Arquimides Puccio seemed to neighbors like a pious, conservative and obsessively tidy man. Several times a day, he'd sweep the sidewalk in front of his home in an upper-class Buenos Aires neighborhood.

Cleanliness was not his only aim. Puccio was making sure that the screams of kidnap victims imprisoned in the basement of his home could not be heard in the street.

Oscar-winning actor and U.N. goodwill ambassador Forest Whitaker urged world lawmakers on Monday to speak out to help former child soldiers in Uganda, South Sudan and Myanmar, gang members in Mexico and the United States, and orphans in Syria and other countries.

He said many young people around the world feel marginalized because nobody listens to them and believe their only recourse is violence and extremism.

Johnny Depp tops the cast of stars headed to Venice this week for what is shaping up as something of a watershed edition of the world's oldest film festival.

Amid the usual mix of big-budget Hollywood productions and more cerebral offerings from international auteurs, this year's event breaks new ground with the first major feature film to be produced in-house by Netflix among 21 works competing for the festival's top prize, the Golden Lion.

Mercurial rapper Kanye West used the MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles to announce a run for the White House in 2020 after winning a career achievement award.

Cheered by his biggest fan, pregnant wife and reality star Kim Kardashian in a lace-up olive dress that left little to the imagination, he was greeted by an extended standing ovation.

Pop superstar Taylor Swift took an early lead at the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday, winning the first two of her whopping 10 nominations and burying the hatchet with rapper Nicki Minaj.

Swift won Best Pop Video and Best Female Video for her hit "Blank Space," beating Beyonce in both categories and former foe Minaj in the second.

The confession of a Pakistani murderer. Overzealous religious police. An Arab angered his pregnant wife was molested in the holiest site known to Islam.

A new film made by a gay Muslim pilgrim offers a English-speaking Western audience a warts-and-all view of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in a documentary that has attracted death threats and an online hate campaign.

Wes Craven, the prolific writer-director who thrilled audiences with iconic and bloody suburban slashers like "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Scream" that made his name synonymous with horror, has died. He was 76.

In a statement, Craven's family said that he died in his Los Angeles home Sunday, surrounded by family, after battling brain cancer.

Iran has barred famed conductor Daniel Barenboim from entering the Islamic republic because of his Israeli citizenship, denting plans he had for a performance in Tehran, a news agency reported Sunday.

Barenboim, 72, general music director of the Berlin State Opera House, said Thursday he was in talks with Iran about a concert, in what would have been a major example of cultural diplomacy.

Celine Dion is looking for help for her next two albums, so on Friday she put out the call: send me your songs.

"It's open to everyone," the 47-year-old Canadian singer told French radio station RTL in an interview. "Any artist or composer can send me their art."

Attorneys for Robin Williams' wife and children were due back in court Friday in the ongoing fight over the late actor's estate.

The two sides were scheduled to go before a San Francisco judge, as court documents indicate they remain at odds over the division of Williams' personal items and a reserve fund to maintain Susan Williams in the home she shared with Robin Williams.