Award-winning Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev has been arrested at a Thai beach resort, accused of raping a boy, police said yesterday.
Mr Pletnev, 53, an acclaimed pianist and conductor of the Russian National Orchestra, was arrested in Pattaya and charged with raping a 14-year-old Thai boy and appearing in compromising photographs with several others.
Col. Omsin said Mr Pletnev denied the allegations.
Mr Pletnev was served with an arrest warrant while having dinner at a restaurant on Monday evening. He was released on 300,000 baht (£5,965) bail on Tuesday but will have to ask for court permission to leave the country.
He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison if found guilty.
He founded the Russian National Orchestra, whose recording of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Beintus's Wolf Tracks, conducted by Kent Nagano and narrated by Sophia Loren, Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev, received a 2004 Grammy Award.
In 2005, he won a Grammy Award for his own arrangement of Prokofiev's Cinderella.
Danube threatens to burst its banks
Inhabitants of Galati, eastern Romania, battled yesterday to protect their homes from the rain-swollen Danube, hoping emergency dykes will hold as the 'blue' river threatens to burst its banks.
"In 2004 and 2006, the Danube had already reached a very high level but I have never seen it as high as today," 63-year-old pensioner Ioana Vancu said.
Her house is located in one of the districts that could be flooded if an emergency dam built by the authorities does not hold.
The Danube, the longest river in the European Union, could on Saturday top its highest ever recorded level of 6.90 metres, Romanian authorities warned.
'Rooney world's ugliest footballer'
After a hugely disappointing World Cup, England striker Wayne Rooney is unlikely to be cheered by his latest accolade: The ugliest footballer on the planet.
The Man.United goal machine, who flopped after being hyped as a potential superstar in South Africa, heads the list of unattractive players on dating website BeautifulPeople.com. He has the company of England team mate John Terry in the top 10 ugliest, but it's the Algerian team that comes out as collectively "the least attractive".
Old grenade found in Jerusalem's walls
Israeli archaeologists renovating the walls of Jerusalem's Old City found an explosive surprise - a 100-year-old Ottoman hand grenade hidden in a crevice.
The device, which contained more than 200 grams of explosives, was discovered earlier this week as archaeologists were replacing a damaged stone near the Damascus Gate, the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement.
"The stone was partially crushed and someone probably chose it as a place to hide the hand grenade," said Yoram Saad, a senior official at the authority.
Guns nicked from Netanyahu's security
Four guns went missing and were believed to have been stolen from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security detail after American Airlines lost luggage containing the weapons, NBC reported.
It said the Glock 9mm guns had been placed in checked baggage - as security protocol dictates - at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and were supposed to be placed on a flight to Washington for Israeli agents assigned to Mr Netanyahu, who was meeting President Barack Obama on Tuesday.
But workers mistakenly sent the luggage to Los Angeles where it was learned the guns were missing, and police said they believe they were stolen, NBC television reported out of New York city.
Justin Bieber contest website hijacked
An online contest to decide where Canadian pop star Justin Bieber should go on tour next has been hijacked by a web prank group that has been encouraging voters to send him to North Korea.
With just a few hours left to vote, North Korea was the top vote-getter on Tuesday in the My World Tour contest with more than 625,000 votes, followed by Israel with 608,000 votes and Poland with 513,073 votes.
According to the BBC, the campaign to garner votes for an unlikely tour to notoriously isolated North Korea by the 16-year-old singing sensation was launched by users of the internet bulletin board 4chan.
Users of 4chan have carried out a number of stunts in the past involving Master Bieber and previous 4chan pranks include getting the founder of the site, Christopher Poole, on to Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people.