Cosby trial: Defence rests after calling brief witness

US comedian Bill Cosby's defence lawyers have rested their case after presenting a single, brief witness in his sexual assault trial.
Defence lawyers called to the stand a detective who led a 2005 investigation into claims that he drugged and molested a woman at his home in 2004.
The embattled star, 79, earlier told a judge he would not testify to defend himself against those allegations.
Mr Cosby denies the charge and his lawyer has said she agreed to sex.
Andrea Constand, the 44-year-old at the centre of the case, says the alleged incident happened during a visit to his home to seek career advice.
Dozens of women say he assaulted them, but statutes of limitation rules mean he is on trial for only one allegation.
Mr Cosby arrived at court on Monday with his wife, Camille, who made her first appearance at the high-profile trial in Norristown, a suburb of Philadelphia. She is the first family member to join him.
He told Judge Steven O'Neill that he had decided not to testify after speaking with his lawyers.
Detective Richard Schaffer appeared for just six minutes on the defence's behalf, in which he told a jury that Ms Constand had visited Mr Cosby at an out-of-state casino.
Defence lawyers have sought to discredit Ms Constand by suggesting the pair were in a romantic relationship and she had changed her story several times during a previous investigation. 
 


They pointed to dozens of phone calls she made after the alleged incident and the casino visit.
In 2006, the comedian settled with Ms Constand after providing an undisclosed cash sum to her.
Mr Schaffer also said police knew Mr Cosby had vision problems more than a decade ago, supporting the actor's claim that he is blind.
Judge O'Neill rejected a request to call the defence's second witness, a woman who worked with Ms Constand at Philadelphia's Temple University, where Ms Cosby met the accuser.
The prosecution rested its case on Friday after five days of testimony from witnesses including Kelly Johnson, who claims Mr Cosby drugged and sexually abused her in 1996 under similar circumstances.
The jury was expected to hear closing arguments and could begin deliberating as early as Monday afternoon. 

The case is seen as the biggest US celebrity court case since the murder trial of former American football player OJ Simpson in 1995.
If convicted, Mr Cosby faces up to a decade in prison.

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Trump sued over foreign payments by attorneys general

Officials in Maryland and Washington DC are suing Donald Trump for accepting payments from foreign governments via his business empire.
The lawsuit cites the US constitution's emoluments clause, which says no federal official should receive a gift or a fee from a foreign government.
The suit claims Mr Trump is "flagrantly violating the constitution", Washington DC's attorney general said.
It is the first such lawsuit filed by government entities.
"Never in the history of this country have we had a president with these kinds of extensive business entanglements or a president who refused to adequately distance himself from their holdings," Karl Racine, the District of Columbia attorney general said while announcing the lawsuit alongside Brian Frosh, Maryland's attorney general, on Monday.
A non-governmental organisation, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, lodged a similar legal action in January.
At that time, Mr Trump told a reporter in the Oval Office the case was "totally without merit". He has not yet commented on the latest move.

Another legal headache - Analysis by Anthony Zurcher, BBC News

The constitutional challenges to Donald Trump's ongoing business ties as president just got some state-level muscle behind them.
While the lawsuit by the District of Columbia and Maryland isn't the first attempt to force the president to more fully separate himself from his real-estate empire, the two governments bring a new level of legitimacy and resources.
The first hurdle the states face is whether they have the proper legal grounds to file this case. Given that this is judicial terra incognita, there's no telling how the courts will react.
There's never been a businessman-turned-president quite like Mr Trump, so there's never been a lawsuit quite like this one.
If Maryland and DC are able to proceed, the case could turn out like many other Trump-related controversies, where the president's own words - and those of his associates - are used against him. While Mr Trump pledged to extricate himself from his day-to-day business operations, his son Eric has acknowledged he still gives his father regular financial updates. Senior adviser Kellyanne Conway also was recently reprimanded for praising daughter Ivanka's clothing line.
Even in a best-case scenario for the president, this represents the latest in a growing list of legal headaches.
Mr Trump is already contending with inquiries by congressional committees and a special prosecutor into his campaign's alleged links to Russia, which American intelligence agencies accuse of meddling in last November's US election in a bid to boost support for the property developer.
Since taking office in January, Mr Trump has turned day-to-day control of his real estate empire and other assets over to a trust managed by his adult sons.
But he has not sold them off as critics said he should do in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
"The emoluments clauses are a firewall against presidential corruption and the one thing we know about President Trump is he understands the value of walls," Mr Frosh said, referring to the president's plan to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.
"This is one he can't climb over and one he can't dig underneath."
The lawsuit will reportedly ask for a court injunction blocking Mr Trump from accepting foreign money.

