On Nov. 13, Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi walked free from seven years of house arrest in Rangoon. She called her son Kim Aris. She greeted supporters outside her lakeside home. Then she got on a plane to Bangkok where, on a stage erected in a parking lot on the city's outskirts, she appeared in a film made by a bearded Frenchman called Luc Something. That's what some of the 2,000 Thai extras on the set of Luc Besson's ...

Carlos Martn Bar believes that his brother Ignacio knew he was about to be killed. The night before his murder Nov. 16, 1989, the 46-year-old Jesuit priest called his parents in Spain from his home on the campus of the University of Central America in El Salvador. On the phone, he tried to calm his father's concerns about his safety with a joke about being surrounded by the military and therefore well-protected. But, as it turns out, ...

In a tragic place scented by tropical blooms, it was the simplest of gestures. On Nov. 13, as Aung San Suu Kyi peered out of the crumbling villa complex where she has been confined for much of the past two decades, one of the thousands of well-wishers gathered to mark her moment of freedom handed her a nosegay of flowers. Smiling, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate received the fragrant benediction and tucked the blossoms in her hair. "We haven't seen ...

An American man who had been accused of trying to take his children from his ex-wife was released from jail on Thursday and charges against him were dropped. Police in the rural southern town of Yanagawa said Christopher Savoie was let go, but did not say whether authorities set any conditions for his release, such as requiring that he leave the country immediately. Savoie, 38, a Tennessee native and naturalized Japanese citizen, allegedly abducted his children -- 8-year-old Isaac and ...

The arrest warrant used to detain filmmaker Roman Polanski in Switzerland was valid, the Swiss Justice Ministry said Tuesday, making clear it will fight the director's appeal against his detention over a 1977 sex case. Polanski, 76, is challenging his detention on other grounds as well. Swiss courts will have the final say on whether the warrant is valid and whether the director will be granted bail while he fights his extradition to the United States. The Academy Award-winning ...

Roman Polanski in 1993 agreed to pay his sexual assault victim $500,000 to settle a damage claim she filed against the fugitive film director, according to court papers released Friday. Polanski still owed the money -- plus another $100,000 in interest -- three years after the settlement, according to the documents. It's not clear if Polanski ever completed paying the claim, which was filed 12 years after the crime. The court papers document efforts by the victim's lawyers to garnish ...

Had this parental abduction drama played out in the United States, Christopher Savoie might be re-united with his two little children, after snatching them back from an ex-wife who defied the law and ran off with them. But this story unfolds 7,000 miles away in the Japanese city of Fukuoka, where the U.S. legal system holds no sway. And here, Savoie sits in jail, charged with the abduction of minors. And his Japanese ex-wife -- a fugitive in the ...

Sen. Jim Webb will meet with Myanmar's prime minister Monday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, the Virginia Democrat's office announced. "I look forward to continuing the dialogue with Prime Minister Thein Sein that was begun last month," said Webb, according to a statement from his office. Gen. Thein Sein is the highest official from Myanmar, also known as Burma, to attend the U.N. annual gathering in 14 years, the statement said. He ...

Seven of eight people killed last week in a southeast Georgia mobile home were laid to rest Saturday. The funerals at Youngs Island Church in Eulonia, Georgia, were held for Chrissy Toler, 22; Russell D. Toler Sr., 44; Michelle Toler, 15; Michael Toler, 19; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Guy Heinze Sr., 45; and Brenda Gail Falagan, 49. The funeral for the eighth victim, Joseph L. West, 30, is to be held at mid-month. Police have arrested Guy Heinze Jr., ...

A Mexican man who was allegedly killed on orders from his own cartel believed they were hunting for him after he began working as an informant and was fearful for his life, according to court documents. Jose Daniel Gonzalez Galeana began to worry after he began working as an informant for immigration officials in the United States. "The victim was concerned for his own well-being and the safety of his family," the documents said, referencing statements the victim made to ...