Spanish poet wins Cervantes literature prize

MADRID (AP) — Spanish poet and essayist Jose Manuel Caballero Bonald has won the 2012 Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world's highest literary honor.Education Minister Jose Ignacio Wert said Thursday the 86-year-old was chosen for the contribution his life-long work has made to enriching Spanish-language literature.The €125,000 ($167,000) prize generally alternates between Spanish and Latin...

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Review: 'Golden Age' offers a sneak pique at opera

NEW YORK (AP) — Jealous sniping has always been in fashion, whatever the century.The backstage passions and vanities of a quartet of popular opera singers, plus a revered diva and a couple of renowned composers illuminate the New York City premiere of "Golden Age," Terrence McNally's play about an important evening in the life of 19th-century Italian opera composer Vincenzo Bellini.A mischievously...

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London's Dickens Museum reopens after makeover

LONDON (AP) — Charles Dickens' London home has gone from "Bleak House" to "Great Expectations."For years, the four-story brick row house where the author lived with his young family was a dusty and slightly neglected museum, a mecca for Dickens scholars but overlooked by most visitors to London.Now, after a 3 million pound ($4.8 million) makeover, it has been restored to bring the writer's world to...

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When the World Was ‘Mad About Brubeck’: Dave Brubeck, 1920-2012

Dave Brubeck—recently called "the reigning elder statesman of jazz" by the Washington Post—died Wednesday in Connecticut on his way to a cardiology appointment, one day shy of his 92nd birthday. But he'll really outlast the apocalypse. Donald Fagen assured us so, in his classic song "New Frontier," where the Steely Dan singer, projecting himself back to the bop-crazed 1950s, sounded positively...

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What the devil? Royal Opera stages Meyerbeer rarity

LONDON (Reuters) - The audience at London's Royal Opera House is in for a big surprise on Thursday night.They will witness German composer Giacomo Meyerbeer's 1831 grand opera "Robert le Diable" (Robert the Devil), a work so rarely performed that virtually no one has seen it, let alone sung it or played it.In fact, the last time Britain's prestigious Royal Opera House put on the epic work was in 1890,...

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Play resumes at windy Australian Open

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Play resumed in the final round of the Australian Open on Sunday after a three-hour delay forced by gale-force winds at The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney. Organizers announced the suspension of play at 11:45 a.m. local time (0045 GMT) after the 80 kilometer per hour winds resulted in balls moving on the greens and a TV tower collapsing at the 18th. "It got to 80 kilometers, which...

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UPDATE 1-Golf-Play resumes at windy Australian Open

SYDNEY, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Play resumed in the final round of the Australian Open on Sunday after a three-hour delay forced by gale-force winds at The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney. Organisers announced the suspension of play at 11:45 a.m. local time (0045 GMT) after the 80 kilometre per hour winds resulted in balls moving on the greens and a TV tower collapsing at the 18th. "It got to 80 kilometres,...

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Cricket-New Zealand coach Hesson's advice 'laughable' - Taylor

WELLINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Disgruntled former captain Ross Taylor has slammed New Zealand's team management, dismissing head coach Mike Hesson's advice as "laughable" and claiming he was not given enough support in his 18-month stint as skipper. Taylor was stripped of the Twenty20 and one-day captaincy last week on Hesson's recommendation, and rejected an offer to stay on as test skipper in the...

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Golf-Wind stops play at Australian Open

SYDNEY, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Play was suspended during the final round of the Australian Open on Sunday when high winds resulted in balls moving on the greens at The Lakes Golf Club. Organisers announced the suspension at 11:45 a.m. local time (0045 GMT), some 35 minutes before the leading group were scheduled to tee off. John Senden and Britain's world number four Justin Rose will be the last players...

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UK hospital protests to Australian radio over hoax

LONDON (AP) — The British hospital that fell victim to a prank call from two Australian DJs asking questions about the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge condemned the hoax on Saturday, ratcheting up the pressure on their radio station a day after the nurse who took the call was found dead. Lord Glenarthur, the chairman of King Edward VII's Hospital, wrote the chairman of the radio station's owner to...

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