US pop star Mariah Carey and Australian casino tycoon James Packer are engaged to be married, according to friends who said Friday they were over the moon for the lovebirds.

The couple has been dating for several months and celebrated New Year's Eve at billionaire Packer's Crown Casino in Melbourne, where the singer took to the stage to perform before an intimate audience that included Packer's mother.

Prominent actors, writers and thinkers joined a "Stop Hate Dump Trump" campaign to denounce the billionaire Republican presidential frontrunner, saying he is a threat to the United States.

Actors Harry Belafonte, Kerry Washington and Jane Fonda, filmmaker Jonathan Demme and intellectual Noam Chomsky are among those lending their support to the drive to prevent Donald Trump getting into the White House.

Adele's blockbuster new album missed the deadline for this year's Grammys -- but she will still be at the ceremony to sing.

Organizers of the music industry's biggest night announced Wednesday that Adele would perform a track off her album "25" at the February 15 award ceremony in Los Angeles.

British singer Damon Albarn is to reunite the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music, whose members have been forced to flee the country's civil war, as part of the World War I centenary celebrations.

The orchestra, who previously played with Albarn at the Damascus Opera House in 2008 and who appeared on the song "White Flag" by his band Gorillaz, will play London's Festival Hall on June 25 as part of the "14-18-NOW" art events to mark the 100-year milestone.

The child abuse scandals plaguing the Catholic Church are only the tip of the iceberg, the journalists who exposed one of the hierarchy's biggest cover-ups said Wednesday.

Walter Robinson and Mike Rezendes, who won the Pulitzer Prize for uncovering how the Church had hushed up the activities of nearly 90 pedophile priests in Boston, told AFP that thousands more have escaped justice in the United States alone. 

The deadly militant attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya in 2012 continues to haunt Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, this time in the form of a Hollywood action movie.

The thriller about the assaults that left four Americans dead including U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens is winning praise from conservatives because of its indirect criticism of Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time.

Alternative rock giants Pearl Jam on Tuesday announced a new tour of North America that will include a headlining slot at leading summer festival Bonnaroo.

The rockers will open the 22-date tour on April 8 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and also play the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival as well as two dates each at a pair of historic baseball stadiums, Fenway Park in Boston and Chicago's Wrigley Field.

Hard rock legends Guns N' Roses on Tuesday announced two more concerts for their reunion, which is shaping up to be one of the year's most coveted tickets.

Guns N' Roses were revealed earlier this month as the headliners for California's Coachella festival, with singer Axl Rose and guitarist Slash performing together after 23 years.

Guitarist Glenn Frey, who helped make The Eagles one of the most successful acts in U.S. rock history with hits such as "Hotel California," died Monday. He was 67.

"It is with the heaviest of hearts that we announce the passing of our comrade, Eagles founder Glenn Frey, in New York City," the Grammy Award-winning band wrote on its website.

Following an outcry over the all-white roster of actors nominated for this year's Oscars, the president of the film academy said Monday she was heartbroken by the lack of diversity and working to implement change.

"This is a difficult but important conversation, and it's time for big changes," Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said in a statement.