WASHINGTON (AP) _ Almost two centuries before there was a man named Obama in the White House, there was a man named Obama shackled in the bowels of a slave ship. There is no proof that the unidentified Obama has ties to President Barack Obama. All they share is a name. But that is exactly the commonality that Emory University researchers hope to build upon as they delve into the origins of Africa...

NEW YORK (AP) ― Hanging around outside The Public Theater next week could turn you into an unanticipated actor. An hour or so before the group known as the Gob Squad hits the stage with its new offering for the Under the Radar Festival, four members will hit the streets armed with video cameras to create their new work, “Super Night Shot.” They’ll initiate and film some “comic and surreal adven...

Up to 1.71 million people will receive aid from the government for cultural activities and a foundation for artists’ welfare will be set up next year, as part of efforts to resolve the cultural divide among different social sectors, the Culture Ministry said Thursday. The ministry released its plans for the New Year as Minister Choe Kwang-shik briefed President Lee Myung-bak along with other cul...

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Forrest Gump’s oft-imitated line, “My momma always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get’” will be immortalized among the U.S. treasures in the world’s largest archive of film, TV and sound recordings. The Library of Congress on Wednesday announced that 1994’s smash hit “Forrest Gump’’ starring Tom Hanks was one of 25 films chosen to be ...

Korean pianist Shin Soo-jung and baritone Bahk Heung-u will both receive medals from Germany, noted for the contributions they made in spreading German music in Korea, according to the German Embassy in Seoul. Shin, 69, will be receiving the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, while Bahk, 50, will be honored with the Cross of the Order of Merit during a cere...

NEW YORK (AP) ― Helen Frankenthaler, an abstract painter known for her bold, lyrical use of color who led a postwar art movement that would later be termed Color Field painting, died Tuesday at her home in Connecticut, her nephew said. She was 83. One of Frankenthaler’s most famous works is “Mountains and Sea,” a 1952 painting at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., which she created...

TOKYO (AP) ― Sori Yanagi, whose designs for stools and kitchen pots brought the simplicity and purity of Japanese decor into the everyday, has died. He was 96. The pioneer of Japan’s industrial design died of pneumonia in a Tokyo hospital Sunday, Koichi Fujita of Yanagi Design Office said. Yanagi’s curvaceous “butterfly stool,” evocative of a Japanese shrine gate, won an award at La Triennale d...

JERUSALEM (AP) ― The U.N.’s cultural agency said it is pulling funding for a Palestinian youth magazine that published an article suggesting admiration for Hitler. The magazine, Zayzafouna, published an article in February written by a teenage girl who presented four role models: a medieval Persian mathematician, a modern Egyptian novelist, the Muslim warrior Saladin and the Nazi leader. UNESCO...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― The big dig for San Francisco’s multibillion dollar transportation terminal has unearthed some artifacts from during and after the city’s heady Gold Rush days, including opium pipes from a Chinese laundry and a chipped chamber pot found in a backyard outhouse. The 70 artifacts have city archeologists eager for more and local residents pondering the ground beneath their feet....