newsmakers

newsmakers

Richie, Anderson among tax scofflaws

LOS ANGELES

Pamela Anderson and Lionel Richie owe the government money.

California tax authorities have put Anderson on the latest list of the state’s biggest income-tax delinquents. The Franchise Tax Board said the former “Baywatch” star owes $524,241 in state income taxes.

Meanwhile, E! Online reports that Richie, a music legend, owes the federal government $1.1 million in unpaid taxes and that a lien has been issued warning that the singers’ assets may be seized if he doesn’t pay up in a timely manner.

A message seeking comments from Richie’s publicist wasn’t immediately returned Saturday.

A call to Anderson’s tax attorney, Robert Leonard, wasn’t immediately returned.

Other notable names on California’s tax-delinquent list include CNET co-founder Halsey Minor and Joe Francis, the founder of the “Girls Gone Wild” video empire.

British police recover stolen Chinese artifacts

LONDON

British police say they have recovered two Chinese artifacts valued together at more than $3.2 million that were stolen from a university museum earlier this month.

Raiders chiseled through a wall to snatch the Qing Dynasty items from the Oriental Museum at Durham University in northern England on April 5.

Police soon arrested several suspects, but the items — a large jade bowl with a Chinese poem written inside that dates back to 1769, and a Dehua porcelain sculpture — were not immediately recovered.

Durham Police said Saturday that both artifacts had been retrieved, though it did not say how.

Police have named two men they are searching for over the raid — Lee Wildman and Adrian Stanton, both from the West Midlands area of central England.

Robin Gibb in coma

LONDON

Former Bee Gee Robin Gibb is in a coma after contracting pneumonia, a statement on his official website said Saturday.

The statement, which confirmed media reports that the singer was gravely ill, said “we are all hoping and praying that he will pull through.”

The Press Association news agency reported that family members including wife Dwina and brother Barry were at Gibb’s bedside in a London hospital.

Gibb’s publicist, Doug Wright, declined to comment, but Gibb’s son has acknowledged that the 62-year-old musician is seriously ill in a hospital.

Associated Press