Actress Natassia Malthe, left, accompanied by lawyer Gloria Allred, in New York. Photo / AP
United States: An aspiring actress sued Harvey Weinstein's former company to allege it was aware of the disgraced film mogul's sexual misconduct dating back to the 1990s. Lawyers for Dominique Huett of New York filed a negligence lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing Weinstein of performing oral sex on her against her wishes at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2010. Huett did not report the incident to police and is not alleging a crime occurred, said her lawyer, Jeff Herman. She is suing the Weinstein Co. because she only recently learned of claims that the company knew of long-running sexual harassment allegations against its co-founder, he said. Lawyer Gloria Allred in New York unveiled another woman claiming Weinstein raped her. Actress Natassia Malthe told reporters that Weinstein barged into her London hotel room late at night in 2010 and forced himself on her. Said Malthe: "It was not consensual."
Smuggling: An Australian citizen who masterminded a scheme to smuggle items made of rhinoceros horn, elephant ivory and coral to China pleaded guilty in a US court. Guan Zong Chen, who also goes by Graham Chen, and two co-defendants smuggled US$700,000 worth of carvings in violation of federal law and despite the fact that their export was barred under law to protect animals.
United States: Three members of a family and a fourth person have been arrested for allegedly using a legitimate plumbing business as a front for a US$6 million marijuana growing operation. Federal prosecutors say 60-year-old Charles Laverty, his 61-year-old wife Andrea, and their 37-year-old son Thomas are charged with conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana. Police say they found more than 1000 plants at Laverty & Son Plumbing in Clinton and at the family's Millbury home in Massachusetts.
Ukraine: An explosion in Kiev has killed one man and wounded three others including Ukrainian MP Ihor Mosiychuk, an Interior Ministry official said. "Altogether four people were wounded in the explosion. Unfortunately, one could not be saved. He died on the way to the hospital," ministry adviser Zoryan Shkiryak said.
Aviation: All incoming flights to the US will be subject to new security screening procedures, with both American citizens and foreigners possibly facing security interviews with airline employees. The announcement from the US Transportation Security Administration comes after five global long-haul airlines - Air France, Cathay Pacific, EgyptAir, Emirates and Lufthansa - said they would begin the new security interviews starting tomorrow. A sixth carrier, Royal Jordanian, said it would begin the new procedures in mid-January. However, the airlines offered different descriptions of how the interviews would take place, ranging from another form a traveller would have to fill out to actually being questioned by an airline employee.
Germany: A baby in Germany won't be named Lucifer after authorities intervened. A registrar in the central city of Kassel sought clarification from the local district court after a couple sought to give their son the name. Court official Matthias Grund told DPA that the registrar suspected the name could endanger the child's well-being. The parents, who were not identified, were persuaded to relent during a closed-door hearing at the local court and decided to call their son Lucian instead.
Kenya: Jubilant supporters of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is seeking a second term, have celebrated the news that the Kenyan election will proceed tomorrow, and he said security forces will be deployed nationwide to ensure order during the vote. His electoral rival, Opposition Leader Raila Odinga, called on his political coalition to become a "resistance movement," accusing the president of moving a country known for relative stability and openness towards authoritarian rule.
Australia: Three quarters of Australians believe the country doesn't need any more people and nearly half support a partial ban on Muslims being allowed to migrate here, a survey shows. The Australian Population Research Institute survey of more than 2000 people also found 54 per cent want a reduction in the annual intake of migrants.
Guatemala: A former judge who led Guatemala's football federation has become the first person sentenced in the US in the FIFA world corruption scandal, getting eight months in prison. Hector Trujillo, 63, was sentenced in federal court in Brooklyn. He had pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy in June. Trujillo admitted accepting nearly US$200,000 in bribes from a company trying to secure sports marketing contracts. He was arrested in December 2015 in Port Canaveral, Florida, during a Disney cruise with his family.
United States: The US Fish and Wildlife Service and five conservation groups have teamed up to offer US$15,500 for information about the illegal poaching of a federally protected grey wolf that was shot dead in a national forest in southern Oregon. The wolf, known as OR-33, was being tracked by authorities and is one of at least eight that have been poached or died under mysterious circumstances in the state since 2015, the conservation groups said.
Italy: The Italian cities of Milan and Turin have been hard hit by smog in recent days, with officials reporting spikes in the concentration of fine particulate matter in the air and pressing for more measures to curb emissions. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala has proposed a "drastic" shift to electric public transport, bikes and car-sharing to reduce emissions. Sala participated in a Paris meeting this week of mayors who pledged to ban gasoline and diesel vehicles from "large parts" of their cities by 2030. In Turin, the regional environmental protection agency registered levels of fine particulate matter in the air above 100 micrograms per cu m, on par with annual averages of some of the world's most polluted cities.
Middle East: Swiss diplomats will reopen a diplomatic channel between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the rival powers in the Middle East have agreed. The Swiss embassies in Riyadh and Tehran will represent the interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Saudi Kingdom, respectively, Switzerland's foreign affairs department announced in Bern. While the agreement is mainly designed to establish consular services, the department pointed out that it also stands ready to carry out diplomatic tasks between countries that have severed relations, "if requested by the states in question".
United States: A brother of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of possessing child pornography, authorities said. Bruce Paddock, 59, was arrested on a 20-count complaint, a police statement said. His relationship to Stephen Paddock was confirmed by a law enforcement official. Bruce Paddock is not a suspect in the Las Vegas shooting. The child porn case predated the October 1 shooting, said the official