NEWS OF THE DAY
From Around the World
1 Paris attacker: The man killed when he drove his car packed with arms and explosives into a police convoy had pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State and asked his family to remember him not as a suicide bomber but as a martyr, France’s antiterrorism prosecutor said Thursday. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins, citing a letter written in the form of a will dated the day before the Monday attack on the French capital’s famed Champs-Elysees Avenue, said the man, born in a Paris suburb, had pledged his allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and practiced shooting “to prepare for jihad.” Molins said the attacker, whom he identified only as Adam D., had a huge cache of weapons both at home and in the vehicle he drove. The attack was aborted when the car exploded after the driver rammed the lead car in the police convoy, killing himself, Molins said.
2 London fire: An estimated 600 buildings across England could have flammable exterior panels similar to those believed linked to the deadly fire that quickly engulfed a London apartment tower last week, a Downing Street spokeswoman said Thursday. The findings are part of an investigation into the fast-moving inferno at the Grenfell Tower, which claimed at least 79 lives and raised questions about whether the building’s outside coverings, known as cladding, could have contributed to the blaze. British Prime Minister Theresa May said that as a precaution, the cladding in similar tower blocks was being tested. Britain has around 4,000 similar high-rise apartment blocks across the country.
3 Guatemala quake: A magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit off Guatemala’s Pacific coast on Thursday, shaking much of the country and neighboring El Salvador. Local officials said there were initial reports of only minor damage. The Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 24 miles southwest of Puerto San Jose and 6 miles below the surface. The quake sent people fleeing into the streets in El Salvador.
4 Whipped-cream death: French authorities are investigating the death of a fitness blogger reportedly hit by an exploding whipped-cream canister that was withdrawn from the market in 2013, officials and the company that makes the product said Thursday. The prosecutor’s office in the eastern city of Mulhouse said an investigation is under way into Sunday’s death of Rebecca Burger and whether a faulty siphon on a high-pressure canister used to make and dispense whipped cream was at fault. Consumer magazine 60 Million Consumers reported that the exploding canister hit Burger violently in the chest, causing her to suffer a heart attack.
5 Gender bias: An advocacy group representing an 83-year-old Holocaust survivor suing Israel’s national airline for discrimination says it’s won the case. The Israel Religious Action Center representing Renee Rabinowitz on Thursday called this week’s ruling “revolutionary.” It said an El Al flight attendant asked Rabinowitz to move from her seat next to an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man on a flight from Newark, N.J., to Tel Aviv following his request. Laws observed by some Ultra-Orthodox Jews stipulate strict separation of the sexes. It said “the deep humiliation Renee felt because of this” led her to seek help. The center says the case set a precedent and asking passengers now to move their seat due to gender is discrimination, which is prohibited. It says El Al was ordered to pay Rabinowitz about $ 1,700 in damages.