Roman Polanski’s loss of a crucial California court decision set up his return to the United States more than three decades after he fled a statutory rape charge, Swiss legal experts said.

Michael Jackson’s doctor plans to surrender to authorities at a courthouse this afternoon, his lawyer said.

MICHAEL JACKSON’S doctor wanted to seek his day in court yesterday by surrendering before being charged in the singer’s death, but prosecutors upstaged the plan by announcing that no case would be filed until Monday.

A case in Michael Jackson’s death will be filed in the US courts on Monday but no details will be released until then, a spokeswoman for Los Angeles County prosecutors said today.

WITH a criminal charge looming, Michael Jackson’s doctor is negotiating his surrender to Los Angeles authorities, his attorney said yesterday.

The attorney for Michael Jackson’s doctor said he is negotiating his client’s surrender to Los Angeles County authorities.

Lawyers for Michael Jackson’s doctor met to discuss his defence strategy if he is charged over the death of the pop star.

Bruce Davis, a member of Charles Manson’s murderous cult who participated in two killings, was recommended for parole.

Roman Polanski’s long-delayed criminal case will return to a Los Angeles court tomorrow for a hearing.

Los Angeles' top prosecutor said today his office was not persecuting Roman Polanski, but merely trying to resolve the child sex case delayed by the director's flight from the US in 1978.

Defence lawyers in the drug case surrounding the death of Anna Nicole Smith have been notified that prosecutors will file an amended complaint at a discovery hearing today.

CHRIS BROWN has pleaded guilty to assaulting Rihanna and the two were ordered to stay away from each other, in a deal that keeps the singer out of prison but requires him to do community service.

US police say two high school students had a pair of loaded handguns, a drawing depicting a killing and the intention of randomly shooting people on campus.

The warrant issued for the arrest of Lindsay Lohan was "born out of a misunderstanding", according to the actress' legal team.

Anna Nicole Smith’s lawyer-turned-boyfriend was the principal enabler in a conspiracy with two doctors to provide the “known addict” thousands of prescription pills in the months before she died of an overdose, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said.

Singer Chris Brown appeared in a Los Angeles court, hours after he was charged with an alleged attack on his girlfriend Rihanna.

Raids have been carried out on the US homes and offices of the doctors who prescribed drugs to former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, who died of an overdose.

THE judge in the murder case against music producer Phil Spector said he was leaning towards allowing the trial to be televised and would make a decision later this month.

The judge in the murder case against music producer Phil Spector said today he is leaning toward allowing the trial to be televised and will make a decision after hearing from lawyers later this month.

A frantic pregnant woman told an emergency service operator she had been hit and was in pain shortly before actor Ryan O’Neal was arrested for alleged assault and firing a weapon in a row with his son.

John Mark Karr, the suspect in the killing of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, arrived in the US after a 15-hour flight from Thailand on which he sipped champagne, dined on fried king prawns and roast duck, and exchanged what he described as “small talk” with law enforcement escorts.

TWO New York teenagers were in police custody Wednesday facing charges of illegal computer access and attempted extortion after they allegedly threatened to disrupt the popular teen website MySpace.com unless its operators paid them $150,000 (€117,000), prosecutors said.

A man dubbed the “dreadlocks bandit” because of his hairstyle was jailed for 1,210 years in California and given 22 consecutive life terms for a string of bank robberies he committed after being released from prison for an earlier hold-up spree.

A judge declared a mistrial in the case of one of two men charged with the murder of the half-sister of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams.

Music producer Phil Spector has accused the Los Angeles County coroner’s office of bowing to pressure in deciding the shooting of actress Lana Clarkson at his mansion was murder.

Detectives are investigating a new allegation of child abuse against Michael Jackson involving a person who claims to have been victimised in the late 1980s, a police spokeswoman said.

Legendary record producer Phil Spector, charged with murdering an actress at his California mansion, told his chauffeur that night that he thought he had “killed somebody,” according to a police report.

Actress-singer Courtney Love was charged with two counts of drug possession in a complaint that specified she illegally had the painkillers hydrocodone and oxycodone.

Police investigating the murder of Venus and Serena Williams’ older sister focused today on the possibility that a gang feud or a drug dispute might have led to the death of the 31-year-old mother of three.

A suspect has been arrested in a series of rapes that have terrorised women in Southern California and Washington over six years, Los Angeles police said.

The defence case in Winona Ryder’s shoplifting trial was expected to get under way today.

A LOS ANGELES police officer has been suspended from duty after he was caught on video smashing the head of a handcuffed black teenager into the back of a car and punching him in the face during an arrest.

A police officer in Los Angeles has been suspended after a video shows him beating a handcuffed black teenager during an arrest.

Prosecutors may introduce evidence of alleged "prior misdeeds" in Winona Ryder's shoplifting case, a District Attorney's representative said.

Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against actor Robert Blake if he is convicted of murdering his wife, the Los Angeles district attorney’s office said yesterday.

Hollywood actor Robert Blake and his bodyguard have been arrested in connection with the murder of the actor’s wife who was shot dead nearly a year ago, police in Los Angeles said today.