Once banned as "bourgeois", the work of painter Marc Chagall is enjoying a revival in the ex-Soviet Union with a new exhibition delving into the influence folk art and his Russian Jewish roots had on his work.

"Visitors often ask, why Chagall's animals are blue, yellow or pink, why the bride is flying over the rooftops and the man has two faces. They will now understand where Chagall drew (his images) from," said curator Ekaterina Selezneva.

A row over religious circumcision in Austria that has spread from Germany made more waves Saturday after an unprecedented joint call by Jews, Muslims and Christians for unequivocal government support.

The Jewish Community (IKG), the Islamic Community of Austria (IGGiOe) and Catholic and Lutheran bishops called on Friday on Vienna to "issue a clear commitment to religious freedom and to the legality of male circumcision."

Estonia's new Jarvi Summer Festival of classical music kicked off this week promising to draw some 300 musicians from over a dozen countries to the Baltic coast city of Parnu in the south.

The festival was founded last year under the baton of globally renowned Estonian conductors Paavo Jarvi and his father Neeme Jarvi.

Want to see Pol Pot's grave or his broken toilet seat? How about a visit to the house of a feared Khmer Rouge commander known as "The Butcher"?

Welcome to the town of Anlong Veng, a former Khmer Rouge stronghold which hopes to become the next must-see destination on Cambodia's dark tourism trail, but which faces calls not to glorify its role in the country's bloody past.

The prestigious Vienna State Opera has been told by the Austrian government to find savings of 10 million euros ($12.3 million), its flabbergasted musical director was quoted as saying Friday.

Franz Welser-Moest said that Finance Minister Maria Fekter had told him -- on holiday -- "to save 10 million euros if possible, which it isn't," he said in a television interview to be broadcast on Sunday.

Star Chinese pianist Lang Lang on Thursday won Germany's highest civilian honor in recognition of his "distinguished services" to music.

Torsten Albig, leader of the small northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, said he would present Lang with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the country's only federal decoration, on August 24.

Poland has begun digging up a mass grave at Warsaw's military cemetery searching for the remains of victims of a 1948-1956 Stalinist-era campaign of terror, war crimes prosecutors said Thursday.

After more than half a century, the final resting place of key figures in Poland's anti-Nazi and anti-Soviet resistance who perished at the hands of the Stalinist-era secret police is still a mystery.

U.N. heritage agency UNESCO on Thursday urged forces fighting in Syria to avoid damage to historically important cultural sites, in particular in the country's second-largest city Aleppo.

"In light of escalated violence in the vicinity of several historic urban areas in Syria, the director-general of UNESCO Irina Bokova reiterates her appeal... to all parties involved in the conflict to protect all Syrian cultural heritage," the agency said in a statement.

Argentina's iconic first lady Evita Peron was so loved or hated when she was alive that long after her death, passionate arguments about her character drowned out more serious efforts to examine her legacy.

Some historians say that only now, 60 years after Gen. Juan Domingo Peron's firebrand wife succumbed to cancer at the age of 33, are many beginning to consider how much her actions shaped the society they live in today.

As the curtain comes down on the most divisive and talked-about film in Nepali cinema history, half the audience stands to applaud while the rest slump bemused in their seats.

The split reaction has been common among packed theatres watching "Highway", a sweeping social commentary hailed by many as a new benchmark for the domestic film industry but dismissed by others as complicated and boring.