PARIS (AFP) - A Swiss court on Wednesday acquitted Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan on charges of rape and sexual coercion, finding no evidence against the former Oxford University professor The academic was also awarded around 151,000 Swiss francs ($167,000) in compensation from the Swiss canton of Geneva over the case. After the verdict was read in the Geneva Criminal Court, the 60-year-old Swiss preacher smiled and was hugged by one of his daughters.  Ramadan’s 57-year-old accuser, identified under the assumed name of “Brigitte”, left the courtroom before the end of the verdict.

 

 

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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A 95-year-old Australian woman died Wednesday, a week after a police officer shot her with a stun gun in a nursing home as she moved toward him using a walker and carrying a steak knife, in a tragedy that has outraged many Australians. Clare Nowland, who had dementia, had been hospitalized in Cooma in New South Wales state since her skull was fractured when she fell on May 17 after Constable Kristian White shocked her with a stun gun. Police announced Nowland’s death hours after reporting that White has been ordered to appear in court on July 5 on charges of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault.

 

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A U.S. aircraft carrier arrived Wednesday in Oslo with the Norwegian armed forces saying it gives them “a unique opportunity to further develop cooperation and work more closely with our most important ally, the United States.” The nuclear-powered ship USS Gerald R. Ford entered the Oslo fjord escorted by a rapid dinghy-type boat with armed personnel on board. The Norwegian armed forces has said any boats must stay a half-kilometer (half-mile) away from the aircraft carrier and a no-fly zone was created over the area where the aircraft carrier was.

 

 

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Senior judge Ioannis Sarmas was named caretaker prime minister in Greece Wednesday after a general election failed to produce a new government. Sarmas, 66, will be sworn in Thursday and lead a caretaker government until a new election next month, according to government officials. The vote is widely expected to be held on June 25 but has not been formally confirmed. His appointment was announced after the conservative New Democracy party of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis won a landslide victory in a general election Sunday, beating his left-wing opponents by 20 percentage points but falling short of a parliamentary majority.

 

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GEORGETOWN (Reuters) - A fire in a school dormitory in Guyana that killed 19 children was lit by a student after school authorities confiscated her cell phone, police said. The children, mostly Indigenous girls, died around midnight, most at the scene. “A female student is suspected of having set the devastating fire because her cellular phone was taken away by the dorm’s mother and a teacher,” police said in a statement. David Adams, the mayor of Mahdia, the town where the school is located, earlier confirmed the student’s alleged involvement to Reuters and said she was not injured in the fire.