AFP Celebrity News

Former Bolshoi soloist Anastasia Volochkova has accused the beleaguered theatre of forcing female dancers to sleep with wealthy patrons, in claims that the general director Anatoly Iksanov on Tuesday dismissed as "ravings".The outspoken dancer, fired from the Bolshoi in 2003 for being too bulky, made the accusations against the scandal-mired Bolshoi in a television talk show on Sunday and repeated them in a radio interview."It mainly happened with the corps du ballet but also with the...Read Full Story

Conductor and Vienna State Opera musical director Franz Welser-Moest will have to miss the ensemble's Japan tour later this month after injuring his arm, the opera house announced Tuesday. Welser-Moest, who was due to conduct Richard Strauss's "Salome" on three dates during the Vienna Opera's eighth tour of Japan, will be replaced by Viennese conductor Peter Schneider, who will also be leading the musicians in Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro." The Vienna Opera will perform four productions in...Read Full Story

Forget what you think you know about America's stiff and stodgy capital city.Beyond the staid suits and ties of Washington's politicians, lobbyists and lawyers lies the "other DC" -- an underground cultural scene of graffiti, go-go and hardcore punk music that took off in the 1980s and still pulsates today.The style of graffiti unique to Washington is scrawled on sidewalks and the walls of buildings just blocks from hallowed national symbols like the White House, the Capitol and the Supreme...Read Full Story

The maker of a documentary in support of oil and gas fracking accused the International Monetary Fund Thursday of censorship after it declined to show a key clip from his film at a conference.Phelim McAleer, whose film "FrackNation" argues in support of the controversial exploration technique, said the IMF was afraid of offending Russia by letting him show the clip at the conference this week.The clip suggests that allowing fracking in Eastern European countries such as Poland would ease the...Read Full Story

Trying out a new spa in Kabul, testing the latest spiky hairstyles and swapping gossip -- Afghanistan's first Internet TV station tackles subjects that the mainstream channels prefer to ignore.Globox.tv is the latest product of a media revolution in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime -- which banned television, music and cinema -- and the station's bosses hope its bold programmes will attract younger viewers.Nearly 12 years of development since the Taliban were ousted in 2001...Read Full Story