Music legend Aretha Franklin is "gravely ill" and surrounded by family and friends in Detroit, reports said Monday, as prayers and well wishes poured in for the Grammy-winning 'Queen of Soul.'

Fifty years after the Beatles came to India, the bungalows where the Fab Four lived, the post office where John Lennon sent Yoko Ono postcards and the giggling guru's house are all ruins.

Panic erupted at a packed music festival in northwest Spain when part of a wooden promenade suddenly collapsed, injuring more than 300 people, nine of them seriously, officials said Monday.

Russian security services on Wednesday prevented Maria Alyokhina of punk protest group Pussy Riot from flying out of the country to perform at a top arts festival, she said.

American pop star Pink has been discharged from an Australian hospital after being treated for an "excruciating" gastric virus, but has canceled another Sydney concert scheduled for Thursday while she recovers.

Lithuania's capital is pressing ahead with controversial plans for a raunchy international advertising campaign that refers to the city as the "G-spot of Europe", despite opposition from the church and central government.

Pop legend Janet Jackson and fast-rising rapper Cardi B will headline the Global Citizen festival in New York to rally support for preserving international aid to eradicate extreme poverty.

Robert Redford says he is retiring, at least as an actor. The 81-year-old Oscar winner has said the upcoming movie "Old Man & His Gun" will be his last acting gig.

Pop star Demi Lovato said Sunday she was thankful to be alive and needed time to recover in her first remarks since an overdose nearly two weeks ago.

The Eiffel Tower -- closed to visitors since Wednesday afternoon -- is to reopen on Friday after workers went on strike over unacceptably long queues at the Paris landmark.