Saudi Arabia’s first movie theater in more than 35 years will open on April 18 in the capital Riyadh.

AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest movie theater chain, said Wednesday it has been granted the license to open up to 40 theaters in 15 Saudi cities over the next five years. 

The deeply conservative Muslim kingdom had some cinemas in the 1970s but its powerful clerics managed to force them to close. 

The theaters won’t initially be segregated by gender like most Saudi public spaces, AMC’s chief executive officer Adam Aron said. But there might be some show times set aside exclusively for single gender audiences. 

The move to reopen cinemas is part of a modernization drive by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmon, who is seeking to boost domestic spending in an era of low oil prices.

Saudi Arabians are avid consumers of Western media and culture. Despite the cinema ban, Hollywood films and recent television series are widely watched at home and discussed.

To serve a population of more than 32 million, the majority of whom are under the age of 30, Saudi Arabia wants to set up around 350 movie theaters with more than 2,500 screens by 2030, which it hopes will attract nearly $1 billion in annual box office sales.

 
…

From: MeNeedIt

Saudi Arabia’s first movie theater in more than 35 years will open on April 18 in the capital Riyadh.

AMC Entertainment, the world’s largest movie theater chain, said Wednesday it has been granted the license to open up to 40 theaters in 15 Saudi cities over the next five years. 

The deeply conservative Muslim kingdom had some cinemas in the 1970s but its powerful clerics managed to force them to close. 

The theaters won’t initially be segregated by gender like most Saudi public spaces, AMC’s chief executive officer Adam Aron said. But there might be some show times set aside exclusively for single gender audiences. 

The move to reopen cinemas is part of a modernization drive by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmon, who is seeking to boost domestic spending in an era of low oil prices.

Saudi Arabians are avid consumers of Western media and culture. Despite the cinema ban, Hollywood films and recent television series are widely watched at home and discussed.

To serve a population of more than 32 million, the majority of whom are under the age of 30, Saudi Arabia wants to set up around 350 movie theaters with more than 2,500 screens by 2030, which it hopes will attract nearly $1 billion in annual box office sales.

 
…

From: MeNeedIt

A new television documentary about Elvis Presley takes advantage of the vast collection of footage, pictures, documents and music from his estate to give a behind-the-scenes look at the king of rock ‘n’ roll.

“Elvis Presley: The Searcher,” a two-part, three-hour documentary, will premiere April 14 on HBO. Director Thom Zimny, who worked on several Bruce Springsteen documentaries, had full access to Graceland’s vault and made ample use of it to unearth little-seen footage.

“That was one of the exciting parts because every day I was discovering new gems of Elvis Presley’s archives,” Zimny said.

“He came up with pieces of footage that Priscilla and I had never seen before, and we grew up with Elvis,” said Jerry Schilling, one of Elvis’ longtime friends and an executive producer on the documentary along with Priscilla Presley, his ex-wife.

Along with his family and friends, Zimny interviewed studio musicians, producers, engineers and directors, as well as artists like Springsteen, Tom Petty and Emmylou Harris. Zimny uses only voiceovers for the narration instead of seeing the interviewees’ faces to keep the focus on the music and footage of Elvis over his career.

“Most documentaries, you see people talking, and I think that takes you out of the film,” Priscilla Presley said. “So you do get distracted, where here, you take on the flow, you can see what’s going on visually and you’re not taken out of that moment, and I think that’s brilliant.”

Zimny makes heavy use of footage from Elvis’ 1968 television special, considered his comeback to music after a long period of movie acting.

“He had been out of performing for years, almost 10 years,” Presley said. “This to him was the make or break of his career.”

Zimny said he had no limitations on addressing any aspect of Elvis’ career, and the film does touch on the controlling influence of his manager Colonel Tom Parker as well as Elvis’ prescription drug abuse.

Priscilla said Presley began using prescription drugs when he was given them during his Army stint. Even after years of using medications, she said Elvis never realized his addiction.

“He didn’t think he was addicted,” Presley said. “It was a part of his life, really. There was no Betty Ford. There were no rehab centers. But he didn’t think he had to go to a rehab center. There were prescribed to him. The doctors knew what they were giving to him. So that was pretty much a part of his life.”

Presley said there’s still a lot for music fans to learn about the star, who died in 1977.

