The Marvel film - released in the UK as Avengers Assemble - also beat Django Unchained, Skyfall, Ted and The Dark Knight Rises to win the best fight accolade.

BBC: The Avengers wins three MTV movie awards

If "Zero Dark Thirty" does win Best Picture, it will be one of only five times in the past 25 years when the director of the best film didn't also get an Oscar.

WSJ: Review & Outlook: The Bigelow Snub

The high-speed traders whom the exchanges desperately want to retain or win back from the dark pools are part of the reason the stock market looks so scary to individuals these days.

FORBES: Does NYSE's 4.8% Dividend Yield Make It A Bargain?

When the choice comes down to a priority immediately affecting millions of voters versus, say, scattershot funding of the placement of solar cells (including in dark Northern climates) we can assume which program will win.

FORBES: After the Budget Deal, How Government Can Support Market Creation, Cheaply

Many have tipped Croatian 10th seed Marin Cilic as a dark horse for the title and he enjoyed a straight-sets win against Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver.

BBC: Roger Federer overcomes Alejandro Falla at French Open

The band's new You Can't Win (sense a theme?) continues to wallow in the dark corners of James' psyche, though "Just Don't Leave Town" raises the discourse from miserablism to ambivalence.

NPR: Finding Comfort in Feeling Trapped

Parents increasingly recognise that their youngsters have digital expertise they lack but want to tap, and also that their best defence against their children falling foul of the dark side of the internet, such as online sexual predators, is to win their children's trust through honest conversation.

ECONOMIST: The net generation

During the committee hearing, the chairman Graham Stuart said exam boards competing to win franchises to design replacements for GCSEs felt they were "designing in the dark", with not enough time.

BBC: Gove challenged over exam changes by watchdog Ofqual