Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs jury to be seated in hip-hop mogul’s sex trafficking trial

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs jury to be seated in hip-hop mogul’s sex trafficking trial
jury selection begins in Sean "Diddy" Combs' federal sex crimes trial in New York. (File/AFP)
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Updated 09 May 2025
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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs jury to be seated in hip-hop mogul’s sex trafficking trial

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs jury to be seated in hip-hop mogul’s sex trafficking trial
  • Combs pleads not guilty to racketeering, sex trafficking
  • Twelve jurors and six alternates to be chosen

NEW YORK: A jury of 12 New Yorkers is due to be chosen on Friday in the racketeering and sex trafficking trial of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who could face decades or even life in prison if convicted.

The rapper has pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation for prostitution — all felonies.

Over three days this week, the judge overseeing the case questioned nearly 100 prospective jurors on subjects including what they had heard about Combs’ case and any experiences they had had with sexual assault.

With input from defense lawyers and prosecutors, US District Judge Arun Subramanian in Manhattan dismissed the jurors he deemed unfit to serve and settled on 45 candidates qualified to serve fairly and impartially.

On Friday, lawyers for each side will take turns striking candidates until a panel of 12 jurors and six alternates is chosen — a chess match with potentially decisive implications in the outcome of the trial.

Combs, a Harlem native who founded the pioneering record label Bad Boy Records and discovered iconic rappers including the Notorious B.I.G., was arrested last September and has been held in a Brooklyn federal lockup since then.

The charges marked the stunning downfall of a titan of the music industry who once held a ceremonial key to the city of New York and was known for throwing lavish parties for A-list celebrities.

Prosecutors with the Manhattan US Attorney’s office say that for two decades Combs used his business empire to lure women into his orbit with promises of romantic relationships or financial support, then violently coerced them to take part in days-long, drug-fueled sexual performances known as “Freak Offs.”

In court papers, prosecutors allege Combs kept his victims obedient by drugging and blackmailing them. He is accused of kidnapping a person at gunpoint, dropping a Molotov cocktail into a car and hitting, choking and dragging victims in acts of violence dating back to the 1990s.

Combs’ lawyers have said prosecutors are improperly seeking to criminalize Combs’ “swinger lifestyle.” They have signaled they plan to attack the credibility of the alleged victims who will testify by seeking to show they had financial incentives to accuse Combs. They have said the women gave inconsistent accounts of the alleged assaults to investigators.

Subramanian has said the trial will last around eight weeks, with the alternate jurors serving as backups in case jurors are unable to finish. Any verdict must be unanimous.

The trial is expected to feature testimony from three, or possibly four, accusers including Combs’ ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura, a rhythm and blues singer known professionally as Cassie.

Combs faces more than 50 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual assault, including one by a plaintiff who says he was 10 years old at the time of the alleged attack.

Combs has denied wrongdoing in those cases and claimed his accusers are seeking a payday.


Indonesia arrests and sentences foreign nationals in separate cases of drug smuggling

Indonesia arrests and sentences foreign nationals in separate cases of drug smuggling
Updated 57 min 59 sec ago
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Indonesia arrests and sentences foreign nationals in separate cases of drug smuggling

Indonesia arrests and sentences foreign nationals in separate cases of drug smuggling
  • The sentences were considered lenient as Indonesia typically hands out severe punishments for drug smuggling

DENPASAR: Indonesian authorities said they recently arrested a Brazilian man and a South African woman accused of smuggling cocaine, while a court sentenced two groups of foreigners to prison on drug charges.

The sentences were considered lenient as Indonesia typically hands out severe punishments for drug smuggling, including the death penalty.

A 25-year-old Brazilian man, identified by the initials YB, was arrested July 13 shortly after arriving from Dubai and charged with carrying 3,086 grams (6.8 pounds) of cocaine in his suitcase and backpack at Bali’s Ngurah Rai international airport, said Made Sinar Subawa, head of the Eradication Division at Bali’s Narcotic Agency.

The same day, customs officers seized 990 grams (2.1 pounds) of cocaine they say was being carried in the underwear of a 32-year-old South African woman, identified as LN, Subawa said.

In Denpasar District Court on Thursday, judges sentenced a group of three British nationals to one year in jail for drug offenses after a charge that could carry the death penalty was dropped.

Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 28, and his partner Lisa Ellen Stocker, 29, were arrested Feb. 1 after customs officers found 993 grams (2.2 pounds) of cocaine worth an estimated 6 billion rupiah ($368,000). The drugs were hidden among sachets of powdered dessert mix.

Two days later, authorities arrested Phineas Ambrose Float, 31, after a delivery of the drugs arranged by police.

During their June trial, defense lawyers argued their clients were unaware the food given to them in England contained cocaine. The three-judge panel handed down one-year prison terms for each defendant minus time served, making them eligible for release in seven months.

Separately, an Argentine woman was sentenced to seven years and a British man received a five-year sentence with a fine of 1 billion rupiah ($61,380) on charges of smuggling cocaine to Bali.

Eleonora Gracia, 46, was arrested in March at Bali’s airport with 244 grams (0.5 pounds) of cocaine. Authorities alleged she handed over the cocaine to Elliot James Shaw, 50, during a police sting operation at a Bali hotel.

About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners, according to Ministry of Immigration and Corrections data. Indonesia’s last executions of a citizen and three foreigners were carried out in July 2016. The country has upheld a moratorium on execution since 2017.

President Prabowo Subianto has moved to repatriate several high-profile foreign inmates, all sentenced to death or life in prison for drug offenses, back to their home countries since he took office in October.

