North and South Korea move for peaceful relations, and the photographer accused in Nobel rape case sentenced to prison.
Football star Cristiano Ronaldo sued over rape allegations
World class football star Cristiano Ronaldo has been accused of rape by a woman at a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009, CNN reported.
According to a lawsuit filed by Kathryn Mayorga Friday in Clark County, Nevada, the Portuguese footballer raped her while she repeatedly screamed no. According to the CNN report, Las Vegas police said Monday a criminal investigation that began in 2009 has been reopened.
Mayorga accused Ronaldo and his team of taking advantage of her and coaxing her into signing a settlement and nondisclosure agreement in 2009. She claimed to have received $375,000 in exchange for her silence.
Friday’s lawsuit seeks to void the settlement and agreement.
According to the CNN report, Ronaldo’s representatives had denied the allegations when German publication Der Spiegel first reported the incident in 2017. After Friday’s news, Ronaldo’s lawyer called it “blatantly illegal.”
In an Instagram live post Friday, the footballer disputed the claims and said, “What they said today, fake — fake news. They want to promote by my name. It’s normal. They want to be famous — to say my name. Yeah but it’s part of the job. I’m (a) happy man and all, all good.”
Brett Kavanaugh is lying, says former classmate
In a new turn to the Brett Kavanaugh sexual assault case, an old classmate of the Supreme Court nominee has accused him of lying under oath regarding his drinking habits and called it a “blatant mischaracterisation”, reported BBC.
Prof Charles Ludington, a former classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Yale University, said that he had witnessed the judge slurring his words and staggering after excessive alcohol consumption, and added that he “was often belligerent and aggressive” when drunk, added the BBC report.
The judge had earlier denied drinking habits that led to the point of memory loss. He has been accused of sexual assault by Prof Christine Blasey Ford.
“I can unequivocally say that in denying the possibility that he ever blacked out from drinking, and in downplaying the degree and frequency of his drinking, Brett has not told the truth,” Ludington said.
His statement, however, contradicts what another Yale classmate, former NBA player Chris Dudley, told Washington Post. Dudley said that he “never, ever saw Brett Kavanaugh black out” from alcohol consumption.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the case currently.
North and South Korea move to reduce tension
North and South Korea are removing landmines along their border as a part of a pact to reduce tension between the two countries, reported Al Jazeera.
The 20-day long exercise that began Monday, reportedly saw troops along the South Korean border clearing landmines in the Joint Security Area (JSA), the only demilitarised zone between the nations where the armies stand face to face. There was no report of official confirmation from North Korea.
A deal to restore peace between the two countries, which are technically still at war, was reached at a high level meeting between leaders of the two nations last month.
The demining exercise is to remove more than 800,000 mines which were planted along the border after the 1950-1953 Korean War to curb infiltration.
Earlier in April, the neighbours are said to have reached a decision to turn the demilitarised zone, a symbol of tension and division between the countries, into a ‘peace zone’.
US, Canada and Mexico sign a new deal to reform NAFTA
US, Canada and Mexico clinched a new deal Sunday giving the three-country North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) a new structure, reported CNN.
The new deal, called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), will provide US farmers greater access to Canada’s dairy market and also address concerns about potential US auto tariffs, said the report.
US President Donald Trump hailed the agreement as a “great deal” for all three countries that would expand markets for American farmers and manufacturers.
“The USMCA is a historic transaction!” he wrote on twitter.
Late last night, our deadline, we reached a wonderful new Trade Deal with Canada, to be added into the deal already reached with Mexico. The new name will be The United States Mexico Canada Agreement, or USMCA. It is a great deal for all three countries, solves the many……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2018
“It will strengthen the middle class, and create good, well-paying jobs and new opportunities for the nearly half billion people who call North America home,” said US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in a joint statement.
The agreement was arrived at after year-long talks and six weeks of intense discussions as both sides overcame their differences, reported Al Jazeera.
The Nobel Prize in medicine goes to…
James Allison and Tasuku Honjo, researchers from US and Japan, have won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine for a pioneering approach to cancer treatment, reported CNN.
According to Noble committee, Allison and Honjo’s immune checkpoint theory “revolutionized cancer treatment and has fundamentally changed the way we view how cancer can be managed.”
Allison, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre, said, “I was told by the Nobel committee when I was called this morning that this was the first prize they’ve ever given for cancer therapy,” he said.
Kyoto University’s Honjo had discovered a protein on immune cells and illustrated how that can operate as a brake, though with a different action, said the CNN report.
“Cancer kills millions of people every year and is one of humanity’s greatest health challenges,” the Nobel committee said on Twitter.
French photographer in rape case sentenced to prison
French photographer Jean-Claude Arnault, who was at the center of a scandal that resulted in the unprecedented postponement of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature, has been sentenced to two years in prison under charges of rape, CNN reported.
A Swedish court Monday found Arnault guilty in a 2011 case.
The 72-year old, who is closely linked to the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Prize, was accused in two separate cases of sexual assault involving the same woman in October 2011. He has denied the charges.
The photographer has also been accused by 18 women for a range of sexual misconduct between 1996 and 2017. The scandal came to light in November last year when Dagens Nyheter newspaper published detailed allegations of all women, said The Guardian report.
In the wake of the scandal, the Nobel Prize in Literature, due to be awarded in May this year, was postponed — a first such instance in the 75-year old history of the award.
Following the revelations and investigations that proved Arnault guilty, six members of the Swedish Academy stepped down.
This year’s literature honoree is due to be announced in 2019.
Donald Trump has a new fictional critic
A statue installation in the UK has provided US President Donald Trump with a new critic, British novelist Roald Dahl’s classic children’s character Matilda, CNN reported.
The statue of Matilda outside the Roald Dahl museum in Buckinghamshire has been erected to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the 1988 classic. The installation re-imagines Matilda as a 30-year-old woman and what she might be doing now.
The character uses telekinetic powers to gain revenge on her tyrannical school principal Mrs Trunchbull in the Dahl classic.
The decision to install the statue was the result of a poll conducted among Brits on who they believed would Matilda be most likely to confront today. Trump was chosen by 42% of the respondents in a survey of over 2,000 people.