With neat ponytails and immaculate grades, the four eight-year-olds who bounded on stage would make any Chinese parent proud -- but wielding electric guitars, these schoolgirls were ready to add another brick in the wall of rock history.

Dressed in blue-sequinned jackets, their band Cool blasted out a song by British pop-rockers McFly in a heavy style echoing 1970s megastars Led Zeppelin, complete with rock star jumps and fist pumps.

A publisher says it's acquired actor-comedian Aziz Ansari's first book.

The Penguin Press said Thursday that the untitled book by the "Parks and Recreation" star will focus on how technology has changed the lives of singles.

Greece's Culture Ministry has warned against "overbold" speculation that an ancient artificial mound being excavated could contain a royal Macedonian grave or even Alexander the Great.

Site archaeologist Aikaterini Peristeri has voiced hopes of finding "a significant individual or individuals" within.

The United States reflects on one of the turning points of its recent history starting this weekend when it marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's March on Washington.

Some 150,000 are expected Saturday on the National Mall to re-enact the moving civil rights rally where King delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech from the Lincoln Memorial.

It's survived two world wars, communist spies and a Quentin Tarantino movie production and at the ripe age of 100, Berlin's most legendary dance hall is also among its most unlikely success stories.

As Claerchens Ballhaus (Claerchen's Ballroom) prepares to fete its centenary next month, the fabled venue still sees hordes of party-goers young and old queue up in front of its crumbling facade.

The grim barracks where Romania's brutal communist despot Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were executed are to be opened to the public in the latest bid to boost "dictator tourism".

The former military unit at Targoviste, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Bucharest, is to be turned into a museum and is due to welcome its first visitors in early September.

The sounds of women singing to the strains of violins fill the clear air of Bulgaria's Rila mountains as 2,000 white-clad pilgrims move gracefully in a series of rhythmic meditation exercises.

Every August, followers of the Universal White Brotherhood converge from across the world on the Rila lakes, at an altitude of 2,100 metres (6,900 feet), to celebrate the beginning of their new year at the height of summer.

Civil liberties advocates said Wednesday they have uncovered a government program to screen immigrants for national security concerns that has blacklisted some Muslims and put their U.S. citizenship applications on hold for years.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said in a report that federal immigration officers are instructed to find ways to deny applications that have been deemed a national security concern. For example, they'll flag discrepancies in a petition or claim they failed to receive sufficient information from the immigrant.

Eritrea's capital Asmara boasts buildings unlike anywhere else in Africa, a legacy of its Italian colonial past, when architects were given free rein for structures judged too avant-garde back home.

Modernist architectural wonders in this highland city include a futurist petrol station mimicking a soaring aircraft and a funky art-deco bowling alley with checkered, colored glass windows.

The latest rooftop architectural wonder highlighted in China is a temple that brings worshipers closer to the heavens by being on top of a 21-storey apartment block.

Surrounded by foliage, the temple has glazed golden tiles and traditional upturned eaves with carvings of dragons and phoenixes, but defies convention by standing on top of the tower in Shenzhen, the Yangcheng Evening News reported.