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Tags: Film Festival Travel / Zurich Film Festival / Roman Polanski / Crimes / Switzerland Travel / → All Tags
No More Hiding In Switzerland, Especially For Roman Polanski
What's surprising about Roman Polanski's arrest isn't that it happened 32 years late, it's that police waited for him to make an actual border crossing before they arrested him on that 32-year-old warrant.
The director of "Chinatown" and "The Pianist" was detained Saturday at Zürich Airport en route to the Zurich Film Festival, on a warrant given to Swiss authorities a few days earlier by the U.S. Justice Department by request of the Los Angeles county district attorney's office. Polanski fled the United States in 1978 after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and serving 42 days in prison, not returning even to accept his Best Director Oscar for "The Pianist" at the Academy Awards in 2003.
Tags: Celeb Travel / Road Trips / Chris Brown / Crimes / → All Tags
Chris Brown Becomes Roadside Attraction During His Community Service
Yesterday, we may have peeked in on Rihanna at the airport, leaving New York after a summer of roller coaster riding and performing at Madison Square Garden. Meanwhile, her ex and convicted domestic abuser Chris Brown has been enjoying a little vacation of his own; a road trip of sorts.
As his sentencing for beating up Rihanna many months ago, Brown must serve 180 days of community service. He just recently began his work near his home in Virginia, and they've assigned him to the roadside clean-up crew. Although he may not be in the same spot every day, since they can have him "washing government cars, picking up trash and cleaning up graffiti," so long as he's still a roadside attraction, he'll be a popular stop for Virginia road trippers.
Tags: Quirky Travel / Los Angeles Travel / City Tours / Crimes / → All Tags
LA Crime Scene Tour Is O.J. Simpson-Free
The Santa Monica Pier won't look the same after an excursion with Esotouric.
Esotouric knows your type well: You spend hours watching true crime documentaries on television, dream up outlandish conspiracy theories, and would never, ever be caught dead on the Boston Duck Tour. That's why the company, whose name speaks to their quirky Los Angeles expeditions, has devised the Wild Wild West Side tour, which we guarantee has nothing to do with the 1999 Will Smith movie.
The tour, coming up on October 10th, appeals to wannabe sleuths and those with a morbid fascination in the "blood-soaked history" of the Westside, including Venice, Santa Monica, Culver City, and Marina del Rey. Tour creator Kim Cooper started compiling outlandish stories from the area's past and marking down creepy points of interest, like the grave of a mummified teenage cult priestess. While this isn't the most family friendly way for visitors to experience Los Angeles, it's a compelling alternative to Universal Studios' backlot tour, with tales of spirit possession and murder replacing talk of movie filming.
Tags: Hot Yachts / Yachting / Bernie Madoff / Ships / Crimes / → All Tags
France Has Made Off With Bernie Madoff's 'Bull' Yacht
When we aren't out jetting around or hopping a high-speed train, we like to fantasize about that other form of transportation: the almighty ship. So to allay our own curiosity as much as yours, we're spotlighting yachts with either notorious owners or histories...or both. Know of a bootylicious boat? Let us know.
Anybody in the market for a super deal on a yacht? Because boy oh boy does the harbor in Cap d'Antibes, France have the boat for you: it's Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff's old 88-footer, named Bull. The yacht, only built back in 2007, was seized by French authorities back in April, and now she sits with her propeller chained up and the dock roped off until someone steps up to buy her.
Although she is valued at $7 million dollars, it probably won't take all that much to get off her the yacht broker's hands. Madoff of course registered her in Georgetown, Barbados to tax advantage of their tax haven reputation, but now that she's docked in the South of France, she'll need to be moved by March 2010 or else she'll be liable to French sales tax.
Tags: Airport Hell / Crimes / Bangkok Travel / Airport News / → All Tags
Bangkok Airport Police Target Westerners In Frightening 'Zig-Zag' Scams
Don't touch that duty-free bottle of scotch just yet; you better intend to buy it lest airport security at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport catch you browsing and nab you for shoplifting. This is what happend to two UK travelers, who, shopping at the airport before their flight back to London, were hauled in by airport police and held in the jail until they withdrew and handed over £7,500 (approx $12,250) to clear their charges of stealing a wallet.
