Muslims outside the United States who use the Internet are more likely to have a favorable opinion of Western popular culture than those who don't go online, the Pew Research Center said Friday.

Crunching the numbers of its recent wide-ranging survey of Muslims in 39 countries, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found a median of 18 percent of respondents use the Internet at home, work or school.

As Japan's population declines, intolerance of children and the noise they make is increasing in a society getting less accustomed to hearing them, childcare experts say.

In a nation where convenience stores blare electronic greetings and political candidates shout through high-volume megaphones at train stations, day care centers are putting up sound barriers to muffle the din that toddlers make and sports clubs are restricting the times that youngsters can play outside to avoid upsetting the neighbors.

Long neglected at home, Edvard Munch is finally to get his due as Norway honors one of its greatest artists with the most comprehensive retrospective ever to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth.

"The Scream", of course, is there. So too are other treasures, including "Madonna", "Vampire" and "The Dance of Life."

Muslims outside the United States who use the Internet are more likely to have a favorable opinion of Western popular culture than those who don't go online, the Pew Research Center said Friday.

Crunching the numbers of its recent wide-ranging survey of Muslims in 39 countries, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found a median of 18 percent of respondents use the Internet at home, work or school.

The sacking of Egypt's Opera House head has triggered a new political battle against President Mohamed Morsi, this time by artists who accuse the Islamist's Muslim Brotherhood of aiming to control cultural institutions.

The artists have taken to strikes, demonstrations and cancelling shows to counter what they say are Islamist designs on key cultural institutions.

The descendants of African slaves donned masks and bright red costumes as they danced through the streets of this small Venezuelan town on Thursday for its annual commemoration of Corpus Cristi.

Young men beat drums and shook maracas as the "devils" paraded through the streets and people gathered to celebrate Corpus Cristi, a Roman Catholic holiday celebrating the transformation of the body and blood of Christ into bread and wine.

The tiny Sidi community, descendants of ninth century African migrants, have lived quietly along India's west coast for hundreds of years while never losing touch with their ancient traditions.

"A Certain Grace", a new book by Indian photographer Ketaki Sheth reveals how the community, many of whose members live in poverty, has assimilated in India while keeping its distinctive culture alive.

The great inventor of Antiquity, Archimedes, is the star of an unprecedented exhibition opening in Rome which includes modern applications of some of his best known discoveries.

"We owe him some revolutionary inventions," Umberto Broccoli, head of cultural heritage in the Italian capital, said at a press presentation of the show.

The power of money, tragedy and destruction: the world looks pitiless and harsh through the lens of the 55th Biennale art festival in Venice, which starts on Saturday.

A record number of 88 national pavilions are taking part -- including, for the first time, the Vatican -- in a festival that takes an overall jaded view of a world hard-hit by economic crisis and full of discord.

The Palestinian foreign ministry on Thursday slammed Israel for having called off a United Nations investigative mission to Jerusalem's Old City, calling it an act of "contempt of international law and institutions."

The ministry said it "condemns in the strongest possible terms the decision of Israel, the occupying power, to prevent the technical mission of UNESCO from carrying its monitoring mission in the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls."