The new artistic director of the Salzburg Festival has unusual plans — he wants most operas performed there to be new productions.

Alexander Pereira says revivals will be the exception at the famed festival under his leadership.

Over the past seven years, the developers at Starbreeze Studios have created video games based on a film franchise ("The Chronicles of Riddick") and a comic series ("The Darkness").

For the latest entry in its first-person shooter catalog, the independent Swedish gamemaker is turning to an unexpected source of inspiration: another video game.

Two weeks after Egypt's uprising swept aside Hosni Mubarak, the presidents of Iran and Syria stood side by side in Damascus in a blunt message to the Arab Spring: The Syrian regime can count on its allies in Tehran.

Seven months later — and after at least 2,700 deaths in Syria — Iran is tweaking its big brother role for Syrian President Bashar Assad. The Iranian leaders are now urging him to consider talks with protesters or risk heading down a path with few escape routes.

A gunman walked into a Catholic church and killed a pregnant woman Thursday, then committed suicide, but emergency crews performed a C-section on the woman inside the church and saved the baby, a police official said.

Another woman sitting near the victim was wounded by a stray bullet in the shooting, which occurred just before a Mass at St. Mary's Church in an upper-middle class neighborhood of Madrid, the National Police official said.

The African heads of state who converged on the capital of Equatorial Guinea this summer are used to life's finer things — yet even they were impressed.

The minuscule nation located on the coast of Central Africa spent several times its yearly education budget to build a new $800 million resort in which to house the presidents attending this summer's African Union summit.

Pfizer Inc. and a pharmacy standards group are teaming to warn U.S. consumers about the risks of counterfeit prescription medicines, which endanger the public and take money from both pharmacies and legitimate drugmakers.

Pfizer Inc., whose impotence pill Viagra is widely counterfeited, and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy on Thursday announced the start of an educational campaign to explain the dangers of counterfeit drugs and help people find legitimate pharmacies online.

A new government report looking into smoking by occupation says construction workers, miners and food service workers smoke the most. Experts say that may have as much to do with education levels as the jobs themselves.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found 19.6 percent of working adults smoke, but as many as 30 percent in the mining, construction and food service industries smoke.

Warner Bros. is launching a Web series on Facebook that will personalize the show for viewers.

The show is called "Aim High." It's an action comedy series about a student who doubles as a government operative by night.

Google Inc. plans to invest at least $200 million to build its first three data centers in Asia as it expands its infrastructure to keep pace with the region's burgeoning Internet use.

The Internet search giant has bought land in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore for the data centers, which typically are secure facilities packed with thousands of computers that store and serve vast amounts of data.

Frank and Louie the cat was born with two faces, two mouths, three eyes, and lots of doubts about his future.

Twelve years after Marty Stevens rescued him from being put to sleep because of his condition, the exotic blue-eyed rag doll cat is not only thriving but has made it into the 2012 Guinness Book of World Records.