Tony Burton, who drew on his career as a prizefighter to play boxing trainer Tony "Duke" Evers in all six "Rocky" films, died on Thursday aged 78.

Sylvester Stallone, who stars in the franchise, led the tributes after relatives announced Burton's death in a southern California hospital from suspected pneumonia following a long illness.

Don McLean, the singer of classic pop song "American Pie," is delaying a tour of Australia as he tries to reconcile with his wife following domestic violence allegations.

The 70-year-old folk rocker said Friday he would postpone the 11 shows, which were scheduled to begin on March 14 in Hobart, Tasmania, until the same dates in 2017.

Yoko Ono, the Japanese-born singer, artist and widow of John Lennon, was hospitalized Friday in New York with flu-like symptoms, U.S. media reported.

The 83-year-old went to the hospital on her doctor's recommendation, with what appeared to be "just an advanced case of the flu," her spokesman Elliot Mintz said, according to ABC News.

The demo vinyl record that persuaded music producer George Martin to sign up The Beatles -- a "unique" piece of British music history -- will be sold off next month, auctioneers said on Friday.

"The unique ten-inch 78 RPM acetate record featuring 'Hello Little Girl' on one side and 'Till There Was You' on the other was pressed at the HMV record store on Oxford Street in London," said Omega Auctions, based in Warrington in northwest England.

Smiling and wearing bright lipstick, with headscarves barely covering their hair, young Iranian women took selfies as they lined up to vote in crucial elections on Friday.

Their pictures, some posing in groups, flooded social networks as lines formed at polling stations after the electorate was urged by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to vote early.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will be a special guest at this year's Oscar ceremony, introducing a performance by Lady Gaga, an administration official said Thursday.

Biden will take a bit of the White House to Hollywood to push an initiative countering sexual assault on U.S. university campuses.

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt was released from prison early on Thursday after serving about four years of a five-year sentence for possessing weapons supplied by gangsters behind deadly bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993.

The disgraced star kissed the ground and saluted at the prison as he walked free in the western city of Pune, after authorities decided to release him ahead of schedule for good behaviour.

Video streaming giant Netflix said Wednesday it is making its first original German series, to debut in 2017.

Production of "Dark", comprising 10 hour-long episodes, "is expected to start in 2016 with the series debut worldwide on Netflix in 2017," the company said in a statement.

A coming-of-age drama set among Bedouin tribesmen roaming the desert is the first Oscar contender produced by Jordan's nascent film industry.

"Theeb" (Wolf), set in 1916, tells the story of a playful 11-year-old Bedouin boy of the same name who gets caught up in his tribe's alliance with the British against Ottoman rulers during the era's Arab Revolt.

Jeremy Clarkson, the former host of hit BBC auto show "Top Gear," apologized Wednesday and paid an undisclosed sum to a producer he punched in an off-set altercation.

Clarkson was fired in March 2015 after hitting Oisin Tymon and calling him a "lazy Irish (expletive)" during a dispute at the end of a day's filming.