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A secret FBI dossier on civil rights leader Martin Luther King alleges that he had a string of affairs and other “sexual aberrations”, as well as links to the Communist Party.

It is dated just three weeks before Dr King’s assassination in April 1968.

The file was released in a tranche of documents relating to the assassination of John F Kennedy released on Friday.

Mr Kennedy is not referenced in the file and it is not clear why it was kept secret for almost 50 years.

There is no evidence that any of the claims in the report were verified.

Its cover shows it was assessed in 1994 by an FBI task force on the JFK assassination, which concluded none of the document should be released.

Many of the allegations contained in the paper appear to be reports of private conversations between others, or hearsay reported third-hand.

One allegation, that King had a mistress in California with whom he fathered a child, was attributed to “a very responsible Los Angeles individual in a position to know”.

Among its other accusations are that:

• Dr King was surrounded by advisers with strong links to the Communist Party USA
• His statements were always subject to approval by the alleged communist sympathisers
• He was a secret supporter of communism, “a whole-hearted Marxist”
• His organisation, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, set up a “tax dodge” to raise funds for its activities
• Dr King took part in “drunken sex orgies” and coerced young women to participate
• He had love affairs with at least four women, including folk singer Joan Baez

The list of alleged indiscretions would likely have been deeply problematic for the civil rights leader if it had been made public in 1968.

The paper paints Dr King in an extremely negative light, despite his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize and his contribution to passing the Civil Rights Act four years previously.

It is not entirely clear why the dossier was commissioned. But several pages of the 20-page document are concerned with Mr King’s upcoming “Washington Spring project” which was scheduled for the coming months.

It warned that despite Dr King’s history of calling for peaceful protest, “the combined forces of the communist influence and the black nationalists advocating violence give the ‘Washington Spring Project’ a potential for an extremely explosive situation.”

Dr King was killed before the planned march.

A ‘slow thinker’ with ‘abnormal’ sexual preferences

Despite Dr King’s historical reputation as a skilled speaker, the FBI file claimed that other advisers approved everything Mr King said.

“King is such a slow thinker he is usually not prepared to make statements without help from someone,” it reads.

Linking Dr King to communism, it claimed:

“King is a whole-hearted Marxist who has studied it (Marxism), believes in it and agrees with it, but because of his being a minister of religion, does no dare to espouse it publicly.”

And in another part says: “During the early 1960s, the CPUSA [the communist party] was striving to obtain a Negro-labor coalition to achieve its goals in this country… Martin Luther King, Jr, and his organisation were made to order to achieve these objectives.”

The most salacious claims about Dr King’s sex life are contained in a dense collection of rumours in the final two pages.

At a February 1968 workshop to train ministers in urban leadership, it is alleged: “One Negro minister in attendance later expressed his disgust with the behind-the scene drinking, fornication, and homosexuality that went on at the conference.”

“Several Negro and white prostitute[s] were brought in from the Miami area. An all-night sex orgy was held with these prostitutes and some of the delegates.”

The document alleged that Dr King also engaged in a “two-day drunken sex orgy” in Washington in January 1964.

“When one of the females shied away from engaging in an unnatural act, King and other of the males present discussed how she was to be taught and initiated in this respect,” it added.

“It is a fact that King not only regularly indulges in adulterous acts but enjoys the abnormal by engaging in group sexual orgies.”

Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS

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The White House has sought to downplay a major climate change report, which was compiled by 13 US federal agencies.

The study is at odds with assertions from President Donald Trump and several members of his administration.

It says it is “extremely likely” human activity is the “dominant cause” of global warming.

A spokesman for the White House said it supported “rigorous scientific analysis and debate” but added that the climate was “always changing”.

White House principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah said it was not certain how sensitive the Earth’s climate was to greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr Trump, who has embarked on a tour of Asia, once said the concept of global warming was created by the Chinese in order to make American manufacturing less competitive.

Earlier this year, he announced he was pulling the US out of the Paris Agreement to cut global emissions.

Apocalyptic predictions

The Climate Science Special Report, which was approved by the White House, was compiled by US government scientists.

It argues that it is “extremely likely” that human activity is causing rapid global warming with dire consequences for the US and the world.

The scientists’ predictions include:

• A global sea level rise of up to 8ft (2.4 metres) cannot be ruled out by the end of the century

• Risks of drought and flooding will increase

• There will be more frequent wildfires and devastating storms

Running to nearly 500 pages, the report concludes that the current period is “now the warmest in the history of modern civilisation”.

It is “extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause”, it finds, adding that “there is no convincing alternative explanation”.

President Trump has made it easier for industry to pollute and he has appointed to key government positions men who are sceptical of their own scientists, the BBC’s James Cook, in Los Angeles, says.

Only on Thursday, Mr Trump’s Energy Secretary, Rick Perry, told US media that while he thought climate change was real and humans had an “impact on it”, he still thought “the science [was] out on” whether humans cause 100% of it.

The researchers say there was no political interference in, or censorship of, their report.

Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS

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The director of 2003 cult movie The Room has lost a legal bid to block a documentary about his film after a judge said it was “abysmal”.

Tommy Wiseau argued Room Full of Spoons “mocks, derides and disparages him” and his film and infringes copyright.

But Ontario Superior Court ruled the 2016 documentary cannot disparage a film whose word-of-mouth success depended on it being “so bad”.

Justice Markus Koehnen lifted an injunction on Room Full of Spoons.

“The Room’s fame rests on its apparently abysmal quality as a movie,” Mr Koehnen wrote in his ruling on Wednesday.

“People flock to see The Room because it is so bad.

“People see the movie for the very purpose of mocking it; a phenomenon that has won the movie its cult status.”

He cited a number of film reviews, including one from the BBC that said “it’s not just bad-it’s intoxicatingly awful… a car crash of incompetence and catastrophic misjudgement”.

• Why so many people love the worst film ever made
• The joy of hate watching

The judge also found the documentary did not infringe upon the copyright, as the film had been up in its entirety on YouTube for years.

Only seven minutes of scenes were used in Room Full of Spoons.

Justice Koehnen told the documentary’s filmmakers to add credit to the footage to make it clear it does not belong to them.

The Room earned only $1,800 in its initial two week release in theatres, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

But over time it has become popular as a midnight movie at revue cinemas around the world.

Room Full of Spoons director Rick Harper, who is a fan of The Room, told the Hollywood Reporter Mr Wiseau initially co-operated with the documentary.

“He basically wanted me to make a two-hour promotional video for The Room, which it essentially is,” he said.

“But I didn’t want to just do that. So he immediately dropped out.”

Room Full of Spoons is not the only film to look at the making of The Room.

James Franco’s Disaster Artist premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this September.

The movie is based on the same-titled memoir written by The Room star Greg Sestero.

Note: This story is auto-generated from BBC syndicated feed and has not been edited by AFRICA PRIME NEWS