Australia began marking the 70th anniversary of Japan's World War II bombing of Darwin Saturday, an event that gave birth to its alliance with the U.S. and is seen as the nation's "Pearl Harbor".

Air raids on the remote northern city of Darwin on February 19, 1942 killed at least 243 people and injured hundreds more in a wave of destruction authorities vastly downplayed at the time.

He has barely begun learning guitar, but already six-year-old Xcaret Gonzalez is dreaming big.

He aspires to play well enough some day to form his own band -- one playing the mariachi music that is an important part of his Mexican background, and which has been declared part of world cultural heritage.

A Florida company that found sunken treasure from a 19th century warship must return more than a half-million silver and gold coins to the Spanish government by next week, a federal judge in Tampa ruled Friday.

In addition, Spain does not need to reimburse the deep sea recovery firm, Odyssey Marine Exploration, for its costs of preserving and storing the treasure, the ruling said.

Greek Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos resigned on Friday after masked armed robbers stole more than 60 ancient objects of "incalculable" value from a museum in Olympia.

Sixty-eight objects were whisked from a museum dedicated to the ancient Olympic Games after two masked men immobilized the museum's sole female guard as she arrived to take over the early morning shift, officials said.

Americans who are very religious have a higher wellbeing rating than those who are moderately so or not bothered by religion at all, a Gallup survey released Thursday said.

Some 676,000 people were surveyed, taking into account age, social-economic status and where they live, with "very religious" respondents earning a wellbeing index of 69.2, compared to 63.7 for the "moderately religious."

The 56th Vienna Opera ball opened late on Thursday with a heady mix of culture, glamour and politics, the Austrian capital shaken not stirred as a James Bond mingled with the celebrity guests.

French maestro Georges Pretre, 87, and Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu provided the artistic openers at this year's Opera Ball, the highlight of Vienna's ball season.

Acclaimed Chinese novelist Geling Yan has become accustomed to reaching a wide audience both at home and abroad.

But nothing could have prepared her for the attention she has received since film director Zhang Yimou picked up one of her novels and turned it into "The Flowers of War", China’s biggest box office hit of the past 12 months.

A passion for fashion is not the first image that springs to mind when most people think of Afghan men, usually pictured in war reports wearing beards, turbans and carrying AK47s as accessories.

But male beauty salons in downtown Kabul now hum with activity as young men update their hair and beards in the latest Western styles -- indulgences that would have got them beaten or jailed just 10 years ago.

For years the rusty arms of the Vasco da Gama Clock Tower have pointed to 12:58, a monument stuck in time, like many areas still left behind in Durban's drive to reinvent itself.

Many who live in its shadow don't know what it is.

Six works by Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei, who is currently confined to Beijing, went on sale at a major contemporary art fair that got under way Wednesday in Spain.

The pieces include a dark blue porcelain pillar that is around three meters (nine feet) tall with an asking price of 150,000 euros ($200,000) and a green and black porcelain watermelon for 50,000 euros.