse in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, on June 26, 2024. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)
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Assange Heads to Australia after US Guilty Plea

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves the US Federal Courthouse in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, on June 26, 2024. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves the US Federal Courthouse in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, on June 26, 2024. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walked free on Wednesday from a court on the US Pacific island territory of Saipan after pleading guilty to violating US espionage law in a deal that allowed him to head straight home to Australia.
His release ends a 14-year legal saga in which Assange spent more than five years in a British high-security jail and seven years in asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy in London battling extradition to the US, where he faced 18 criminal charges, Reuters reported.
During the three-hour hearing, Assange pleaded guilty to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified national defense documents but said he had believed the US Constitution's First Amendment, which protects free speech, shielded his activities.
"Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information," he told the court.
"I believed the First Amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was ... a violation of the espionage statute."
Chief US District Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted his guilty plea and released him due to time already served in a British jail.
"We firmly believe that Mr. Assange never should have been charged under the Espionage Act and engaged in (an) exercise that journalists engage in every day," his US lawyer, Barry Pollack, told reporters outside the court.
WikiLeaks' work would continue, he said.
His UK and Australian lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, thanked the Australian government for its years of diplomacy in securing Assange's release.
"It is a huge relief to Julian Assange, to his family, to his friends, to his supporters and to us and to everyone who believes in free speech around the world that he can now return home to Australia and be reunited with his family," she said.
Assange, 52, left the court through a throng of TV cameras and photographers without answering questions, then waved as he got into a white SUV.
He left Saipan on a private jet to the Australian capital Canberra.

Assange had agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count, according to filings in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

The US territory in the western Pacific was chosen due to his opposition to travelling to the mainland US and for its proximity to Australia, prosecutors said.