CHICAGO- Talk show diva Oprah Winfrey launched her OWN cable network Saturday, unveiling a packed program line-up featuring celebrity hosts such as British duchess Sarah Ferguson and country singer...

DAKAR, Fran Blandy- Senegalese-American rapper and songwriter Akon called for greater African unity as he arrived in his home country to perform Friday at the world's biggest celebration of black...

BEIRUT, Rita Daou- Zajal, an old form of improvised Arabic poetry that enjoyed its heyday in Lebanon before the 1975-1990 civil war, is making a tentative comeback with thousands of fans on Facebook...

MOSCOW, Dmitry Zaks - Soviet spy veteran Grigor Vardanyan looked at Kim Philby's immaculately-kept pipe and sighed. "He was such a cultured man," the former agent said of one of Britain's most...

NEW YORK- US jazz pianist and composer Billy Taylor has died in Manhattan, The New York Times reported Wednesday. He was 89. Taylor, who also built a radio and television career, died of heart...

NEW YORK- E. Gene Smith, an American scholar of Buddhism credited with saving much of Tibet's literature from the destruction of China's Cultural Revolution, has died at age 74, associates said....

WASHINGTON- Pop star Janet Jackson wanted to find her most avid fans -- and they are apparently in Asia. After asking fans for suggestions over her website, Jackson announced that she would launch...

LOS ANGELES, Paula Bustamante- British pop superstar Elton John and his partner David Furnish are the proud parents of a baby boy born on Christmas Day to a surrogate mother in California, the...

JERUSALEM- Israeli archaeologists have discovered human remains dating from 400,000 years ago, challenging conventional wisdom that Homo sapiens originated in Africa, the leader of excavations in...