Ernest Hemingway shows a tenderness that wasn't part of his usual macho persona in a dozen unpublished letters that became publicly available Wednesday in a collection of the author's papers at the Kennedy presidential library.

In a letter to his friend Gianfranco Ivancich written in Cuba and dated February 1953, Hemingway wrote of euthanizing his cat "Uncle Willie" after it was hit by a car.

Insurgents ambushed a NATO coalition supply convoy in a mountainous area of western Afghanistan, sparking a three-hour firefight in which an Afghan soldier, five Afghan security guards, and 14 attackers were killed, officials said Thursday.

Najibullah Najibi, a spokesman for the Afghan National Army's western region, said the battle raged Wednesday along a highway regularly used by coalition supply trucks in Bala Buluk district of Farah province.

Struggling cellphone maker Nokia Corp. launched its first smartphone for China on Wednesday, looking to the world's biggest mobile market to help drive its 1-year-old turnaround effort.

Nokia said its Lumia 800C will be supported by China Telecom Ltd., one of the country's three major state-owned carriers.

North Korea says it aims to estimate crop production and analyze natural resources when it launches a satellite on a long-range rocket next month.

The United States and South Korea view the launch as a cover for testing long-range missile technology.

Vesselina Kasarova's repertoire ranges from Donizetti to Wagner. Critics rave over her voice and her character depictions are the gold standard for young singers aspiring to opera stardom.

Asked recently if she would again become a singer from her present perspective at the top, she shrugged.

Some workers in Sweden have found a rather offbeat way to spend their lunch hour. Actually, on-beat is more like it.

Dripping with sweat and awash in disco lights, they dance away to pulsating club music at Lunch Beat, a trend that started in Stockholm and is spreading to other cites in Europe.

Hilton Kramer, the former chief art critic at The New York Times and founding editor of The New Criterion magazine, has died. He was 84.

Kramer's wife Esta said he had been suffering from a blood disease, and died early Tuesday. He had been in an assisted living facility in Harpswell, Maine.

Like zombies, human beings can't get enough of brains.

A new London exhibition explores that fascination, displaying everything from mummified Egyptian cerebral matter to slices of Albert Einstein's brain in the story of our quest to understand what's inside our skulls.

A rare watercolor study by Paul Cezanne believed lost and last seen in 1953 will be auctioned in New York City where it's expected to fetch up to $20 million.

It's being offered May 1 at Christie's.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have found their love interest — Deborah Cox.

Producers of the Broadway-bound revival of "Jekyll & Hyde" announced Tuesday that the Grammy-nominated singer will join Constantine Maroulis in the musical that's slated to come to New York in spring 2013 after a 25-week national tour that starts in San Diego on Oct. 2,