Feature

The week at a glance ... Europe

Europe

London
Children as sex offenders: Two boys, ages 10 and 11, were convicted in adult court this week of attempting to rape an 8-year-old girl, sparking an outcry among child advocates. The girl originally claimed that the boys had dragged her to a shed and raped her, but under cross-examination, she said she’d made up the story to avoid getting in trouble for not being home. Still, the judge let the jury decide which account to believe. Child-welfare advocates say all of the children were too young to have been either defendants or witnesses, and many legal experts agreed. “We’ve been witnessing a spectacle that has no place in an intelligent society,” said Britain’s former chief prosecutor, Sir Ken MacDonald. The boys face sentences ranging from probation to incarceration in a juvenile facility, and they will have to register as sex offenders. England tries anyone over age 10 in adult court.

Frombork, Poland
Copernicus laid to rest, again: Nicolaus Copernicus, the 16th-century astronomer who was posthumously branded a heretic by the Vatican for proclaiming shortly before his death that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of the solar system, has finally been given a Catholic funeral. Copernicus never achieved fame in his lifetime, and he was buried in an unmarked grave. Recently his bones were identified through DNA testing, and this week he was buried in a tomb in Frombork Cathedral, with a model of the solar system engraved on his tombstone. “Today’s funeral has symbolic value,” said Bishop Jacek Jezierski, “in that it is a gesture of reconciliation between science and faith.”

Recommended

Blaze kills 39 at migrant detention center in Mexico
 Rescuers work to take the injured and the corpses of the victims out of the premises after a fire at an immigration detention center in Northern Mexico
tragedy at the border

Blaze kills 39 at migrant detention center in Mexico

U.S. to crack down on guns going south, Mexico works to stop fentanyl heading north
A CBP agent at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Ysidro, California.
Stopping the Flow

U.S. to crack down on guns going south, Mexico works to stop fentanyl heading north

Lebanon to reverse daylight savings decision
Clock tower in Lebanon.
really, what time is it?

Lebanon to reverse daylight savings decision

The extreme weather events of 2023
An illustration of a tornado and wind-swept palm trees
In depth

The extreme weather events of 2023

Most Popular

How to watch 5 planets align in the night sky on Tuesday
Moon, Jupiter, Venus.
skyline

How to watch 5 planets align in the night sky on Tuesday

5 toons about Trump's possible indictment
Political Cartoon
Feature

5 toons about Trump's possible indictment

Florida principal forced to resign over Michelangelo's David display
The statue of 'David' by Michelangelo.
Controversy Over David

Florida principal forced to resign over Michelangelo's David display