Polanski loses bid to be sentenced in absentia

LOS ANGELES - Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski lost his latest bid on Thursday to be sentenced while outside the United States for having unlawful sex with a minor more than three decades ago.

Affirming the decision of a Los Angeles judge in January, a state appeals court ruled the fugitive filmmaker, 76, must return to California before he can be sentenced and bring his 33-year-long legal saga to a close.

The director of such film classics as "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" fled the United States for his native France in 1978 and is now fighting extradition from Switzerland.