Big Bang won Best Worldwide Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Sunday evening.It was the first time a Korean act has won at the MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA), Big Bang’s agency YG Entertainment said.South Korean Pop group Big Bang arrive at the MTV European Mus

Miss Venezuela Ivian Sarcos reacts as she is crowned winner at the Miss World competition held at Earls Court in London, Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011. (AP-Yonhap News)Miss Venezuela, Ivian Sarcos, was crowned the 2011 winner of the Miss World beauty pageant on Sunday at a glittering final ceremony in London

LONDON (AP) ― Cultural events will take over Scottish castles, ancient English monuments and every corner of London as part of a giant arts festival running in conjunction with the 2012 Olympics.The lineup for the 12-week London 2012 Festival, announced by organizers Friday, ranges from pop-up William Shakespeare to vintage Alfred Hitchcock, and includes artists, musicians, writers and performers from Britain and around the world.The festival opens June 21, 2012 ― Midsummer’s Day ― with a series

When she was a teenager, Sung Shi-yeon used to listen to Metallica over and over again. The strong beat and symphonic development of heavy metal music may find a similarity in the deep and powerful orchestral sounds of Mahler’s symphonies, one of which Sung is to conduct soon.The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra’s associate conductor will showcase Mahler Symphony No. 7 at Seoul Arts Center’s Concert Hall on Nov. 11, as part of the SPO’s Mahler Series. After Sung’s No. 7, SPO music director Chung Myu

ROME (AFP) ― The sixth Rome Film Festival, marred by protests over cuts in arts funding and struggles to attract big stars, ended Friday with the top prize going to Sebastian Borensztein’s “A Chinese Tale”.The film stars Ricardo Durin as a lonely hardware store owner whose life is upturned by the appearance of a young Chinese man.France’s Guillaume Canet won the festival’s best actor prize for his performance, widely applauded in the Italian press, in “A Better Life” directed by Cedric Kahn.Cane

Classical Music“Curtis and Friends”: Curtis and Friends, consisting of pianist Lee Kyung-sook and her alumni friends from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, will hold a chamber music concert on Nov. 10, as the first leg of the Kumho Art Hall’s concert series “Beautiful Thursday.” The group of 10 Korean artists’ program will be Schumann Fantasiestucke Op. 73, Dvorak Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 26 and Brahms String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 111. Tickets are 30,000 won and 8,000 won

Couples (Korea)Opened Nov. 2Comedy. Directed by Jeong Yong-gi. Five young single men and women living in Seoul run into each other and go through a series of unexpected events. Yoo-seok (Kim Joo-hyeok) is desperate to get a hold of his girlfriend who would not return his calls, while Ae-yeon (Lee Yoon-ji) can’t bring herself to throw out her fake-diamond ring given by her long-time ex. Meanwhile, Nari (Lee Si-young), a hopeless romantic, travels across the country in search of her one and only s

Wale shows he’s determined with ‘Ambition’Wale “Ambition’’ (Maybach Music Group/Warner Bros.)With a slew of mixtapes, Wale built a reputation as a witty rapper who delivered quick punch lines. His skills eventually landed him a major-label deal and debut album, “Attention Deficit,’’ two years ago.But while his first record received favorable reviews, Wale says he felt artistically stifled under Mark Ronson’s Allido Records, a partnership with Interscope Records. So the rapper parted ways with th

Director Brett Ratner says that when he set out to erect “Tower Heist,” his new caper-adventure starring Eddie Murphy, he wanted to emulate the kind of action comedies that he had loved as a kid ― the kind of movies that might have starred Eddie Murphy.“Eddie kind of invented the genre,” Ratner said, referring to “48 HRS.” and the “Beverly Hills Cop” series ― films that sandwiched Murphy’s early, breakthrough years on “Saturday Night Live” and as a standup comedian.“‘Rush Hour,’ which was part o

A collection of South Korea’s ancient ceramics, known for the art of inlaying designs using black-and-white pigments, has arrived in Washington for display at a national museum, officials said Thursday.Forty-four stoneware vessels dating from the 11th through the 16th century will be displayed in the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery starting this weekend, according to the officials. The assemblage showcases a decorative technique known as “sanggam.”Originally, san

An installation titled "Simple Black & White" by artists Alan and Julie Aston is part of the annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition in Sydney, Friday, Nov. 4, 2011. Over 100 works by local and international artists are on display along a popular beach-side walk. (AP-Yonhap News) People move between

An Internet news outlet has been ordered to pay millions of won in compensation for calling a comedian-turned-TV hostess a "leftist" loyal to former President Roh Moo-hyun against her will, a Seoul court said Friday.In a compulsory arbitration decision on a libel suit filed by Kim Mi-hwa, the Seoul