Illinois court rejects actor’s attempt to throw out charges

Associated PressMarch 6, 2020, 7:40 PM EST

CHICAGO (AP) — The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday refused to throw out charges against former "Empire” actor Jussie Smollett that accuse him of staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself and rejected his effort to remove the special prosecutor in the case.

Smollett’s lawyers argued in an emergency petition that Cook County Circuit Judge Michael Toomin overstepped his authority and misinterpreted the law when he ordered the appointment of a special prosecutor. The court did not explain its decision to reject the arguments by Smollett’s lawyers.

Smollett. 37, was initially accused by Cook County prosecutors of falsely reporting to police that the alleged phony attack was real. Sixteen counts of disorderly conduct originally filed against him were dismissed and Toomin found Smollett’s first prosecution was invalid.

After another investigation by special prosecutor Dan Webb, six counts of the same charges we filed against Smollett, to which he pleaded not guilty last week.

Smollett, who is black and gay, told police that two masked men attacked him as he was walking home in the early hours of Jan. 29, 2019. He said they made racist and homophobic insults, beat him and looped a noose around his neck before fleeing, and that at least one of his attackers was a white man who told him he was in “MAGA country,” a reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

Weeks later, police alleged Smollett paid two black friends to help stage the attack because he was unhappy with his salary as an actor on “Empire," a Fox series filmed in Chicago that follows a black family as they navigate the ups and downs of the recording industry.

The friends, brothers Abimbola “Abel” Osundairo and Olabinjo “Ola” Osundairo, would be the state's star witnesses if Smollett's case makes it to trial. The brothers are bodybuilders and aspiring actors whom Smollett knew from the “Empire” set and the gym.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/illinois-court-rejects-actor-attempt-004039558.html

Italy Plans Mandatory Quarantine For 16 Million People In Region Including Milan, Venice

Mary Papenfuss HuffPostMarch 7, 2020, 7:27 PM EST

Italy is preparing to establish a mandatory quarantine in the northern part of the country that will affect Milan and Venice, in a desperate bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Under new regulations expected to be passed overnight, people living in the Lombardy region — of which Milan is the capital — and 11 nearby provinces must “absolutely avoid any movement into and out of the areas,” according to a draft decree from the Italian prime minister’s office seen by The Wall Street Journal.

The quarantine is set to last until April 3 and residents could face fines or jail time if they attempt to enter or leave the area before then (unless they obtain permission for a serious reason), The Guardian reported.

In addition, the decree would ban all public events and religious and civil ceremonies like weddings and funerals. Cinemas, theaters, gyms, bars, ski resorts and museums would be shut down. Schools and universities have already been closed, and that would continue.

People would be instructed to move about only for emergencies and work obligations that absolutely can’t be postponed.

In Italy, which is facing Europe’s largest coronavirus outbreak, nearly 6,000 people have been infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and 233 have died from it. The country has documented the largest number of infections outside Asia, which jumped by nearly 1,200 in a single 24-hour period ending Saturday.

The outbreak in Italy began two weeks ago and the northern regions of Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto have so far suffered 85% of cases and 92% of the deaths.

Currently some 50,000 Italians have been affected by some quarantine measures and the new, more restrictive quarantine is set to take effect Sunday if it passes. It would affect a quarter of Italy’s population and would be the most radical action to deal with COVID-19 since China quarantined some 500 million people earlier this year, which has appeared to significantly slow the spread of the disease there.

“We will win this battle if our citizens adopt a responsible attitude and change their way of living,” Angelo Borrelli, the head of Italy’s civil protection agency, said at a press conference on Saturday.

https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/venice-milan-italy-quarantine-coronavirus-002751521.html

Report: Iran Revolutionary Guard commander killed in Syria

Associated Press•March 7, 2020

BEIRUT (AP) — An official with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard who took part in battles around war-torn Syria was killed near the Syrian capital, an Iranian semiofficial news agency and an opposition war monitor reported Saturday.

Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency identified the commander as Farhad Dabirian and said he was killed in the south Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab. The area is home to a holy shrine for Shiite Muslims.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing and Fars reported no additional details on how Dabirian was killed.

Iran is an ally of Syria and has offered military advisers and sent militiamen and material support to help President Bashar Assad's government forces in the nine-year civil war.

Fars said Dabirian was a commander of the battle to retake the historic town of Palmyra from the Islamic State group.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, also reported that Dabirian was killed Friday night without saying how. It added that the late commander was close to Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

In recent years, Israel has repeatedly carried out airstrikes in Syria against targets belonging to Iran and its regional proxies. One airstrike last month killed two members of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which is backed by Iran.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/report-iran-revolutionary-guard-commander-134124715.html