Italy is recovering from the harshest cold snap in decades, but Fendi's collection on the Milan Fashion Week catwalks Thursday seemed aimed at women fighting to survive, and seduce, in chilly climates.

Layering was one of the key themes in designer Karl Lagerfeld's creations, with a heavy use of leather, knitwear and furs, stitched together or worn one on top of another, in a rather impractical look likely to attract true fashion lovers only.

With social network sites and smartphone apps making rapid inroads into the fashion world, observers say Italy risks falling behind even as its luxury brands feel the pain from the economic crisis.

"Milan is always really ahead of everyone in fashion but behind everyone in technology," fashion blogger Olga Rink said outside the Gucci show during Milan Fashion Week, as she took pictures of leggy models in goth-style outfits.

Hits from The Beatles have finally joined the chorus of ringtones available for mobile phones.

Catchy 30-second snippets from more than two dozen of the famed 1960s British rock band's top tunes are available exclusively at Apple's online iTunes shop, a message said Wednesday on official website thebeatles.com.

Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan has been chosen to host an episode of the popular U.S. sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live" next month -- a decision that has some up in arms.

The show's producers said on Twitter that the former child star -- commended by a judge Wednesday as "back on track" after repeated run-ins with the law -- would host the program on March 3, with Jack White as the musical guest.

Just days from learning whether his latest film, "Midnight in Paris," will win an Oscar, Woody Allen spent the evening in New York talking about his first love -- radio.

The famed director and New Yorker met late Tuesday with a large audience at 92Y Jewish cultural center in Manhattan's Upper East Side and screened his 1987 movie "Radio Days" at an event in honor of early radio pioneer Himan Brown.

Italy's top designer brands are looking to China for salvation this year with revenues falling due to a debt crisis that has cast an air of gloom as Milan Fashion Week kicks off on Wednesday.

With Italians hurting from budget austerity and fears that an debt-laden Rome could follow Athens into the mire, the National Chamber of Fashion said the situation was "worse than in 2008" when the global financial crisis began.

Just over a week after her spectacular sweep at the Grammys, British soul diva Adele triumphed on home soil Tuesday at the annual Brit Awards in London.

The 23-year-old picked up two awards -- including the prestigious British album of the year -- to add to the six Grammys she won in Los Angeles, cementing her status as one of Britain's most successful pop exports in years.

Rio throbbed to sambas, pyrotechnics and dazzling parades in an ecstatic climax Tuesday to its famed Carnival celebrations.

With bursts of fireworks, high-decibel music and a kaleidoscope of colors, the city's top 13 samba schools treated a capacity crowd of 72,500 at the newly renovated "Temple of Samba" to stunning processions of exquisitely decorated floats.

"A Cat in Paris", France's contender for best animated feature at Sunday's Oscars, is a cartoon caper with a film noir edge, the latest in a string of international hits for French animation studios.

The low-budget whodunnit thriller -- whose original title is "Une Vie de Chat" -- is the fourth French animated feature to compete at the Academy Awards in recent years, following such hits as the Franco-Iranian "Persepolis".

Fresh from winning six Grammy awards barely a week ago, soul diva Adele could sweep up more prizes at Tuesday's Brit awards.

Londoner Adele, who has been out of action since October for throat surgery, is in the running for best British Single for "Someone Like You," British Female Solo Artist and Mastercard British Album of the Year for "21."