R Kelly is facing additional accusations in his sex trafficking case, including one that he had sexual contact with an underage boy that he met in a McDonald’s.
In a court filing on Friday, federal prosecutors in the US revealed the latest raft of allegations (but not charges) against the rapper in his ongoing case.
Kellyis charged with running what prosecutors have said is a criminal enterprise of bodyguards, managers and others who allegedly helped him find women and girls to take part in sex and pornography, while the singer exercised control over them.
Image: R Kelly is facing more allegations revealed in a court filing on Friday. Pic: AP
The formal charges involve six different women and girls, who, for legal reasons, cannot be named.
Prosecutors now want a jury, which will be selected on 9 August in New York, to hear from more than a dozen other people whom the government says were sexually or physically abused, threatened or mistreated by Kelly.
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R Kelly denies all allegations made against him.
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Among the new claims, Kelly allegedly met a 17-year-old boy in a McDonald’s restaurant in December 2006 before inviting him to his studio in Chicago.
The latest court filing alleges that Kelly propositioned and had sexual contact with the boy after asking him what he would do to make it in the industry, despite his age.
Prosecutors add that ahead of the singer’s 2008 child pornography trial, the same teenager told Kelly he had access to one of the jury members, with the R&B star asking the then-young man to vouch for him – but the filing does not reveal whether the youth did so.
The same teenager then introduced Kelly to another 16 or 17-year-old boy with whom the singer began a relationship several years later, the filing added.
Prosecutors also allege that he filmed the two teenagers in sexual encounters with other people, including some of the rapper’s girlfriends.
Lawyers believe that by writing up the accounts of the boys, it would show the charges “were not isolated events and were part of a larger pattern”.
A house exploded as police were investigating reports of gunshots being fired from the property by a man.
Footage of the blast in the US showed a huge fireball shoot up into the air as the entire home went up in flames and collapsed, spraying debris all around.
Witnesses said the explosion shook nearby buildings and that they could hear it from miles away.
Officers had gone to the address in Arlington, Virginia, at about 4.45pm on Monday after neighbours said they heard the sound of a weapon being fired.
Image: The explosion in Arlington, Virginia, could be heard and felt miles away. Pic: AP
They later determined the shots came from a flare gun, Arlington County police spokesperson Ashley Savage told reporters.
As officers tried to serve a search warrant at the home, “the suspect inside the residence discharged several rounds”, she said.
“The house subsequently exploded.”
Image: The cause of the blast is being investigated. Pic: AP
It happened at around 8.25pm as officers were trying to make contact with the person inside – who has not been named by police.
Officials have not been able to go into the home and could not confirm whether there were any deaths. The suspect was inside when the explosion occurred, Ms Savage said.
“At this point, we’re only aware of one individual who was inside the home,” she added.
Some police officers suffered minor injuries and no one needed to be taken to hospital.
Carla Rodriguez, of South Arlington, said she could hear the explosion more than two miles away.
Bob Maynes thought maybe a tree had fallen on his house when he heard the explosion.
“I was sitting in my living room watching television and the whole house shook,” he said.
“It wasn’t an earthquake kind of tremor, but the whole house shook.”
The cause of the blast is being investigated, Arlington Fire Department officials said.
FBI agents and federal fire investigators are at the scene and assisting in the investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said.
A former US ambassador to Bolivia has been charged with secretly acting as a Cuban agent for “more than 40 years”.
Manuel Rocha, who was arrested at his Miami home on Friday, served as the top US diplomat to Boliviabetween 2000 and 2002.
Prosecutors from the US Justice Department accuse him of promoting the Cubangovernment’s interests, Sky’s US partner NBC News reported.
This is not a crime unless it is done on US soil without registering with the department as a foreign lobbyist, the broadcaster added.
Rocha, 73, appeared in court on Monday and is alleged to have begun his “clandestine activity” on Cuba’s behalf in 1981 or earlier.
It was one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the US government by a foreign agent, department officials said.
He met Cuban intelligence operators, lied to US government officials about his travels and contacts and used a passport obtained through a false statement, prosecutors claimed in court documents filed in Florida.
The charges reflect a harsher approach by the department towards the prosecution of illicit foreign lobbying.
Image: Bolivian President Hugo Banzer (L) with Manuel Rocha in 2000
During his 25-year career as a US diplomat, Rocha served as ambassador to Bolivia and held another senior post – head of mission – in Argentina.
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He worked for the US Interests Section in Havana in the mid-1990s, a time when the US lacked full diplomatic relations with Fidel Castro’s communist government.
Prosecutors claim Cuba’s notoriously sophisticated intelligence services first began using Rocha in 1981 when he first joined the US State Department.
They added that the alleged links continued well after he left government service more than two decades later.
The FBI learned about the relationship last year, it is alleged, and arranged a series of undercover meetings with an agent posing as a Cuban intelligence operator.
In one encounter in Miami last year, Rocha is alleged to have said: “I always told myself, ‘The only thing that can put everything we have done in danger is – is … someone’s betrayal, someone who may have met me, someone who may have known something at some point’.”
Born in Colombia, Rocha joined the US foreign service in 1981.
As ambassador to Bolivia, he warned Bolivians that if they voted for Evo Morales in the upcoming election, the US would cut off aid to the poor South American country.
Rocha also served in Italy, Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and worked as a Latin America expert for the US National Security Council.
“The weapon that was used to injure the officers was a typical kitchen steak knife,” Mr Maddrey told a press conference on Saturday.
He said it is unknown at this stage if it was the same weapon used against the other victims.
Mr Maddrey said additional offers sent to the scene were not able to enter the home immediately because there was a fire inside the living room.
It is believed Gordon had been visiting the family at their home in the Far Rockaway neighbourhood.
“This scene was chaos. Multiple victims, a house on fire, and a mad man on a rampage, on a mission,” Patrick Hendry, the head of the New York Police Department’s police union, said.
“The skill that this police officer had shooting and stopping the threat after he was being stabbed. Unbelievable skill,” he said.