The nine-year-old musical hit ‘Wicked’ earned $2,947,172 over nine performances last week, making it the highest single-week gross for any show in Broadway history.

‘Wicked,’ based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, beat the previous record set by ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,’ which earned $2,941,790 over nine performances last year during the holiday season, AP reported.

The box office success of both musicals is partly due to the use of premium seating, in which producers charge higher prices for certain days and certain seats. With ‘Wicked,’ they asked $300 for a top premium seat, second only to the ‘Book of Mormon,’ which boasted a top premium of $477. The average ticket price for ‘Wicked’ was $181.

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International political thinktank Eurasia Group has ranked Russian President Vladimir Putin second on its list of the world’s most powerful people. The first position is held by ‘Nobody,’ reflecting the perception of a world without a clear leader.

The list, published by Foreign Policy magazine, ranks individuals’ ability to singlehandedly “bring about change that significantly affects the lives and fortunes of large numbers of people.”

Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer explained that he left the fist position empty because the modern world has no clear leader, and those in power are focused on domestic or regional issues rather than global challenges.

Putin’s second-place rank is due to “Russia’s personalized system,” and the influence the country wields in regional affairs.

Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke holds the third position because of the number of levers he can pull to influence the US economy, and by extension the global economy.

Other individuals mentioned are German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for policies that are “the glue that binds Europe,” US President Barack Obama, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and China’s new leader Xi Jinping.

Tied for 8th place are Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

The ailing ruler of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah Bin Abd al-Aziz, rounded the list for his ability to determine the succession of leadership in the hydrocarbon powerhouse.

A man convicted of raping a woman by pretending to be her boyfriend in the darkness of her bedroom was granted a retrial by a California appeals court, which overturned the man’s rape conviction.

Julio Morales was accused of entering a woman’s bedroom after her boyfriend had gone home and after the woman had fallen asleep, initiating sexual intercourse while she was sleeping and under the influence of alcohol. The victim, who was not awake to see her boyfriend leave, believed the rapist was the one she was dating – until a ray of light flashed across his face, revealing his identity.

The woman pressed charges and Morales was sentenced to three years imprisonment. But California’s Second District Court of Appeals lifted these charges and called for a retrial after examination of an 1872 law, which considers a crime a rape only if the sleeping or unconscious victim “submits under the belief that the person committing the act is the victim’s spouse.” If the victim had been married, the act would have been considered a rape, but the law does not protect against a perpetrator deceiving a woman into believing he is her boyfriend.

“A man enters the dark bedroom of an unmarried woman after seeing her boyfriend leave late at night, and has sexual intercourse with the woman while pretending to be the boyfriend,” the court said in its ruling. “Has the man committed rape? Because of historical anomalies in the law and the statutory definition of rape, the answer is no, even though, if the woman had been married and the man had impersonated her husband, the answer would be yes.”

The victim alleges that after she realized Morales was not her boyfriend, she pushed him away and screamed until he left. Morales’ lawyers claim that their client does not remember being pushed away and that he did nothing against the woman’s will.

After claiming his conviction was faulty under the California penal code, Morales now has another chance at having his punishment lifted and walking free.

“We reluctantly hold that a person who accomplished sexual intercourse by impersonating someone other than a married victim’s spouse is not guilty of the crime of rape of an unconscious person,” the appeals court ruled.

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