“He was in uncharted territories,” Presley said. “There was no other that reached the heights that he did as far as changing style, changing music.”
…

From: MeNeedIt

A U.S. media broadcast group ordered local news anchors to read a statement expressing concern about “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing the country,” — then accused other networks and some members of the media for pushing their own biases. Deadspin, a sports news and blog web site, created a mashup video that shows anchors around the country all reading the same statement. The video has since gone viral as VOA’s Jill Craig. reports.
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From: MeNeedIt

A U.S. media broadcast group ordered local news anchors to read a statement expressing concern about “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing the country,” — then accused other networks and some members of the media for pushing their own biases. Deadspin, a sports news and blog web site, created a mashup video that shows anchors around the country all reading the same statement. The video has since gone viral as VOA’s Jill Craig. reports.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Five years ago, Filipina farmer Marivic Dubria would buy Nescafe sachets to serve visitors because she was embarrassed by the quality of the coffee she grew next to her main vegetable crops.

Life was tough for her family in Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines, as they struggled to earn $1,000 a year from their produce, with their coffee beans fetching only 20 cents per kilo from local traders.

But Dubria is now one of hundreds of farmers nationwide who are brewing up a storm with training from Coffee For Peace (CfP) – a social enterprise striving to boost growers’ profits, protect the environment and foster peace between communities.

Having learned how to grow, harvest and process high-quality Arabica beans at a time when global demand for coffee is soaring – it is set to hit a record high this year – Dubria exports her crop to buyers as far away as Seattle for at least $5 per kilo.

“But it’s not all about the money – it’s about taking responsibility for the environment and other communities,” Dubria told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in her home on Mount Apo while brewing a pot of thick, aromatic, treacle-like coffee.

Beyond helping coffee growers get a better deal, CfP aims to encourage dialogue between communities, with tensions ranging from colonial-era conflict between native Muslims and Christian settlers to land and resource disputes between ethnic groups.

The Philippines is battling to restore order to troubled Mindanao, where militant groups have pledged allegiance to Islamic State, and five decades of communist insurgency and separatist bombings have displaced at least 2 million people.

By bringing people together through trade, businesses with a social mission can help build peace, industry experts say.

“Social enterprise presents an emerging pathway or approach to conflict resolution,” said Angel Flores, East Asia business head at the British Council, which backs companies seeking to help people, invest in the environment and tackle social ills. “Being inclusive, participatory and prioritizing community benefit over personal agendas enhances the social fabric from a place of distrust to … confidence and mutual understanding.”

“Farmerpreneurs”

CfP was set up in 2008 on the conflict-hit southern island of Mindanao, after its founders stopped Christian and Muslim neighbors going to war over the ownership of a rice field.

The men were invited to put down their guns and talk over coffee, a tradition which quickly spread across the region.

CfP offers a three-year scheme to train farmers to produce coffee while encouraging native and settler communities and various tribes to harvest and process the beans together.

While the social enterprise buys the farmers’ beans above market value — selling them on to local coffee shops and exporting as far as Canada — communities can sell to any buyer, but are encouraged to demand higher prices.

“We don’t treat them as suppliers or just part of the chain — they are farmerpreneurs,” said CfP senior vice president Twinkle Bautista.

“The aim is to unite the settlers and indigenous people to teach each other, share techniques and tools … and harmony,” she added. “Our product is peace — coffee is just the tool.”

For Kagawad Abe and his indigenous community, setting up a processing center through CfP has brought them closer to the Christian settlers — who work with them to process their beans.

“It has also brought women together, and given them a chance to work independently … to contribute to the tribe,” he said.

About 80 percent of CfP’s coffee-growing partners are women.

“Just five or so years ago, we didn’t really know each other – but now we are talking and working together,” Abe added.

CfP says business is booming, having tripled sales to at least $46,000 last year from $15,000 in 2012 and won United Nations and regional awards for promoting peace and development.

Although social enterprises in the Philippines have more than tripled in the last decade to 165,000, many are struggling due to limited state support and a lack of funding, said the British Council and the Philippines Social Enterprise Network.

CfP’s success is likely largely due to its unusual mission, said Gerry Higgins, chief executive of Community Enterprise in Scotland (CEIS), Britain’s largest agency to support the sector.

“Coffee for Peace is unusual … there aren’t many social enterprises that recognize that if a community is resilient and sustainable, (then) fewer conflicts will emerge,” Higgins said.

