Names and faces

LITTLE ROCK — Three decades after he fled the United States after his arrest for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl, Roman Polanski was taken into custody in Zurich, Switzerland, on Sunday and faces extradition to Los Angeles. Polanski, the famed film director whose career continued to flourish even after fleeing for Europe, was arrested as he arrived in the Swiss city to accept an award at the Zurich Film Festival. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office learned last week that Polanski had plans to travel to Zurich this weekend, said Sandi Gibbons, spokesman for the district attorney's office. Prosecutors sent a provisional arrest warrant to the U.S. Justice Department, which presented it to Swiss authorities. Polanski was arrested 31 years ago at a Beverly Hills hotel after a 13-year-old girl accused him of sexually assaulting her during a photo shoot at actor Jack Nicholson's house. A 1978 arrest warrant, issued after he failed to appear at his sentencing on the statutory-rape conviction, is still in effect, and he would have been taken into custody upon arrival on U.S. soil. The director of Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby has not returned to the U.S. since then but continues to work as a director, winning an Oscar in 2003 for The Pianist. Polanski's stay in Switzerland could be brief if he opts to return to Los Angeles. But if Polanski declines to come back without a fight, the court process could be quite lengthy. The appeals process has several layers and could last months.

Glenn Beck received a ceremonial, plaque-mounted key to the city from the mayor of his hometown, as well as a minute-long standing ovation as hundreds of protesters gathered outside. The Fox News personality's visit Saturday to Mount Vernon, an agricultural city of 31,000 people 60 miles north of Seattle, had sparked weeks of protests and petitions calling for the cancellation of the visit. But Beck was received warmly inside the sold-out event at the city's McIntyre Hall. Mount Vernon Mayor Bud Norris, who weeks earlier proclaimed Saturday "Glenn Beck Day" as a way to mark the conservative commentator's success as a nationally known broadcaster, introduced Beck and handed over the key. Beck spoke for about an hour, remembering his childhood in Mount Vernon. "Now, I would give my right arm to live in a town like Mount Vernon. And I discovered today that there are a ton of people ready to cut it off," he said Saturday, jokingly referring to protesters gathered nearby. "It doesn't bother me, because I have the key to their house now."