Man acquitted in France of harboring terrorists

PARIS — A French court on Wednesday acquitted a man charged with harboring Islamic extremists after they carried out the 2015 Paris attacks, bringing a surprising end to the first criminal trial linked to the country’s deadliest extremist violence since World War II.

The presiding judge said the Paris court found Jawad Bendaoud, a 31-year-old street criminal, not guilty of providing lodging to two of the attackers and helping them hide from police.

The court also convicted and sentenced two co-defendants in the case to prison terms Wednesday.

The Nov. 13, 2015, attacks on Paris cafes, the national stadium and the Bataclan concert hall left 130 people dead. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

Addressing Bendaoud at a verdict hearing, Judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez said the evidence was “insufficient to prove your guilt.” Bendaoud raised his fist in victory and blew kisses to the public and his lawyers at the news. He faced up to six years in prison if convicted of harboring terrorists.

Bendaoud denied knowing the identity of the men to whom he rented a small flat in Saint-Denis. One of them was Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks.

Bendaoud had been imprisoned for 27 months pending his trial. Department said Wednesday it will suspend a $133 million deal with a U.S. company hired to repair homes damaged by Hurricane Maria because a review board found the contract was improperly awarded.

The department’s contractor review board published a ruling Tuesday that New York-based Adjusters International received the contract, which was subsidized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, though it did not meet several requirements.

diagnose concussions.

The test doesn’t detect concussions and the approval won’t immediately change how patients with suspected concussions or other brain trauma are treated. But Wednesday’s green light by the Food and Drug Administration “is a big deal because then it opens the door and accelerates technology,” said Michael McCrea, a brain injury expert at Medical College of Wisconsin.

The test detects two proteins present in brain cells that can leak into the bloodstream following a blow to the head. Banyan’s research shows the test can detect them up within 12 hours of injury. It’s designed to help doctors quickly determine which patients with suspected concussions may have brain bleeding or other brain injury.

The test will first be used in emergency rooms, possibly as soon as later this year, but Banyan’s hope is that it will eventually be used on battlefields and football fields.