House Arrest

NEW YORK — Over the objections of prosecutors, a judge agreed yesterday to free former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn from jail on $1 million bail on the condition that he be confined to a New York apartment under armed guard while he awaits trial on attempted-rape charges. The French banker and diplomat briefly wore an expression of relief after Supreme Court Justice Michael J. Obus announced his decision. Later, Strauss-Kahn, 62, blew a kiss toward his wife. The ruling did not immediately free him from Rikers Island jail.

A brother of the blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, whose decision to seek refuge in the US Embassy here after evading illegal house arrest prompted a diplomatic standoff between China and the United States, has slipped through the security cordon around his village and made his way to the capital, according to a lawyer who met him Thursday. The brother, Chen Guangfu, said he came to Beijing to advocate on behalf of his son, who has been in police custody since attacking a group of plainclothes officers who broke into the family home in their search for Chen Guangcheng.

A blind Chinese activist who sparked a diplomatic crisis by fleeing into the U.S. Embassy last month filled out a Chinese passport application and posed for a photo Wednesday, moving forward in his bid to study in the United States. Paperwork for Chen Guangcheng, his wife, and two children was completed in the hospital where the family of four has stayed since he left the embassy in Beijing two weeks ago. Chen said the officials who handled the paperwork were sent by the central government.

An official says a court in central Vietnam has sentenced three political activists to up to three and a half years in prison for distributing anti-government leaflets. Presiding Judge Vi Van Chat said that the three were convicted of "spreading propaganda against the state" at Thursday's half-day trial in Nghe An province. He says they were also ordered to serve up to 18 months under house arrest, adding that the fourth defendant was given a two-year suspended sentence.

RANGOON, Burma - Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was charged yesterday with breaking the terms of her house arrest just two weeks before she was to go free, a move seen as an attempt by the military junta to silence its chief opponent before next year's election. The charges follow a mysterious visit to her home by John William Yettaw, 53, of Falcon, Mo., who swam across a lake and sneaked into her house seeking food and a place to rest. Suu Kyi, who was scheduled to be freed May 27 after six years of house arrest, now faces up to five years in prison if convicted of violating the terms...

TAMPA -- A female teacher pleaded guilty yesterday to having sex with a 14-year-old student and avoided prison as part of a plea agreement. Debra Lafave, 25, will serve three years of house arrest and seven years' probation. She pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery. The former reading teacher from Greco Middle School, in Temple Terrace near Tampa, apologized during the hearing, saying "I accept full responsibility for my actions. " The teen told investigators the two had sex in a classroom at the school, in her Riverview townhouse, and once...

Doesn’t it seem like house arrest is just a bit too cushy? The story’s always the same. Some rich or famous person is accused or convicted of a crime, and then “sentenced’’ to spend the pre-trial period, or a portion of his or her term, at home, or in one of their homes. After pleading “no contest’’ to stealing a necklace, Lindsay Lohan is serving time at her beach house, where she’s planning to read, paint, and relax, according to the website TMZ. Read, paint, and relax?

GSTAAD, Switzerland - Roman Polanski began his house arrest on $4.5 million bail yesterday, rolling into the luxury resort of Gstaad in a police convoy to a warm welcome from his wife and children at his Alpine chalet. Polanski persuaded Swiss authorities to end his two months of incarceration in a Swiss jail pending their decision on whether to extradite him to the United States in a 32-year-old sex case. Polanski’s family had been waiting eagerly at the chalet, peeking out the windows to look for him as Swiss authorities worked out the last-minute details...

LAHORE, Pakistan - Police said they lifted the house arrest of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto today, hours before the arrival of a senior US envoy who was expected to urge the country's military leader to end emergency rule. The move came after Bhutto - while still confined to a house in Lahore - urged fellow opposition leaders to join her in an alliance that could govern until elections. Despite Bhutto's call, President Pervez Musharraf has given no sign that he will hand over power.

A blind Chinese legal activist was hurriedly taken from a hospital and put on a plane for the United States on Saturday, closing a nearly monthlong diplomatic tussle that had tested U.S.-China relations. Chen Guangcheng, sitting in a wheelchair and accompanied by his wife and two children, boarded United Airlines Flight 88 for the 12-hour flight to Newark, outside New York City, a few hours after Chinese authorities suddenly told him to pack and prepare to leave. "Thousands of thoughts are surging to my mind," Chen said at the airport.

