Netflix postpones Bill Cosby special amid scandal | ||
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Los Angeles (AFP) - A planned Bill Cosby special on Netflix has been postponed, the video streaming service said amid mounting claims the respected US entertainer assaulted a string of women over the years. "At this time we are postponing the launch of the new stand-up comedy special Bill Cosby 77," Netflix said in a statement. People magazine said the Netflix special was supposed to be a birthday celebration for Cosby, in which he would share stories from his childhood, first romantic relationships and parenthood. But allegations of rape and sexual abuse made against him by several women in recent weeks are tarnishing the public image of the urbane actor, famous for his long TV career, especially his role in the self-titled "Cosby Show" in the 1980s and 1990s. Cosby's silent shake of the head on Saturday when asked if he wanted to address the allegations during an interview on US National Public Radio only intensified the attention focused on him. In one of the most recent charges to be made public, a woman claimed in an editorial Sunday that she was drugged and raped by him in 1969. In a statement on the veteran comedian's website, lawyer John Schmitt said Cosby would make no comment on the wave of claims against him. Cosby has been at the center of a storm since comedian Hannibal Buress branded him a "rapist" during a stand-up show in Philadelphia last month. A scheduled appearance by Cosby on the "Late Show with David Letterman" was cancelled as the entertainer faced a barrage of accusations. The Washington Post newspaper last week published a detailed account by actress Barbara Bowman of alleged abuse she suffered at the hands of Cosby when she was a starry-eyed teenager in 1985. A total of 13 women who made similar accusations against Cosby have also offered to testify against him, according to US reports. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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'Black widow' with seven dead partners arrested in Japan | ||
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Tokyo (AFP) - A 67-year-old millionairess was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of poisoning her husband with cyanide as it emerged six former partners had already died, in Japan's latest apparent "black widow" case. Chisako Kakehi has been the beneficiary of a combined 800 million yen ($6.8 million) over the last two decades, Jiji Press said -- insurance money and other assets she received after the seven men's deaths. Husband number four Isao Kakehi fell sick suddenly at home and was confirmed dead at a hospital in December last year, less than two months after the couple married. An autopsy found highly toxic cyanide compounds in his blood. That came after the September death of a 75-year-old boyfriend, who fell suddenly ill after the couple ate together at a restaurant, Jiji said. Kakehi's dalliance with death began in 1994 when her first husband passed away at the age of 54. In 2006 her second husband, whom she had met through a dating agency, died of a stroke aged 69, while the third marriage ended in 2008 with the death of her 75-year-old partner, Jiji said. A boyfriend, believed to have been suffering from some form of cancer, died a year later, and in 2012 her then-fiance met his fate after collapsing while riding a motorbike. Traces of cyanide were detected in his body, media reports said. Kakehi was arrested Wednesday by police in Kyoto on suspicion of murdering her latest husband. She has denied any involvement in his death. "We suspect she did it for money," a police investigator on the latest death said without giving details of the amount involved.
- 'Doomed by fate' -
Police are now working on the theory that she could have been behind the deaths of at least some of the other six. "We can't say how many now... Given their advanced age, we have to proceed carefully to judge whether their deaths were actually the result of foul play or not," the investigator told AFP by phone. Questioned by reporters earlier this year, former bank worker Kakehi protested her innocence. "If people suspect murder, I'd find it easier to bite my tongue off and die," she told reporters in March. Jiji Press quoted her as saying in an earlier interview that she was "doomed by fate" to suffer a series of deaths among those close to her, and protesting that she had no access to poison. If she is found to have been involved in the deaths of numerous partners, Kakehi will become the latest example in Japan of a "black widow", named for the female spider that devours its mate after coupling. In 2012 Kanae Kijima was sentenced to hang for the murders of three men, aged 41, 53 and 80, whom she met through Internet dating sites. Kijima, who was at one time a paid-for mistress, poisoned her victims with carbon monoxide by burning charcoal briquettes after drugging them with sleeping tablets. She is in jail awaiting the outcome of an appeal to the supreme court. Another woman, former bar hostess Miyuki Ueta, is also waiting on the outcome of a supreme court appeal against a death sentence for the killing of two men.
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Six dead after police storm India guru's ashram | ||
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Barwala (India) (AFP) - Police discovered five bodies on Wednesday after storming the ashram of a wanted guru in northern India and another of the man's followers died in hospital, an officer said. "All dead bodies have been sent to the hospital where they will undergo a post-mortem to ascertain the exact cause of their deaths," director general of police SN Vashisht told reporters.
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