Britain's satirical cartoonists are sharpening their pencils for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29, but are likely to keep their cruelest portrayals in check.

Partly reflecting the British obsession with class and status, the butt of most cartoonists' jokes are usually those occupying high office and the monarchy, so a royal wedding is fertile hunting ground for mischievous illustrators.

Film icon Elizabeth Taylor's collection of jewelry, artwork, clothing, and memorabilia will be sold at auction, according to Christie's auction house.

Taylor died last month at the age of 79 after suffering congestive heart failure.

Vanity Fair has stirred controversy with an article panning the Gulf city state of Dubai, which has pumped millions into cultivating an image of high glamor.

The iconic magazine's April edition is on sale in bookshops but with the three pages of the column headlined "Dubai on Empty" neatly removed, although a page of photos has escaped the guillotine.

Eric Clapton fulfilled his childhood fantasy as he took a turn on the jazz side, collaborating with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for a little bit of swing at the orchestra's annual gala benefit.

"I've never done anything like this in my life before," said Clapton during Thursday's concert, which saw the Rock and Hall of Famer use his guitar skills to play jazz classics like "Joe Turner's Blues," "Corrine, Corrina" and "Ice Cream."

A French rock star convicted of killing his girlfriend will not appear in Montreal and Ottawa theatrical productions after his casting provoked a public outcry, the Theatre du Nouveau Monde announced Friday.

Montreal's largest theatre company had invited Bertrand Cantat to appear in three plays by Sophocles directed by Wajdi Mouawad in its 2011-2012 season.

Legendary American musician Bob Dylan, whose songs became anthems of the 1960s anti-Vietnam War era, blows into Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday for his first-ever concert in the communist nation.

While the symbolism is stark for members of the West's aging "counter-culture" generation, many in youthful Vietnam have never heard of the man who wrote "Blowin' in the Wind" and other songs of protest and struggle.

In the cosmopolitan U.S. capital, singles are seeking everything from "Morocco" to "Ethiopia", "Kazakhstan" and "steppes", to "Ascot" and "Bourgogne."

In oil-town Houston, lonely hearts are looking for "rich" "entrepreneurs", while in remote Maine, they desire "unmanly" "vampiric" types.

A statue of Michael Jackson dangling his baby son out of a hotel window has been erected in Britain, sparking anger Wednesday from die-hard fans of the late pop icon.

The life-sized sculpture, entitled "Madonna and Child", depicts the notorious incident when the singer held his youngest son Prince Michael II out of the window in Berlin in 2002 in front of hundreds of shocked fans.

The tiger whose death after the U.S. invasion of Iraq inspired a play that is garnering roaring reviews on Broadway is still remembered at the Baghdad zoo, where he was born and raised.

Six months after the March 2003 invasion, when the big cat was shot and killed by a drunken US soldier, the news made international headlines.

The Bolshoi Theater's long-running renovation took a step closer to completion Wednesday as officials unveiled a hi-tech rehearsal stage due to be handed over to the ballet dancers this month.

More than 3,000 builders are working at the site every day to ensure the great Moscow theatre is ready for its opening night in October, said Mikhail Sidorov, a spokesman for the company in charge of renovations, Summa Capital, told Agence France Presse.