CULTURE AND SPORT

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2," broke single-day box office records with a whopping $92.1 million in opening day sales, according to an industry tracker.

Tokyo formally announced its bid to host the 2020 Olympics as a symbol of Japan's determination to recover from the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

US President Obama is pressing lawmakers to avert what he called economic "Armageddon" by quickly forging a deal to prevent an early August debt default.

Marilyn Monroe's billowing skirt shows it's possible to catch a nice breeze in the Windy City.

Despite buying a 80% stake in Megastar, South Korea’s CJ-CGV said it would not bring too many of its own films to Vietnam.

Superstar Jennifer Lopez will split with her musician and actor husband, Marc Anthony, after seven years of marriage.

If history is anything to go by, Cadel Evans should be looking to win his second stage win of the Tour de France.

A series of eruptions at an Indonesian volcano have thrown rocks, lava and ash, forcing thousands of people to flee, officials said.

Two Vietnamese models Huyen Trang and Ngoc Tinh have been chosen to represent the country in Best Model of the World 2011 contest.

Swimming icon Michael Phelps admitted he lost his passion for the sport during an unprecedented rough patch.

Netflix began letting subscribers in the United States and Canada stream movies and television shows to Nintendo 3DS videogame handsets.

Large predators are on the decline worldwide, a trend that is disrupting the Earth's ecosystem in all kinds of unusual ways, researchers said.

European customs intercepted EUR1 billion worth of counterfeit goods in 2010, with 85% of the fakes from China, the European Commission said.

Attacks on the world's seas are soaring as armed and dangerous pirates become increasingly emboldened, an international body said Thursday.

The 2011 Dogma Prize in Self Portraiture, the first self-portrait contest organized in Vietnam, announced its winners on Tuesday in HCM City.

A Federico Macheda brace helped Premier League champions Manchester United canter to a 4-1 win over New England Revolution.

A small plane crashed near the Brazilian city of Recife after reporting an onboard emergency, killing all of its 16 occupants, officials said.

Three bombs ripped through India's commercial capital Mumbai, killing 21 people and injuring more than 100 in the deadliest attack in the city.

Two screenwriters have lodged a complaint against a director who nominated films written by them for State Awards.