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The stunning decision could end the United States' three-decade pursuit of Polanski, unless he travels to another country that would be willing to apprehend him and weigh sending him to Los Angeles. France, where he has spent much of his time, does not extradite its own citizens, and the public scrutiny over Switzerland's deliberations may dissuade other nations from making such a spectacular arrest.
The Swiss government said it had sought confidential testimony given on Jan. 26 by Roger Gunson, the Los Angeles attorney in charge of the original prosecution against Polanski. Washington rejected the request. "Mr. Polanski can now move freely. Since 12:30 today he's a free man," Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf declared.
Polanski, director of such acclaimed films as Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist, was scheduled to receive an honorary award at the Zurich Film Festival. The Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement that U.S. authorities have sought the 76-year-old's arrest since 2005.
''There was a valid arrest request and we knew when he was coming,'' ministry spokesman Guido Balmer told The Associated Press. ''That's why he was taken into custody.''
The U.S. would now need to make a formal extradition request, Balmer told the AP.
Polanski fled the U.S. in 1978, one year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with the underage girl, because the judge in the case planned to renege on the plea agreement. The girl said he plied her with champagne and half a Quaalude during a photo shoot at Jack Nicholson's house while the actor was away.
updates from 9/28:
filmmaker polanski fights extradition to US from switzerland from bloomberg: Filmmaker Roman Polanski will fight extradition to the U.S. following his arrest in Switzerland at the request of California prosecutors who want him brought back for leaving the country in 1978 before he was sentenced for having sex with a 13-year-old girl. Prosecutors became aware of Polanski’s travel plans last week and through the U.S. Justice Department asked that he be arrested, Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, said yesterday in a phone interview. Extraditing Polanski could take several months, Robison said. The request for Polanski’s arrest wasn’t related to his failed attempt this year to have the 1977 case thrown out, she said. “It’s because he’s been a fugitive,” Robison said.... Los Angeles prosecutors made prior efforts to obtain Polanski’s arrest abroad, the latest one in July of 2007 when the director visited Israel, according to a statement posted yesterday on the district attorney’s Web site. That effort failed because Polanski left Israel before the Israeli authorities received additional details they requested, according to the statement.
updates from 10/1: defense strategies could keep polanski out of prison from latimes: Prosecutors have yet to say what punishments they'll pursue if the director is extradited, but experts say the defense's strongest option is asking that the case be dismissed for judicial misconduct.
beijing rocked by 26m lost jobs from independent: An estimated 26 million poor rural Chinese are now without jobs after pinning their hopes on the once-booming manufacturing sector, where work has dried up due to the global economic slowdown, a government advisory body said. The figure was released one day after Beijing warned of "possibly the toughest year" since the turn of the century, calling for the development of agriculture and rural areas to offset the economic fallout. Though many Chinese cities have seen double-digit growth in recent years, the countryside has lagged behind, forcing peasants to seek urban factory jobs. A recent government survey showed that more than 15 per cent of China's 130 million migrant workers have returned to their hometowns recently, where they are now unemployed, said Chen Xiwen, director of the Central Rural Work Leading Group. Another 5 million to 6 million new migrants enter the workforce each year, Mr Chen added. "So, if we put those figures together, we have roughly 25 to 26 million rural migrant workers who are now coming under pressures for employment," the official said.
banks closed in florida, maryland & utah from bloomberg: Banks in Florida, Maryland and Utah were closed yesterday [jan30] as regulators wrapped up the busiest month for failures since the housing slump began in 2006. Ocala National Bank in Florida and Suburban Federal Savings Bank of Crofton, Maryland, were shut by federal regulators, according to statements sent by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. MagnetBank of Salt Lake City was seized by the Utah Department of Financial Institutions. The banks had total assets of $876.4 million and deposits of $790 million. Six banks have failed this month as tumbling home prices and a 16-year high in unemployment boost foreclosures. The FDIC classified 171 banks as “problem” in the third quarter, a 46 percent jump from the previous period amid the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression.
