House Arrest

Former President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi was placed under house arrest amid a government investigation into an alleged coup plot. The arrest set off clashes between police and supporters who had gathered in the capital, Lilongwe, to greet Muluzi on his return from Britain. Ernest Malenga, a senior government official, said Muluzi was flown directly from the airport to the city of Blantyre, where he has a home. "Police officers are currently interrogating him" and have searched the home, Malenga said.

WASHINGTON - When Bob Fu's cellphone rang halfway through a congressional hearing concerning detained Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, all the West Texas pastor had to do was gesture for the congressman in charge, Rep. Christopher H. Smith, to disappear with him into a nearby room. Soon after, Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, returned with a stunning announcement: "Bob Fu has made contact with Chen Guangcheng in his hospital room. " Smith invited Fu to the dais, where Fu knelt next to the congressman, put Chen on speakerphone from Beijing and translated.

Convicted slumlord Milton Avol is now making history as the first person in Los Angeles County to be serving an electronically monitored confinement outside jail. Avol, a Beverly Hills neurosurgeon, is serving a 30-day sentence for health, fire and safety violations in one of the apartment buildings that he owns in Los Angeles. A device worn as a bracelet will alert authorities if Avol leaves the property.

WASHINGTON - A blind Chinese dissident who escaped from house arrest is under U.S. protection, his supporters said Saturday, creating a dilemma for Washington before a visit this week by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Chen Guangcheng, a civil rights activist who has exposed forced abortions and sterilizations in rural areas, escaped a week ago from his heavily guarded home in Shandong province in eastern China. U.S. officials declined to comment Saturday and have not confirmed reports that he sought protection atthe U.S. Embassyin Beijing.

The electronic monitoring device Paris Hilton must wear on her ankle means that she cannot go more than 100 feet from her Hollywood Hills home -- unless she gets special permission. Hilton cannot remove the transmitter, which looks something like a pager attached to a metal cuff, at any time as she serves -- or perhaps if she serves -- the remainder of her sentence at home during the next six weeks or so, according to Los Angeles County law enforcement officials.

If "The Lady" is any indication, Luc Besson, the Paris-born filmmaker behind such testosterone-fueled thrillers as "Taken," "Transporter 2" and "The Fifth Element," is having a tough time getting in touch with his feminine side. Yes, there was his recent script for "Colombiana," but at least as portrayed by Zoe Saldana, that was one tough chick. "The Lady," on the other hand, required both elegance and eloquence in telling the story of Burmese pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, whose efforts earned her a Nobel Prize.

WASHINGTON - When Bob Fu's cellphone rang halfway through a congressional hearing concerning detained Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, all the West Texas pastor had to do was gesture for the congressman in charge, Rep. Christopher H. Smith, to disappear with him into a nearby room. Soon after, Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, returned with a stunning announcement: "Bob Fu has made contact with Chen Guangcheng in his hospital room. " Smith invited Fu to the dais, where Fu knelt next to the congressman, put Chen on speakerphone from Beijing and translated.

In the decaying lakeside mansion where Aung San Suu Kyi spent much of the last two decades under house arrest, the Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel laureate was forbidden to use the Internet or the telephone or to watch satellite TV. She did, however, have two maids, was free to read newspapers and listen to radio, and had access to a doctor. For the other 2,200 or so political prisoners in Myanmar, conditions are quite different. Sentenced to impossibly long prison terms for speaking out against the repressive military government, they face torture, barely edible food, little or no medical care and years in solitary confinement.

Sherry Johnston is back in her Wasilla home after a judge agreed to let her serve her three-year sentence with an ankle-monitoring device, according to her attorney. Johnston is the mother of Levi Johnston, the father of former Gov. Sarah Palin's grandson, Tripp. She was sentenced last month to jail, to be followed by three years' probation, for dealing the prescription painkiller OxyContin. She had been jailed at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River, Alaska, since August.

Angry with paparazzi photos that appear to show Lindsay Lohan partying on the rooftop of her beachfront Venice home, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner told the actress she can no longer entertain more than one guest at a time while under house arrest. Lohan was in court Thursday after a probation report said she had failed a June 13 alcohol test, but Sautner ruled that a failed alcohol test did not violate her probation and that the testing requirement had ended months earlier.

