WASHINGTON (AP) ― The Smithsonian American Art Museum is holding its first major exhibit exploring the art and evolution of video games.The unusual exhibit opens March 16 and will be on view in Washington through Sept. 30.“The Art of Video Games’’ will focus on the graphics, technology and storytelling of some of the best games for systems ranging from Atari to the PlayStation 3. It will include 80 video games that were selected with help from the public, which voted online last year.The museum

NEW YORK (AP) ― Photographs by the wife of imprisoned 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo will be shown at Columbia University next month.Beijing artist Liu Xia has been under house arrest since shortly after her husband was awarded the peace prize. Her photos were smuggled out of China just before she was placed under house arrest.Liu’s works are censored in China. The series of 25 photos depict lifelike dolls in various settings. One shows her husband holding a doll. In another, a tied-up

NEW YORK (AP) ― YouTube is launching a film festival that will play out online and ultimately send 10 finalists to the Venice Film Festival.The Google Inc.-owned video site announced Thursday that Your Film Festival will take submissions of short films up to 15 minutes in length between Feb. 2 and March 31. Fifty semi-finalists will be selected by Scott Free Productions, Ridley and Tony Scott’s production company.Those 50 films will form a channel on YouTube: www.YouTube.com/yourfilmfestival. Th

MSD Korea said Monday that its human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil has been approved by the Korea Food and Drug Administration for use on men and boys aged between nine and 26 against genital warts.The agency has approved Gardasil against HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18 for women and men aged between nine and 15. The expansion of the target age group makes Gardasil, the only HPV vaccine available to both men and women, more accessible to a wider range of people, the vaccine maker said. According to

The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Tuesday said it has authorized the operation of 14 cord blood banks nationwide. After authorization, the 14 facilities will be able to save the cord blood that remains in a baby’s umbilical cord after the cord has been cut. The cord is a rich source of unique stem cells that can be used in medical treatments.Cordblood.com notes that cord blood banking is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to save your baby’s cord blood stem cells for potential medical use. Sav

MELBOURNE (AP) ― After taking a tumble on the next-to-last point of the match, Serena Williams got up and whipped a backhand winner down the line to finish off her second-round match at the Australian Open and her 500th career win.With the 6-0, 6-4 victory over Barbora Zahlavova Strycova on Thursday, Williams extended her winning streak to 16 matches at Melbourne Park, where she won back-to-back titles in 2009 and ‘10 but couldn’t play last year due to injury.Her participation had been in doubt

MADRID (AP) ― Carles Puyol and Eric Abidal scored rare goals to rally Barcelona over defending champion Real Madrid 2-1 Wednesday night in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarterfinal.Cristiano Ronaldo put Madrid ahead in the 11th minute on a counterattack with his 27th goal of the season, but Puyol tied it with a header off a corner kick in the 49th, his first goal since Oct. 16, 2010.Abidal gave Barcelona control of the home-and-home, total-goals series in the 77th when he chested down Lio