Originally at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/21/MNGH7FBVQ01.DTL

Michael Jackson has decided to make the Persian Gulf nation of Bahrain his permanent home, his attorney said Thursday.

“He’s looking much better. He’s with his children, and he’s moving on in life,” said Thomas Mesereau Jr., who won Jackson’s acquittal on child molestation charges in the summer. “He’s living permanently in Bahrain. He has friends there who have been very loyal and helpful to him in a difficult period of his life.”

Mesereau declined to comment on whether Jackson, 46, planned to sell his famous Neverland Ranch. But the move to Bahrain would end the pop music star’s presence in Santa Barbara County, where he built an estate complete with a zoo and Ferris wheel.

Jackson was acquitted on 14 counts in connection with allegations he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor at the Neverland Ranch in California’s Santa Ynez Valley.