A good week for ...

Frank McCourt

The owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers sold his bankrupt team for US$2.3 billion after a wild bidding process to a group that includes former Lakers NBA star Magic Johnson. In 2004, McCourt paid US$430 million to buy the team, the Dodger Stadium and 100 hectares of land from the Fox division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. That left the team with about US$50 million in cash. By January, its debt stood at US$579 million, a court filing shows. But even after a protracted divorce which cost him US$131 million, taxes and legal and banking fees, McCourt stands to make over one billion US dollars.

George Galloway

The parliamentarian who was expelled from Britain's Labour Party under then prime minister Tony Blair because of his opposition to the Iraq war was returned to the House of Commons in a by-election in Bradford West, a predominantly Muslim constituency in northern England. Running for the Respect Party, Galloway overturned bookmakers' odds that had predicted Labour retaining the seat.

Gao Zhisheng

Relatives of the jailed dissident lawyer confirmed he was alive and in good health after authorities allowed them to visit him for the first time, nearly two years after his disappearance. His brother, Gao Zhiyi, said he had seen Gao but it was 'not convenient' to say more. His wife, Geng He, said her father and Gao's brother saw him for half an hour in a remote prison in Xinjiang. Geng said Gao Zhisheng told his brother: 'You should all take care of yourselves, help Geng He raise the children well.'