Vigil planned at Academic Hall for Paris victims

As monuments around the world are lit in red, white and blue in a show of solidarity with France, a vigil is being planned today in Cape Girardeau for the victims of Friday's attacks that killed 129 people in Paris.

A candlelight vigil is planned for 5:30 p.m. today on the steps of Academic Hall at the Southeast Missouri State University. The vigil will include a lighting of the candles, a moment of silence and a few brief comments, according to the event's Facebook page.

Donations will be collected for the International Red Cross, the page said. The event's organizer could not be reached for comment.

Marine Perot, a French graduate student at Southeast Missouri State University, said she plans to attend.

She started getting information Friday evening local time about a few people in Paris having been killed. Later, she said, she started receiving text messages asking whether she had seen the news.

"So I went online and saw that it wasn't an accident, that it was not just six people and ... that number was increasing by the minute," she said.

She said she confirmed all her friends were safe via text message and Facebook's new Safety Check feature.

"Most of them were home or [had gone] out of town," she said. "I have a couple of friends who were stuck in other parts of the city and had to stay with other people because they couldn't go home."

The Eiffel Tower, which dimmed its lights in mourning after Friday's attacks, is being relit in red, white and blue. Other monuments around the globe have done the same in recent days in a show of sympathy with Paris, including the Sydney Opera House, Berlin's Brandenburg Gate and Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue.

Addressing a special joint session of parliament at the Palace of Versailles, French President Francois Hollande said the attackers targeted "the France that likes life, culture, sports, parties." Islamic State militants have claimed responsibility for the attacks, which Hollande said targeted "youth in all its diversity." He said the victims were of 19 nationalities.

Perot said she believes the attack was politically and socially motivated, calling it an "attack against our way of life."

"If you compare it to the events of January," Perot said, referring to the shooting at newspaper Charlie Hebdo, "the attacks in Paris in January were more political. They were targeting a newspaper because of its satire and because of some stuff they were not agreeing with. But this time, [the attack] didn't target specific people. They targeted people who were just enjoying life on a Friday night in France."

Perot said she had read the ISIS statement and said it sounds as if they consider France's way of life bad.

"Nothing can explain or nothing can justify it," she said.

Those looking to donate money to relief efforts in France should research charities before deciding which one.

"Anytime there's a disaster like that, you do see scammers trying to take advantage of the situation," said Joey Keys of the Cape Girardeau Better Business Bureau. "We do urge donors to check charities before they give."

Keys said people should not hesitate to ask an unfamiliar charity about its finances. If it is hesitant to be transparent, Keys said, that can be a red flag.

Those wanting to make donations online should make sure the website is secure and has a proxy policy, Keys said.

"Also be leery of copycat sites that may look like legitimate sites," Keys said. He said these scam sites often will have the correct graphics, such as a red cross, but have one extra word in the title or a switched word or letter in the URL.

Keys said the BBB reviews charities. Visitors to give.org can search for the charity by name or see alphabetical listings. Keys said a charity might be legitimate even if it is not found on give.org, but he recommended further online research to determine its trustworthiness.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

kwebster@semissourian.com

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