The largest single piece of cut-gem aquamarine in the world is going on permanent exhibition from Thursday in Washington alongside the Hope Diamond and Marie Antoinette's earrings.

Mined from a Brazilian pegmatite in the 1980s, and named for Brazil's first two emperors, the Dom Pedro Aquamarine will take pride of place at the National Museum of Natural History, part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Fossilised bones unearthed by a British palaeontologist in colonial Tanzania in the 1930s may be those of the oldest dinosaur ever found, researchers reported on Wednesday.

The bones are either those of the earliest dinosaur or of the closest relative of dinosaurs discovered to date, they said.

The Louvre museum opened a new satellite branch among the slag heaps of a former mining town Tuesday in a bid to bring high culture and visitors to one of France's poorest areas.

Greeted by a group of former miners in overalls and hardhats, President Francois Hollande inaugurated the Japanese-designed glass and polished-aluminum branch of the Louvre in the northern city of Lens.

Hundreds of letters penned by a host of historic figures including Vincent Van Gogh, George Washington, Ludwig van Beethoven and Marilyn Monroe will go under the hammer this month in New York.

The December 18 sale will also include correspondence written by John Lennon, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein, auctioneer Profiles in History said Monday.

With brighter hues and bolder brushstrokes, Orthodox icon painters are looking to breathe new life into the ancient art of depicting saints, angels and biblical scenes, lest its rigid rules see it consigned to history.

A dozen church painters from European countries like Greece and Serbia but also from the United States gathered this month in Romania to experiment with adding modern touches to Byzantine iconography without angering the conservative Orthodox Church.

India risked being torn apart by sectarian conflict 20 years ago when Hindu zealots demolished a mosque, triggering deadly riots, but analysts say economic growth has proved a quiet balm on tensions.

More than 2,000 people -- mostly Muslims -- were killed in unrest after the 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, was razed by a Hindu mob on December 6, 1992.

Italian archaeologists have discovered two Greco-Roman statues at ancient temple in Egypt, the antiquities minister said on Monday.

The two seated lions adorned water spouts used as part of the drainage system from the roof of the Ptolemaic-era temple in Egypt's Fayyum region, south of Cairo.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Monday that Lebanon will maintain its moderate identity, reiterating the government's policy of disassociation from regional developments.

He said: “The rise of the state in Lebanon cannot take place through involvement in regional conflicts.”

Pope Benedict XVI will join Twitter from December 12, with regular tweets in eight languages from the account @pontifex just in time for Christmas, the Vatican said on Monday.

"The first tweets will be answers to questions sent to the pope on matters of faith. The public can start sending them starting now," the Vatican said, adding that tweets would be in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.

A China theme park in Australia featuring a full-size replica of gates to the Forbidden City and a nine-storey temple could rival the Sydney Opera House as a tourist drawcard, officials said Monday.

The planned Aus$500 million (U.S.$520 million) attraction moved a step closer after Wyong Shire Council in New South Wales signed a deal on Sunday to sell 15.7 hectares of land to the company behind the proposal.