survivalist: left of center now joining our 'growing' movement from raw story: One-time preserve of anti-establishment loners, cultists and gun nuts has gone mainstream... Sick of worrying about the future? Then spare a thought for Jim Rawles. Rawles, 48, is one of a rising number of "survivalists" - Americans hunkering down for what they predict will be a nightmare of economic failure, mass terrorism, pandemics and social chaos. "The movement's definitely growing," Rawles, manager of the site survivalblog.com, told AFP by telephone from what he described as a survival-ready ranch "somewhere west of the Rocky Mountains." Survivalists have a long history in the United States. But what used to be the preserve of anti-establishment loners, cultists and gun nuts has gone mainstream. Government agencies are encouraging citizens to prepare evacuation plans and food supplies in case of myriad disasters.
feds allege 'logic bomb' plot to destroy fannie mae data from ap: The Justice Department says it foiled a plot by a fired Fannie Mae contract worker in Maryland to destroy all the data on the mortgage giant's 4,000 computer servers nationwide. The U.S. Attorney's Office says 35-year-old Rajendrasinh Makwana, of Glen Allen, Va., is scheduled for arraignment Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on one count of computer intrusion. U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein says Makwana was fired Oct. 24. Rosenstein says that on that day, Makwana programmed a computer with a malicious code that was set to spread throughout the Fannie Mae network and destroy all data this Saturday. Makwana's federal public defender did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Washington-based Fannie Mae is the largest U.S. mortgage finance company.
update: large hadron collider shut down until spring '09 from natl geographic news: Full-power operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) won't happen until early spring 2009, after an electrical glitch sparked a large helium leak inside the machine's tunnels. Although repairs should take just about two months, the collider needs to be shut down in the winter to save costs. Officials with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) therefore decided not to restart the particle accelerator until next year. "Coming immediately after the very successful start of LHC operation on 10 September, this is undoubtedly a psychological blow," CERN Director General Robert Aymar said in a press release. "Nevertheless, the success of the LHC's first operation with beam is testimony to years of painstaking preparation and the skill of the teams involved in building and running CERN's accelerator complex. I have no doubt that we will overcome this setback with the same degree of rigor and application."
from wired: The Large Hadron Collider, soon-to-be the world's most powerful atom smasher, begins testing this weekend. CERN will fire the first test beam through one of the particle accelerator's sectors. “It’s, ‘Let’s see what happens,’ ” Judy Jackson, head of the Office Communications at Fermilab, told Popular Mechanics. “It’s a very complex machine. This is a step towards getting ready.” Then, on September 10th, a full-power beam will travel through the accelerator's entire 17 miles of tunnels, reaching up to 99.99 percent of the speed of light. And finally, assuming all goes well, the first real science experiments will begin some time in October.
israel launches advanced spy satellite from ap: Israel launched an advanced spy satellite Monday that will be able to track events in Iran, the country it considers its top foe... The TECSARsatellite is of particular importance for Israel because it can be used to keep tabs on Iran's nuclear program, which the U.S. and Israel fear is a cover for pursuing nuclear weapons, they said. update: israel says satellite delay was iran's fault from jerusalem post: The successful launch on Monday of an advanced Israeli satellite was delayed in recent months by Iranian sabotage, The Jerusalem Post has learned from Western sources.
global elite head to davos for world economic forum from afp: The icy Swiss mountains are to host the world's business and political elite this week for their annual gathering in Davos, where the cooling temperature of the world economy is set to focus minds... Started in 1971 and known as the World Economic Forum, the gathering provides a unique opportunity to gauge the mood and preoccupations of some of the world's most powerful people.
wal-mart gives 1,000+ magazines the boot from silicon alley insider: The world's biggest retailer is pulling Conde Nast's pub, and more than 1,000 other mags, off its shelves. Some of these are small fry mags you've never heard of, but there are some big mass market titles here as well - notably the big three business mags: Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek... make no mistake - this is a disaster for the magazine world, which depends on Wal-Mart for an estimated 20% of retail sales.
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Welcome to New World Next Week - the video series from Corbett Report and Media Monarchy that covers some of the most important developments in open source intelligence news. This week:
Visit NewWorldNextWeek.com to get previous episodes in various formats to download, burn and share. And as always, stay up-to-date by subscribing to the feeds from Corbett Report here and Media Monarchy here. Thank you.