Conquerors of Coffee

By walking farmers through every step of the supply chain, CfP says they no longer see the coffee industry as “a mystery.”

Once dependent on traders and big brands such as Nestle, the world’s biggest coffee maker and producer of Nescafe, farmers can now demand higher prices for better quality beans, CfP said.

Yet winning communities over remains a major challenge.

Some are proud of their traditional methods and reluctant to embrace change, while others are wary of civil society groups and used to instant cash or aid, rather than long-term support.

“We had to convince and convince our people, many times, to move from the traditional to the technical way of doing things,” said Baby Jerlina Owok, chieftain of a native tribe which has seen their coffee beans almost double in value in recent years.

Yet for women such as Owok and Dubria and their coffee cooperatives, the ambitions are much bigger than making money.

Pointing at huge swathes of coffee trees covering the hills, painting once barren land vibrant shades of green, Dubria spoke about planting more to combat deforestation and soil erosion.

Lastly, she said they need to share their prosperity.

“We need to encourage and help other communities to produce quality coffee,” she said. “We want to pull them up — to improve their standard of living — so they can experience what we have.”
…

From: MeNeedIt

Five years ago, Filipina farmer Marivic Dubria would buy Nescafe sachets to serve visitors because she was embarrassed by the quality of the coffee she grew next to her main vegetable crops.

Life was tough for her family in Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines, as they struggled to earn $1,000 a year from their produce, with their coffee beans fetching only 20 cents per kilo from local traders.

But Dubria is now one of hundreds of farmers nationwide who are brewing up a storm with training from Coffee For Peace (CfP) – a social enterprise striving to boost growers’ profits, protect the environment and foster peace between communities.

Having learned how to grow, harvest and process high-quality Arabica beans at a time when global demand for coffee is soaring – it is set to hit a record high this year – Dubria exports her crop to buyers as far away as Seattle for at least $5 per kilo.

“But it’s not all about the money – it’s about taking responsibility for the environment and other communities,” Dubria told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in her home on Mount Apo while brewing a pot of thick, aromatic, treacle-like coffee.

Beyond helping coffee growers get a better deal, CfP aims to encourage dialogue between communities, with tensions ranging from colonial-era conflict between native Muslims and Christian settlers to land and resource disputes between ethnic groups.

The Philippines is battling to restore order to troubled Mindanao, where militant groups have pledged allegiance to Islamic State, and five decades of communist insurgency and separatist bombings have displaced at least 2 million people.

By bringing people together through trade, businesses with a social mission can help build peace, industry experts say.

“Social enterprise presents an emerging pathway or approach to conflict resolution,” said Angel Flores, East Asia business head at the British Council, which backs companies seeking to help people, invest in the environment and tackle social ills. “Being inclusive, participatory and prioritizing community benefit over personal agendas enhances the social fabric from a place of distrust to … confidence and mutual understanding.”

“Farmerpreneurs”

CfP was set up in 2008 on the conflict-hit southern island of Mindanao, after its founders stopped Christian and Muslim neighbors going to war over the ownership of a rice field.

The men were invited to put down their guns and talk over coffee, a tradition which quickly spread across the region.

CfP offers a three-year scheme to train farmers to produce coffee while encouraging native and settler communities and various tribes to harvest and process the beans together.

While the social enterprise buys the farmers’ beans above market value — selling them on to local coffee shops and exporting as far as Canada — communities can sell to any buyer, but are encouraged to demand higher prices.

“We don’t treat them as suppliers or just part of the chain — they are farmerpreneurs,” said CfP senior vice president Twinkle Bautista.

“The aim is to unite the settlers and indigenous people to teach each other, share techniques and tools … and harmony,” she added. “Our product is peace — coffee is just the tool.”

For Kagawad Abe and his indigenous community, setting up a processing center through CfP has brought them closer to the Christian settlers — who work with them to process their beans.

“It has also brought women together, and given them a chance to work independently … to contribute to the tribe,” he said.

About 80 percent of CfP’s coffee-growing partners are women.

“Just five or so years ago, we didn’t really know each other – but now we are talking and working together,” Abe added.

CfP says business is booming, having tripled sales to at least $46,000 last year from $15,000 in 2012 and won United Nations and regional awards for promoting peace and development.

