Grad student allegedly killed professor

BINGHAMTON, N.Y., Dec. 5 (UPI) -- A graduate student at the State University of New York, Binghamton was charged Saturday with killing a professor at the university.

Abdulsalam Al-Zahran, 46, a native of Saudi Arabia studying for a doctorate in cultural anthropology, was charged with second-degree murder, the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin reported. He was being held without bail after a brief arraignment.

Richard Antoun, 77, an emeritus professor of anthropology, was fatally stabbed Friday afternoon in a university building.

Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen said Antoun and Zahran knew each other because they were in the same department. Mollen refused to say anything about a possible motive but said there were no hints the killing was motivated by politics or religious or ethnic hatred.

The university called the killing "an act of senseless violence" in a statement Friday. Officials refused to release any information on Zahran and said anything on the case would come from the district attorney's office.