Emoluments and the president

  • A section of the US constitution known as the emoluments clause restricts what US presidents can accept from foreign governments
  • The clause says "no person holding any office of profit or trust" may accept "any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state"
  • America's founding fathers included this to prevent US leaders from being beholden to foreign governments
  • Legal analysts say that if the Trump Organization accepts special deals, such as tax breaks or land rights overseas, it could fall foul of the clause. Even overseas profits could potentially be construed as a violation
The lawsuit is also seeking to access to his personal tax returns as part of the legal process known as discovery, according to US media.
A key case in the dispute is Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, just down the road from the White House.
Mr Trump opened the business last year by leasing a large building that used to be a central post office.
According to the Washington Post, the lawsuit will detail examples of foreign governments favouring the president's hotel over others.
It will cite how the Kuwaiti embassy planned to hold an event at a Four Seasons hotel, but eventually chose Trump International as the venue.
Maryland and Washington are expected to argue that the Trump hotel also hurts competing hotels in their jurisdictions.
The legal action will refer to Mr Trump's international hotels, golf courses and other commercial properties.
The president's lawyers have argued the emoluments clause is intended only to stop federal officials from accepting a special consideration or gift from a foreign power and does not apply to payments such as a bill for a hotel room.
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Russia protests: Hundreds detained at opposition rallies

Hundreds of people have been detained at anti-corruption rallies in Moscow and St Petersburg.
Riot police in central Moscow were picking protesters out of the crowd at random, a BBC correspondent at the demonstration has said.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detained at his home ahead of the protests, according to his wife.
Thousands of supporters have heeded his call to take to the streets of Moscow and other Russian cities.
OVD-Info, an independent NGO, told Russian media that 600 people had been detained at the Moscow protest and 300 at the rally in St Petersburg.
Police in Moscow say about 5,000 took part in the demonstration there, Interfax news agency reports.
"Alexei [Navalny] has been arrested in the entrance to our block of flats," Yuliya Navalnaya wrote on Twitter, ahead of the demonstration.
Mr Navalny, who intends to stand for the Russian presidency next year, had been due to attend the unauthorised rally in central Moscow.

'Many young plucked from the crowd' - by BBC's Sarah Rainsford, central Moscow



This was a peculiar protest.
At first it was hard to tell who was taking part. Tverskaya Street was full of families marking Russia Day with entertainers in historical costumes.
Then thousands of protesters turned up. Huge numbers of riot police were right behind them.
First they announced that the rally was illegal then the arrests began. We saw dozens of people plucked from the crowd - many of them young - and dragged roughly towards police buses.
By calling people to an unauthorised rally, Alexei Navalny knew he was risking a confrontation. The police duly obliged.
But people I spoke to said they knew the risk and still wanted their voices to be heard. Among other things, those voices chanted loudly: "Putin, thief!" and "Russia will be free".

 

In a live broadcast by the Russian liberal TV channel, Dozhd, protesters in St Petersburg could be heard shouting "shame" as they were detained by police. Among those arrested was Maxim Reznik, the city's legislative assembly deputy.
Prominent activist Daniil Ken said he was arrested as he left his home in St Petersburg. He urged people to join the rally at the city's Champ de Mars square. "Go for me, please!" he tweeted. He has since been released.
Police had earlier detained several people at demonstrations in the cities of Vladivostok, Blagoveshchensk and Kazan.
Mr Navalny was earlier granted permission to hold a rally at Sakharova Avenue but changed the location - without permission - on the eve of the demonstration to Tverskaya Street, near the Kremlin.
The protest was called over government plans to demolish Soviet-era apartment blocks in the city.




  • Permission was granted for demonstrations in 169 locations across the country, some of which were broadcast live on the Navalny Live YouTube channel.
    The protests coincided with a series of official events - including festivals, concerts and military enactments - taking place across the country to mark Russia Day, the national holiday dedicated to the 1990 declaration of sovereignty.
    Similar rallies led by Mr Navalny in March led to hundreds of arrests.
    Those protests were the largest since 2012, drawing thousands of people - including many teenagers - to rallies nationwide, angered by a report published by Mr Navalny that accused Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of corruption.
  • WATCH: US film-maker Oliver Stone talks about his Vladimir Putin documentary
  •  
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China Eastern plane lands at Sydney with hole in engine


