American novelist James Salter -- who long labored with the dubious honor of being "the greatest writer you've never read" -- has died aged 90.

The former U.S. fighter pilot who flew in the Korean War alongside the astronaut Buzz Aldrin -- the second man to walk on the moon -- numbered some of the century's greatest writers among his fans, including Saul Bellow, Philip Roth and Joseph Heller, but he never quite converted critical acclaim into the popularity he craved.

French authorities gave the go-ahead Friday to renovate the iconic former Parisian department store La Samaritaine on the River Seine, ending years of legal wrangling over the historic site.

Perched on the right bank of the Seine, the hulking store occupies some of the most expensive real estate in Paris but was shut down in 2005 when it ran afoul of health and safety regulations.

The sounds of war rang out on the fields of Belgium on Thursday as the Battle of Waterloo was restaged 200 years after the clash that ended Napoleon's imperial ambitions and changed the course of European history.

In what was billed as the biggest re-enactment of its kind, 6,000 history enthusiasts from 52 countries in full costume acted out the July 18, 1815 clash between the French army and the allied British, Prussian and Dutch forces.

Two Moroccan men were jailed for four months Friday for kissing in public, after a string of recent controversies over homosexuality in the conservative Muslim kingdom, said NGO officials who attended the trial.

The men, Lahcen, 38, and Mohsine, 25, were convicted of an "affront to public decency" and of an "unnatural act with a person of the same sex," and also fined 500 dirhams ($52/46 euros), the sources said.

A British artist who created a controversial sculpture at the Palace of Versailles that has become known as the "queen's vagina" lashed out at French "intolerance" Thursday after his work was vandalized.

The work "dirty corner" by Anish Kapoor was found sprayed with yellow paint on Wednesday and is now being cleaned by palace authorities.

A rare 3,400-year-old Egyptian burial shroud fetched 374,000 euros ($426,000) at auction in Paris Thursday, on the latest leg of a journey that has seen it passed from a billionaire banking heir to his wife and, later, his mistress.

The sale at Piasa auction house was unusual as most similar shrouds -- 22 others are known to exist in the world -- are in the collections of museums like the Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Pierre Geagea is a deaf-born contemporary expressionist dancer.

At a young age, Pierre Geagea finds in sign language and dance two essential modes of expression. Sign language is his bridge between the spoken word and the gesture. Later, he slowly discovers sound and begins to enter rhythm and music into dialogue with words and signs. Pierre’s unique relation to these elements is his mother tongue.

The bill to repair Britain's crumbling Houses of Parliament could hit £7.1 billion unless lawmakers move out for up to six years, according to a study published Thursday.

The independent report, commissioned by parliamentary authorities in 2013, found that the famed neo-Gothic building posed major fire risks and was threatened with roof collapses.

The U.S. wine market, already the world's biggest, still has "phenomenal" potential for growth if handled with care, U.S. wine professionals said this week at the world's leading wine fair, Vinexpo.

"We are a young thirsty nation," one expert said, referring to the 370 million cases of wine guzzled in 2014 -- 25 percent of them imported -- as well as the steady growth in wine consumption in the last two decades, which is expected to see an 11 percent hike between 2014 and 2018.

The halls of Art Basel, the world's largest contemporary art fair, brim with elegantly dressed collectors all searching for something special -- and, increasingly, financial investors just after a good deal.

The event opens to the public on Thursday, but special VIPs got an advance peek at the vast array of artworks by 20th century masters like Picasso, Calder and Warhol, mixed in with today's cutting edge creations, on Tuesday.