The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Monday it has extended voting for the 2013 Oscars, after reports of problems with a new online polling system.

The elite movie industry body is giving its voting members an extra day -- the deadline will be this Friday at 5:00 pm Los Angeles time (01:00 GMT Saturday), instead of 24 hours earlier -- to choose their nominees.

French electronic composer Jean Michel Jarre has held talks with Downing Street officials in recent months, the British premier's office confirmed Tuesday, about setting up business operations in London.

The talks come after France's highest court struck down a proposed 75 percent tax rate on individual income above a million euros ($1.3 million) a year, a plan which saw the republic's biggest film star Gerard Depardieu relocate to Belgium.

A million people crammed into New York's Times Square on Tuesday to greet the New Year in a global party that kicked off in Australia before rolling around the world in a non-stop chain of firework displays.

But tragedy struck in the Ivory Coast when at least 61 people died and dozens more were injured as a crowd that had gathered for New Year's fireworks stampeded in the economic capital Abidjan, rescue workers there said.

Asian capital cities brought in the New Year in spectacular style after Sydney set off a global wave of fireworks, with long-isolated Yangon joining the pyrotechnic partying for the first time.

Australia's famous harbor city brought in the New Year on a balmy summer night with a US$6.9 million display curated by pop icon Kylie Minogue.

A kid for Kimye: Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are expecting their first child.

The rapper announced at a concert Sunday night that his girlfriend is pregnant. He told the crowd of more than 5,000 at Revel Resort's Ovation Hall in song form: "Now you having my baby."

They may be in the grip of a crushing recession and riven by bitter internal political divisions, but Greeks are also trying to look on the bright side.

Never mind the massive debt, the salary cuts and tax hikes: both ordinary people and the news organisations that serve them have started looking for a silver lining.

A music awards show dubbed the "African Grammys" was hit by an embarrassing series of hitches culminating in the absence Sunday of star Chris Brown and an apology by the organiser.

The show had been delayed from Saturday to enable rapper Brown to attend, with organiser Ernest Adjovi initially blaming the delay on Brown missing his flight but later saying heavy rains and other logistical hiccups were behind the postponement.

Written by Anthony Sargon

"Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" had a very limited theatrical release and a slow global rollout, so this review is a tad late, but seeing how the film has garnered some awards attention, this reviewer thought it appropriate to give this little film some attention as well.

The Kora Awards, dubbed "Africa's Grammys", will take place Sunday in Abidjan, organisers said, after confusion about when the event would happen and when its star – U.S. rapper Chris Brown -- would arrive in Ivory Coast.

"Everything will take place Sunday," Kora spokesman Ernest Adjovi said late Saturday.

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique irked much the world's media Friday by announcing his girlfriend Colombian pop star Shakira had given birth -- but then revealing it was a prank.

Pique, expected to become a father within months, announced on Twitter that Shakira had given birth: "Our boy has already been born! We are very happy! Thank you all for your messages!"