A China Eastern Airlines plane has had to turn back to Sydney airport after a technical failure which left a hole in an engine casing.
Flight MU736 was heading from Sydney, Australia to Shanghai, but the pilot reported problems with the engine about one hour after taking off.
Passengers, who had to spend the night in Sydney, told media they smelt something burning inside the aircraft.
The Airbus A330 landed safely and there were no reports of injuries.
Images circulating on social media showed a large hole in the engine casing.
Several passengers said they had heard a loud sound coming from the left engine shortly after take-off.
One passenger told Australia's Seven News network: "All of a sudden we heard this noise... it kind of smelt like burning".
"I was really scared. Our group was terrified."
One woman on the flight told news agency Reuters: "The cabin crew went out and told us to fasten our seatbelts and tried to calm us down, but we were actually very panicked because we had no idea what was happening."
Passengers said the crew cleared the seats near the affected engine.
China Eastern Airlines said in a statement to the media that the crew had "observed the abnormal situation of the left engine and decided to return to Sydney airport immediately".
It added that all passengers would be placed on flights leaving on Monday.

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Aviation safety authorities are now investigating.

'Too early to link'

Aviation expert Greg Waldron of consulting firm FlightGlobal told the BBC that it would be "difficult to say at this early juncture what caused such extensive damage" to the China Eastern plane.
He said investigators would likely look at all possible factors and examine maintenance records of the aircraft and engine. "They will also carefully assess whether a foreign object may have played a role in this," he said.


Last month, industry websites The Aviation Herald and Aero.de published pictures from social media appearing to show a similar hole in another aeroplane's engine casing.
Mr Waldron added it would be "too early" to say whether the Sydney incident was linked to other cases, but it would be something investigators would consider
 
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Donations pour in for robbed Indonesian banana-seller

Netizens in Indonesia have rallied together in support of an elderly banana-seller who said he was robbed of more than 1m rupiah ($80; £62).
Suratman, 94, said he was approached by a driver and asked to enter a vehicle to sell his fruits.
When inside, two men forced Mr Suratman to empty his pockets. They kicked him out afterwards and drove away, he said.
Tommy Reza posted a video online of a distressed Mr Suratman, which has since drawn sympathy and donations.
In the post, Mr Reza said Mr Suratman told him he was planning to use the stolen money to buy new furniture in celebration of the Eid al-Fitr festival later this month
 
 The incident happened in the province of Jambi on Sumatra island. Tommy Reza told BBC News that he came across Mr Suratman in tears.
"I just happened to be in the area when I saw a man shouting for help," he said.
Mr Reza told his story on Facebook and friends started getting in touch to help. That's when he decided to start a fundraising collection to get Mr Suratman his money back.
"Many people from Jambi and even overseas from places like Hong Kong and Malaysia got in touch to ask me where they could donate money," he said.
Image copyright Facebook: TommyReza Chokolatoz
 
 Many people also posted comments about their outrage and anger at the incident.
"This is disgusting on so many levels," wrote Calista Primalia on Facebook.
"First, it says a lot about you if you pick on an old man who is just trying to earn a living. And to think anyone would have the heart to carry out such an ugly deed during fasting month. Shame on them all."
Angie Kuron, who watched the video, said: "I cried because of the unfairness of it all. Is this what our country has been reduced to? I hope that the authorities will catch these crooks soon."
Since the viral post, more than 37m rupiah has been raised for Mr Suratman. The local governor later also donated 5m rupiah and bought his remaining banana stock.
Mr Reza posted pictures of himself delivering the money to the family.
"He was very grateful and he was praying. I told him that I was only the messenger," Mr Reza said.
"Indonesians are amazing. I'm touched by their compassion towards one another." 

Reporting by the BBC's Heather Chen and BBC Indonesia.
 
 
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Brazil teen tattooed with 'I'm a thief' over bike theft accusations


Two men have been arrested and charged with torture in south-eastern Brazil accused of tattooing "I'm a thief" on the forehead of a teenager, police say.
The suspects said the 17-year-old boy had tried to steal a bike, which he denies. His family says he has mental health problems and is a drug user.
Police identified the men after they shared a video online of them making the tattoo.
An online campaign has been created to help the boy get the tattoo removed.
The suspects, aged 27 and 29, confessed to writing the message, which said in Portuguese "I'm a thief and loser", as a "punishment".
Police in the city of Sao Bernardo do Campo, in Sao Paulo state, have not yet confirmed that the attempted robbery took place.
The boy said he had fallen over the bike for being "very drunk", but that he was not trying to steal it.
The two men caught the boy, tied his hands and feet and said they would tattoo him, he added.
"I asked them to make the tattoo on my arm but they said they would do it on my forehead and started laughing," he told Folha de S.Paulo newspaper (in Portuguese).
"I begged them to break my arms and legs instead."
In the video, the boy, who seemed frightened, is seated on a chair but not tied, while a man with a tattoo machine holds him by the hair. The man who is filming laughs and says: "It's going to hurt."
The boy also had his hair cut by the suspects after he tried to hide the tattoo.
The teenager's family said he had gone missing on 31 May and recognised him after seeing the video, which was uploaded on Friday. He was reunited with his family on Sunday.
 BBC NEWS
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Stormont collapse: Power-sharing talks to reconvene


