LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM- The British songwriter who penned Michael Jackson's hit "Thriller" in the back of a taxi, having started his working life in a frozen fish factory, has died aged 66. Rod...

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM- The European "capital" of Brussels is going to get its own version of the Pompidou Centre, the contemporary art gallery in Paris that has become one of world's biggest cultural...

NAPLES, ITALY- Two Van Gogh masterpieces stolen in Amsterdam 14 years ago have been recoved from the home of a notorious Italian drug boss near Naples, Italian and museum officials announced on...

ROME, ITALY- Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep will top a star-studded guest list at next month's Rome film festival, organisers announced Friday. Hanks is to receive a lifetime achievement award on the...

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES- Musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra went on strike Friday moments before donors opened a black-tie gala, in the latest labor unrest in the tight-belted US classical music...

PARIS, FRANCE, Fiachra Gibbons- It has taken more than a century, but France is finally paying fulsome tribute to Oscar Wilde, the writer who died penniless in a fleapit Paris hotel saying, "My...

TOKYO, JAPAN- Japanese archaeologists said Wednesday they have for the first time unearthed ancient Roman coins at the ruins of an old castle. The discovery of 10 bronze and copper coins -- the...

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, James Pheby- A giant backside, a mountain of money and chastity belts suspended from a ceiling: the Turner Prize once again looks set to divide the contemporary art world...

PARIS, FRANCE, Fiachra Gibbons- A huge new exhibition about Tintin creator Herge does not shy away from showing how the cartoonist pined to be taken seriously as an artist nor his shame at his...