Teen convicted in Craigslist killings

Teen convicted in Craigslist killings

AKRON

An Ohio teenager taken under the wing of a man defense attorneys described as a master manipulator was found guilty of aggravated murder Tuesday for his role in a deadly plot to lure men desperate for work with phony Craigslist job offers.

Prosecutors in the weeks-long trial painted 17-year-old Brogan Rafferty as a quick student of violence and willing participant in three killings, while the defense argued he was acting under the duress of his alleged accomplice, a self-styled chaplain depicted as a mentor.

Authorities say Rafferty, of Stow, helped Richard Beasley of Akron lure four victims at separate times with bogus Craigslist job offers to a nonexistent cattle farm in rural Noble County in southeast Ohio; they say the motive was robbery. Authorities say Beasley shot and killed three of the men; the fourth victim was shot in the arm and survived.

Rebels: Syrian regime kills 23

BEIRUT

Airstrikes by Syrian jets and shells from tanks leveled a neighborhood in a restive city near the capital of Damascus on Tuesday, killing 18 people, and at least five rebel fighters died nearby in clashes with regime troops, activists said.

The airstrikes on the city of Douma, northeast of the capital, left residents scampering over a huge expanse of rubble and using their hands to dig up mangled bodies, according to activist videos posted online.

Scenes of vast destruction like those from Douma on Tuesday have grown more common as rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Assad have made gains on the ground, and Assad’s forces have responded with overwhelming air power.

Cars targeted in search for shooter

DETROIT

Police have stopped a number of cars that appear to be involved in “suspicious activities” along some southeast Michigan roads and freeways in an effort to find a man shooting randomly at passing vehicles.

Officers are looking for anything out of the norm as part of a four-county investigation into two dozen vehicle shootings, said Lt. Mike Shaw, of the state police post in Brighton. Shootings have been reported in Oakland, Livingston, Ingham and Shiawassee counties.

Witnesses have described the suspect’s vehicle as resembling a dark 1998 Oldsmobile Alero or a 1998 Toyota Camry. Police on Monday stopped the driver of a dark-colored Chevy Cavalier after a woman reported something hit her car on U.S. 23 near Brighton.

French officials get anti-sexism lessons

PARIS

First there was Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who reportedly referred to women as “material,” then catcalls in the French Parliament just because a female government minister wore a floral dress.

But when this month the French agriculture minister — in an interview about promoting gender equality — suggested that women couldn’t get their heads around technical jobs, that was too much.

The prime minister of France — a country which produced feminist icons such as Joan of Arc and Simone de Beauvoir — has decided that his ministers need to go back to school for anti-sexism classes.

On Jean-Marc Ayrault’s orders, the Equality Ministry has set up a series of 45-minute gender-equality “sensitization sessions,” during which ministers are being trained to identify sexism in daily life and taught how to avoid sexist stereotypes in political communication.

Associated Press