Although social enterprises in the Philippines have more than tripled in the last decade to 165,000, many are struggling due to limited state support and a lack of funding, said the British Council and the Philippines Social Enterprise Network.

CfP’s success is likely largely due to its unusual mission, said Gerry Higgins, chief executive of Community Enterprise in Scotland (CEIS), Britain’s largest agency to support the sector.

“Coffee for Peace is unusual … there aren’t many social enterprises that recognize that if a community is resilient and sustainable, (then) fewer conflicts will emerge,” Higgins said.

Conquerors of Coffee

By walking farmers through every step of the supply chain, CfP says they no longer see the coffee industry as “a mystery.”

Once dependent on traders and big brands such as Nestle, the world’s biggest coffee maker and producer of Nescafe, farmers can now demand higher prices for better quality beans, CfP said.

Yet winning communities over remains a major challenge.

Some are proud of their traditional methods and reluctant to embrace change, while others are wary of civil society groups and used to instant cash or aid, rather than long-term support.

“We had to convince and convince our people, many times, to move from the traditional to the technical way of doing things,” said Baby Jerlina Owok, chieftain of a native tribe which has seen their coffee beans almost double in value in recent years.

Yet for women such as Owok and Dubria and their coffee cooperatives, the ambitions are much bigger than making money.

Pointing at huge swathes of coffee trees covering the hills, painting once barren land vibrant shades of green, Dubria spoke about planting more to combat deforestation and soil erosion.

Lastly, she said they need to share their prosperity.

“We need to encourage and help other communities to produce quality coffee,” she said. “We want to pull them up — to improve their standard of living — so they can experience what we have.”
…

From: MeNeedIt

The largest American business lobby group came to the defense of Amazon.com on Tuesday after a multi-day Twitter attack by U.S. President Donald Trump that included unsubstantiated criticism of the world’s biggest online retailer.

The value of Amazon shares held by Jeff Bezos, the online retailer’s chief executive and single largest shareholder, had taken a $10 billion hit in the week since Trump began attacking him and his company on Twitter.

Citing an unspecified report, Trump told reporters at the White House that the company was not paying the U.S. Postal Service a fair rate, and that it was costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars and forcing other retailers out of business, and he threatened to raise rates.

Late on Tuesday afternoon, a source familiar with proceedings at the White House said no specific actions addressing Trump’s concerns about Amazon were on the table at the White House at this time, but that could change given Trump’s dissatisfaction with the company.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest business lobby group in the country, stepped in on Tuesday to defend Amazon, which is a member.

“It’s inappropriate for government officials to use their position to attack an American company,” Neil Bradley, chief policy officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement, citing the value of the free enterprise system and the rule of law. “The record is clear: deviating from those processes undermines economic growth and job creation.”

It is not the first time Trump, or another U.S. president, has been publicly critical of a company. Trump has previously criticized automakers, Carrier, which is owned by United Technologies and Boeing.

In 2015, then-President Barack Obama criticized office supply company Staples for not embracing the Affordable Care Act, drawing a quick rebuke from Republicans and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Trump has progressively escalated his criticism of Amazon and Bezos, who also privately owns The Washington Post, which has published stories that have angered the president.

Bezos, ranked by Forbes magazine as the world’s richest man with an estimated net worth of $115.6 billion, owns 78.89 million Amazon shares, worth about $110 billion at Tuesday’s market close.

Amazon shares closed up 1.5 percent at $1,392.05. The shares started the day higher but fell as low as $1,355.33 after Trump’s latest Amazon-related tweet. 

Trump has accused Amazon of not paying enough tax, taking advantage of the U.S. postal system and putting small retailers out of business, but he has offered no evidence to back up his criticisms.

“The post office is losing billions of dollars … because it delivers packages for Amazon at a very low rate,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “If you look at the cost that we’re subsidizing, we’re giving a subsidy to Amazon.”

Trump offered no details about the report he cited or how he might charge the company more through USPS.

Amazon also ships packages through providers such as FedEx and United Parcel Service as well as its own experimental shipping service.

Representatives of Amazon and USPS had no comment on Trump’s tweet on Tuesday and could not be immediately reached regarding his latest comments to reporters.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, a prominent writer and professor of gastroenterology known for creating groundbreaking medical thrillers, compelling horror and science fiction like “Beyond Metaphysics,” and “Fantasia” was laid to rest in Egypt Tuesday. 