The details of their ordeal are the stuff of travel nightmares, as the couple, speaking to the BBC, said they were kept in "a hot, humid, smelly cell with graffiti and blood on the walls" with their passports taken away from them. After they withdrew all they could on one day for "bail," handed over to sketch interpreter working with the police, the couple was allowed to sleep in a motel while the police threatened to imprison them in the "infamous Bangkok Hilton prison" should they get any ideas.
Tags: Crimes / Cruises / Travel News / Carnival Cruises / Death / → All Tags
Murder At Sea Aboard A Carnival Cruise To Mexico
Where are re-runs of The Love Boat when you most need them? Cruise travelers these days have never had it so difficult, what with the threat of possible Norovirus and Swine Flu outbreaks, not to mention the occasional occurrence of people mysteriously falling overboard. The latest news, that a man has stabbed his wife to death this week while onboard the Carnival ship Elation, doesn't threaten the whole ship but it does make for one creepy cruise.
After sailing away from San Diego for a 5-night cruise to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, ship authorities were called to the couple's cabin to investigate a domestic disturbance. After finding the wife already deceased, the ship announced "gray star"—supposedly crew code for a murder onboard—and placed the woman's body in the ship's morgue and her husband in the brig, or ship's prison.
The murder happened on the final day of the cruise, which makes us sad that the husband didn't find comfort in the wise words of someone like Love Boat bartender Isaac, who always managed to say the right things to make couples iron out their differences and disembark happier than ever. Perhaps the cruise lines put the advice-dispensing bartenders on the newer ships?
Related Stories:
· FBI Investigates Murder On Cruise Ship [NBC San Diego]
· Husband arrested in woman's death aboard cruise ship [LA Times]
· Cruises Coverage [Jaunted]
[Elation Photo: Lisa Andres]
Tags: Switzerland Travel / Crimes / Festivals / Art / → All Tags
Something Shifty About the Shift Festival
In Basel, Switzerland, the Shift Festival has just wound up. It's a new festival for the electronic arts, which they plan to hold every fall from now on. The theme for this year's festival was "access", but access to the exhibits seems to have got a bit out of hand.
That's because there was a theft at this year's Shift Festival. A group of artists from Vienna working under the name of Ubermorgen had created an exhibit involving a book--the Abbie Hoffman classic "Steal This Book"--placed inside an incubator. Apparently the exhibit was supposed to praise those who fought for literary freedom by celebrating a hacking operation on Amazon.
Perhaps not surprisingly, somebody did steal the book. Shift Festival organizers have decided not to press charges but hope the thief will return the stolen book. We can't wait to see what crazy things get shifted or lifted at next year's Shift Festival.
Related Stories:
· Shift Festival [Official Site]
· Thief Accepts Invitation [Independent Online]
· Fall Culture Travel in Basel [Jaunted]
· Switzerland Travel coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: shiftfestival]
Tags: Museums / Police / Crimes / → All Tags
Police Museum Explores Canadian "Crime"
Come on, now. Do they even have crime in Canada? Ever since we realized that the Canadian government gives bands money to film music videos and go on tour, we've refused to believe there is a single bad thing about that country. Yes, we have pissed off at least a couple of Canadians who swear it's not a total utopia up north.
If you believe this farce about "crime" in "Canada," you can try living the dream at the Vancouver Police Museum. For $7, the museum will teach you about some of Canada's most famous "criminals," and the "police" who stick it to them. You can sit in a police car, study firearms through the ages, and view a collection of all sorts of bizarre confiscated weapons as well as a morgue exhibit. There's The museum also offers a summertime "Sins of the City" walking tour that will expose you to the city's "edgier" side, including the evolution Vancouver's drug and sex industries. Unfortunately, no tribute to the Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen exists.
Discover Vancouver says it's the only police museum in Canada, which makes sense given our suspicions.
[Photo: Precious Roy]
Related Stories:
· Vancouver Police Museum [Official Site]
