George Barris, the man who designed and built the black, fire-spitting vehicle made famous in the 1960s "Batman" television series, has died in Los Angeles, his son Brett announced on Facebook.

Known as the "King of the Kustomizers," the 89 year-old Barris died at home in his sleep on Thursday.

A zealous fan kissed Britain's Prince Charles in New Zealand on Thursday, grabbing the heir to the throne as he went walkabout in the southern city of Dunedin.

The royal security detail scrambled into action but could not stop Lesley Hayde from planting a peck on the prince's cheek then doing the same to his wife Camilla.

Rifling through sweaters in India's first Gap store in a glitzy New Delhi mall, 21-year-old Ridhi Goel says her grandmother doesn't mind how she dresses, as long as it's not too revealing.

"She's fine with me wearing Western clothes like a shirt but not jeans and a crop top," said the journalism student, her grey leggings contrasting sharply with her mother's colorful kurta. 

Chris Stapleton, a long anonymous songwriter who released his first album this year at age 37, triumphed Wednesday night at country's music signature awards.

In a sign of the genre's growing crossover appeal, Stapleton took the stage at the Country Music Association Awards in Nashville to sing a duet with pop superstar Justin Timberlake in the evening's most memorable performance.

The star-studded "Spectre" cast graced a skeleton-themed red carpet in Mexico on Monday as the new James Bond movie, partly shot here, made its Mexican debut on the Day of the Dead.

Bond actor Daniel Craig, Italian beauty Monica Belucci and Austrian star Christoph Waltz, who plays the villain, were greeted by a jubilant crowd -- some in the typical Catrina skeleton makeup -- at the capital's National Auditorium.

Darth Vader's distinctive helmet-headed silhouette swoops in to seize control of a spaceship, but this is not the movies -- instead his movements are being brought to life by a Malaysian shadow-puppet master behind a back-lit screen.

"Tell me, where are the plans that have been intercepted?," the puppeteer intones in the Malay language, drawing cheers from hundreds of spectators as they recognize Vader's baritone.

Their head-to-toe cute factor brings to mind fellow crowd-pleasing Japanese musicians, but for the two sisters who form Charan-Po-Rantan, the inspiration comes not from pop idols but the circus.

With songs driven by an accordion, Charan-Po-Rantan has created a sound that marries J-pop with klezmer, the festive music of Ashkenazi Jews, and the theatrical atmospherics of vaudeville.

South Korean singer Psy is set to release his first album for more than three years, with the "Gangnam Style" star vowing a return "to his roots", his agency said Tuesday.

The quirky singer/rapper was catapulted to global stardom in 2012 after his "Gangnam Style" music video, with its invisible horse-riding dance, went viral.

Snoopy now has his own star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, just in time for the release of "The Peanuts Movie" -- starring him.

The world's best known beagle, known for lines such as "I'm allergic to mornings," boasts star number 2,563 on Hollywood Boulevard, right next to that of his creator, Charles Schulz.

Cult TV franchise "Star Trek" will boldly return to the small screen with a brand-new series in 2017, CBS said Monday, sparking a frenzy among its millions of fans around the world.

The series will air exclusively in the United States from January 2017 but will be available largely behind the paywall on CBS's subscription channel, the broadcaster announced.