U.S. customs agents said Wednesday they have seized a horde of "priceless" ancient Korean artifacts, brought to California by U.S. a serviceman deployed in the Korean War six decades ago.

The nine seals of the Korean Empire and Joseon Dynasty were recovered in San Diego, after a local man approached a Washington-based antiques dealer seeking to have them valued.

With a queue stretching at least a kilometer, a hi-tech exhibition giving a rosy view of the house of Romanov and jointly organised by the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin has drawn tens of thousands of visitors in central Moscow.

In another sign of the power of the Russian Orthodox Church in post-Soviet Russia, it is a holy icon which has drawn the crowds as much as nostalgia for Russia's ousted by the monarchy.

Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg on Tuesday opened a museum to display his glittering collection of Faberge eggs, once owned by the tsars, in the former imperial capital of Saint Petersburg.

The new Faberge Museum located in the Shuvalov Palace in the city center put on display nine of the eggs, once given as Easter gifts by the royal family, as well as thousands of jeweled objets d'art from icons to cigar cases.

The Vatican on Tuesday unveiled a series of catacombs used by early Christians in Rome after a major restoration, including an online virtual tour by Google Maps offering a glimpse into the underground wonders.

The Priscilla catacombs where Christians worshipped and buried their own are re-opening to the public after five years of work in which restorers used lasers to clean up the religious frescoes on the walls.

The Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln's undying call for a "new birth of freedom" at the bloody turning point of the U.S. Civil War, turned 150 years old Tuesday, even as the union he fought to preserve quarrels bitterly over the role of government.

Thousands of people bundled up against the autumn chill -- some in Civil War era uniform -- crowded into the Soldiers' National Cemetery where Lincoln delivered the 272 words that became one of the most revered speeches in U.S. history.

Rare teas more than half a century old will take center stage at Hong Kong's first tea auction, with a prized narcissus oolong variety expected to fetch HK$1 million ($129,000), organizers said Tuesday.

More than 40 lots of vintage tea leaves from private collectors in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan will feature in the sale on Saturday, with the oldest dating back to the 1950s.

A one-time secretary to Imelda Marcos was found guilty by a U.S. court on Monday for plotting to sell a Monet painting which vanished after the 1986 revolution that saw the former first lady of the Philippines ousted.

Sentencing for Vilma Bautista, 75, will be held at a date that has not yet been announced, officials said.

A rare sabre considered a "historic testimony" to the creation of modern-day Saudi Arabia sold for more than $1.2 million at an auction in France on Sunday.

The 24-carat-gold and steel sword, with an ivory handle and long curved blade, was bought for 955,400 euros over the phone "by a mysterious buyer who entered bidding mid-sale," said auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat.

Nearly 2,000 rare American coins amassed over 90 years by a 102-year-old Missouri collector have sold for $23 million at a two-day New York City auction.

Heritage Auctions Co-Chairman Jim Halperin says Sunday that retired St. Louis lawyer Eric P. Newman began collecting in the 1930s, only paying about $7,500 for the 1,800 piece collection.

The heart of Argentina's cowboy culture can be found each year on the Day of the Gaucho, when thousands of people parade on horseback through the colonial streets of a town that seems like a living museum.

San Antonio de Areco in provincial Buenos Aires is known as the keeper of Argentina's gaucho traditions, hosting a rodeo and parade that brings huge crowds every year.