The great inventor of Antiquity, Archimedes, is the star of an unprecedented exhibition opening in Rome which includes modern applications of some of his best known discoveries.

"We owe him some revolutionary inventions," Umberto Broccoli, head of cultural heritage in the Italian capital, said at a press presentation of the show.

The power of money, tragedy and destruction: the world looks pitiless and harsh through the lens of the 55th Biennale art festival in Venice, which starts on Saturday.

A record number of 88 national pavilions are taking part -- including, for the first time, the Vatican -- in a festival that takes an overall jaded view of a world hard-hit by economic crisis and full of discord.

The Palestinian foreign ministry on Thursday slammed Israel for having called off a United Nations investigative mission to Jerusalem's Old City, calling it an act of "contempt of international law and institutions."

The ministry said it "condemns in the strongest possible terms the decision of Israel, the occupying power, to prevent the technical mission of UNESCO from carrying its monitoring mission in the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls."

The relics from the Mary Rose, the flagship of England's navy when it sank in 1545 as a heartbroken king Henry VIII watched from the shore, have finally been reunited with the famous wreck in a new museum offering a view of life in Tudor times.

Skeletons, longbows, tankards, gold coins and even nit combs are going on display alongside the remains of the pride of Henry's fleet.

Iraqi authorities have contracted a Czech firm to carry out a 10-month restoration of the ancient Arch of Ctesiphon as part of a plan to boost tourism to the once-popular site.

Through the decades of conflict that have wracked Iraq, the famed 6th century monument, which is the world's largest brick-built arch and the last structure still standing from the ancient Persian imperial capital Ctesiphon, has fallen into disrepair.

Whatever their social or political differences, Cairo's residents agree on one thing: the traffic is a nightmare.

Increasingly desperate to escape the gridlock and pollution of the Egyptian capital, more people are now using the Nile for their daily commute to work.

Investigators are analyzing ashes found in the house of a Romanian suspect charged for the spectacular Dutch museum heist, judicial sources said Wednesday, raising fears that the seven stolen masterpieces may have been burnt.

"Tests are underway, they will take some time," Gabriela Neagu, a spokeswoman for the Romanian prosecutor's office, told Agence France Presse.

The world's oldest complete Torah scroll has been found in a university archive in Bologna, according to an Italian professor who said the text could be from the 12th century.

The precious lambskin scroll had been classified by the university library as being from the 17th century and was named simply "Scroll Number Two".

Egyptian restoration experts have managed to remove graffiti from an ancient monument after it had been defaced by a Chinese tourist, the antiquities department said on Tuesday.

Authorities had assigned a committee to assess the damage and concluded that the marks on the 3,500 year-old panel were superficial.

Rare plants, enchanting ruins and the tinkle of waterfalls: the English-style botanical oasis of Ninfa near Rome is a secret idyll billed as "the world's most romantic garden".

The exquisite garden dates back to the late 19th century when the aristocratic Caetani family took over lands deserted for centuries including Ninfa, a town that was abandoned in the Middle Ages.