Six religious paintings by Guatemala's most important 18th century painter, Tomas Merlo, have been stolen from a church in the city of Antigua, culture ministry officials said Friday.

Two unidentified men overpowered the caretaker of El Calvario church in Antigua and tied him up Wednesday evening as he was closing for the day, officials said.

It's been dubbed the "Venice of Africa" but comparisons between the sprawling Lagos community of Makoko and the historic Italian city begin and end at the water's edge.

Makoko's makeshift huts rise from the murky waters of the lagoon around Nigeria's biggest city, a far cry from the ornate bridges and buildings that mark out Venice's cultural and commercial past.

Italian nuclear physicists turned art detectives said Thursday they have discovered that a painting in the prestigious Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice is a fake.

The art world's top experts and researchers have been trying to establish since the 1970s whether a painting believed to be part of the "Contraste de Formes" series produced by French artist Fernand Leger between 1913 and 1914 was genuine.

A painting by Johann Conrad Seekatz stolen from a Warsaw museum by the Nazis during World War II has been handed back to Poland, U.S. authorities said Thursday.

The painting -- "St.Philip Baptizing a Servant of Queen Kandaki" -- was looted from the National Museum of Warsaw during the 1939-1945 conflict, federal prosecutors in New York said in a statement.

Police in Cambodia said Friday they have recovered a precious golden urn stolen last year that contains what are considered to be remnants of Buddha's body.

The urn was taken from a mountain shrine 40 kilometers (25 miles) outside the capital in mid-December.

Community leaders gathered in Mali Thursday to mark an international day of campaigning against female genital mutilation, publicly renouncing a practice that is still legal in the deeply-conservative west African nation.

Moussocoura Sidibe, the spokesman for 14 communities representing numerous ethnic groups in the Muslim-majority country, said they were taking "the solemn commitment to abandon the practice of FGM and early and forced marriage involving girls in our communities".

A prosecutor says three people have been arrested in connection with the theft of a multi-million-dollar Stradivarius violin stolen from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concertmaster.

Assistant District Attorney Kent Lovern said Wednesday he couldn't reveal any information beyond the arrests.

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah — Ye-ah!

A large piece of stage backdrop autographed by the Beatles during their first live U.S. concert 50 years ago is headed to auction, where it could draw $800,000 to $1 million.

So what is this thing called cool? A major photography exhibition that opens Friday at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington dares to tackle the question.

From Elvis Presley and James Dean to Jay-Z and Johnny Depp, "American Cool" namechecks 100 actors, actresses, artists, musicians and writers in the United States whose creativity and style have shaped the concept of cool.

A campaign of "no tolerance" for violence against women was launched in Morocco Wednesday by rights groups pressing the government to take greater action.

The "Strength of Women" group, which is partly funded by the European Union, has drawn up a petition that it will present to Islamist premier Abdelilah Benkirane listing a number of demands.