Danny Puff

HELSINKI (AP) Vladimir Putin, banned in Finland?

Finnish police say the Russian president's name was mistakenly placed on a secret criminal register that could theoretically have gotten him arrested at the border.

TV station MTV3 reported Wednesday that Putin was placed there for his contact with Russian motorcycle gang Night Wolves, though he wasn't suspected of a crime in Finland. But National Police Board spokesman Robin Lardot told the AP the listing was a mistake and that Putin's name was removed from the list.

"The National Police Board has investigated the case and indeed found that such a mistaken entry was in the register," Lardot told The Associated Press. "We have ordered it to be removed and are investigating the case very thoroughly. We don't know how it got there." He declined further comment.

Putin's inclusion would be a major source of embarrassment in bilateral relations.

Finnish Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen, whose ministry oversees the police, conveyed her "sincerest apologies" to Putin over the mistaken entry.

"The Interior Ministry considers it of grave concern if a member of the police has made such groundless entries into the database of suspects."

MTV3 said the content of the register is known only to a few top officials. But in a statement later Wednesday, police called it a "computerized personal data file intended for nationwide used by the police."

They said it includes information on people who are suspected of offenses punishable by prison "or having contributed to an offence subject to imprisonment of more than six months, or to an unlawful use of narcotics."

The Night Wolves says on its Web site that the club's prototype was born in the 1980s from the desire to protect musicians who were holding illegal concerts during the Soviet era.

The muscle-flexing Russian leader has not been averse to being associated with tough bikers and has described motorcycles as "the most dramatic form of transport."

Three years ago, he leaped onto a Harley Davidson to join about 5,000 bikers at an international convention in southern Ukraine sporting black sunglasses, black jeans and black fingerless gloves.

The head of Finland's national police force, Mikko Paatero, apologized for the "mistaken" inclusion of Putin's name in the database.

"This kind of incident is extremely exceptional and is not acceptable under any circumstances," Paatero said in a statement.

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(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is developing a new lineup of Surface tablets, including a 7-inch version expected to go into mass production later this year, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the company's plans.

Microsoft executives felt they needed to keep pace with the growing popularity of smaller tablets like Google Inc's 7-inch Nexus and the 7.9-inch iPad Mini introduced by Apple Inc last October, one person told the paper. (http://link.reuters.com/wem37t)

Microsoft declined to comment to the Wall Street Journal. The company could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) NBC is keeping Carson Daly's show in its late-night lineup.

The network announced Wednesday that it's renewing "Last Call with Carson Daly" for the show's 13th season.

NBC lauded Daly for creating what the network called "a unique late-night format." His program airs at 1:35 a.m. Eastern time.

Daly says he's proud of "Last Call" and grateful to continue with it. He also hosts the NBC singing contest "The Voice."

NBC previously announced plans to shake up the "Tonight Show," replacing Jay Leno with Jimmy Fallon next year. The network hasn't said who will take Fallon's place as host of "Late Night."

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Ben Affleck took home the best picture Oscar at this year's Academy Awards for his Iran hostage drama "Argo." But what everyone really remembers is that emotional, slightly uncomfortable acceptance speech. Everyone, apparently, except Affleck.

"I barely remember the Oscar speech," the actor-director said when asked about it at Tuesday's premiere of his latest film. "Certainly, the most important thing for me, in a way, was to honor my wife and to let people know how much I love her."

During his speech Affleck choked up while thanking his wife, Jennifer Garner, for working on their "marriage for 10 Christmases."

"I think you can tell what people care about really by their actions by what they invest in, by what they work on," he explained. "It's hard to tell somebody that you care about them when you're never around them and you don't see them and talk to them. So that was what I was trying to get across. Although I don't know how articulate I was."

Affleck was joined by co-stars Olga Kurylenko and Rachel McAdams for the Los Angeles premiere of Terrence Malick's romantic rumination "To the Wonder," which opens Friday.

Affleck, 40, admitted that seeing the celebrated director in action was indeed a wonder to behold.

