Nigella Lawson Accused of Illegal Drug Use; Japan Defies Chinese Air Space Restrictions
HOLMES: Well, she is the -- one of the world's most famous chefs. Her name is Nigella Lawson, and she's now also the target of allegations that she abused drugs daily.</s>GORANI: You may remember her from that tabloid image of her husband, at the time, Charles Saatchi, grabbing her by the throat. This is one of the richest art collectors, by the way, in Europe. And this is not a trial related to their divorce proceedings, but the trial of two former personal assistants accused of embezzling money from the couple.</s>HOLMES: Exactly. CNN's Max Foster following developments from London. Particularly in the U.K., but also around the world, this is a very well-known couple. Charles Saatchi was a big advertising guru and art collector, as Hala said. What's been happening in court?</s>MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are just learning so much about this extraordinary household, this extraordinary relationship. Today, Charles Saatchi did turn up to the courthouse, but he wasn't allowed in to appear because the previous witness was still testifying, the previous witness actually, his solicitor, who described how he became suspicious of these two P.A.s, and at one point they were spending more than a hundred thousand dollars a month. But he didn't alert Charles Saatchi because he didn't want to distract him with what he described as "trivial matters." I mean, extraordinary amounts of money involved here, and it really is revealing so much about this couple and it's getting huge headlines here, of course.</s>FOSTER: The bitter battle between chef Nigella Lawson and her multimillionaire ex-husband Charles Saatchi now taking a shocking turn with new accusations of illegal drug use. In an e-mail read out in court, Saatchi accuses Lawson of using cocaine and marijuana on a daily basis, allowing two former personal assistants to walk away with more than $1 million over four years.</s>BRIAN BALTHAZAR, ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALIST: You don't know what the truth is, but what it does do is pretty much damage Nigella Lawson's reputation. Whether or not it's true or not, we don't know, but now we have this story of alleged drug use from Nigella, and this could affect jobs that she has coming to her right now.</s>FOSTER: The former assistants, sisters Francesca and Elisabetta Grillo, are now facing criminal charges, accused of committing fraud, using a company credit card. They deny the charges. But Saatchi claims Lawson's drug habits allowed the sisters to spend whatever they liked. A spokesman for Lawson declined to comment, but the celebrity chef did tweet out a recipe and thanked supporters using the hash tag, #TeamNigella. The couple divorced this year after photos from the restaurant of Saatchi grabbing Lawson's throat during an argument made front-page headline.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Saatchi, do you have any comment this morning?</s>FOSTER: Saatchi accepted a police caution for assault. According to defense attorneys for the Grillo sisters, that's when Saatchi learned of Lawson's alleged drug use.</s>BALTHAZAR: We have three different parties, basically all at each other's throats, and we really don't know the truth. Even if Nigella were to take a drug test tomorrow and positive for drugs, we still wouldn't know whether or not she was authorizing all this money to be spent.</s>FOSTER: The defense claims e-mail show both Saatchi and Lawson had attempted a manipulation of the court and that the case should be thrown out. The judge has ruled the case against the personal assistants will continue.</s>FOSTER: So tomorrow might well be an extraordinary day, Michael and Hala, because Charles Saatchi will come back to appear, and he's been saying some extraordinary things about his ex-wife and he won't be accused of libel if he says these things in court. That's one of the things the defense keeps pointing out. Perhaps it's inappropriate to use the court for this sort of argument. But also, the defense team today have actually requested that Nigella Lawson also app appear tomorrow. And we would love to hear what she has to say, because so far, she's been quiet. She hasn't defended herself in any way, and we do need to hear here side of the story.</s>HOLMES: Can't imagine the media scrum for that one.</s>GORANI: I was going to say, yes, we're hearing one side here. This is an acrimonious divorce and an ex-husband. We have to hear in this case, as well, from the other party, so hopefully, we will.</s>HOLMES: Yeah. Max Foster there, thanks so much, Max. All right, Iran taking its first big step towards getting the world's trust back. Under that new cooperation agreement that was hammered out in Geneva, it has invited U.N. inspectors to visit the Arak heavy water production plant.</s>GORANI: This facility is linked to a reactor that, if completed, could produce enough plutonium for two atomic weapons a year. Iran agreed to stop, quote, "activities" at the reactor as part of last weekend's Geneva nuclear deal. The U.N. nuclear watchdog group is keeping a close eye on a reactor in North Korea.</s>HOLMES: It is. Activity at that site indicates that North Korea might be trying to restart what is really an aging reactor. But U.N. officials say they have no access to that site and can't say for certain one way or the other whether the reactor has been restarted.</s>GORANI: Nuclear experts say the site is capable of producing weapons- grade plutonium, so that, another spot there in the world where the nuclear issues are making headlines. As for Japan now, this is one big crisis in that part of the world, everyone. It is taking a very defiant stand in a tense dispute with China. Japan is defying China's attempt to impose new restrictions on airspace over the East China Sea.</s>HOLMES: Yeah, now, this includes the skies, not coincidentally, by the way, over islands claimed by both China and Japan. Now, Japanese aircraft flew through the disputed space without telling China, which China was demanding happen. Earlier this week, we also saw two unarmed B-52 bomber fly through this area.</s>GORANI: The State Department says it was part of a planned military exercise, but in this environment, everybody's feeling a bit testy.</s>HOLMES: This is one of those stories where you just hope there is not a misunderstanding or miscommunication, because that could be ugly.</s>GORANI: And not any kind of mistake -</s>HOLMES: Exactly.</s>GORANI: -- whatsoever. A very tense environment there, we'll continue to follow that. But still to come, while families cook their Thanksgiving turkeys, a comet is set to endure its own roasting.</s>HOLMES: Get it? Get it? You're going to see, next up, how you may see this Thanksgiving spectacular in the sky.