In the insular Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, the phallus is an ancient symbol commonly painted on houses to ward off evil spirits, but it is increasingly rare in the modernizing national capital.

The demise of this traditional motif, still seen all over in rural areas, points to profound changes underway in a country that has gone to extraordinary lengths to shield its unique local culture from outside influence.

Italian authorities have arrested a 52-year-old man suspected of vandalizing one of the fountains in Rome's landmark Piazza Navona.

The suspect, who comes from Rome, was apprehended in the city center overnight after police recognized him by his distinctive shoes, said the sources.

He survived the Holocaust carrying the solemn portraits he drew of concentration camp prisoners who labored alongside him in one of the largest counterfeiting operations in history. For decades, those portraits have rarely been seen.

Now the collection of 43 drawings by Felix Cytrin of his fellow Jewish prisoners have been donated to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial and museum, where researchers can study them and they will be exhibited for public viewing.

Greek police say they have recovered a painting by Flemish master Pieter Paul Rubens which had been stolen from a museum in Belgium in 2001. Two people have been arrested.

Police spokesman Panagiotis Papapetropoulos says the painting had been certified by experts from the Culture Ministry as being genuine. He did not have the name of the painting, which was being guarded by police in Athens.

Prominent Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi died in Beirut on Thursday aged 82, the American University of Beirut at which he taught for more than half a century announced.

Born a Protestant on May 2, 1929 in multi-confessional Lebanon, Salibi gained a reputation as the leading historian on his country, penning "The Modern History of Lebanon" and "A House of Many Mansions: The History of Lebanon Reconsidered."

Archeologists say they have located and excavated the ruins of a massive amphitheater used to train gladiators east of Vienna in what they call a "sensational discovery."

They say that the ruins located through ground radar measurements rival the Colosseum and the Ludus Magnus in Rome in their structure. The Ludus Magnus is the largest of the gladiatorial arenas in the Italian capital, while the Colosseum is the largest amphitheater ever built in the Roman Empire.

Indian-administered Kashmir's first major literature festival has been canceled after local writers and artists said it would give the false impression that basic freedoms are allowed in the troubled region.

The Harud literary festival was scheduled for Sept. 24-26 in Srinagar, Kashmir's largest city and the main hub of opposition to Indian rule.

Many Indonesians found themselves hungry and confused on Tuesday after the government declared the Eid al-Fitr festival that ends the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan would not start there for another day.

The government decided late Monday, after consulting with religious bodies, that the moon was not in the right position for Eid to begin on Tuesday, as it has done for most Muslims around the world. It will start Wednesday instead.

Colombia-born Mexican author Fernando Vallejo was awarded the 2011 prize Monday at the Guadalajara International Book Fair, the biggest Spanish-language literary event, organizers said.

The 68-year-old Vallejo is best known for "Our Lady of the Assassins", which was made into a feature film by French director Barbet Schroeder in 2000.

German poet, playwright and scientist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe has been voted the greatest German of all time in a new poll, beating runners-up chancellor Konrad Adenauer and physicist Albert Einstein.

The author of "The Sorrows of Young Werther" and "Faust", who died in 1832, received the most votes in a poll of 2,000 people for the daily Bild newspaper, said the Forsa institute which conducted the survey.