■ United States
Jackson case bombshell
A son of late acting legend Marlon Brando was implicated in an alleged plot by Michael Jackson to kidnap the boy who accused him of child molestation, a court heard on Friday. The bombshell was dropped during a pre-trial hearing in Jackson's child molestation case when prosecutors revealed they had recently discovered documents linking Miko Brando with the alleged crime. Brando, 44, works as a security guard for Jackson and received a US$20,000 petty cash payment from Jackson, prosecutor Ronald Zonen told Judge Rodney Melville. But Jackson's lawyer, Robert Sanger, argued that the financial record proved nothing.
■ United States
Oral sex and the city
New York transport officials were impressed when the hip-hop clothing label Akademiks announced it wanted to buy advertisements on the sides of buses promoting the benefits of literacy. But it turned out that the benefits in question weren't the ones the authorities had in mind. The Metropolitan Transit Authority vowed on Friday to start removing the ads after being informed the slogan plastered over 200 city buses -- "Read books, get brain" -- includes a slang term for oral sex. Anthony Harrison, Akademiks' advertising designer, told the New York Daily News he had been fully aware of the connotations of the phrase "get brain." "We knew this," he said. "It's coded language, city slang. Teens know what it means but the general public doesn't."
■ United States
Gun nut convicted
A man who amassed explosives and made a list of public figures who were "marked to die" because of their liberal and anti-gun stances was convicted in federal court. A federal jury on Friday found 20-year-old Michael Breit guilty of illegally receiving explosives and illegally receiving explosive materials with intent to kill, injure, intimidate people or damage property. Breit was charged in April after he accidentally fired an AK-47 assault rifle in his apartment in Rockford, about 130km northwest of Chicago. Police also found an essay in which Breit allegedly outlined a plan to kill 1,500 people at a Democratic presidential caucus. Breit could face up to 10 years in prison.
■ United States
Iraq policymaker resigns
A central figure in developing Iraq policy in the Bush administration, Robert Blackwill, has told his colleagues at the White House National Security Council that he will resign, leaving the administration without one of the major players in stabilizing the country and moving toward elections, according to a senior administration official.
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