BIEBER on assault rap
TORONTO, Canada (AP) — Canadian pop star Justin Bieber faces new charges after he was arrested for dangerous driving and assault following a collision between a minivan and an ATV that led to a physical altercation involving a photographer, his lawyer said yesterday.
Ontario Provincial Police said Bieber, who was driving the ATV, and an occupant of the minivan “engaged in a physical altercation”, Friday afternoon near Bieber’s hometown of Stratford.
“Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez’s peaceful retreat in Stratford this weekend was unfortunately disrupted by the unwelcome presence of the paparazzi,” Brian Greenspan, Bieber’s Toronto lawyer, said yesterday.
“This has regrettably resulted in charges of dangerous driving and assault. Mr Bieber and Ms Gomez have fully cooperated in the police investigation. We are hopeful that this matter will be quickly resolved.”
Bieber, 20, turned himself in to a police station Monday and was arrested, then released on a promise to appear in court September 29, Constable Kees Wijnands said.
Wijnands said there were no injuries as a result of the collision, but could not say whether there were any injuries from the altercation.
“It wasn’t a big deal for us. We knew he was here. He’s a local boy. We weren’t going to make a big deal of it,” Wijnands said, adding that Beiber was riding with a passenger.
Bieber was photographed Friday riding on an ATV vehicle with on-and-off again girlfriend, actress and singer Selena Gomez.
Just a few days before the incident, Bieber’s car was hit from behind by a vehicle driven by a photographer in Hollywood and the Grammy Award-nominated singer tweeted: “There should be laws against what I just experienced. We should have learned from the death of Princess Diana…”
He also tweeted: “I don’t have a problem with Paparazzi but when they act recklessly they put us all in danger.”
Earlier this month, Bieber pleaded guilty to misdemeanour charges of careless driving and resisting arrest seven months after his arrest in Miami Beach following what police initially called an illegal street drag race.
Celebrities’ nude shots stolen
LOS ANGELES (AP) — As federal investigators worked yesterday to determine who stole and posted nude photos of several female celebrities online, the images continued to be removed from various sites.
Copyright complaints apparently prompted the removal of the image from sharing site Imgur.com and rendered links on the social networking site Reddit inoperable in what experts call an online version of “whack-a-mole” that will never fully scrub the intimate photos of Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence and other stars from the Internet.
Apple said yesterday that its engineers have determined that hackers breached individual accounts, but didn’t obtain general access to a pair of its services, iCloud and Find my iPhone. While the tech giant released the results after it said it conducted 40 hours of investigation, law enforcement inquiries likely will take days or weeks to complete.
The FBI offered no details yesterday on its efforts to identify the people responsible for stealing the images and posting them, but said on Monday that the agency was aware of the breach and was “addressing the matter”. Previous investigations have involved the use of search warrants and digital forensics to determine how hackers obtained everything from Paris Hilton’s contact list to nude photos of actresses Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis.
Lawrence, a three-time Oscar nominee who won for her role in Silver Linings Playbook, contacted authorities after the images began appearing Sunday. By yesterday, a Reddit thread that had been compiling links to images of nude photos of Lawrence and other celebrities had been disabled “due to a copyright claim”. Users reported difficulty finding working links to the images on other sites, although they remained active on sites that specialise in online piracy.
Joan Rivers on life support
NEW YORK (AP) — Joan Rivers’ family is confirming that the comedian is on life support after going into cardiac arrest last week during a procedure at a doctor’s office.
Her daughter, Melissa Rivers, said in a statement yesterday that her mother is on life support “at this time”. Melissa said the family is extremely grateful for the public support.
Joan Rivers was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan last Thursday. The 81-year-old comic and red carpet commentator has maintained a busy career as host of Fashion Police on the E! network and co-star of the WEtv reality show, Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?
Melissa Rivers said yesterday that she knows that her mother would be overwhelmed by the continuing outpouring of kindness.