By AFP This is a teacher who really keeps an eye on things — three eyes, actually. Wafaa Bilal, an assistant arts professor at New York University, said Tuesday that a small camera had been put into his head. The zany idea is part of an art project commissioned by the Mathaf, the Arab Museum …

"Luka and the Fire of Life" (Random House, $25), by Salman Rushdie: It is hard to overstate the lightheartedness and love with which Salman Rushdie conveys this brief tale of a boy on a quest. "Luka and the Fire of Life," Rushdie’s fable of an adored son returning his parents’ devotion and maturing a bit …

Performance art that reflects Austria’s tense relationship with Islam is raising eyebrows in downtown Vienna. The temporary walk-in installation, approved by authorities, is located on the city’s regal Ring boulevard. It includes performance artists posing as a dead male racist and his daughter who is in the process of converting to Islam. Organizers, a Berlin-based …

British filmmaker Niger Cole doesn’t mince his words — his new movie "Made in Dagenham," he says, is decidedly British, taking a serious union struggle and turning it into gritty, feel-good cinema. "We are kind of embarrassed if it’s all too serious," he told AFP before the film hit US screens this weekend. "We like …

Bob Hoskins and Helena Bonham Carter captured the top acting awards as British TV productions won five International Emmys on Monday, including two for the BBC drama, "The Street." A highlight of the 38th International Emmy Awards Gala at the Hilton New York Hotel came when News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch made a surprise unannounced …

As shots of Marilyn Monroe by glam snapper Richard Avedon go on sale for tens of thousands of euros at Paris’ annual photo show, a collection of lesser cash but greater historical value goes under the hammer in Brussels. In what is billed as the first auction yet held of African photography, some 300 lots …

The first global art show on climate change kicked off this weekend, launching several symbolic performances seen from space that bring people and planet together to highlight the hazards of global warming. From the US southwest to spots in countries like China, Egypt, India and Spain, thousands of volunteers were coming together for the weeklong …

CAIRO: The third annual national amateur photography competition held by the Delegation of the European Union to Egypt has finally chosen its winner: Ahmed Mostafa Abd El Atty. Abd El Atty, an accountant from Cairo, received a cash prize of €1,000 as well as his photo included in the EU Delegation’s highly prestigious wall calendar …

Baroque mixed with contemporary in German choreographer Patrick de Bana’s new ballet "Marie Antoinette," which premiered Saturday at Vienna’s Volksoper theater … and the result was electrifying. Specially created for the Vienna Ballet, this was a tortured "Marie Antoinette," retelling the tragic story of the Austrian-born queen who perished under the French Revolution’s guillotine. And …

Simon Cowell’s kinder side will be spotlighted when the former "American Idol" judge is honored at the 38th Annual International Emmy Awards. Cowell, who left "Idol" earlier this year to launch an American version of his hit British singing competition "The X Factor" next year, will be presented the International Emmy Founders Award in recognition …

It is as though Cleopatra lives and breathes once again in the pages of Stacy Schiff’s exquisitely researched and well-written "Cleopatra: A Life." The book injects the Egyptian queen with a complexity and humanity that has long since been forgotten. Schiff’s Cleopatra is no Elizabeth Taylor, who played her in the 1963 film of the …

  A century ago, all of Russia mourned Leo Tolstoy’s death at a backwater train station. But today the novelist and pacifist, who abhorred any form of government, is more respected in the West than his home country. The centennial of Tolstoy’s death, 100 years ago Saturday, seems to be passing virtually unnoticed in Russia. …

Spanish police have recovered dozens of archaeological relics, including many that were stolen from a Roman necropolis that was only uncovered after torrential rains in August, the interior ministry said Tuesday. Four people were arrested suspected of theft, trafficking and pillaging several sites in Cordoba in southern Spain, it said in a statement. One of …

Thousands of children in Mumbai will gather to form the shape of an elephant, throngs of Americans will stand in an empty riverbed in New Mexico and hundreds of Australians will hold flaming torches. Such are the plans for a global performance art show beginning Saturday to decry humans’ role in climate change by forming …

FORT WORTH, Texas: Iraq is back in the news, making headlines for the horrific attack on a Baghdad Catholic church that left 58 dead. It is yet another event that has widened the gap in American-Iraqi understanding and one that, for me, only reinforces the need for more opportunities for exchange and interaction between our …

