Cosby retrial pushed to 2018

Pennsylvania: The retrial of disgraced US television icon Bill Cosby on sexual assault charges on Tuesday was pushed back to next year to give his new lawyers time to prepare their defence.

The new trial had set to begin in Norristown, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, in early November, after his first trial ended in a mistrial in June. But judge Steven O’Neill agreed on Tuesday that it could be postponed to a date “within the March 15 to April 1, 2018 timeframe”, court spokesman James Koval told AFP.

On Monday, Mr Cosby’s spokesman announced that Los Angeles-based Tom Mesereau, known for getting an acquittal for pop star Michael Jackson in June 2005 after a fourmonth trial on child molestation charges, would now lead his defence.

Mr Mesereau and his team, who appeared on Mr Cosby’s behalf for the first time Tuesday, argued that they needed more time to get up to speed on the case.

Mr Cosby, the pioneering African American actor and comedian, stands accused of drugging and molesting former Temple University basketball official Andrea Constand at his Philadelphia home in 2004.

The three-person defence team includes Tom Mesereau, who is best known for helping to secure an acquittal for Michael Jackson in the pop star’s 2005 child molestation trial in California

— AFP Members of the Amis indigenous group dance during the traditional harvest festival in Hualien, eastern Taiwan, on Sunday.

— AP — AP (Above) German Chancellor Angela Merkel walks in front of cosplayers at the Gamescom fair for computer games in Cologne, Germany, on Tuesday. (Right) Actors Adam Driver, (left) and Channing Tatum at the premiere of the film Logan Lucky in London, Monday.