WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Girls who regularly watch reality television expect ― and accept ― more bullying and drama in their lives, a just-released study in the United States suggested.They also assign more value to physical appearances, and view themselves as leaders and role models, according to the nat

UNIVERSAL CITY, California (AP) ― Heroes and villains from the worlds of horror, fantasy and science-fiction shared the stage at Spike TVs annual Scream Awards.More television event than traditional awards ceremony, the Scream Awards were presented in an amphitheater built on the Universal Studios b

PARIS (AFP) ― Masterworks by Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir and Edgar Degas get a new home next week as Paris’ Orsay Museum reopens its impressionist gallery following a two-year, multi-million-euro revamp.Twenty-five years after its creation in a 200-year-old railway station on the south bank of the

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― A literary tradition that was born about 900 years ago with the Sagas, which Icelandic children still read today, has evolved into a thriving modern-day appetite for crime fiction.Publishers and authors at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which ends Sunday and where Iceland has been guest

PARIS (AFP) ― Two years after a bitter blow-up with his brother Liam drew the curtain on Britpop sensation Oasis, Noel Gallagher makes the jump from “sideman” to frontman as his solo debut hits shelves on Monday.“I was a sideman for 20 years and I fucking loved it,” said the 44-year-old, who always

BAGHDAD (AFP) ― A journalist kidnapped by extremists may be a well-trodden scenario, but for one young filmmaker in Baghdad, it provided fodder for a nascent genre in Iraqi film: the patriotic action flick.“Attention” by Ibrahim al-Khazali, named Best Iraqi Production at this month’s Baghdad Interna

PARIS (AP) ― She’s but a throwaway mention in Shakespeare’s “Othello,” a one-line reference buried in Act IV of the dense and dark tale of passion and betrayal.But Barbary ― the African nurse who raised Othello’s ill-fated wife Desdemona ― is at the very center, the beating heart, of Toni Morrison’s

WINTER HAVEN, Florida ― This is what a theme park built for children looks like: Kids are driving slow one-seater toy cars while their parents watch from the sidelines. They are steering boats, turning water cannons on each other, playing with Lego toys while their parents hold their place in line f

The 2010 Trajarinho Vinho Verde is a bottling well worth seeking out. Look for the characteristic tall slope-shouldered shape and the distinctive Trajarinho label. (Los Angeles Time/MCT)In Porto, I remember eating sardines grilled outside a little restaurant near the sea accompanied by gulps of chil

LOS ANGELES ― The food truck revolution is moving indoors.The owners of some of the most successful trucks are using the knowledge, fame and bankability gained from operating their mobile eateries to start sit-down restaurants.“To grow a restaurant from the ground up is impossible,” said Eric Tjahya

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― It’s sure nice work if you can get it: going to nearly every restaurant in Washington patronized by Michelle Obama and ordering exactly what she ordered.Marian Burros did just that for the Politico website (www.politico.com), and the experience ― which took her through 25 eateries

WASHINGTON (AFP) ―Nearly a century after it was stolen by a German soldier during World War I, and after a decade of transatlantic legal wrangling, a painting by French Realist Jules Breton is going home.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will return “A Fisherman’s Daughter” on Thursday to Fra

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― Publishers and booksellers from debt-laden countries gathered at the world’s biggest book fair Wednesday determined to fight the impact of Europe’s economic woes.But authors at least have drawn inspiration from the crisis, they reported.Greece, currently in the eye of the eurozone

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― A man was charged with hacking into the emails of Christina Aguilera, Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis in a computer invasion scheme that targeted Hollywood celebrities, federal authorities said Wednesday.Christopher Chaney, 35, was arrested without incident as part of a yearlong

LONDON (AP) ― The London Film Festival, an international cinema showcase, opens Wednesday with “360,” a fittingly globe-spanning drama that moves from London to Vienna, Rio de Janeiro and Denver, Colorado.The film by “City of God” director Fernando Meirelles stars Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law and Rache

BUSAN (AFP) ― Actress Michelle Yeoh, who plays Aung San Suu Kyi in a new biopic of the Myanmar activist, said Wednesday that the release of jailed dissident and comedian Zarganar was “joyful news.”Zarganar, one of Myanmar’s most celebrated satirists who had been incarcerated since 2008 for his polit

DRESDEN, Germany (AP) ― A modern wedge of glass, concrete and steel rips through a 135-year-old former armory building for the armies of Kaiser Wilhelm I, its silvery shimmer and stark lines contrasting sharply with the neoclassical building that it now bisects.American architect Daniel Libeskind kn

LONDON (AFP) ― A homage to the disappearing format of analogue film by the British artist Tacita Dean is the latest exhibition to fill the cavernous space at the Tate Modern in London.Plunged into darkness, visitors to the former power station see a huge screen resembling a piece of film, placed ver

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― The world’s biggest book fair, which opened Tuesday, wants to put paid to fears for the survival of the book in its traditional, bound form in the face of its digital rival’s growing popularity.While electronic books and other gadgets have been all the talk of the Frankfurt Book Fa

LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― U.S. singing superstar Beyonce acknowledged Tuesday that her latest video was inspired by the work of a Belgian choreographer who has threatened to sue for plagiarism.But the singer said her “Countdown” video had other influences, and noted that it had already been viewed by 2 mi