Passage 1
Senior Congress leader was conferred France’s civilian honour, the Chevalier de la Legion d’ Honneur France, at an intimate ceremony in the French embassy in the national capital.
He was awarded the honour in August 2022, but formal conferring took place on Tuesday.
The Congress leader said that his relationship with France began during his stint in the United Nations and that he has always “nurtured a sense or profound respect for French democracy” as the land where “the people” first replaced “the king” as the nucleus of the nation.
Passage 2
Julian Assange was on Tuesday absent due to illness from a London court hearing his final appeal against extradition to the United States to face trial for publishing secret military and diplomatic files.
Opening the two-day hearing in Mr. Assange’s absence, his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said his prosecution could not be justified.
“He is being prosecuted for engaging in ordinary journalistic practice of obtaining and publishing classified information, information that is both true and of obvious and important public interest,” Mr. Fitzgerald said.