The brother of Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has fled his closely guarded village to seek legal advice Thursday in Beijing on how to protect his son from what their supporters call retaliation by local officials, an attorney said. Chen sought protection of U.S. diplomats last month after escaping virtual house arrest in his hometown, sparking a standoff between Beijing and Washington and highlighting the extralegal measures taken by local Chinese officials to suppress dissent.

A blind Chinese legal activist who escaped house arrest, endured a nearly monthlong diplomatic tussle and a hurried daylong flight paused ever so briefly upon his arrival in New York City before taking up a familiar fight. Taken from a hospital in his homeland and put on a plane for the U.S. after Chinese authorities suddenly told him Saturday to pack and prepare to leave, Chen Guangcheng embraced his new surroundings at New York University and renewed his call to fight injustice.

A blind Chinese legal activist was hurriedly taken from a hospital and put on a plane for the United States on Saturday, closing a nearly monthlong diplomatic tussle that had tested U.S.-China relations. Chen Guangcheng, sitting in a wheelchair and accompanied by his wife and two children, boarded United Airlines Flight 88 for the 12-hour flight to Newark, outside New York City, a few hours after Chinese authorities suddenly told him to pack and prepare to leave. "Thousands of thoughts are surging to my mind," Chen said at the airport.

BEIJING - The activist who was at the center of a diplomatic tussle between Beijing and Washington said Thursday that Chinese officials have told him the passports that he and his family just applied for should be ready within two weeks. A rights group, meanwhile, described more retaliation by authorities against his family. From a Beijing hospital room, where he remains under virtual house arrest, Chen Guangcheng said in a phone interview that it remained unclear if he, his wife, and their two children would be able to leave China shortly after getting...

The activist who was at the center of a diplomatic tussle between Beijing and Washington said Thursday that Chinese officials have told him the passports that he and his family just applied for should be ready within two weeks. A rights group, meanwhile, described more retaliation by authorities against his family. From a Beijing hospital room where he remains under virtual house arrest, Chen Guangcheng said in a phone interview with The Associated Press that it remained unclear if he, his wife and their two children would be able to leave China shortly after getting their passports.

A blind Chinese activist who sparked a diplomatic crisis by fleeing into the U.S. Embassy last month filled out a Chinese passport application and posed for a photo Wednesday, moving forward in his bid to study in the United States. Paperwork for Chen Guangcheng, his wife, and two children was completed in the hospital where the family of four has stayed since he left the embassy in Beijing two weeks ago. Chen said the officials who handled the paperwork were sent by the central government.

BEIJING — A blind legal activist fled house arrest in his rural China village and made it to a secret location in Beijing on Friday, setting off a frantic police search for him and those who helped him, activists said. US officials would not comment on unconfirmed reports that Chen Guangcheng had sought protection at the US Embassy — a delicate prospect as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other top officials visit China next week for the latest round of the two powers' Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

A blind legal activist who is a key figure in China's rights movement escaped the house arrest he had lived under for a year and a half, fleeing to an undisclosed location and angering captors who then turned on his family, rights campaigners said Friday. Chen Guangcheng slipped out of his usually well-guarded house in Dongshigu village on Sunday, activists in China and overseas said. He Peirong, who has led a campaign for Chen's freedom, said she picked him up and drove him to "a relatively safe place" she would not further describe.

BEIJING - Family members and lawyers representing Chen Guangcheng are facing increased harassment despite an international deal brokered to help Chen, a blind legal activist who escaped house arrest last month and sought refuge in the US embassy here. According to lawyers and activists, the police in Chen's hometown have put several of his family members under various forms of detention as part of an investigation into Chen's cousin, who is accused of assaulting police officers.

Authorities in the hometown of activist Chen Guangcheng have notched up restrictions on members of his extended family while he awaits permission in Beijing to travel abroad under an agreement between China and the U.S. Chen Guangcheng's brother and sister-in-law have been placed under house arrest, his nephew is in police detention, and several other relatives face some form of restriction on their movements in their village in Shandong province,...