AP - A former aide to Danielle Steel is facing time in federal prison after admitting she stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the romance novelist.

Federal prosecutors announced Monday that 47-year-old Kristy Watts, who also goes by the name Kristy Siegrist, pleaded guilty last week to one count of wire fraud and four counts of tax evasion.

Prosecutors say Watts admitted stealing at least $400,000 while handling accounting and other duties for Steel.

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AP - Lawyers representing homeowners and homebuilders who used drywall suspected of causing corrosion and possible health risks say they expect Chinese companies that made the wallboard to ignore hundreds of lawsuits filed against them in U.S. courts.

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Polish-French director Roman Polanski attends the opening ceremony of the 8th edition of the Marrakesh film festival, 2008. Swiss police detained Polanski and could extradite him to the United States for having sex with a 13-year-old girl three decades ago, authorities said. (AFP/File/Abdelhak Senna)

AFP - Swiss police detained Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski and could extradite him to the United States for having sex with a 13-year-old girl three decades ago, authorities said Sunday.

US authorities have been pursuing the director of "Rosemary's Baby", "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" for many years. The Swiss Justice Ministry said it was now waiting for a US extradition request.

Polanski fled the United States in 1978 before sentencing on a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. He admitted the charge at the time and has never returned, even missing the Oscar award for "The Pianist" in 2003.

A Swiss justice ministry spokesman said Polanski was being held under a 2005 international alert issued by the US government, related to a 1978 arrest warrant in the underage sex case.

Polanski is being held at Zurich airport, the Swiss ATS news agency said, though no official confirmation could be obtained.

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Attorney for Jaycee Dugard and her family, McGregor Scott, held a press conference and made an announcement on Jaycee’s progress, as well as the progress of her children, Angel and Starlet. McGregor Scott stated that he has met with Jaycee, Angel, and Starlet Dugard several times and for interviews that have spanned several hours.

He described being surprised during their first interview with how well they were progressing since their release from their captors, Phillip and Nancy Garrido, on August 26, 2009. He also commented by that by his second meeting with the family, he had witnessed great progression, such as in their personalities and level of self confidence.

Polish-French director Roman Polanski attends the opening ceremony of the 8th edition of the Marrakesh film festival, 2008. Swiss police detained Polanski and could extradite him to the United States for having sex with a 13-year-old girl three decades ago, authorities said.
(AFP/File/Abdelhak Senna)

AFP - A Swiss Justice Ministry spokesman said Sunday that arrested film director Roman Polanski was in custody to await extradition under a US warrant.

"I confirm that Mr Polanski has been arrested, the American authorities issued an international search request in 2005 in relation to a 1978 warrant," the spokesman told AFP.

Polanski was detained in Switzerland on Saturday when he arrived to attend the Zurich film festival where he was to be honoured.

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AP - The Army is allowing the first commissioned officer to be court-martialed for refusing to go to Iraq to resign from the service, his attorney said late Friday.

First Lt. Ehren Watada will be granted a discharge Oct. 2, "under other than honorable conditions," attorney Kenneth Kagan said.

Watada told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin he was happy the matter has finally been closed.

Watada has been lionized by anti-war activists for contending that the war is illegal. If convicted, he could have been sentenced to six years in prison and be dishonorably discharged.

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AP - Jurors in Louisiana have convicted a retired Army Reserve officer of manslaughter in the death of his 81-year-old father whose rotted body was found in a bedroom in their home.

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AP - A former Gulfport mayor was sentenced to probation Friday in a plea deal on charges that he defrauded a program to help Hurricane Katrina victims rebuild their homes, allowing him and his wife to walk out of court with no prison time.

Brent Warr pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Gulfport to one felony count for receiving disaster money that the Federal Emergency Management Agency said he wasn't entitled to, Warr's attorney, Joe Sam Owen, told The Associated Press. The Warrs were accused of wrongly seeking a homeowners assistance grant for a house they owned but did not live in.

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Amidst a high-profile investigation, FBI officials have charged Denver resident Najibullah Zazi with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in an alleged al Qaeda terror plot. Bob Orr reports.

AP - A federal judge is considering whether to allow Elizabeth Smart to testify during a competency hearing for the man charged in her 2002 kidnapping.

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AP - A trial date could be set for a Northern California woman charged with kidnapping, raping and killing an 8-year-old Tracy girl whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase.

