The Associated Press

Lotfi Mansouri, a former general director of the San Francisco Opera for 13 years, has died. He was 84.

Veteran tenor turned baritone Placido Domingo says he has left a hospital in Madrid after spending five days there recovering from a lung artery blockage.

Opera singer Placido Domingo says he expects his health to improve soon, after he was admitted to a Madrid hospital with a blockage in an artery of the lungs.

The famed piano maker Steinway is being acquired by private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. for about $438 million.

Former Guns N' Roses drummer Matt Sorum joined cellist Yo-Yo Ma on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to urge lawmakers to increase funding for the arts in a year of deep federal budget cuts.

Steinway Musical Instruments Inc. is selling its stake in the Steinway Hall building in New York to JDS Development Group for about $46 million.

A court in Moscow has postponed initial hearings in the case of two men charged with embezzling 245 million rubles ($8 million) from the charitable foundation of renowned conductor Valery Gergiev.

The violin played by the bandmaster of the Titanic as the oceanliner sank has been unearthed, a British auction house said Friday.

Friends and admirers of Marvin Hamlisch including Bill Clinton and Ann-Margret gathered Tuesday in New York City to bid farewell to the celebrated songwriter hailed as "the people's composer."

They're getting the band back together. Well, the orchestra. Just four months after the Syracuse Symphony filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, plans are now afoot to revive the defunct orchestra.

A plane carrying former Sen. Ted Stevens and eight others crashed in remote southwest Alaska, killing the longtime Republican lawmaker and four other people.

North Korea fired about 110 rounds of artillery Monday near its disputed sea border with South Korea, the South's military said, amid high tension over the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on North Korea.

A U.S. representative participated for the first time Friday in Japan's annual commemoration of the American atomic bombing of Hiroshima, in a 65th anniversary event that organizers hope will bolster global efforts toward nuclear disarmament.

The Senate has confirmed Elena Kagan as the 112th justice and fourth woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

Pakistani authorities began evacuating half a million people living along the swollen Indus River in the country's south on Thursday, as floods caused by the worst monsoon rains in decades threatened new destruction.

The Congressman will now face an ethics trial on the charges.

New York Gov. David Paterson will not face criminal charges for calling up a woman who later dropped domestic violence charges against a top aide, though the aide could still face prosecution, according to an investigative report issued Wednesday.

Work to choke off the oil well is at a standstill on Friday. Ships have been ordered to evacuate ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Bonnie.