The United States and Israel lost their UNESCO voting rights Friday after suspending funding to the organization in 2011 when Palestine was admitted, a source from the U.N. agency told AFP.

Neither the United States nor Israel "presented the necessary documentation this morning to avoid losing their right to vote," the source said on condition of anonymity.

A copy of Napoleon Bonaparte's will, drawn up in 1821 when the former French emperor was living in exile, has been sold at auction for 357,000 euros ($480,000).

The item went under the hammer at the Drouot auction house in Paris on Wednesday. It had been estimated fetch 80,000 to 120,000 euros by Artemisia Auctions, which organised the sale.

Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol: one was a surrealist from Spain, the other, a pop artist from Pittsburgh.

They were among the most famous artists of the 20th century, and in 2014, their works will be on exhibit in adjoining galleries at a museum in Florida.

Belgium will mark the centenary of World War I proud of its resistance to invading German troops in August 1914 but also haunted by the bloody disasters which followed.

The "Great War", the "War to End All Wars" ravaged Belgium but rallied national sentiment in its divided Flemish and French halves around King Albert I who refused to surrender.

Sotheby's on Wednesday auctioned off more than $290 million in impressionist and modern art in New York with old favorites Picasso, Monet and Giacometti commanding the highest bids.

The flagship November evening sale attracted record interest from Asian and Latin American buyers, underscoring extraordinary growth in an increasingly global market.

South Korea's state heritage body apologized Thursday for apparent structural problems at a landmark monument that only recently re-opened after a five-year, multi-million dollar restoration.

Seoul's 600-year-old Namdaemun (South Gate), listed as "National Treasure Number One" and a source of immense cultural pride, was burned pretty much to the ground on February 10, 2008.

Christie's auction house in New York says Pablo Picasso's model of his famed Chicago sculpture didn't sell at auction after bids failed to meet a minimum reserve.

Authorities had hoped the sheet metal model would bring between $25 million and $35 million when it went up for auction Monday in New York.

Following his success in the regionally‐renowned Lebanese Hip Hop band, Fareeq el Atrash, Syrian‐Filipino rapper Chyno is set to release his debut single, “OPP”, from his upcoming album “Making Music to Feel At Home” set to be released early 2014. Through his involvement in Fareeq el Atrash, Chyno has made countless media appearances on major media programs, including Arab’s Got Talent, MTV, LBCI and Future TV. His previous musical compositions appear on Fareeq’s 2010 self‐titled debut as well as the group’s second album, “Al Mawjeh el Tarsha” released in May 2013. Chyno has also performed in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Spain, France, Italy and Sweden.



Two paintings thought to be the first depiction of a kangaroo and a dingo in Western art will remain in Britain after a national fundraising campaign to stop them being sold to an Australian gallery, officials said Wednesday.

The oils by British animal painter George Stubbs were first exhibited in London in 1773, giving the public their first glimpse of the exotic creatures most identified with the wild new territory of Australia.

Just a few blocks from the White House where Myanmar's president was feted for working for democracy, another side of his country is now on display at a more haunting Washington landmark: the plight of its most beleaguered people, the Rohingya Muslims, depicted in photos projected at night onto the external walls of the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The stark, black and white images by American photographer Greg Constantine combine searching portraits with pictures of the scorched settlements the Rohingya were forced to flee after a deadly outbreak of sectarian violence last summer that left more than 100,000 confined to camps and further darkened the prospects for this stateless people. They are denied citizenship in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and are typically regarded there as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.