"I think that you know he's a director who does really unusual stuff, really interesting stuff, and somebody who works outside the typical Hollywood norm. And that's interesting to other directors, certainly to me, because you go like 'wow, what would happen of you experiment with this?'"

The film stars Affleck as an American whose relationship with a woman he met overseas turns cold, leaving him drifting back toward a childhood love.

"To the Wonder" was the last review written by celebrated film critic Roger Ebert, who died Tuesday, and it sent "shivers" down Affleck's spine.

"I thought it was a profound honor," he said. "To have this be the last movie that he reviewed and to have it viewed through this sort of transcendental lens of a man at the end of his life is as important as anything that's ever happened around movies in my career."

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Associated Press writer Nicole Evatt contributed to this story.

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Follow Nicole Evatt at www.twitter.com/NicoleEvatt

Follow Natalie Rotman at www.twitter.com/NatalieRotman

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PARIS (Reuters) - The gilded Pont Alexandre III bridge in Paris has lost some of its sparkle after thieves made off with the historic monument's bronze plaques in the latest theft from a Parisian landmark.

Despite the watchful eye of its elaborate statues of nymphs and winged horses high above the Seine River, two plaques proclaiming the name of the monument were seized by thieves this month, officials said.

While the bronze used to make the two stolen plaques sells at about 10 euros ($13.06) per kg, the city of Paris declined to comment on the value of the ornamental pieces stolen.

"We have no idea whether they were taken for their metal or by collectors," a town hall spokeswoman said.

She said they would be replaced as soon as possible with identical copies.

"It's not a question of metallic value but of historic value," she said.

French police have struggled with metal theft in the years since the global economic crisis hit, with 5,800 hours of train delays caused in 2010 by the removal of copper from railways.

General metal theft in Paris dropped by about a quarter between 2011 and 2012, a police official said, meaning that whoever removed the plaques from the bridge were part of a die-hard few left targeting public monuments.

Thieves routinely hack bits of steel off the pedestrian Pont des Arts bridge further down the river, city officials say.

Several bronze busts -- including one of composer Bizet -- were looted in 2006 from Pere-Lachaise, the oldest cemetery in Paris and last resting place of luminaries including poet Oscar Wilde and Doors singer Jim Morrison.

Described by the French capital as its most elegant bridge', the ornate Pont Alexandre III was unveiled for the 1900 World Fair in the Belle poque period that saw the construction of the Eiffel Tower change the Parisian skyline forever.

The name inscribed on the plaques was a nod to contemporary Franco-Russian friendship, cemented by Alexander III's son Tsar Nicolas II's role in laying the bridge's foundation stone.

Historic weight is proving no protection however from thieves looking to pilfer materials or curios.

The skeleton of an elephant once owned by King Louis XIV was attacked in the Paris Natural History Museum in March when a man removed a tusk with a chainsaw and then attempted to flee. The tusk and the man were both found soon after.

"The animal fortunately suffered little in the attack," the Museum said. ($1 = 0.7658 euros)

(Reporting By Tara Oakes, editing by Paul Casciato)

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By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - A Maine man who walked into the woods shortly after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident and lived as a hermit for almost three decades, supporting himself by stealing from nearby camps, was arrested last week, police said on Tuesday.

Christopher Knight, 47, had lived nearly without human contact in a tent near a pond outside of Rome, Maine, about 20 miles north of the state capital Augusta, state police said.

They arrested him early on Thursday morning at the Pine Tree Camp, where he was stealing food, police said. They said Knight, now being held at Kennebec County Jail, confessed to burglarizing the camp about 50 times, taking food, clothing, propane tanks and other essentials.

"Everything he owned except for his eyeglasses was stolen," said Stephen McCausland, a spokesman with the Maine State Police.

Knight told the officers who arrested him that he had spoken with only one other person - a lone hiker - during his years of solitude.

The man survived the brutal winters of central Maine, where winter overnight temperatures can drop well below freezing, by sleeping in multiple sleeping bags inside a tent that was covered with a tarp.

