Harlequin, the global queen of bodice-ripping books telling tales of romance between doctor and nurse, or servant and heir, has been seduced by media magnate Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch's News Corp said Friday it will buy Harlequin Enterprises from Canadian media group Torstar Corporation, tying the knot with 455 million Canadian dollars (US $414.5 million) in cash.

World press freedom has hit its lowest level in a decade after a regression in Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine, and U.S. efforts to curb national security reporting, a watchdog said Thursday.

A report by Freedom House, which has been conducting annual surveys since 1980, found that the share of the world's population with media rated "free" was 14 percent in 2013, or only one in seven people.

The Whitney Museum of American Art will open its new downtown Manhattan home next year with an exhibition of works from its permanent collection, followed by shows dedicated to artists including Archibald Motley and Frank Stella, museum officials said Thursday.

Officials made the announcement at the unfinished facility, offering a behind-the-scenes look as construction continues at the space next to the High Line elevated park and looking out on the Hudson River. The new museum, the Whitney's fourth home since it was founded in 1930, is expected to open in Spring 2015.

Some eight hours dusty drive from the nearest major settlement, tucked into the eastern corner of Turkmenistan and unknown to the outside world until the second half of the last century, lies one of the most mythical yet least visited spots in the former Soviet Union.

Turkmenistan's Plateau of the Dinosaurs is the location of one of the most magnificent collections of fossilised dinosaur tracks anywhere on Planet Earth, which only became known to Soviet palaeontologists in the 1950s.

The Baha’i International Community on Thursday accused Iran of excavating a cemetery where hundreds of its followers are buried, and urged the Tehran government to halt the work.

The grave site in the southern city of Shiraz, some 710 kilometers (440 miles) south of Tehran, has been used by Baha'is for decades.

Bob Dylan's handwritten working manuscript for the lyrics of "Like a Rolling Stone" will be auctioned in June by Sotheby's, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The lyrics are part of a sheaf of six pages of memorabilia from Dylan that also include the manuscript of "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall".

South Africa on Wednesday accredited over 100 imams as marriage officers, allowing the Muslim clerics to officiate at fully recognized weddings for the first time.

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe hailed "a new chapter in the story of the Muslim community in South Africa".

A major exhibition of paintings and etchings by James McNeill Whistler opens in Washington this weekend -- but don't expect to see his mother there.

"An American in London: Whistler and the Thames" spotlights the 19th century American artist's many years in the British capital and his fascination with the storied river than runs through it.

An Oscar statuette won in 1939 by a cinematographer who worked on "Citizen Kane" was auctioned for $150,000 Tuesday.

Gregg Toland won the Academy Award, the only Oscar of his career, for his work on another film, "Wuthering Heights" by director William Wyler and starring Sir Laurence Olivier.

A theater center in an off-the-beaten path corner of Tuscany has become a creative hub for thespians from around the world, offering residencies for established drama professionals and courses for aspiring actors.

The Funaro complex in Pistoia includes former blacksmith and carpenter workshops turned into apartments, two 100-seat theaters and a cafeteria which acts as the main social center.