Teens convicted of killing teacher
PARIS — A French juvenile court on Friday convicted six teenagers for their roles in the 2020 beheading of a teacher by an Islamic extremist, an attack that shocked the country and shone a light on the real-world dangers of online hate speech.
Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher, was killed near his school after showing his class cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad during a debate on free expression. Attacker Abdoullakh Anzorov, a young Chechen who had become radicalized, was killed by police.
The court found five of the defendants, who were 14 and 15 at the time of the attack, guilty of involvement in staking out the teacher and identifying him for the attacker. The sixth defendant, 13 at the time, was found guilty of lying about the classroom debate in comments that aggravated online anger against the teacher.
ATLANTA — Atlanta police have arrested a woman
who’s accused of trying to burn down the birthplace of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta.
Officers arrested the 26-year-old woman around 5:45 p.m. Thursday after responding to a report of vandalism in process at the two-story home in the historic Auburn Avenue Historic District, according to a police statement. Police say a preliminary investigation shows the woman had poured gasoline on the property before people at the site stopped her.
“We believe at this time she was pouring gasoline on the porch and the door of the home. Their quick action saved a jewel of our city, something very important to Atlanta,” Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum told WXIA-TV.
WASHINGTON — Harvard University’s president
apologized as pressure mounted for the University of Pennsylvania’s president to resign over their testimony at a congressional hearing on antisemitism that critics from the White House on down say failed to demonstrate they would stand up to antisemitism on campus.
In an interview Thursday with The Crimson student newspaper, Harvard President Claudine Gay said she got caught up in a heated exchange at the House committee hearing and failed to properly denounce threats of violence against Jewish students.
Meanwhile, lawyers for a major donor to Penn, Ross Stevens, wrote to Penn’s general counsel on Thursday to threaten to withdraw a gift valued at $100 million because of the university’s “stance on antisemitism on campus” unless Penn President Liz Magill is replaced.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — One of the biggest and
brightest stars in the night sky will momentarily vanish as an asteroid passes in front of it to produce a oneof-a-kind eclipse.
The rare and fleeting spectacle, late Monday into early Tuesday, should be visible to millions of people along a narrow path stretching from central Asia’s Tajikistan and Armenia, across Turkey, Greece, Italy and Spain, to Miami and the Florida Keys and finally, to parts of Mexico.
The star is Betelgeuse, a red supergiant in the constellation Orion. The asteroid is Leona, a slowly rotating, oblong space rock in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Astronomers hope to learn more about Betelgeuse and Leona through the eclipse, which is expected to last no more than 15 seconds.
BOSTON — An official menu for a state banquet that
bears the signature of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong has been auctioned for $275,000.
Boston-based RR Auction said the menu auctioned Wednesday was for a banquet held in Beijing on Oct. 19, 1956, and commemorated the first state visit to China by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy.
The menu was signed in fountain pen by six influential Chinese statesmen, including Mao and Premier Zhou Enlai.