Michael Jackson defence rests

The defence rested in the Michael Jackson child abuse trial without putting the pop star on the stand, wrapping up after a three-week effort to portray the accuser and his mother as shakedown artists.

Prosecutors immediately began their rebuttal yesterday. The jury could get the case as early as the middle of next week and begin deciding whether Jackson molested a 13-year-old cancer patient at his Neverland ranch in 2003.