Indie-rock favorites The Shins are back with a new album, a new lineup and a more upbeat sound that lead singer-songwriter James Mercer credits in part to his tranquil family life.

The band's fourth album, "Port of Morrow," is set for release March 20 in the U.S. It comes five years after The Shins' Grammy-nominated album "Wincing the Night Away" entered the Billboard 200 at No. 2.

This year's Cannes Film Festival is opening with a New England accent.

Cannes organizers said Friday that American filmmaker Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom" will kick off the 12-day festival.

Whitney Houston's sister-in-law said she feared that drugs would end the singer's life.

In a partial transcript of an interview with Oprah Winfrey scheduled to air Sunday, Patricia Houston said she would be "kidding herself" to say otherwise.

A calm James Cameron has broken his own record with the world's deepest solo submarine dive, plunging 5.1 miles (8.2 kilometers) in the Pacific Ocean near Papua New Guinea, the filmmaker said Thursday.

Still, he is not satisfied. Later this month he says he plans to descend to the deepest place on Earth.

Hailed as the greatest club side of all time after their European master class, Barcelona face humble Racing Santander Sunday, trying to hunt down Real Madrid, the best team in Spain.

Lionel Messi's record-breaking five goals in the 7-1 Champions League rout of Bayer Leverkusen eased Barcelona into the quarterfinals, but it's Real Madrid who rule the roost on the home front, boasting a 10-point lead going into the weekend.

FIFA will interview the match referee and players during a probe of Bahrain's "unusual" 10-0 win over Indonesia in a World Cup qualifier.

FIFA says it is "proceeding with this investigation as a priority" from security division offices in Jordan and Malaysia.

Six world champions on the grid for the opening Grand Prix of the season represents an unprecedented array of talent for Formula One, yet few would count on anything other than another Sebastian Vettel title this season.

Kimi Raikkonen's return from a year away in rally racing has added one more former champion to F1 ranks this season, joining Vettel, Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, and Jenson Button.

The leader of Syria's main opposition group rejected calls Friday by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan for dialogue with President Bashar Assad's government, saying they were pointless and unrealistic as the regime massacres its own people.

As the prospects for diplomacy faltered, Turkey's state-run television TRT said two Syrian generals and a colonel defected to Turkey on Thursday.

If the Manchester clubs expected things to come much easier after dropping out of the Champions League, they were in for a real shock on Thursday.

England's two leading teams face a battle to reach the quarterfinals of the Europa League, the continent's second-tier club competition, after United was outclassed in a 3-2 home loss to Athletic Bilbao and City slumped to a 1-0 loss at Sporting Lisbon in the first legs of their last-16 matches.

A fire at a high-rise hotel in Bangkok's main tourist district sent smoke billowing through the upper floors, killing at least one foreigner and injuring almost two dozen other people, authorities said Friday.

When firefighters arrived at the 15-story Grand Park Avenue Bangkok hotel Thursday evening, they saw people screaming for help from the upper floors, said firefighter Rampan Kaewyongkod.