China's new leaders turned Saturday to veteran technocrats with greater international experience to staff a Cabinet charged with overhauling a slowing economy and pursuing a higher global profile for the country without triggering opposition.

The ceremonial legislature approved nearly three dozen trusted politicians, experienced officials and career diplomats who make up the State Council. Their appointment largely completes a once-a-decade transfer of power to a new generation of communist leaders.

When three-time Olympian Chirine Njeim hits the slopes in the United States or Europe, somebody inevitably asks the questions.

You're from Lebanon? Where do you ski there, in the desert?

A small plane crashed into a parking lot near a South Florida airport Friday afternoon, killing all three people on board and burning about a dozen vehicles. No one on the ground was hurt.

Fire-Rescue Division Chief John San Angelo said the Piper Navajo, a twin-engine turboprop, began experiencing engine trouble shortly after taking off from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport at about 4:30 p.m.

Elton John has canceled a concert set for Friday night in the U.S.

The British singer was supposed to perform in Birmingham, Alabama. Ticketmaster announced the cancellation on its website.

"A little awkward" is how Selena Gomez describes her transition from Disney girl to Disney girl gone wild in the new R-rated independent film "Spring Breakers," in which she plays a bikini-clad and heavily armed college student bent on a good time with three friends and some drugs, sex and violence.

"I am getting a little bit older, so I wanted to push myself and kind of get into a little bit more of an indie world. And it was a really great experience for me. And at the same time it has been, of course, a little awkward, but great," the 20-year-old Gomez said Thursday at the film's Hollywood premiere.

A British auction house says it has unearthed the violin played by the bandmaster of the Titanic as the oceanliner sank.

Survivors of the Titanic have said they remember the band, led by Wallace Hartley, playing on deck even as passengers boarded lifeboats after the ship hit an iceberg.

Scientists digging a new railway in London have uncovered 13 skeletons that will be tested to see if they died from the Black Death plague in the 14th century.

The lead archaeologist of the Crossrail project, Jay Carver, says the location of the bodies and historical records suggest that the skeletons were found in a burial ground that opened at the start of the plague. Carver says scientists will study the bones to establish cause of death, and hope to map the DNA signature of the plague bacteria.

The Chinese Communist Party's No. 2 leader was confirmed Friday as premier, tasked with addressing a slowing economy and defusing public anger over corruption, pollution and a growing gap between rich and poor.

China's rubberstamp legislature appointed Li Keqiang to the premiership as a long-orchestrated leadership transition neared its end. Final touches take place Saturday with selections of vice premiers, a central bank governor and finance and other ministers, and the legislature wraps up on Sunday.

Samsung Electronics is kicking up its competition with Apple with its new Galaxy S 4 smartphone, which has a larger, sharper screen than its predecessor, the best-selling S III.

Samsung trumpeted the much-anticipated phone's arrival Thursday at an event accompanied by a live orchestra while an audience of thousands watched the onstage theatrics. The Galaxy S 4, which crams a 5-inch (12.7-centimeter) screen into body slightly smaller than the S III's, will go on sale globally in the April to June period.

Justin Bieber has taken to Instagram to unload frustration over what he says are the "countless lies" being circulated about him.

In a passionate post Thursday, Bieber wrote that he's "tired of all the countless lies in the press right now," denying rumors that he's going to rehab. Bieber railed against those he perceives as against him, writing that "I'm 19 and it must be scary to some people to think that this is just the beginning."