After a recent wave of attacks in Baghdad, urbane intellectuals sought refuge, as they have for years, in a storied market-place that has been their oasis in the capital's chaos: Mutanabi Street.

It comes alive on Fridays, when its book market vies for the attention of passersby with men who recite verses from poetry by the Arab writer after whom it is named as others sip hot lemon tea at the renowned Shabander Cafe.

China dominates the global art and antiques market as of last year, said a report published Friday ahead of the launch of the European Fine Art Fair in the Netherlands.

Published by organizers of the world's biggest antiques fair, to open to collectors in the southern city of Maastricht, the report said China now claims a 30 percent share of the worldwide market.

State-employed archaeologists in crisis-hit Greece say government spending cuts pose a severe threat to the country's rich cultural heritage.

The Association of Greek Archaeologists warns that as Greeks are pummeled by income losses and record unemployment, looting of ancient sites by amateur treasure hunters is growing. They say cutbacks have also led to severe security guard shortages.

A North Korean orchestra led by a South Korean conductor performed in Paris for the first time Wednesday, in a diplomatic victory highlighting that "music is bigger than borders".

The musicians played with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France under the baton of South Korean maestro Myung-Whun Chung who called the event a "family concert".

Musicians at New York's renowned Lincoln Center, one of the premier venues for live performances in the world, are protesting a major ballet company's decision to perform to canned music.

The visiting Paul Taylor Dance Company took over the stage for an almost three-week period in Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater starting Tuesday.

The world's biggest Titanic visitor attraction opens in the ship's Belfast birthplace this month, 100 years to the day since the doomed liner was completed in the same yards.

After decades of quietly forgetting "the most famous ship since Noah's Ark", Belfast has reclaimed the Titanic, and is championing a legend which continues to captivate the imagination a century on.

The One World international documentary festival, which opened in Bucharest on Wednesday, will focus on the new weapon in revolutions and revolts across the world: the Internet.

"If the Romanian 1989 revolution was the first one to be televised, the Green movement from Iran blossomed on the Internet and was fuelled via virtual networks. This change of tools has only taken 20 years", the organizers underlined.

Fifty years after losing the Algerian war, France is still suffering fallout from a conflict that shamed its armed forces and fuels bitter political rows even in its latest election battle.

Though French officials are keen to play down the 50th anniversary on March 18 of the ceasefire that ended the conflict, the war's legacy has reared its head in the run-up to France's April-May two-round presidential vote.

The suspected arsonist behind a deadly fire at a Brussels mosque said Tuesday he set the Shiite place of worship ablaze to scare the community he blames for the violence in Syria, officials said.

Belgium's Muslim community was in shock a day after the attack that left an imam dead.

The art collection of the late German-born playboy Gunter Sachs, featuring works celebrating his obsession with his former wife Brigitte Bardot, is to be auctioned in London on May 22-23.

The star lot to go under the hammer at Sotheby's is an Andy Warhol portrait of Bardot which Sachs commissioned in 1974, five years after the couple divorced, which is estimated to fetch up to £4 million ($6.3 million, 4.8 million euros), the auction house said Tuesday.