Depending on your point of view, "This Is Not a Film" both is and isn't a film. What it is for sure is the only kind of film its co-director Jafar Panahi can make for now. Panahi is not just one of Iran's top filmmakers, he is its most politically outspoken, director of such works as "Offside," "The Circle" and "Crimson Gold" that deal even more directly than the Oscar-winning "A Separation" with the restrictions placed on ordinary life by that...

Jerry Sandusky 's lawyer said neighbors' fears were unfounded that the former Penn State football coach would pose a danger to schoolchildren if he was allowed to leave his house. In court papers filed Wednesday, attorney Joseph Amendola opposed a request by state prosecutors to keep Sandusky inside his State College, Pa., home, where he has been under house arrest awaiting trial on child sexual abuse charges. Amendola said Sandusky had obeyed the conditions of his bail and always obtained approval of a Centre County probation official to leave his house.

A federal judge Friday sentenced baseball slugger Barry Bonds to probation, 30 days' confinement in his Beverly Hills home and community service, but put the sentence on hold pending Bonds' appeal of his felony obstruction of justice conviction. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, who presided over Bonds' perjury trial, said "the jury got it exactly right" when it convicted Bonds in April for evasive testimony to a federal grand jury investigating doping in professional sports. "Mr. Bonds made an effort to obstruct justice here," Illston said, but "he didn't manage to succeed.

If "The Lady" is any indication, Luc Besson, the Paris-born filmmaker behind such testosterone-fueled thrillers as "Taken," "Transporter 2" and "The Fifth Element," is having a tough time getting in touch with his feminine side. Yes, there was his recent script for "Colombiana," but at least as portrayed by Zoe Saldana, that was one tough chick. "The Lady," on the other hand, required both elegance and eloquence in telling the story of Burmese pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, whose efforts earned her a Nobel Prize.

A federal magistrate ordered the release on home detention Tuesday of a Syrian-born U.S. citizen the FBI says has been spying on Syrian dissidents in the United States with intentions of harming them, saying that the prosecution had not established that he had committed a crime. U.S. Magistrate Judge T. Rawles Jones Jr. said that the prosecution had proved only that Mohamad "Alex" Soueid had filmed protests and shared the films with Syrian government officials, which is not illegal, and that he did not seem to be a threat to flee.

The maid who says she was sexually assaulted by prominent Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn stepped out in public Sunday, allowing her name and face to be used in two media interviews in which she described in vivid detail the alleged attack. Nafissatou Diallo, a 32-year-old immigrant from Guinea, is apparently concerned that the Manhattan district attorney will drop four felony and three misdemeanor charges against Strauss-Kahn because of questions about her credibility that arose during the investigation.

A Myanmar court convicted pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi today of violating her house arrest, but the head of the military-ruled country said that she could serve a 1 1/2-year sentence under house arrest. The court initially sentenced Suu Kyi to three years in prison. But after a five-minute recess, the country's home minister entered the courtroom and read aloud a special order from junta chief Than Shwe. The order said that Than Shwe was cutting the sentence in half to 1 1/2 years and that it could be served under house arrest.

Officials on Wednesday removed Lindsay Lohan's ankle bracelet and electronic monitoring system, formally releasing the actress from her much-chronicled 35-day house arrest. Steve Whitmore, an L.A. County Sheriff's Department spokesman, said a technician for the monitoring company went to the actress' Venice home about 9:40 a.m. and removed the bracelet by 10:30 a.m. "She is now under the supervision of probation," Whitmore said. "It took about 15 minutes to remove the equipment from her and her home.

In a twist that could signal the collapse of a sexual assault case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a judge Friday lifted his house arrest and bail after prosecutors admitted a "substantial credibility issue" against the hotel maid who accused him of trying to rape her. Among other things, the woman lied on her asylum application about having been gang-raped in the past and repeated the lie in interviews with attorneys from the...

Officials on Wednesday removed Lindsay Lohan's ankle bracelet and electronic monitoring system, formally releasing the actress from her much-chronicled 35-day house arrest. Steve Whitmore, an L.A. County Sheriff's Department spokesman, said a technician for the monitoring company went to the actress' Venice home about 9:40 a.m. and removed the bracelet by 10:30 a.m. "She is now under the supervision of probation," Whitmore said. "It took about 15 minutes to remove the equipment from her and her home.