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French Court Dismisses Ex-Minister's Cartoon Ban Plea

A French court on Wednesday dismissed former justice minister Rachida Dati's request to ban the publication of a satirical comic book depicting the quest to unmask her daughter's mystery father.

Dati, 47, a glamorous protege of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, had a child four years ago with a man she refused to name, sparking feverish speculation in a country where the political elite's sexual antics are usually kept quiet.

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Robot Discovers Chambers under Ancient Mexico Temple

A small robot has discovered three possible burial chambers under a temple in Mexico's pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacan, a find that may reveal secrets about funeral rituals in the ancient site.

The robot, dubbed Tlaloc II-TC, located the chambers in the last section of a 2,000-year-old tunnel tucked under the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, surprising archeologists who had expected to find just one room.

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A Century on, Turkey's Muslim Armenians Come Out of Hiding

They dropped their language and religion to survive after the 1915 genocide, but close to 100 years on Turkey's "hidden Armenians" want to take pride in their identity.

Some genocide survivors adopted Islam and blended in with the Kurds in eastern Turkey's Dersim mountains to avoid further persecution.

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Afghan Leader Orders Crackdown on 'Obscene' TV Shows

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered a crackdown on "un-Islamic and obscene" televisions shows in response to lobbying by the country's religious council, an official said Wednesday.

Karzai told the culture ministry to block programs "which are vulgar, un-Islamic, obscene and violate social morality, and Islamic morality", according to a statement from his Council of Ministers.

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Kuwaiti Wins Arab Booker for Novel on Migrant Workers

Kuwaiti writer Saud al-Sanaussi has won the Arab version of the Man Booker Prize for a novel focusing on the situation of migrant workers in the Gulf.

"The Bamboo Trunk" explores the difficulties facing Asians in the oil-rich region through the story of Jose, a young man rejected by the family of his Kuwaiti father because his mother was a Filipina maid.

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Nude Masterpieces Go Face to Face in Venice

Two naked seductresses separated by three centuries of history went face to face for the first time in Venice on Wednesday in an exhibition devoted to French painter Edouard Manet with his "Olympia" alongside Titian's "Venus of Urbino".

Manet completed his painting of a prostitute being waited on by a black maid in 1863 -- a controversial masterpiece which caused a stir at the time but was largely inspired by old master Titian's own ground-breaking work from 1538.

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Stairway to Heaven: Siena Cathedral Opens Roof Tour

Secret passages high up in the rafters of Siena Cathedral have opened for the first time after decades of restoration, offering a rare view of midnight-blue ceilings and the Tuscan panorama.

The famous 13th-century black-and-white striped cathedral has opened a series of spiral staircases and covered internal walkways to the public -- all some 15 meters (49 feet) from the marble floor.

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Lithuanian Police Probe anti-Semitic Graffiti

Lithuanian police said Tuesday they were probing anti-Semitic slogans scrawled near the site of a former Nazi labor camp in the Baltic state's capital.

The unknown perpetrators wrote "Juden Raus" (Jews out) with marker on a sidewalk in Vilnius and drew a swastika on a nearby pole, police spokeswoman Evelina Pagounis told Agence France Presse.

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Jordan: Israel to Allow U.N. into Jerusalem Old City

Jordan on Tuesday said Israel has agreed to allow a U.N. mission to "investigate and assess" heritage conservation in Jerusalem's Old City for the first time since 2004.

"Jordan and Palestine, supported by Arab states, succeeded in pressuring Israel, for the first time since 2004, to accept and facilitate a UNESCO experts' mission to investigate and assess the status of heritage and conservation of the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls," a palace statement said.

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Ireland's John Banville Wins Austrian Literature Prize

Irish author John Banville is to be awarded the Austrian state prize for European literature in July, the government said Monday, praising the novelist's "unconventional" style.

Banville "is an unconventional author who always surprises us with his themes and his complex characters," fitting into the "tradition of great European authors, tackling profound questions about life," Culture Minister Claudia Schmied said.

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