Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner has tied the knot for the third time, marrying a former Playmate 60 years his junior in an intimate New Year's Eve ceremony at the Playboy Mansion.

Hefner, 86, and Crystal Harris, 26, announced the nuptials on their Twitter feeds -- @hughhefner and @crystalhefner -- and posted pictures of the wedding.

Explosions of color shot out of the world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, illuminating the Gulf city state's sky as the huge expatriate and tourist hub celebrated the New Year.

Fireworks engulfed the 828-meter (2,716-foot) tower, synchronized and choreographed to a live performance by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

The latest James Bond film "Skyfall" has become the first movie ever to take £100 million at the British box office, it was announced Monday.

The 23rd official Bond film surpassed the landmark, equivalent of $162 million (123 million euros), after becoming the highest grossing film ever in Britain earlier this month when it overtook the £94 million generated by "Avatar".

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Monday it has extended voting for the 2013 Oscars, after reports of problems with a new online polling system.

The elite movie industry body is giving its voting members an extra day -- the deadline will be this Friday at 5:00 pm Los Angeles time (01:00 GMT Saturday), instead of 24 hours earlier -- to choose their nominees.

French electronic composer Jean Michel Jarre has held talks with Downing Street officials in recent months, the British premier's office confirmed Tuesday, about setting up business operations in London.

The talks come after France's highest court struck down a proposed 75 percent tax rate on individual income above a million euros ($1.3 million) a year, a plan which saw the republic's biggest film star Gerard Depardieu relocate to Belgium.

A million people crammed into New York's Times Square on Tuesday to greet the New Year in a global party that kicked off in Australia before rolling around the world in a non-stop chain of firework displays.

But tragedy struck in the Ivory Coast when at least 61 people died and dozens more were injured as a crowd that had gathered for New Year's fireworks stampeded in the economic capital Abidjan, rescue workers there said.

Asian capital cities brought in the New Year in spectacular style after Sydney set off a global wave of fireworks, with long-isolated Yangon joining the pyrotechnic partying for the first time.

Australia's famous harbor city brought in the New Year on a balmy summer night with a US$6.9 million display curated by pop icon Kylie Minogue.

A kid for Kimye: Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are expecting their first child.

The rapper announced at a concert Sunday night that his girlfriend is pregnant. He told the crowd of more than 5,000 at Revel Resort's Ovation Hall in song form: "Now you having my baby."

They may be in the grip of a crushing recession and riven by bitter internal political divisions, but Greeks are also trying to look on the bright side.

Never mind the massive debt, the salary cuts and tax hikes: both ordinary people and the news organisations that serve them have started looking for a silver lining.

A music awards show dubbed the "African Grammys" was hit by an embarrassing series of hitches culminating in the absence Sunday of star Chris Brown and an apology by the organiser.

The show had been delayed from Saturday to enable rapper Brown to attend, with organiser Ernest Adjovi initially blaming the delay on Brown missing his flight but later saying heavy rains and other logistical hiccups were behind the postponement.