From wire reports
BLANTYRE, Malawi -- In a land dispute pitting Madonna against African villagers, Malawi's government has sided with the pop star who has pumped millions into this impoverished southern African country and adopted two of its children.
Villagers have been refusing to move from a plot of land where Madonna wants to build a $15 million school for girls. The government says it had planned to develop the plot, and only allowed the villagers to live there until a project was identified.
Thursday, Lilongwe District Commissioner Charles Kalemba, accompanied by government officials and representatives from Madonna's Raising Malawi charity, met with about 200 villagers and told them they would have to move. The villagers have been offered other government land.
"Government allowed you to occupy this land because there was no project yet. But now that Madonna wants to build you a school you have to give way," Kalemba told the villagers. "You are lucky that Madonna has compensated you for your houses, gardens and trees."
No extradition or premiere for Polanski
GENEVA -- Friday was a banner day for director Roman Polanski: His new film premiered in Berlin and Swiss authorities pledged not to extradite him to the U.S. as long as his appeal on a sex case was still being considered in Los Angeles.
Compared to the last four months being under arrest in Switzerland, it was a win-win.
Polanski could not walk the red carpet at the Berlin film festival Friday night for the debut of his movie "The Ghost Writer," starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, because he is under house arrest. But he was still the star of the party, feted by the movie's actors, producer and screenplay writer.
And in a new twist to his long legal saga, the Swiss Justice Ministry declared it would make "no sense" to shift Polanski from house arrest at his Alpine chalet until U.S. courts ruled definitively that he must be sentenced in person to further jail time for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.
"When the question is still open, why should he be extradited?" Rudolf Wyss, the ministry's deputy director, told The Associated Press. "As long as the question is still open, our decision depends on that."
"The Ghost Writer," based on the novel by Robert Harris, is one of 20 films competing for the Berlin festival's top Golden Bear honor, being awarded Feb. 20.
Harris, who wrote the screenplay along with Polanski, said director had been keen to shift gears and make a thriller. "The Ghost Writer" is the story of a former leader dogged by allegations that he allowed the illegal seizure of suspected terrorists.
Johnston wants child support flexibility
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Levi Johnston, the father to former Gov. Sarah Palin's grandchild, is asking a judge to grant flexibility in the child support he must pay to Palin's daughter.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that Johnston, 19, contends he earned more than $100,000 in 2009 because of his national celebrity. But he says in court documents that there's no guarantee that fame, or that amount of income, will continue.
Bristol Palin, the 19-year-old daughter of the former Republican vice presidential candidate, is seeking $22,750 -- $1,750 a month -- from her ex-fiance to cover the 13 months since the birth of their son, Tripp.
Johnston has paid $4,400 so far.
Thomas Van Flein, Bristol Palin's attorney, says she and Johnston appear to be making progress toward a fair resolution.
