Philip Chism, 14, was indicted by a grand jury Thursday for murder, aggravated rape and armed robbery in relation to the death of 24-year-old teacher Colleen Ritzer last month.

Chism was allegedly armed with a box cutter when he robbed her of an iPhone, credit cards, and her underwear. Police say she was sexually assaulted with a foreign object and was killed in the bathroom of Danvers High School in Massachusetts after class let out October 22. Her body was found in the woods behind the school.

“The indictments returned today detail horrific and unspeakable acts,” District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said in a statement.

Chism is being tried as an adult and is being held without bail. He entered a not-guilty plea to the first-degree murder charge on October 23. A court date hasn’t been set.

The Catholic Church will not accept a Middle East without Christians, Pope Francis said on Thursday after meeting with patriarchs from Iran, Iraq and Syria.

“We will not resign ourselves to imagining a Middle East without Christians,” he said before calling for “the universal right to lead a dignified life and freely practice one’s own faith to be respected.” The pontiff, speaking at a time when Christian communities in the Middle East have grown increasingly vulnerable amid the upheavals of recent years, said “Syria, Iraq, Egypt and other areas of the Holy Land sometimes overflow with tears.”

According to the Oeuvre d’Orient Catholic association, there are an estimated 10 to 13 million Christians in the region. They represent 36 percent of Lebanon’s population, 10 percent of Egypt’s, five percent of Syria’s and two percent of Iraq’s. Throughout Syria’s civil war, Christians have claimed to be targeted persecuted by anti-government rebels…

As many as 6,000 child abuse cases reported to an Arizona state hotline were misclassified and thus went uninvestigated since 2009, officials said Thursday.

“The idea that there are 6,000 cases where we don’t know whether or not children are safe, that’s cause for grave alarm,” Clarence Carter, head of Arizona’s child welfare system, told the AP. Carter says 5,000 of the cases occurred in the last 20 months when the hotline underwent changes and personnel saw an increased caseload.

Thus far, 125 of the cases involved children who became the subject of later abuse investigations.

Governor Jan Brewer noted that Child Protective Services was a weak point earlier this year and added 50 new caseworkers and funding for an additional 150 in July.

[AP]

On the 50th anniversary of JKF’s assassination, CNN’s Brooke Baldwin speaks to Kate Griendling, “Capturing Oswald” filmmaker and Jim Leavelle, former Dallas Homcide detective who has handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald when he was shot.