A Picasso remained unsold at an auction of Impressionist and modern art at Christie’s New York which yesterday failed to hit a $68.6m target.

A court in Saudi has upheld a ruling to behead and crucify a man convicted of raping five children.

The Chinese version of popular internet-based game World of Warcraft has been ordered to shut down by a government agency.

All creatures “great and virtual” - the newest innovations in cyber kittens and pooches are investigated by The Independent.

The Jerusalem Post remarks on the scarcity of Nobel laureates in the Muslim and Arab worlds after another Israeli is awarded a Nobel Prize.

The race to archive GeoCities pages began after the free website company’s imminent demise was announced.

French anthropologist Claude Levi Strauss, the founder of structuralist anthropology, has died aged 100.

A gifted student who publicly confronted Iran’s Supreme Leader has reportedly gone missing and an internet campaign has been launched to publicise his disappearance.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition has launched a campaign to oppose a government amendment legally preventing political discussion about the legalization of drugs.

An undercover investigation of a Vermont slaughterhouse has revealed disgusting abuses of animals.

Just about a month remains before December’s culminating UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen (COP15) – the last five days of pre-COP15 talks are taking place this week in Barcelona. The […]

In 2005, The New York Times revealed that under a presidential order signed in 2002, the National Security Agency (NSA) had been monitoring the phone calls, e-mails, and internet traffic […]

Wrestling with any decisions today? Wondering whether to move to Minnesota or dump that guy or change your Facebook profile picture? Maybe you've also wondered what's going on when you […]

Between America’s bullying sense of patriotism and its increasingly divided populace, it’s difficult for a writer to call the land home. Yet, insists John Irving, if he’s going to "pick […]

With its complete disregard for screenwriters and endless, seemingly luck-based, collaborative process, it’s a wonder anybody with literary sympathies can stomach cinema culture. Despite all this, John Irving wonders if […]

After the publication of the "World According to Garp" and numerous other bestsellers, John Irving does not really have to worry about his career. But, for those looking to break […]

The tension between John Irving, John Updike and Tom Wolfe was overplayed and misguided, says the novelist. The real sparks would fly, he says, if he ran into a few […]

With their richly textured characters, intensely visible milieux and wondrous storylines, no novels, says John Irving, have surpassed the splendor and sense of eminence of the nineteenth century novelists.

While John Irving may have never won a major championship as a wrestler, his experience in the sport has equipped him with the stamina and discipline necessary to struggle through […]

For John Irving, whose sprawling novels can take years to complete, one of the most significant challenges of writing is creating the sense that the words on the page are […]