RABAT: An unusual art exhibit is coming to Jerusalem this week. This unique exhibition — called the Essaouira Mogador Exhibition for Moroccan Heritage — depicts values of peace, such as brotherhood and tolerance, among various cultures and faiths through the exceptional work of a number of Moroccan artists and traditional artisans. Organized by the Essaouira …

By Hillel Italie/ AP Nora Ephron is thinking about algorithms. She wonders what they are. It’s one of those concepts, such as Twitter and heavy metal, that exist only to remind her she has lived too long. Unsure of her own definition, she takes a little nip from that electronic flask in her handbag, that digital …

NAIROBI: The UN now considers more than 200 cultural practices from all over the world as "intangible" world treasures after adding 51 candidates to its list, officials said Wednesday. The United Nations cultural organization UNESCO added four practices to a list of traditions in need of urgent protection during an inter-governmental committee meeting this week …

CAIRO: Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a sphinx-lined road in Luxor that led to the temple of Mut, the ancient goddess worshipped as a mother, the culture minister said on Monday. Farouq Hosni said in a statement that 12 sphinxes were found along the road, which runs east to west adjoining the already discovered Kabash path …

CAIRO: The 34th Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) will kick off on Nov. 30 with the theme “Egypt in the Eyes of the World’s Cinemas,” CIFF President Ezzat Abou Ouf said Thursday. Nineteen films from countries like England, Spain, Mexico, Italy and the United States that were set in Egypt or tell the stories of …

By Caroline Curran CAIRO: One of the outstanding films screened at the Third Panorama of European film, which wrapped up on Tuesday, was Palestinian filmmaker Kamal Ajafari’s “Port of Memory”. The hour-long film, a joint production of Palestine, Germany, France, and the UAE, was shown twice during the six-day Panorama. Aljafari hails from Ramleh, Palestine and …

The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra returned to the Arab world for the first time in 42 years with a concert in Abu Dhabi. Under the baton of British conductor Sir Simon Rattle it performed classics by Joseph Haydn, Johannes Brahms, Alban Berg and contemporary composer Brett Dean at the Tuesday evening concert at the opulent Emirates …

By Joseph Fahim Peter Scarlet, who has previously held positions in the Cinémathèque Française and the San Francisco International Film Festival, has been an ardent, long-time supporter of Egyptian cinema. During his reign as the Artistic Director of the Tribeca Film Festival, Scarlet succeeded in introducing the American art-house audience to modern Egyptian cinema for the …

A welcome revival is taking place at the Vienna Ballet under its new director Manuel Legris, who already plans to rival Paris or Moscow with an array of premieres and a new category of principal dancers. Long neglected in a city of opera and music, the newly-renamed Vienna State Ballet recycled old favorites like "Swan …

CAIRO: Egypt’s antiquities council said on Wednesday that New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has agreed to send back treasures believed to have been taken from the tomb of the legendary pharaoh Tutankhamun. The museum agreed to recognize Egypt’s right to 19 relics in its possession since early last century, the council said in a …

CAIRO: In the virtual world Second Life, users can engage in many different activities such as building virtual property, trading, traveling, and this year, going on hajj is no exception. On Islam, an Islamic website, created a Hajj Island on the virtual world Second Life which allows anyone to perform the hajj rituals. Second Life …

For as long as I can remember, the name Peter Scarlet has been associated with Arab and Egyptian cinema. Scarlet, who has previously held positions in the Cinémathèque Française and the San Francisco International Film Festival, has been an ardent, long-time supporter of Egyptian cinema. During his reign as the artistic director of the Tribeca …

By Chris Talbott/ AP Think of this as the Reba McEntire edition of the Country Music Association Awards. Country music’s most recognizable woman is up for just one award, but she inspired and led the way for the new generation of female talent that swept through nominations this year. Young singers like Miranda Lambert, Hillary Scott …

Iranian police have made a string of arrests in raids targeting the capital’s underground rap scene, the Tehran-Emrouz newspaper reported on Monday. An unspecified number of "boys and girls were arrested, and Western musical instruments and alcohol seized" in Friday’s raids, the paper quoted Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedi-nia as saying. "These bands recorded underground …

Curious art lovers who visit the Vatican Museums can now witness the restoration, until recently carried out behind closed doors, of some of the gallery’s most prized large-scale masterpieces. In a glass-walled workshop set up in one of the courtyards of the immense building, visitors can watch restorers work on two clay angels by Bernini, …