Is Pope Francis an exorcist? The question has been swirling ever since Francis laid his hands Sunday on the head of a young man after celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Square. The young man heaved deeply a half-dozen times, shook, and he then slumped in his wheelchair as Francis prayed over him.
France will see its first gay weddings within days, after French President Francois Hollande signed a law Saturday authorizing marriage and adoption by same-sex couples and ending months of nationwide protests and wrenching debate.
Giant leatherback turtles, some weighing half as much as a small car, drag themselves out of the ocean and up the sloping shore on the northeastern coast of Trinidad while villagers await wearing dimmed headlamps in the dark. Their black carapaces glistening, the turtles inch along the moonlit beach, using their powerful front flippers to move their bulky frames onto the sand.
Surrounded by a turquoise sea and a menagerie of exotic animals on a billionaire’s private island, political and business leaders gathered Friday to back an initiative aimed at expanding protection for the Caribbean’s imperiled coasts and waters.
From the moment he first appeared in “Devil in a Blue Dress” in 1990, Easy Rawlins, was an instant favorite of discerning readers and literary critics alike. So the disappointment was palpable when the black private detective, drunk and in despair over a lost love, deliberately drove his car off a California cliff at the conclusion of “Blonde Faith,” the eleventh novel in the series.
Britain’s Prince Harry toured two New Jersey shore communities devastated by Superstorm Sandy, shaking hands with emergency personnel and construction workers before spending Tuesday afternoon in New York City at events promoting tourism, entrepreneurism and philanthropy. He even got a chance to play a little baseball.
Joyce Brothers, the pop psychologist who pioneered the television advice show in the 1950s and enjoyed a long and prolific career as a syndicated columnist, author, and television and film personality, has died. She was 85.
What a thrill it must have been to be present during artistic collaborations between performing arts legends like George Balanchine and Igor Stravinsky.
Miley Cyrus, Anne Hathaway and Cameron Diaz were among the celebrities to embrace the punk theme at Monday night’s Met gala, the fundraiser at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that’s affectionately known as “the party of the year.” But Beyonce, the event’s honorary chairwoman, seemed the event’s grand dame on the red carpet that might rival the Oscars in celebrity wattage.
The author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” has filed a lawsuit to re-secure the copyright to it.
Authors including Salman Rushie are appealing to China to live up to its own constitution and laws guaranteeing freedom of the press on World Press Freedom Day.
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