In this May 11, 2013 photo, followers of Korean pop band Big Bang, imitate the band at the Ramon Castilla Park in Lima, Peru. While there's little hard data, there's no questioning the fervor of the fans who turn up at Ramon Castilla Park each Saturday and emulate the dances of K-pop bands. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

by Franklin Briceno
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Teenagers throughout Latin America have long looked north for pop music inspiration. Now the East is rising, with a large and enthusiastic cult of fans in some countries following the K-pop music from Korea.

PLAYGROUND BUILDING—Several volunteers teamed with professionals to build a KaBOOM! Playground in Homewood. This was the first of a series of playgrounds to be built throughout Pittsburgh to help children be more active. (Photos by J.L. Martello).

More than 200 volunteers from Homewood Children’s Village, organizers from KaBOOM! and residents of the local community joined forces recently to build  new playgrounds in Homewood, and various other communities. The new playgrounds’ designs are based on drawings created by children who participated in a Design Day event in February. The construction took all day as volunteers and professionals worked together.

In this April 29, 2013, photo, Andy Nwaelele, a biomedical engineering major, left, and dance partner Omowunmi Odutola practice wing dance steps during a Northwestern University class for engineering students called Whole Body Thinking in Evanston, Ill. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)

EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) — Engineering students at Northwestern University are getting a leg up on the competition. They're learning to swing dance in a for-credit class called Whole Body Thinking.

Emmanuel Assouan, the newly inaugurated 'web mayor' of Ivory Coast's economic capital, poses in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Sunday May 26. Five days after Ivorians went to the polls for local elections in late April, Abidjan's budding network of bloggers, strategists, designers and Web entrepreneurs organized a separate vote for 'Web Mayor.' From a crowded field of 12 candidates, the city's active community of self-described internet geeks selected Assouan, a 22-year-old who still lives with his parents.(AP Photo/Robbie Corey-Boulet)
 
by Robbie Corey-Boulet

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — A 22-year-old who lives with his parents is the new mayor of Ivory Coast's largest city, at least according to the West African nation's active community of self-described Internet geeks.