Patrick Modiano of France, who has made a lifelong study of the Nazi occupation and its effects on his country, won the 2014 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for what one academic called "crystal clear and resonant" prose.

Modiano, a 69-year-old resident of Paris, is an acclaimed writer in France but not well known in the English-speaking world. The Swedish Academy said it gave the 8 million-kronor ($1.1 million) prize to him for evoking "the most un-graspable human destinies" and uncovering the world of life behind the Nazi occupation.

"Sherlock" star Benedict Cumberbatch says his latest role as a code-breaking genius doesn't mean he's only capable of playing brainy characters.

Cumberbatch stars as computer pioneer Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game," which opens the London Film Festival on Wednesday.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened in 2011 in Wal-Mart's hometown, Bentonville, Arkansas, with a respectable collection of work by famous artists from Norman Rockwell's "Rosie the Riveter" to a George Washington portrait by Gilbert Stuart.

But the museum has just opened a massive exhibition of contemporary art called "State of the Art" that could be a game-changer. The museum is sometimes mocked by critics from outside the region for its location and Wal-Mart connections — its permanent collection was funded by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton — but the new show represents a serious effort to introduce contemporary art to a mainstream audience far from the rarefied galleries of hipster neighborhoods and urban centers.

A ministry official is proposing that the temperature in restaurants selling beer in Vietnam should not exceed 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), a rule that will be hard to enforce considering outdoor beer parlors are hugely popular in the country's big cities.

Wednesday's Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted Nguyen Phu Cuong, an official at the Ministry of Industry and Trade which was drafting the regulation, as saying the rule aims to "protect consumers."

The serious-faced physicians practice pulling on bulky white suits and helmets that make them look more like astronauts than doctors preparing to fight a deadly enemy. These training sessions at U.S. hospitals on Ebola alert and for health workers heading to Africa can make the reality sink in: Learning how to safely put on and take off the medical armor is crucial.

"When you're in the real deal, remember to take your time," biosafety expert John Bivona told doctors during a course this week at the University of Chicago's medical center. Suits splashed with patients' vomit or blood must be removed carefully, he explained.

A solar-energy company has dropped a proposal to build a 75-story tower in California that uses a new kind of technology that can cause some birds to ignite in midair.

The California Energy Commission was slated to vote on BrightSource Energy's project this month before the company withdrew its application.

Scientists are moving closer to an artificial hand that can feel: Implanted electrodes allowed some amputees to tell by touch how gently to grasp, letting them pluck fruit without crushing it.

The two men told researchers at Case Western Reserve University that wiring some of their remaining nerves to a robotic arm — albeit only during visits to a lab — felt more like grasping objects with their own hand than with a tool.

Jules Bianchi is suffering from a serious brain injury sustained in his sickening crash at the Japanese Grand Prix, his family says, as specialists warn the chances of recovery from this kind of condition are slim.

A U.S. mother has been charged after her four-year-old daughter handed out packets of heroin to friends at daycare in Delaware, mistakenly thinking they were candy, police said Tuesday.

Ashley Tull, 30, was charged on Monday with maintaining a drug property and has lost custody of her two daughters and a son.

Smartphones, tablets and other gadgets aren't just changing the way we live and work. They are shaking up Silicon Valley's balance of power and splitting up businesses. Long-established companies such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and eBay Inc. are scrambling to regain their footing to better compete against mobile-savvy trendsetters like Apple and Google, as well as rising technology stars that have built businesses around "cloud computing."

That term covers a swath of Internet-driven services that shifted technology from the days software users paid a one-time fee to buy and install programs on individual machines where they also stored all their data on hard drives. But with the advent of the "cloud," people can now rent software to use over the Internet. This enables customers to access documents, pictures and other vital information from any kind of Internet-connected device, a convenience that's become a necessity during the past few years as people increasingly rely on smartphones and tablets instead of laptop and desktop computers.