Talks to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland are set to resume amid uncertainty about an anticipated DUP-Conservative parliamentary deal.
Talks aimed at restoring the executive were previously put on hold due to the UK general election.
The deadline for an agreement to be reached has been extended to 29 June.
Speaking ahead of the talks, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said no deal between the Conservatives and the DUP would be good for Northern Ireland.
Devolved government in Northern Ireland broke down in Janu

 

ary and there has been political deadlock following a snap assembly election in March.
Stormont leaders are expected to meet Secretary of State James Brokenshire and the Irish minister for foreign affairs later on Monday.
If no executive is formed, Mr Brokenshire has warned Northern Ireland may face direct rule.
The secretary of state said he would continue to chair the talks, despite calls for an "independent broker".
"The point is that we have a process already, which involves, yes the UK government, but the Irish government too and also the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service," he said.
"That is something that was working to bring the parties together, I think that remains absolutely the way to approach this."
He said if there was no agreement by 29 June, Northern Ireland could face direct rule.
Mr Adams said Sinn Féin did not believe that "any deal between the DUP here and the English Tories will be good for the people here".
"Any deal that undercuts, in any way, the process here or the Good Friday Agreement and other agreements is one that has to be opposed by progressives, and that puts a huge onus on the taoiseach, and there's an incoming taoiseach [Leo Varadkar]," he said.
"I think [outgoing] Taoiseach [Enda] Kenny was right when he expressed concerns about this deal directly with the British prime minister."


Earlier, Sinn Féin's Conor Murphy said it "would be kind to describe Mr Brokenshire as delusional".
"His government won't exist unless the DUP allow it to exist and the fact that they will be dependent on them conflicts him even more."
Leo Varadkar, the new leader of Ireland's Fine Gael party, has said he will raise with Theresa May the importance of impartiality in the Stormont talks.
He said it was important that the two governments, as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, should not be too close to either unionism, or nationalists and republicans.
Mr Varadkar is expected to become Irish prime minister later this week in a parliamentary vote on Enda Kenny's successor.

Analysis - Enda McClafferty, BBC News NI Political Correspondent

All the parties will be back at Stormont today, but it is likely that the focus will be on political partnerships in London and not Belfast.
The DUP is up for supporting a Conservative Government but only if its demands are met.
That support will involve backing Theresa May in any confidence vote and supporting her government's budgets.
As yet there are no details on what the DUP wants in return but it is thought its demands will include extra cash for Northern Ireland.
But some say the real cost of a deal could be the future of power-sharing in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Féin, the SDLP and Alliance say any partnership between the DUP and Conservatives could scupper plans to restore the institutions.
It is fast becoming a game of political poker with high stakes.
The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, said he was "looking forward to the talks process getting under way again".
"It is now more important than ever that we have effective devolved government in Northern Ireland, especially with Brexit negotiations due to begin shortly," he said.
"It is absolutely crucial that the voice of Northern Ireland should be heard in these negotiations through a newly-formed power sharing executive."


Meanwhile, DUP leader Arlene Foster is due to meet the prime minister on Tuesday to discuss the formation of a DUP-supported Conservative government at Westminster.
The SDLP and Alliance Party have echoed Sinn Féin's concerns that such a partnership could make power-sharing at Stormont more difficult.
The former Labour secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain, told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster a DUP-Conservative arrangement could have a negative impact on the talks.
"My concern is that it jeopardises the neutrality, the non-partisan stance, that a prime minister and a secretary of state must have in relation to Northern Ireland's politics," he said.
"If I, as secretary of state, or for that matter Tony Blair, were seen to be aligned with any one party in Northern Ireland, it would have compromised the trust we needed to build with any other party."
Under Northern Ireland's power-sharing agreement, the executive must be jointly run by unionists and nationalists, with the largest party putting forward a candidate for first minister.
Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness quit as deputy first minister in January in protest against the DUP's handling of a botched green energy scheme.
The party said it would not share power with DUP leader Arlene Foster as first minister until the conclusion of a public inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme.
Mr McGuinness, who had been suffering from a rare heart condition, died earlier this year.
 
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Apple to scan iPhones for child sex abuse images

  Apple has announced details of a system to find child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on customers' devices. Before an image is stored on...