Jimi Hendrix setting fire to his Fender Stratocaster. Pete Townshend windmilling his arm through power chords. Jimmy Page stroking his Gibson Les Paul with a violin bow. Eric Clapton rampaging through "Crossroads." Joe Satriani playing 1,000 notes a minute.

Since Chuck Berry cooked up his "duck walk" and classic riffs in the mid-'50s, guitar players have been trying to top him, and the i...

When Fanny Minka left Australia years ago she didn't think she'd end up travelling the globe taking off her clothes with the Suicide Girls - an online community, live burlesque show, cult success story and notorious melting pot of girls and their fans who refuse to be defined. We took Fanny aside to ask her about the things that matter - burlesque, growing up in rural Australia and waking up ...

Shortly before last week's big summit to cut carbon emissions, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso uncharacteristically blew his gasket. He was being questioned about his choice of vehicle - a monstrous 4X4 which pumps out three times as much CO2 as a proposed new EU law would allow. The hacks were just doing their job: to most journalists the very whiff of political hypocrisy is...

High-Performance SOA on March 27, 2007 at 11:00am EST. Register Now!

Newswires A Majority Believe Their Financial Situation Will Be Better Next Year Than This Year At the same time, however, a majority also does not know what their financial needs will be in the future

ROCHESTER, N.Y., March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- When it comes to the financial future, there is a sense of short-term op...

TIRUCHIRAPALLI, India — Balaji, a Hindu priest, stood before the reclining god and offered a plate of coconut and bananas. His chest bare and his face adorned with red and yellow sacred paste, he set the food at the foot of a statue that Hindus regard as an embodiment of the powerful god Vishnu.

Following ancient tradition deep inside one of India's oldest and holiest temples, he chanted...

My impression is that Europeans in general are much more generous about reading American literature than Americans are about reading foreign literature. Some of that may have to do with what entertainment mavens we Americans are. Some of the more abstract and philosophically preoccupied European fiction doesn't translate so well back the other direction.

But I think a lot of it has to do...

Warsaw, Poland 15 March, 2007 Politics in Eastern Europe, and Poland in particular, has generally been about power, cars, sex, corruption and using the system to make a few million while in power. Did the Polish political party Samoobrona change its standards when it formed a coalition government with the Law and Justice Party?

The Law and Justice party has changed politics. Now Polish po...

"If you wish to make an offering, the god will accept it -- even if it's on the Internet," said Balaji, standing barefoot in the hot sand of the South Indian temple compound.

The Internet has become a hub of religious worship for millions of people around the world. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs and people of other faiths turn regularly to Web sites to pray, meditat...

-- Climate change hysteria has erupted across Europe and although experts believe the automotive industry can ride out the storm, structural changes can't be held at bay for long.

The industry's hope is that while politicians and environmental lobbyists demand ever tighter fuel economy that could undermine the viability of the German premium car makers, any regulatory regime that finall...

In western and central Europe an estimated 740,000 people are HIV positive. (Keystone)

Large rise in HIV rates among gay men Swiss join in call for action against Aids Aids community takes stock of progress

Switzerland has saluted the European Union's pledge to tackle the HIV/Aids pandemic at the highest political level.

At a two-day conference of EU health ministers and Aids ex...