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AP - The girlfriend of Michael Jackson's personal physician finished giving testimony before a grand jury in Los Angeles on Thursday, her lawyer said.

Joseph Low, the lawyer for Nicole Alvarez, said his client began testifying on Wednesday.

By law, he was not allowed to discuss what Alvarez was asked but said she had been cooperative in providing a statement.

Alvarez is the girlfriend of Dr. Conrad Murray, who is the subject of an investigation into Jackson's June 25 death, which has been classified as a homicide.


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AP - "Spider-Man" actress Kirsten Dunst has served as a star witness against a man charged in the theft of her designer purse from a New York City hotel suite while she was on a movie set.

Thirty-five-year-old James Jimenez (HIM'-in-ehs) is charged with burglary. His lawyer has pinned the blame on a co-defendant who pleaded guilty to attempted burglary.

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Reuters - A federal judge said that billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian probably knew that his ex-wife was being illegally wiretapped during their child custody dispute, according to court documents.

Kerkorian, the largest shareholder of casino operator MGM Mirage, has consistently denied that he knew that his attorney Terry Christensen paid celebrity sleuth Anthony Pellicano to tap the phone of his ex-wife, Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, in 2002.

Christensen and Pellicano last year were sentenced to federal prison for their roles in the illegal tapings. Kerkorian, 92, was never charged and is not under investigation, his attorney said.

A U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman declined to comment.

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AP - On a trip through the Illinois River watershed this summer, Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson bluntly revealed the main advantage he thought the state had in its pollution lawsuit against the Arkansas poultry industry.

The industry argues that Arkansas and Oklahoma have sanctioned the practice of spreading chicken waste on farmland by issuing farmers permits to do it. Oklahoma "is essentially at war with itself in this lawsuit," said Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for Tyson Foods.

"The attorney general's office claims pollution by the poultry industry, while the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture says poultry farmers and others who use poultry litter as fertilizer are abiding by the law," Mickelson said.

The case will be heard from the bench by U.S. District Judge Gregory K. Frizzell.

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''Zachary's Law'' killer to be resentenced to life

The child molester whose murder of a 10-year-old boy led to the creation of the Indiana sex offender registry will be resentenced to life in prison without parole after his death sentence was overturned.

Christopher M. Stevens, 37, of Cloverdale agreed to the sentence during a meeting Tuesday night in Tippecanoe Superior Court. He will be formally sentenced Nov. 23 in Lafayette.

Stevens was sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of Zachary Snider of Cloverdale. But a federal appeals court set aside the death penalty in 2007 and let the murder conviction stand after determining that defense lawyers at the original trial hadn't presented adequate evidence of his mental illness.

A new penalty phase trial had been set for February, but Zachary's parents agreed to dropping pursuit of the death penalty.

The 1993 murder led to the state Legislature's passage the following year of Zachary's Law, which requires convicted sex offenders living in Indiana to register with local law-enforcement agencies.

Authorities said Stevens, who had a prior conviction for child molestation, admitted that he strangled the boy because he had threatened to tell his parents that they had engaged in sexual acts.

AP - The mother of a Northern California woman found alive 18 years after she was kidnapped says other people should never stop looking for missing children.

Terry Probyn was reunited with her daughter Jaycee Dugard last month.

She said in a statement Wednesday that she hopes her family's story will focus attention on all missing children. She says that her daughter's story proves that "miracles can happen."

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Frat member pleads guilty in teen's hazing death

AP - One of three former members of a banned fraternity in western New York has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for his role in the hazing of a college student who died of alcohol poisoning.

Daniel Wech, a 21-year-old from Buffalo, will spend weekends in jail for three months.

He pleaded guilty to unlawfully dealing with a child for allowing alcohol to be served to 19-year-old Arman Partamian during a drinking session at the State University of New York in Geneseo.

Partamian, a sophomore from Queens, was found dead March 1 after drinking heavily for three days to gain membership in the off-campus fraternity.

Two other students are charged with hazing and criminally negligent homicide, a felony.

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AP - A woman connected to Michael Jackson's personal physician has been ordered to testify before a grand jury in Los Angeles, her attorney confirmed Tuesday.

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AP - A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of a convicted rapist for the 2003 kidnapping and killing of a University of North Dakota student in a case that led Minnesota and North Dakota to toughen their sex-offender laws.

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