Experts have been unable to assess damage to historic treasures in Mali and Syria caused by rebellions which have added to cultural chaos left by the Arab uprisings, a top UNESCO official said Friday.

The situation is "very, very worrying" in the Mali city of Timbuktu, a U.N. heritage site, where Islamist fighters said to be linked to Al-Qaeda have already destroyed the tomb of a Muslim saint, said UNESCO assistant director general Francesco Bandarin.

Bone-white sand squeaks beneath your feet, the curved beach framed by lush forested hills, empty but for a handful of expats and intrepid tourists who have got wind of Sierra Leone's raw beauty.

Weary of being a poster child for African conflict, Sierra Leone is working to lure back tourists, but for now enjoying some of Africa's most beautiful scenery -- like the palm-fringed Tokeh Beach -- is not for the faint-hearted.

A boom in private museums funded by wealthy collectors is transforming the artistic landscape in Asia, and filling the cultural vacuum left by penny-pinching governments, experts say.

Organizers of the Hong Kong International Art Fair (Art HK), which opened in the southern Chinese city on Thursday, said the next Henry Tate or John D. Rockefeller Jr. could be among the collectors perusing the pieces for sale.

Russia has commissioned new school textbooks that condemn "falsifications of history" and paint the Soviet Union in a more positive light in a bid to boost patriotism among the young.

The education and science ministry this month posted a call for new teaching materials for senior classes "on the problem of the falsification of history," according to the Zakupki official tender website.

The world's oldest surviving Chinese junk returned home to Taiwan on Thursday, nearly 60 years after it set sail on a historic voyage to the United States, organizers said.

The Free China arrived in the northern port of Keelung aboard a cargo ship from San Francisco. It will be restored and displayed in a maritime museum in the city, said L.S. Lwo, head of the boat restoration project.

The glittering Hong Kong International Art Fair opens Thursday, featuring works by artists from Picasso to Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei and cementing the city's status as a global art hub.

More than 260 galleries from 38 countries, representing an even split from the West and the East, have booked space at the four-day event known as Art HK, now in its fifth edition.

Babylon's Hanging Gardens were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but heritage appears to be no match for Iraq's booming oil industry in a dispute over a new pipeline.

As Baghdad is working to get UNESCO to list Babylon as a World Heritage Site, archaeologists and oil ministry officials are in a battle over a pipeline that one side insists threatens the site and could cause irreparable damage to the ruins.

Under the motto “Open Your Tomorrow”, the American University of Beirut Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, the ministries of telecommunications and education and higher education launched “The National Tablet Initiative for Youth” at Issam Fares Lecture Hall on May 15, 2012, a press release said Wednesday.

“Our aim is to make the latest hi-tech [tools] available to all Lebanese youth,” said Telecommunication Minister Nicholas Sehnaoui in front of a jam-packed auditorium full of public school students. “We want to give you the tools and the link so that you can connect to the world,” the press release added.

Rainbow Street in Amman's heart is abuzz again after posh 1920s-era homes were turned into restaurants, galleries and libraries, drawing hipsters, bohemians, intellectuals and hordes of tourists.

After decades of oblivion, the street in the historic area of Jabal Amman has undergone a facelift, rejuvenating the once sleepy neighborhood.

The biggest exhibition of Pablo Picasso's works ever held in Hong Kong opens Saturday, featuring 55 pieces from the Musee National Picasso in Paris covering every phase of the artist's career.

The exhibition at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum from May 19 to July 22 includes work from his Blue, Rose and Cubist periods as well as Neoclassical and Expressionist pieces, the organizers said.