By David DeKok

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (Reuters) – Comedian Bill Cosby was convicted on Thursday on all three counts of drugging and molesting a onetime friend in 2004, a decisive victory for prosecutors in one of the first celebrity sexual-assault trials of the #MeToo era.

Cosby, 80, best known as the lovable father from the 1980s TV hit “The Cosby Show,” faces up to 10 years in prison for each of the three counts of aggravated indecent assault of Andrea Constand, who is now 45.

Cosby looked down with a sad expression when the Pennsylvania jury’s verdict was read. Lily Bernard, one of his many accusers, began sobbing. Constand sat stone-faced.

“It’s a victory not just for the 62 of us who have come forward but for all survivors of sexual assault, female and male,” Bernard told reporters, using a high estimate of the number of Cosby’s accusers.

Outside the courtroom, two other Cosby accusers were seen hugging, crying and clapping.

Judge Steven O’Neill ruled that Cosby could remain out of jail on $1 million bail pending sentencing at a later date, and he left the courthouse.

District Attorney Kevin Steele had asked the judge to have Cosby taken into custody immediately, saying he was a flight risk in part because he owned a plane.

“He doesn’t have a plane, you asshole!” Cosby responded.

A former administrator for the women’s basketball team at Temple University, Cosby’s alma mater, Constand is one of about 50 women who have accused him of sexual assault. All of the other allegations are believed to be too old to be prosecuted. Cosby has said any sexual encounters were consensual.

The unanimous decision by the seven-man, five-woman jury came less than a year after a different jury deadlocked in his first trial on the same charges, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial. Prosecutors decided to retry him.

The first trial ended just before a flood of sexual assault and harassment accusations against rich and powerful men in media, entertainment and politics gave rise to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. Those high-profile revelations have encouraged women in all walks of life to go public with personal stories of abuse, in some cases after years of silence.

(Reporting by David DeKok; Writing by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown)

(Reuters) – An explosion at Husky Energy’s refinery in Superior, Wisconsin, injured at least five people while sending smoke billowing into the sky and shaking a building a mile away, officials at the local fire department and a hospital said on Thursday.

Four people were being treated at nearby Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center and a fifth was on the way, said a hospital spokeswoman. She described their injuries as varied, but said she could not offer further details.

There were no immediate reports of fatalities.

“The whole building shook. The lights flickered three times and the whole building shook,” Jim Ronning, owner of Hudy’s Tavern in Superior, located about a mile (1.6 km) from the facility.

Local media had earlier reported 20 people injured.

The company was responding to an incident at the refinery and emergency crews were on site, Husky spokesman Mel Duvall said, adding, “We are aware an individual has been transported to the hospital.”

Roads around the refinery have been blocked and employees evacuated, with several ambulances seen leaving the site, local media reported.

“It shook our store. Everyone was wondering what was going on. You could see the lights flickered, it knocked out one of our computers, it shook the ceiling,” said Tammie Carroll, an employee at Super One Foods in Superior, which is located about 135 miles (217 km) from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Superior school district, on its website, said it had been advised by police there was no need to evacuate.

Husky purchased the 38,000 barrel per day refinery from Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP last year.

Husky shares were down more than 3 percent at C$18.43 on the Toronto Stock Exchange the same day it reported financial results.

(Reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala and Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru and Stephanie Kelly in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Scott Malone)

By Brendan Pierson and Doina Chiacu

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A federal judge ruled on Thursday that a court-appointed independent official should be the first to examine documents seized by FBI agents from U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.

The agents raided Cohen’s office and home on April 9, an action that infuriated the president. Prosecutors said in a court filing several days later that they have been investigating the lawyer for months, largely over his business dealings rather than his legal work.

The seizure of the documents has led to a legal spat as to who should be allowed to review them.

Lawyers for Cohen and Trump wanted to seek to limit prosecutors’ ability to review the documents, citing attorney-client privilege.

But prosecutors initially said the documents should be reviewed by a “taint team” of lawyers within their own office, who would be walled off from the main prosecution team. Cohen filed a legal action to block them from reviewing the documents, arguing that his lawyers should get a first look. Both sides also said they would be open to an independent ‘special master’ getting a first look.

In the end, the judge opted for the ‘special master.’

“The letters I received from counsel for Mr Cohen and the intervenors has convinced me that this process can go quickly with the special master, assuming everyone works as hard as you have represented you will work,” said U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson and Johnathan Stempel in New York and Doina Chiacu in Washington; Writing by Doina Chiacu and Rosalba O’Brien; Editing by Tom Brown, Frances Kerry and Susan Thomas)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Thursday that he expected a “re-energized” effort against Islamic State militants in eastern Syria in the coming days.

“You’ll see a re-energized effort against the middle Euphrates River Valley in the days ahead and against the rest of the geographic caliphate,” Mattis told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, referring to territory held by the group.

U.S. airstrikes, troops and U.S.-backed Syrian militias have dealt heavy blows to Islamic State in Syria but the group still holds some areas and is widely expected to revert to guerrilla tactics if the last remnants of its once self-styled “caliphate” are captured.

U.S. officials have said that in recent days they have seen fighters from the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of militias in northern and eastern Syria dominated by the Kurdish YPG, returning to the middle Euphrates River Valley to fight against Islamic State.

A Turkish offensive in Afrin against the Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara regards as an extension of a Kurdish insurgency at home, led to an “operational pause” in the fight against Islamic State in eastern Syria in March.

Mattis added that he was also expecting increased operations against Islamic State militants on the Iraqi side of the border and France had reinforced the fight against the militant group in Syria with special forces in the past two weeks.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he wants to withdraw American troops from Syria “relatively soon” but not before their mission is completed, adding that negotiations over the crisis there should be part of a larger deal regarding Iran.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Alistair Bell)

(Reuters) – The New York Times Co <NYT.N> on Thursday named Roland Caputo as its next chief financial officer, tapping a company veteran to succeed James Follo whose retirement was announced in October.

Caputo, who has had a 32-year career at the Times, has been serving as interim finance chief since March.

Caputo, 57, has also served as the executive vice president of the newspaper publisher’s print products and services group. [nBw4zGD50a]

(Reporting by Laharee Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar)