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.

An Indian Supreme Court panel on Friday sharply criticized security surrounding a vast underground treasure trove found at a Hindu temple, saying it could be vulnerable to "tunneling attempts."
The staggering hoard of golden Hindu deities, precious stones and other treasures valued at up to $22 billion was unearthed in June in the vaults of the 16th-century temple in the southern coastal state of Kerala.

Archaeologists in Armenia said on Wednesday that they had found parts of a woman's multicolored straw dress that they believe was made around 5,900 years ago.
The find was made during excavations at a cave complex in southern Armenia where previous discoveries have included what are believed to be the world's oldest known leather shoe and most ancient winery, dating back 5,500 and 6,100 years respectively.

It's a side of Jacqueline Kennedy only friends and family knew.
Funny and inquisitive, canny and cutting. In "Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy," the former first lady was not yet the jet setting celebrity of the late 1960s or the literary editor of the 1970s and '80s. But she was also nothing like the soft-spoken fashion icon of the three previous years. She was in her mid-30s, recently widowed, but dry-eyed and determined to set down her thoughts for history.

Tanks, artillery pieces and other relics of war are still scattered around the valley where Vietnamese forces won a decisive victory over the French at Dien Bien Phu nearly 60 years ago.
But a new battle -- to attract more visitors to the historic site and boost the impoverished region's earnings from tourism -- is tough going for the descendants of the triumphant troops.

A Goodwill worker who spotted a photograph of Confederate General Robert E. Lee has helped the charity make $23,000 in an online auction.
The tintype photograph was in a bin, about to be shipped out, when a worker grabbed it and sent it to the charity's local online department. The item was then put up for auction.

Seventy years after the Nazis encircled Leningrad, the diary of a teenage girl chronicling the World War II siege has been published, sparking comparison with Anne Frank.
In May 1941, Leningrad teenager Lena Mukhina started writing a diary, pouring out her hopes and fears, her crush on a classmate called Vladimir and worries about bad marks.

An artist has recreated Leonardo da Vinci's most famous sketch "Vitruvian Man" in the Arctic ice to draw attention to the ice melt, Greenpeace said Wednesday.
The Arctic ice cap has shrunk to almost the same level as in 2007 when it was at a record low.

The red brick walls of the synagogue in Gora Kalwaria, once a center of Jewish culture in Poland, reverberate anew with music lost in the Holocaust, thanks to one man's search for his Polish roots.
In the 1930s, a group of Jewish mandolin players from this small town just south of the capital Warsaw gained popularity across the country before many of them perished at the hands of Poland's Nazi German occupiers.

In the insular Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, the phallus is an ancient symbol commonly painted on houses to ward off evil spirits, but it is increasingly rare in the modernizing national capital.
The demise of this traditional motif, still seen all over in rural areas, points to profound changes underway in a country that has gone to extraordinary lengths to shield its unique local culture from outside influence.
