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World War I Battlefield Soil Arrives in London

A Belgian warship on Friday carried 70 bags of soil from World War I battlefields to London, where it will be laid in a memorial garden ahead of the 100th anniversary of the start of the conflict.

London's famous Tower Bridge lifted to allow the Belgian navy frigate Louisa Marie to sail up the River Thames and deliver the soil to the British warship HMS Belfast.

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Western Masterpieces Offered Up to Chinese Buyers

A $50 million Rembrandt portrait takes pride of place in a Beijing hotel room, with Picassos and Renoirs dotting the walls as major Western auction houses look to tempt China's superrich with Europe's finest art.

The exhibition, running until Sunday, ranks among the more distinguished displays of Western art seen in the Chinese capital, but is actually a private sale by international auctioneers Sotheby's.

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German 'Lost Art' Site Posting Another 101 Works

German authorities are posting online another 101 works from the huge trove of art found at a reclusive collector's apartment in Munich, bringing the total so far to 219.

The task force looking into the find said Thursday that prosecutors in Augsburg have cleared drawings and watercolors by artists including Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso, Eugene Delacroix, Honore Daumier and Albrecht Duerer for posting on the official "Lost Art" website. They're among the works officials believe may have been seized under the Nazis.

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Reports: China to Recover Ancient Shipwreck's Treasures

China is to start removing treasures from its greatest ever marine archaeological discovery, six years after the wreck was raised from the seabed in a giant metal box, reports said Friday.

The wooden Nanhai 1 sank near Yangjiang in the southern province of Guangdong during the Southern Song Dynasty of 1127-1279, with an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 items on board.

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Malaysian Family Jailed over Child's 'Exorcism' Death

A Malaysian high court on Friday jailed three family members who suffocated their two-year-old to death by piling on top of her in a suspected exorcism ritual.

Chua Wan Zuen, aged two, died after being pinned down under a blanket in August last year with eight people, including her parents, crushing her for several hours in an attempt to drive away evil spirits.

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Works by Picasso, Cezanne Posted on Nazi-Looted Art Website

German authorities Thursday published more than 100 additional works from the likes of Picasso, Cezanne and Degas believed to have been looted by the Nazis on an official provenance website.

The latest batch of priceless artworks come from a trove discovered in a Munich flat in February 2012 which only came to light this month in a magazine article.

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Chinese Anti-Veil 'Beauty' Campaign Sows Ugly Tensions

A Chinese government worker in the ancient Silk Road oasis of Kashgar beckons two women to her streetside stand and logs their details under the gaze of a surveillance camera. Their offence: wearing veils.

The "Project Beauty" campaign aims to discourage women from covering their faces -- a religious practice for some Muslim Uighurs, the largest ethnic group in China's Xinjiang region -- in an attempt to improve security.

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'108 Rock Star Guitars' Reveals Battle-Ax Beauty

Sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand songs.

The supersized book "108 Rock Star Guitars" (Glitterati Inc.) demonstrates that six-stringed instruments owned by celebrities and virtuoso sidemen can look as good as they rock.

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Springsteen 'Born to Run' Manuscript is for Sale

A handwritten working manuscript of Bruce Springsteen's 1975 hit "Born to Run" will be offered at auction on Dec. 5, with a presale estimate of $70,000 to $100,000, Sotheby's said Wednesday.

The seller was not revealed. The auction house said the document used to be in the collection of Springsteen's former manager, Mike Appel.

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Blast Destroys Centuries-Old Libya Shrine

Suspected Islamic extremists destroyed a centuries-old shrine in the Libyan capital on Wednesday, but the tomb inside withstood the attack, witnesses said.

The explosives were placed around the mausoleum of Murad Agha, the first Ottoman governor of Tripoli, who ruled from 1551-1553. The shrine is attached to a mosque of the same name, which did not appear to have been damaged.

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