|
News Makers
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-01 08:03 Polanski's villa being readied Workers were plowing snow to clear the way to Roman Polanski's chalet in the Alpine resort of Gstaad ahead of his transfer from a Swiss jail. The Swiss Justice Ministry refused to say if Polanski was to be released yesterday on $4.5 million bail. But workers were seen clearing the road leading up to the property where the 76-year-old director will be held under house arrest. Polanski must remain at the chalet as Switzerland decides whether to extradite him to the US for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl. Polanski was still believed held by authorities in Winterthur, near Zurich. His lawyer Lorenz Erni was seen entering the jail early yesterday. Boyle makes UK chart history
The debut album of Scottish singer Susan Boyle, who shot to fame after her audition for TV show Britain's Got Talent, has become the fastest selling album in Britain this year. Entering the album chart in the top spot on Sunday, Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream sold more than 410,000 copies - the biggest first week sales for a debut album in UK chart history, the Official Charts Company said. The album has also topped the Australian and Irish charts and is set to be number one in the United States, Canada and New Zealand, Sony Corp's Sony Music said on Sunday. The 48-year-old church volunteer, whose audition has been viewed more than 300 million times online since April, has become a big hit worldwide. "Susan Boyle's achievement is quite phenomenal," said Martin Talbot, managing director of the Official Charts Company. Smaller family good: Prince
Japan's Prince Akishino, the second son of Emperor Akihito, yesterday said the royal family could help improve the nation's battered finances - by keeping its own membership small. "From the viewpoint of the expense burden on the national budget, I think a small number in the imperial family is not necessarily bad," Akishino said in a statement to mark his 44th birthday yesterday. He has three children. Japan's royalty has declined to just 23 people due to strict definitions of royal membership introduced under the post World War II pacifist constitution. Japan's government has set aside 17.7 billion yen ($205 million) for spending by the imperial household agency and the royal family for the fiscal year to March 2010. Japan faces massive public debt after a series of huge stimulus spending packages during the so-called "lost decade" of economic stagnation in the 1990s. AP-AFP-Reuters (China Daily 12/01/2009 page10) |
