Leading French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy has been caught red-faced for praising the work of a philosopher who, it turns out, was invented as a joke by a journalist from a satirical daily.

After days fretting over snow and protesters, Winter Olympics officials were confronted with reports of a wild animal on the loose at the Whistler sliding centre here on Monday.

Google sent snowmobiles rigged with cameras into Canadian mountains so folks snug and warm at home will get views of slopes at the Winter Olympic Games kicking off on Friday.

New York Times executive editor Bill Keller has rejected a call by the newspaper's ombudsman for the Jerusalem bureau chief of the Times to be reassigned because his son is serving in the Israeli army.