Tawfik died suddenly on Monday. He was 55. A cause of death has not been released.

One of the most prolific and popular authors in Egypt, Tawfik wrote more than 500 paperbacks and titles, which appealed strongly to young Arabs. His instant best-selling “Utopia” is described as a grim and bleak futuristic account of Egyptian society in the year 2023, when Israel builds its version of the Suez Canal and the Middle East oil reserves are rendered worthless by a newly invented U.S. super fuel.  

Living in a dog-eat-dog society

In Tawfik’s Egypt 2023, the middle class disappeared and the future looked more nightmarish than in ‘The Forgotten Planet’ by American writer Murray Leinster.

Breathtaking and suspenseful “Utopia,” which was set for the big screen, takes readers on a chilling journey beyond the gated communities of the northern coast, an isolated U.S. Marine-protected coastal colony created by the rich and famous, where the wealthy are insulated from the bleakness of life outside the walls.

“The middle class, in any society, plays the role of graphite rods in nuclear reactors: they slow down the reaction and, if it weren’t for them, the reactor would explode. A society without a middle class is a society primed for explosion,” explains Tawfik in his critically acclaimed Utopia.

One of his most famous quotes, “the end of despots is something so beautiful, but, alas, we often don’t live to see it,” is widely published in Arabic by young Egyptians on social media.

Master of Escapism

Called “Godfather” by his readers, Tawfik is credited with introducing young Arabs to works by American author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury, British author Sir Arthur Clarke and other sci-fi writers.

“Stories that lean on science or on technology appear as texts or information books to us in the Arab world, and we believe they won’t provide escapism. We have the imagination as a reader, but it’s just not yet developed enough to embrace science fiction and fantasy, or a plot that is weighted in gloom and horror,” he told a UAE newspaper.

Tawfik was one of the earliest Egyptian writers to specialize in horror, science fiction and fantasy, and his work included both illustrated books and novels, wrote the state-run Al-Ahram online in his obituary. His publishers say he is “the Arab world’s best-selling author of horror and fantasy genres.”

He was buried in his home city of Tanta in Western Egypt, where he was born in June, 1962. He is survived by his wife, a pulmonologist at Tanta medical college, and two children.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, a prominent writer and professor of gastroenterology known for creating groundbreaking medical thrillers, compelling horror and science fiction like “Beyond Metaphysics,” and “Fantasia” was laid to rest in Egypt Tuesday. 

Tawfik died suddenly on Monday. He was 55. A cause of death has not been released.

One of the most prolific and popular authors in Egypt, Tawfik wrote more than 500 paperbacks and titles, which appealed strongly to young Arabs. His instant best-selling “Utopia” is described as a grim and bleak futuristic account of Egyptian society in the year 2023, when Israel builds its version of the Suez Canal and the Middle East oil reserves are rendered worthless by a newly invented U.S. super fuel.  

Living in a dog-eat-dog society

In Tawfik’s Egypt 2023, the middle class disappeared and the future looked more nightmarish than in ‘The Forgotten Planet’ by American writer Murray Leinster.

Breathtaking and suspenseful “Utopia,” which was set for the big screen, takes readers on a chilling journey beyond the gated communities of the northern coast, an isolated U.S. Marine-protected coastal colony created by the rich and famous, where the wealthy are insulated from the bleakness of life outside the walls.

“The middle class, in any society, plays the role of graphite rods in nuclear reactors: they slow down the reaction and, if it weren’t for them, the reactor would explode. A society without a middle class is a society primed for explosion,” explains Tawfik in his critically acclaimed Utopia.

One of his most famous quotes, “the end of despots is something so beautiful, but, alas, we often don’t live to see it,” is widely published in Arabic by young Egyptians on social media.

Master of Escapism

Called “Godfather” by his readers, Tawfik is credited with introducing young Arabs to works by American author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury, British author Sir Arthur Clarke and other sci-fi writers.

“Stories that lean on science or on technology appear as texts or information books to us in the Arab world, and we believe they won’t provide escapism. We have the imagination as a reader, but it’s just not yet developed enough to embrace science fiction and fantasy, or a plot that is weighted in gloom and horror,” he told a UAE newspaper.

Tawfik was one of the earliest Egyptian writers to specialize in horror, science fiction and fantasy, and his work included both illustrated books and novels, wrote the state-run Al-Ahram online in his obituary. His publishers say he is “the Arab world’s best-selling author of horror and fantasy genres.”