He appeared neatly groomed and clean-shaven in a police booking photo. Police also released photos of Knight, wearing a cap and jacket, carrying a large plastic bag inside a walk-in cooler at the Pine Tree Camp where he was apprehended.

Knight had built himself a large camp in the woods near North Pond, his tent covered by a tarp that was carefully tied to the surrounding trees, evidently to provide some shelter from the elements, according to photos released by police. He had painted garbage cans in camouflage patterns, covered shiny tools and made other efforts to conceal his presence, police said.

McCausland said Knight offered police no reason for his decision to go into the woods. The Chernobyl accident was the last major event he remembered before beginning his hermitage, he told police, but the nuclear accident had not prompted his decision.

Knight has been charged with one count of burglary so far, but additional charges are likely to follow, McCausland said. In total Knight is suspected of some 1,000 thefts over his 27 years in the woods.

His presence was long suspected by local residents and camp operators from whom he had stolen, according to local media.

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Cynthia Johnston and Dan Grebler)

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NEW YORK (AP) Mary-Louise Parker is coming back to Broadway in the world premiere of Sharr White's "The Snow Geese."

The Manhattan Theatre Club and MCC Theater said Wednesday that previews will begin Oct. 1 and the play will open Oct. 24 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Daniel Sullivan will direct.

Set as World War I rages, the play is "about a family waking up from their own personal Gilded Age as the world around them changes forever," according to producers.

It reunites Parker and Sullivan, who directed her in David Auburn's "Proof," which earned both Tonys. Parker also was in Craig Lucas' "Reckless" and in a 2009 revival of "Hedda Gabler."

White's plays include "The Other Place," stars Laurie Metcalf as a scientist whose mind is failing her.

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Online: http://www.manhattantheatreclub.com

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HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland apologized to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday after its police accidentally put him on a blacklist of people with connections to criminal activity.

Seeking to avoid a diplomatic spat with its historically dominant neighbor, Finland quickly removed Putin's name from the list which is not public, but whose inclusion of Putin was revealed by Finnish broadcaster MTV3 earlier on Wednesday.

Police acknowledged the list existed and said Putin's name was accidentally included, but had since been deleted.

"I wish to extend Russia's President Vladimir Putin sincere apologies for the incorrect registry entry," Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen said in a statement.

Police said it was not immediately clear how Putin's name came to be included on the list, and it was being investigated. Finnish chief of police Mikko Paatero said the incident was regrettable.

"These kind of incidents are extremely exceptional, and not under any circumstance acceptable," he said in a statement.

Many Finns are wary of their powerful neighbor, having fought the Soviet Union in the Winter War of 1939-1940 and the Continuation War during World War Two.

Official relations since then have mostly been cordial, with Finland sidestepping any policies, including membership in the NATO alliance, that could provoke Russia.

(Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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ZURICH (Reuters) - Chinese abstract master Zao Wou-ki, whose works routinely fetch millions of dollars at auction, has died in Switzerland aged 93.

Marc Bonnant, a lawyer for his widow, told Reuters that Zao, who suffered from Alzheimer's, had died on Tuesday 10 days after being admitted to hospital.

Born in Beijing, Zao moved to Paris in 1948 before the Communist takeover of his country. In Europe, he was inspired by artists like Paul Klee, Alberto Giacometti and Joan Miro and had his first solo exhibition in New York in 1959.

He became a French citizen in 1964 and only returned to China for the first time since leaving in 1972.

Zao's son from a previous marriage, Jialing Zhao, had fought a legal battle with his third wife Francoise Marquet over guardianship of the artist, Swiss media reported.

Renowned for combining Chinese and European influences, his painting 25.06.86 sold in Hong Kong last year for HK$25.3 million, a world record for the artist at auction.

Soaring Chinese demand has driven prices for expensive art and luxury goods in recent years although that trend has cooled along with the pace of growth of China's economy.

(Reporting by Emma Thomasson, editing by Paul Casciato)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) When she traded in her Mousketeer ears for a surfboard and a modest one-piece bathing suit, Annette Funicello helped create a world as fanciful as Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom.

