Andrew Lloyd Webber, the English composer who created the scores for blockbuster musicals such as “Cats,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Evita,” has written the anthem for King Charles III’s coronation, adapting a piece of church music that encourages singers to make a “joyful noise.” The work by Webber is one of a dozen…

The career of Boris Beecker, whose thunderous delivery earned him the nickname “Boom Boom” as a young tennis player, took him from the greatest heights of sporting achievement aged 17 to prison at 54, and he is unsure if it could have gone any other way. “It’s very difficult to win Wimbledon at 17,” the…

Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu has been found dead under the building where he lived in southern Turkey after last week’s massive earthquake, the ex-Chelsea winger’s Turkish agent said. “Atsu’s lifeless body was found under the rubble,” Murat Uzunmehmet told reporters in Hatay, where the athlete’s body was found. “Currently, more items are still being taken…

Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, his family said on Thursday, nearly a year after the “Die Hard” franchise star retired from acting because of aphasia that had hampered his cognitive abilities.   “Since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in spring 2022, Bruce’s condition has progressed, and we now have a more specific…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will join Hollywood actor Sean Penn by video link on Thursday at the opening of the Berlinale, Europe’s first major film festival of the year, as it spotlights the fight for freedom in Ukraine and Iran. The 73rd annual event, traditionally the most politically minded of the three big European cinema…

The UK is working on a new arrangement with Greece through which the Parthenon Sculptures could be seen both in London and in Athens, British Museum chair George Osborne said on Thursday, describing it as a win-win situation. Osborne, a former finance minister, reiterated that the museum was having constructive talks with the Greek government…

When Raquel Welch donned a deerskin bikini for a 1966 caveman screen epic, she became one of the hottest sex symbols of her time, a role she never felt able to escape. The film was mediocre, but the poster for “One Million Years BC” went round the world, taking her with it and making both…

This year’s New York Fashion Week is wrapping up after featuring genderless style, throwback 1990s fashion and colorful knitwear to fight sadness. Nina Vishneva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Producer: Anna Rice. Camera: Vladimir Badikov. …

Ethiopia has long struggled with problems of communal friction turning into violent, ethnic conflict. Members of the two largest ethnic groups, the Oromos and Amharas, have come together to showcase traditional conflict resolution through musical drama. Maya Misikir reports from Adama, Ethiopia. Camera: Vinicius Assis. …

A German newspaper critic had animal feces smeared on her face in the city of Hannover by a ballet director who apparently took offense at a review she wrote. The Hannover state opera house apologized for the incident and said Monday that it was immediately suspending ballet director Marco Goecke. The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung…

Rihanna made her long-awaited return to the stage at the Super Bowl with a career-spanning medley of pop bangers, but it was her baby bump that dominated the conversation.    The megastar appeared in the stadium midair on a floating stage, donning a clingy, all-red ensemble featuring a molded bustier — and a belt below what many…

A court run by Yemen’s Iran-backed rebels on Sunday upheld a five-year sentence against a female actor and one of her companions who were convicted of committing an indecent act and having drugs in her possession, her lawyer said. The arrest of Intisar al-Hammadi and the three other women in February 2021 — as well…

There is no bigger cheerleader of awards season than Richard E. Grant.  He brings joy to the red carpet, snapping selfies with stars and posting congratulations to nominees on social media.  Now this enthusiasm has been tapped to host the EE BAFTA Film Awards on February 19 at the Royal Festival Hall.  “I’m an unabashed…

A halftime show that Rihanna promises will be “jam-packed” will sit at the center of the celebrity supplements to Super Bowl 57.  But the 13-minute mini-extravaganza, her first live event in seven years, is only one part of the entertainment sideshow surrounding Sunday’s big game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs at State…

Visitors to one of Florence’s most iconic monuments — the Baptistry of San Giovanni, opposite the city’s Duomo — are getting a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see its ceiling mosaics up close thanks to an innovative approach to a planned restoration effort. Rather than limit the public’s access during the six-year cleaning of the vault, officials…

As legal sports gambling proliferates, the number of Americans betting on the Super Bowl and the total amount they’re wagering is surging — although most of the action is still off the books.  An estimated 1 in 5 American adults will make some sort of bet, laying out a whopping $16 billion, or twice as…

Australia has nominated a culturally sensitive Aboriginal area that is home to the world’s largest collection of rock art for United Nations heritage protection.  The Burrup Peninsula, 1,500 kilometers north of Perth, the Western Australian state capital, has 50,000 years of First Nations history, including millions of a type of rock carving called petroglyphs.   It…

When Enrique Vera opens the door to his workshop, an array of gleaming gold and silver matadors’ jackets shine in the sun. “It is little bit like a cave full of treasure,” he says. Vera painstakingly fashions the brilliant trajes de luces (suits of lights) which are worn by bullfighters when they face half-ton bulls…

Scientists have a mystery on their hands after the discovery of 330 stone tools about 2.9 million years old at a site in Kenya, along Lake Victoria’s shores, that were used to butcher animals, including hippos, and pound plant material for food. Which of our prehistoric relatives that were walking the African landscape at the…

Nairobi’s public buses and vans, called “matatus,” and their custom graffiti brighten the busy streets of Nairobi. The idea is the glitzier the vehicle’s design, the more customers it will attract. Hubbah Abdi has this report from the Kenyan capital. Narrated by Michele Joseph. (Camera: Joseph Ochieng) …

Burt Bacharach, the singularly gifted and popular composer who delighted millions with the quirky arrangements and unforgettable melodies of “Walk on By,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” and dozens of other hits, has died at 94. The Grammy, Oscar and Tony-winning Bacharach died Wednesday at home in Los Angeles of natural causes,…

NASCAR, the American stock car racing company, is celebrating its 75th anniversary and striving to bring diversity to the sport. Genia Dulot visited a preseason NASCAR race in Los Angeles and spoke to Daniel Suarez, the first Mexican-born racing driver to win a NASCAR cup series. Camera: Genia Dulot …

U.S. basketball star LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers became the National Basketball Association’s all-time leading scorer Tuesday.  James hit a two-point basket late in the third quarter in the game against the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder to surpass the 38,387 career points held by Lakers’ legend and Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Abdul-Jabbar, who was…

There are fans for all kinds of things, from sports to birds to stamps. This is true for trains as well. VOA’s Aunshuman Apte reports. …

British author Salman Rushdie said he finds it “very difficult” to write after being stabbed last year, in an interview published Monday ahead of the release of his new novel Victory City. Rushdie, whose “epic tale” of a 14th-century woman who defies a patriarchal world to rule a city hits U.S. shelves Tuesday, said the…

Iran-based singer Shervin Hajipour’s Grammy Award for a song he produced last year in honor of Iran’s peaceful protest movement against Islamist rule has prompted an outpouring of positive reactions from Iranian social media users.  U.S. first lady Jill Biden announced Hajipour’s win of the U.S. Recording Academy’s first-ever Song for Social Change Special Merit…

Centuries-old weavings from the Caucasus, Iran and Turkey show the individual stories and intertwined histories of the region in a museum exhibit in the Western U.S. state of Colorado. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns has our story. …

The success of the critically acclaimed 2022 film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has put a spotlight on Asian representation in the U.S. film industry. Now, an American actor of Hmong descent and a Cambodian American filmmaker have made a new movie about the Asian experience in the United States. VOA’s Chetra Chap reports. …