A Swiss court has refused a request from director Roman Polanski to be released on bail, saying he poses a high flight risk, according to court documents. The Swiss Criminal Court said measures such as revoking Polanski's travel documents and requiring him to report daily to the police would not reduce the possibility that the director would flee. Polanski was arrested in Switzerland last month on a U.S. arrest warrant stemming from a 1977 sex case. He is fighting extradition ...

A blanket of water hides the devastation underneath it. Miles and miles of villages, small cities, and farmland are spoiled by standing flood water. First the waters raged for days, then they seemed to pull back almost as fast as they came but the damage had been done with such fury that more than 1.5 million were left homeless. "Everything was drowned," flood victim Mohammed Farooq Basha said. "The water came to the second floor we called for help. No ...

This year's Toronto International Film Festival wrapped up Saturday and Hollywood evacuated, leaving the city to turn its attention to ice hockey team, the Maple Leafs' fall calendar. But not before Lee Daniel's "Precious: Based on the Novel by Push" proved the rumor-mongers right by taking home the all-important Cadillac People's Choice Award for Best Film. What was your favorite film at Toronto Tell us below in the SoundOff box The award, voted by festival audiences, is ...

The president of Liberia spoke Friday on the sexual assault of an 8-year-old Liberian refugee in Phoenix, Arizona, decrying reports that the parents believe their family has been shamed by the girl. "This is not a question of shame on the family. It is the question of an assault on a young child. That cannot be tolerated," said President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, speaking by telephone. Police have charged four boys, ages 9 to 14, in the case. The boys also ...

Misdemeanor assault charges have been dropped against "24" star Kiefer Sutherland in a head-butting incident at a New York City nightclub, according to Alicia Maxey Greene, spokeswoman for the Manhattan District Attorney's office. "We decided to drop the charge after a full investigation, including after speaking to a complaining witness, who was uncooperative," Greene told CNN Tuesday. The charges stem from an incident in which Sutherland allegedly head-butted designer Jack McCollough at a New York City nightclub in ...

Amanda Knox has finally spoken. Ever since the 21-year-old American student was arrested in Italy in late 2007 and charged with the grisly murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher, tabloids on both sides of the Atlantic have bubbled with scandal and speculation. Was she, as Italian and British reports suggest, a promiscuous party girl who lived like a slob and took strange men back to the house? Did she, as Italian prosecutors allege, cut Kercher's throat after she ...

Somali pirates released a Philippine tanker and its 23 crew Tuesday -- five months after the ship was seized in the Gulf of Aden. Philip Markoff, a pre-med student at Boston University with no criminal record, also was charged with the armed robbery and kidnapping of another victim, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis announced Monday evening. Markoff, who was under police surveillance, was arrested earlier in the afternoon after a traffic stop south of the city, he said. Markoff, 22, ...

Jeanne Thomas was sitting at her desk at work when she decided to check the security camera that she installed in her home. The Thomas home had been burglarized before, so she installed a monitoring device where she can watch a live video feed of the camera in her home. When Thomas decided to pull up the feed of her house Wednesday morning, she couldn't believe what she saw. There was someone inside her home, someone she didn't know. Thomas ...

The Internal Revenue System is bracing for a deluge of amended tax returns from tens of thousands of victims caught up in the recent wave of multi-billion dollar Ponzis and other frauds, most notably the sensational swindle perpetrated by Bernie Madoff, and R. Allen Stanford's $8 billion certificates of deposits scam. Rough IRS numbers on Madoff's theft alone could total from $7 to $10 billion in refunds due victims, according to accountant tallies. But don't feel too bad ...

A Connecticut woman attacked Monday by her friend's pet chimpanzee was taken Thursday from a Connecticut hospital to the famed Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, a hospital spokeswoman said. She would not divulge the victim's condition nor the reason for the move. Charla Nash, 55, was transferred by airplane and ambulance to the clinic, where doctors in December performed the first facial transplant in the United States. The attack has raised questions about whether exotic animals should be kept as pets. ...