A British woman, Lindsay Sandiford, now 69, has been on death row in Indonesia for more than a decade. She was arrested in 2012 with 3.8 kilograms (8.4 pounds) of cocaine in her luggage.

Serge Atlaoui, an ailing Frenchman, returned to France in February after Jakarta and Paris agreed to repatriate him on “humanitarian grounds.”

Indonesia took Mary Jane Veloso off death row and returned her to the Philippines in December. In the same month, the government sent to Australia the five remaining members of a drug ring known as the “Bali Nine.”


China, EU vow to ‘step up efforts to address climate change’

China, EU vow to ‘step up efforts to address climate change’
Updated 24 July 2025
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China, EU vow to ‘step up efforts to address climate change’

China, EU vow to ‘step up efforts to address climate change’
  • Chinese and European leaders reiterate that it is crucial that all countries step up efforts to address climate change

BEIJING: China and the European Union vowed on Thursday to "step up" action to address climate change, according to a joint statement released as Beijing hosted the bloc's leaders for a one-day summit.

Chinese and European leaders "reiterate that in the fluid and turbulent international situation today, it is crucial that all countries... step up efforts to address climate change", the statement said.


UN says Taliban committing ‘rights violations’ against Afghan returnees

UN says Taliban committing ‘rights violations’ against Afghan returnees
Updated 24 July 2025
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UN says Taliban committing ‘rights violations’ against Afghan returnees

UN says Taliban committing ‘rights violations’ against Afghan returnees

KABUL: A United Nations report published Thursday said Taliban authorities were committing human rights violations, including torture and arbitrary detention, against Afghans forced to return by Iran and Pakistan.

“People returning to the country who were at particular risk of reprisals and other human rights violations by the de facto (Taliban) authorities were women and girls, individuals affiliated with the former government and its security forces, media workers and civil society,” the UN said in a statement accompanying the release of the report.

“These violations have included torture and ill-treatment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and threats to personal security.”


Russian rescuers find missing plane in flames in far east

Russian rescuers find missing plane in flames in far east
Updated 24 July 2025
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Russian rescuers find missing plane in flames in far east

Russian rescuers find missing plane in flames in far east
  • A passenger plane carrying 49 people crashed in Russia’s far eastern region of Amur on Thursday, authorities said

MOSCOW: Russian rescuers have found the fuselage of an Antonov-24 passenger plane carrying 49 passengers that disappeared from radar earlier in Russia's far east, the emergencies ministry said Thursday.

"An Mi-8 helicopter operated by Rosaviatsiya (Russia's civil aviation authority) has spotted the burning fuselage of the aircraft," Russia's emergencies ministry said on Telegram.

Authorities confrimed on Thursday that the twin-engine Antonov-24 operated by Angara Airlines, was headed to the town of Tynda from the city of Blagoveshchensk when it disappeared from radar, regional governor Vassily Orlov said on Telegram.

The helicopter saw no evidence of survivors from above, local rescuers said. The Amur region’s civil defense agency said it was dispatching rescuers to the scene.

“At the moment, 25 people and five units of equipment have been dispatched, and four aircraft with crews are on standby,” it said.


Wife of Scotland’s former first minister says Israel starving her family in Gaza

Wife of Scotland’s former first minister says Israel starving her family in Gaza
Updated 24 July 2025
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Wife of Scotland’s former first minister says Israel starving her family in Gaza

Wife of Scotland’s former first minister says Israel starving her family in Gaza
  • Nadia El-Nakla, Humza Yousaf slam the Israeli regime’s actions
  • Gaza’s children ‘starved, displaced, bombed’ as ‘world watches’

LONDON: Nadia El-Nakla, the wife of former first minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, says Israel is starving her family in the Gaza Strip.

El-Nakla and Yousaf, the former leader of the Scottish National Party, appeared together in a video on Wednesday, addressing their family’s suffering in Gaza, where Israel faces charges of war crimes and genocide.

El-Nakla said the Israeli government was deliberately starving her cousin Sally and her four children, as well as her aunt Hanan, her children, and grandchildren, including a 7-month-old baby.

Her family lives in the town of Deir Al-Balah, where Israeli forces have launched a bombing campaign this week.

Ongoing Israeli attacks and the policy of aid restrictions in Gaza have led to food shortages, impacting the 2 million residents. Over 100 human rights organizations warned this week that “mass starvation” is spreading in Gaza.

She said that “starving people were being forced to run while being shot and bombed.”

Yousaf said children in Gaza were being “starved, displaced, bombed, all while the world watches.”

“Sally is one of millions in Gaza. Her husband goes out all day searching for food, often to come home with nothing,” the former SNP leader said.

“And when I say home, I mean a tent and almost 40-degree heat.”

He said that doctors and journalists have become too weak to treat patients or cover news due to severe starvation.

El-Nakla added that “this is a deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people ... This form of warfare is sickening and the stories and images from my family and millions of others in Gaza are absolutely gut-wrenching.

“Can you imagine not being able to feed your children yet knowing the food you so desperately need is only a few miles away?”

She went on: “Sally’s life matters, Palestinian lives matter, and I am begging those who have the power to open the borders to do so now and let the people of Gaza live.”

El-Nakla’s parents, Maged and Elizabeth, were trapped in Gaza for four weeks after visiting family when the war began following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7. They later left through Egypt along with other British nationals.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza reported on Wednesday that 10 individuals died from malnutrition in the previous 24 hours.

The UK, along with 28 nations, accused Israel this week of inhumane actions, including the “drip feeding” of aid and the killing of civilians seeking food and water in Gaza.