• Justin Bieber pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor vandalism charge for throwing eggs at a home in his Calabasas neighborhood in California and was sentenced to two years of probation. Bieber also was ordered to pay $80,900 in damages, complete five days of community labor and a 12-week anger-management program, and stay away from the victim and his family for two years. The Grammy-nominated singer was not present for the Wednesday arraignment at Superior Court in Van Nuys. A spokesman for Bieber said he's glad to have the matter resolved and behind him. Prosecutors spent months considering whether to file charges after the singer's mansion was searched after the January incident. A detective wrote that someone matching Bieber's description was seen on video high-fiving his friends at the time of the egg-throwing.
• The British website Mail Online apologized Wednesday to George Clooney for alleging that his fiancee's mother opposed his marriage to her daughter on religious grounds -- a story Clooney called both wrong and irresponsible. Clooney is engaged to Beirut-born London lawyer Amal Alamuddin, whose father, Ramzi, belongs to a prominent Druse family. The Druse are adherents of a monotheistic religion based mainly in Lebanon, Syria and Israel. Citing unnamed family "friends," Mail Online, which is affiliated with Britain's Daily Mail tabloid, reported this week that Baria Alamuddin wanted her 36-year-old daughter to marry a Druse man. It said Amal Alamuddin risked being "cast out of the community" if she wed Clooney and claimed that several Druse women had been murdered for not abiding by strict Druse rules. Clooney called the story "completely fabricated." In a statement issued to USA Today, he said Baria Alamuddin -- a well-known journalist -- was not Druse and "is in no way against the marriage." Clooney, 53, added that "to exploit religious differences where none exist is at the very least negligent and more appropriately dangerous."
A Section on 07/10/2014
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