Nora Ephron, the essayist, author and filmmaker who thrived in the male-dominated worlds of movies and journalism, has died. She was 71.

She died of leukemia Tuesday night at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, her family said in a statement.

The MENA Design Research Center is proud to announce the launching of the first “Beirut Design Week”, a press release said Tuesday.

Unlike fairs and exhibitions, this event is a whole week dedicated to exploring all aspects of local design and design thinking throughout Beirut. During Beirut Design Week, with a series of over 50 events: exhibitions, conferences, workshops, and screenings across the city, we will be celebrating the role of design in our contemporary culture, society, education and economy. One of the main aims of Beirut Design Week is to brand Beirut as the Design Capital of the Middle East.

The father of late British singer Amy Winehouse details his daughter's cycle of drug and alcohol abuse in a new memoir due on bookshelves Tuesday in the United States.

Mitch Winehouse's "Amy, My Daughter" includes "exclusive, never-before-seen photos and paints an open and honest portrait of one of the greatest musical talents of our time," said publisher HarperCollins.

American superstars Beyonce and Jay-Z's daughter Blue Ivy has been named an honorary citizen of the Croatian town of Hvar, after reports the couple named her for a local tree, media said Monday.

"The story of the origin of your girl's name, Blue Ivy, has brought huge media attention and great tourism promotion to the town of Hvar," said Mayor Pjerino Bebic in a letter sent to the couple, according to local news portal Dalmacija News.

A cluster of tiny Louisiana towns being slowly swallowed by the encroaching sea has been given new life in a fantastical film that has won top honors at Cannes and Sundance.

Days before the wide release of "Beasts of the Southern Wild," the crew returned to Montegut to show it to the people who fed them and housed them, built their sets and filled their supporting roles.

On a mock-up stage in a Philippine music studio, single-mum Joanna Talibong is singing for her life.

The former church-choir girl is nervous and struggling to stay in key as she battles through more than a dozen takes of the syrupy Olivia Newton-John ballad "Suddenly".

Midway through the four-day menswear preview showings, it was clear that Italian designers are looking ahead to a bright summer in 2013.

Bold shades of blue, red, yellow and green, plus pink, orange, turquoise and lime, light up the current runway, bursting into color like fireworks on the 4th of July. Monochromatic, two-tone, fluorescent or metallic, they give extra pep to a classic suit, a blazer or a pair of cotton slacks.

The crypt in which Elvis Presley was first buried has been withdrawn from a huge auction of sports and music memorabilia in Los Angeles following virulent protests from the King's fans.

The crypt -- in which Presley was buried in 1997 before being moved to his final resting place at his Graceland mansion in Memphis -- was to be one of nearly 1,000 items belonging to sports and music icons on offer at the weekend.

"Brave," Pixar's 3-D fairytale about a Scottish princess trying to rescue her mother from an evil witch, kept audiences spellbound Sunday as it soared to the top of the North American box office in its opening week.

With $66.7 million in ticket sales, according to industry estimates, it easily knocked another animated hit, "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted," which had only $20.2 million in sales, into second place.

Belly dancing Colombian pop star Shakira is not pregnant, her father said Friday in an effort to quell rumors that have gone viral in Latin America.

"I've heard certain media announce the confirmation of my daughter's pregnancy," William Mebarak said in a statement. "That's absolutely false."