Seven vinyl banners draped this month along one of Chicago's most iconic bridges — advertisements some have dubbed "a visual crime" and "commercial graffiti" — are reviving a debate about how governments raise money in tough economic times.

In the aftermath of the recession, a public school district in Colorado is selling ads on report cards and Utah has a new law allowing ads on school buses. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration, straining to fill a $600 million budget hole, is looking to raise $25 million from ads on city property — including bridges, electrical storage boxes and garbage cans.

Alberto Giacometti's life-changing encounter with the ancient sculpture of the Etruscans is the starting point for a major Paris show that brings his art face to face with the works that inspired him.

More than 150 rare pieces by the Etruscans, a mysterious, seafaring civilization that ruled swathes of the Mediterranean until it was swallowed up by Rome in the first century BC, have made the trip from Italian museums for the show.

From the red carpet to the big screen, women are dazzling at this year's Venice Film Festival with the key roles going to female stars who amaze with glamour and sheer chutzpah.

Pop diva Madonna crazed the island when she sauntered down the celebrity runway in a striking Vionnet dress with red butterfly motif and long sweeping train -- matched with large red-rimmed sunglasses and a dynamite red lipstick.

Cinema enthusiasts are descending on Italy's floating city for the 68th edition of the Venice Film Festival, which kicks off on Wednesday with George Clooney's hotly anticipated "Ides of March."

Twenty-two films -- all world premieres -- will compete for the prestigious Golden Lion award, with a host of stars expected on the red carpet, from the blue-eyed Clooney to U.S. singer Madonna and "The Godfather" star Al Pacino.

Four Spanish tourists took an unexpected swim near Venice Wednesday after a wave caused by a large motorboat capsized their gondola, Italy's ANSA news agency said.

The holidaymakers were quickly rescued by other gondoliers gliding nearby, but the incident has reignited debate over the difficulties gondolas face on the waters surrounding the picturesque Italian city.

A dull-looking chart projected on the wall of a university office in Jerusalem displayed a revelation that would startle many readers of the Old Testament: the sacred text that people revered in the past was not the same one we study today.

An ancient version of one book has an extra phrase. Another appears to have been revised to retroactively insert a prophecy after the events happened.

Cigarette butts could be a thing of the past on one Italian beach near Venice where the local mayor introduced a test ban on smoking Saturday.

Swimmers and sunbathers are being encouraged to put out their cigarettes on part of Bibione beach, in the municipality of San Michele al Tagliamento.

An array of sometimes disconcerting sights and sounds went on public display Saturday on the shores of the Venice lagoon for the Biennale contemporary art festival.

From a picture of Jesus in his underwear to a human skull decorated with pearls, the images at the festival provoke, bemuse or titillate.

The City of Water has been transformed into a City of Light for the prestigious Venice Biennale contemporary art festival starting Saturday, where 83 artists and 89 countries are represented.

Venice's historic Arsenal, a medieval shipyard complex in the heart of the historic city, hosts an exhibition entitled "ILLUMInations" while the national pavilions are spread around a park on the shores of the Venice lagoon.

Grotesque heads, an American brothel and a life-sized headless horse star in a new Venice exhibition drawn from French billionaire fashion tycoon Francois Pinault's personal collection.

"In Praise of Doubt" is the latest contemporary art exhibition at the Punta della Dogana gallery, a former Venetian Republic Customs House at the center of the lagoon on the Grand Canal, just across from Piazza San Marco.