It was the land of perfect waves and sparkling sand, in a place where there was a beach party every night and summer never ended at least not until the Frankie and Annette "Beach Party" movie did.

When Funicello, who died this week at age 70, climbed into a convertible with Frankie Avalon in the opening moments of 1963's "Beach Party" and sang, "They'll be surfin' all day and they'll be swingin' all night. Vacation is here. Beach party tonight!" she helped introduce America to Southern California's beach culture.

"In 1964, I moved here from Teaneck, New Jersey. A girl in my ninth grade class, I wish I could remember her name, said to me, 'Wow! Now you'll get to go surfing,'" recalled David Rensin, who lives in a home that overlooks the Pacific Ocean.

The author of more than a dozen books not only learned to surf once he got here, he went on to write the definitive biography of Miki "Da Cat" Dora, arguably the greatest outlaw surfer who ever lived and a stunt double in most of those Frankie and Annette movies.

Today, Southern California kids still go to the beach and catch waves, but there's not nearly the freedom or the access that Funicello's films celebrated. There are far more surfers crowding the waves, that's true, but it's hard to find the on-the-sand goofiness and camaraderie portrayed in "Beach Blanket Bingo" or "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini." And nobody is writing songs like "Surfin' Safari," ''Surfin USA" or "Secret Surfing Spot."

But then it's a different time, notes University of Southern California pop culture historian Leo Braudy.

"Certainly there are lots of surfers still around, but they're not as fascinating as they used to be," Braudy said. "Things move on. The culture gets fascinated by other things. People say, 'All right, we already did the beach. Yes, we know California has a beach. Now let's look at something else.'"

There are video games to be played, social networks to be surfed and a million of others things to do.

"It's more defused now," Braudy said. "What do kids think about? What do kids on the East Coast or the West Coast do? Where do they believe their dream place is? I don't think there's one anymore. There might be several. But back then it was California."

Southern California, too, has changed.

It's more multi-ethnic, with more cultures bringing a variety of more pastimes to engage in. It's also far more crowded, making it far harder to get to the beach and to park anywhere near the sand once there.

And the bonfires the kids always danced around in those "Beach Party" movies? As more and more people have moved to Southern California's beaches, efforts have been launched to ban the bonfires to control air pollution. The South Coast Air Quality Management District is expected to take up the issue next month.

Meanwhile, those rickety beachfront shacks that once dotted the coastline are all but gone, replaced by multimillion-dollar homes.

Rensin left Los Angles some time ago to move up the coast to Ventura, one of Southern California's still relatively uncrowded and affordable beachfront cities.

"So I don't want a lot of people to find out about it," he laughs.

But when it comes to going to the beach and driving your woody that old, wood-paneled station wagon that you could fit a surfboard into the back of right onto the sand like Annette's friends did in all those movies, well, forget about it. It mainly only happened in those movies and on Beach Boys album covers.

The only California beach you can legally drive a car onto is Oceano Dunes, near Pismo Beach, along the central California coast.

You might have done it at Malibu back in the early 1960s, when there were no lifeguards around to chase you away, but if you did you'd probably get stuck in the sand. Today, you might get arrested.

"I never saw a car parked on the sand. We didn't even have a parking lot. We parked on the street," laughed Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, who in her days shooting the curl regularly at Malibu was better known as Gidget. (Yes, that Gidget, the one her father, Frederick Kohner, based the novel and the 1959 beach movie of the same name on.)

The makeshift shack on the sand that the surfers in "Gidget" constructed so that they had a cheap place to live while they surfed really did exist, Zuckerman says. But it's long gone now, replaced over the years by amenities like a lifeguard tower, restrooms and a parking lot as mansions sprouted on the hills above the water.

But the dream that was launched in those old movies still lives on among some who were young then.

"Every summer I still go to Malibu," says Zuckerman, 72. "I take a board out, I stay close inside and try to paddle into a wave."

Why does she do it?

"Once a surfer," she says, "always a surfer."

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