Amsterdam's Anne Frank museum on Monday defended teen idol Justin Bieber amid a furore over his comments that he hoped the Jewish teen who died in a Nazi camp would have been a fan. "We think that what's special is that a 19-year-old comes to the Anne Frank House and spends an hour visiting on a Friday night," museum spokeswoman Maatje Mostart told AFP amid growing criticism of the pop star's perceived selfishness.

By Jill Serjeant LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The comic book superheroes of "The Avengers" and comedy romance "Silver Linings Playbook" ruled at the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday on a night packed with irreverent jokes about body parts and sneak peeks of some of the year's biggest upcoming films. "The Avengers" picked up three awards, including the top prize, movie of the year, along with best villain for Tom Hiddleston's turn as the evil Loki, and best fight.

Bipartisan immigration legislation emerging in the Senate could prevent hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the U.S. illegally from ever becoming citizens, according to a Senate aide with knowledge of the proposals. The bill expected to be unveiled next week would bar anyone who arrived in the U.S. after Dec. 31, 2011, from applying for legal status and ultimately citizenship, according to the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposals had not been announced. It also would require applicants to document that they were in America before Dec.

A 50-year-old Texas burglar convicted of murdering a man and raping his wife during a 1990 break-in was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, state justice officials said. Rickey Lewis, 50, was executed at 6:32pm local time (2332 GMT), a statement from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said. Lewis had only recently been released on parole from a lengthy jail term following a third burglary conviction when he and two other men broke into the home of 45-year-old George Newman and his wife in Smith County, Texas on September 16, 1990.