He was buried in his home city of Tanta in Western Egypt, where he was born in June, 1962. He is survived by his wife, a pulmonologist at Tanta medical college, and two children.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Defence lawyers at Bill Cosby’s retrial on sexual assault charges can call a witness they say will undermine his accuser’s credibility, a Pennsylvania judge said on Tuesday, reversing his ruling that barred the same witness from the first trial of the comedian once known as “America’s Dad.”

The ruling came on the second day of jury selection for the second trial where the 80-year-old entertainer will face charges that he sexually assaulted a staffer more than a decade ago at his alma mater, Temple University in Philadelphia. His first trial on those charges last year ended in a hung jury.

Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill also said defence lawyers could introduce evidence that Cosby made a payout to accuser Andrea Constand to settle the lawsuit she filed against him in 2005. Details of that settlement were not aired during the first trial and have remained secret for more than a decade.

Together, the two rulings will bolster the defence’s strategy to portray Constand as a liar who invented the incident to extort money from the comedian best known for his rose as Cliff Huxtable, the wise and witty dad on the long-running hit sitcom “The Cosby Show.”

The trial is scheduled to begin with opening statements on April 9 in the Norristown, Pennsylvania court.

Cosby is charged with drugging and sexually assaulting Constand at his home in suburban Philadelphia more than 14 years ago. The first trial end in a mistrial last June when the jury could not reach a verdict.

Cosby has denied allegations from more than 50 women that he sexually assaulted them. Constand’s accusations are the only ones recent enough to allow for criminal prosecution.

Defence lawyers had asked O’Neill to permit Jackson to testify that Constand, a former co-worker, once told her she could profit by accusing a famous person of sexual assault.

During the first trial, O’Neill barred Jackson from taking the stand as a rebuttal witness, ruling the statements were hearsay. But he changed his mind following both written submissions and oral arguments at pretrial hearings last week.

The prosecution’s case will also unfold differently this time. O’Neill has granted them permission to call five other Cosby accusers over defence objections. In the first trial, they could only call one.

Those witnesses are expected to testify about similar alleged sexual assaults as prosecutors try to show that Cosby engaged in a pattern of misconduct.
…

From: MeNeedIt

Defence lawyers at Bill Cosby’s retrial on sexual assault charges can call a witness they say will undermine his accuser’s credibility, a Pennsylvania judge said on Tuesday, reversing his ruling that barred the same witness from the first trial of the comedian once known as “America’s Dad.”

The ruling came on the second day of jury selection for the second trial where the 80-year-old entertainer will face charges that he sexually assaulted a staffer more than a decade ago at his alma mater, Temple University in Philadelphia. His first trial on those charges last year ended in a hung jury.

Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill also said defence lawyers could introduce evidence that Cosby made a payout to accuser Andrea Constand to settle the lawsuit she filed against him in 2005. Details of that settlement were not aired during the first trial and have remained secret for more than a decade.

Together, the two rulings will bolster the defence’s strategy to portray Constand as a liar who invented the incident to extort money from the comedian best known for his rose as Cliff Huxtable, the wise and witty dad on the long-running hit sitcom “The Cosby Show.”

The trial is scheduled to begin with opening statements on April 9 in the Norristown, Pennsylvania court.

Cosby is charged with drugging and sexually assaulting Constand at his home in suburban Philadelphia more than 14 years ago. The first trial end in a mistrial last June when the jury could not reach a verdict.

Cosby has denied allegations from more than 50 women that he sexually assaulted them. Constand’s accusations are the only ones recent enough to allow for criminal prosecution.

Defence lawyers had asked O’Neill to permit Jackson to testify that Constand, a former co-worker, once told her she could profit by accusing a famous person of sexual assault.

During the first trial, O’Neill barred Jackson from taking the stand as a rebuttal witness, ruling the statements were hearsay. But he changed his mind following both written submissions and oral arguments at pretrial hearings last week.

The prosecution’s case will also unfold differently this time. O’Neill has granted them permission to call five other Cosby accusers over defence objections. In the first trial, they could only call one.

Those witnesses are expected to testify about similar alleged sexual assaults as prosecutors try to show that Cosby engaged in a pattern of misconduct.
…

From: MeNeedIt