WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returns to Australia a free man after US legal battle ends

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has returned to his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet hours after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets. The deal with the Justice Department concludes a drawn-out legal saga. The criminal case of international intrigue came to a surprise end in a most unusual setting with Assange entering his plea in a U.S. district court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, on Wednesday. Assange had flown from a London prison to Saipan in a charter jet and flew in the same aircraft to the Australian capital Canberra.