Mexican mariachi music, Chinese shadow puppetry and poetic dueling from Cyprus were among the cultural traditions identified by the United Nations on Tuesday as in need of protection.

Also added to the Intangible Cultural Heritage list — now in its second year and nearly 250 strong — were French-style horseback riding, which celebrates harmony between beast and man, the doleful fado songs of Portugal and Jultagi tightrope walking from Korea.

The story of men, women and children plucked from their homes in the West's colonies and exhibited like zoo animals is the focus of a major show that opened on Monday at Paris' tribal arts museum.

"Exhibitions: the invention of the savage", at the Quai Branly museum, shows how up until the mid-20th century, labeling indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, Oceania and America "savages" helped to justify the brutality of colonial rule.

A relic said to have belonged to the Virgin Mary left Russia Monday after a tour that saw it worshipped by three million people in a potent display of the power of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Belt of the Virgin Mary attracted a million people in Moscow alone, inspiring them to queue in a five-kilometer (three-mile) line for up to 26 hours in hope of touching the silver chest holding the relic and receiving a miracle.

French-style horseback riding guided by principles of non-violence was one of seven items added Sunday to UNESCO's list of "intangible cultural heritage" in need of preservation.

Envoys on Indonesia's resort island of Bali picked the new listings among scores of entries to add to the U.N. cultural agency's list of traditions in need of urgent protection.

Moammar Gadhafi's forces tried to flee Tripoli with a sack of ancient Roman artifacts in hopes of selling them abroad to help fund their doomed fight, Libya's new leaders said Saturday as they displayed the recovered objects for the first time.

The director of the state antiquities department, Saleh Algabe, hailed the find of 17 pieces, mostly small stone heads, as an important recovery of national treasures.

Members of the Amish community in three states have been frightened by recent hair-cutting attacks in Ohio, making fearful calls to authorities and arming themselves with pepper spray and shotguns, a sheriff said.

Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdullah said Amish in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana were concerned about the attacks that led federal authorities on Wednesday to raid the compound of a breakaway Amish group and charge seven men, including group leader Sam Mullet, with hate crimes.

Australia on Wednesday announced plans to make forced marriage and "slavery-like" practices prevalent in the sex industry illegal.

Minister for the Status of Women Kate Ellis said the draft legislation was part of the country's response to combat people-trafficking and modern slavery.

A museum in Taiwan says two employees made and sold unauthorized copies of a 220-year-old Buddhist scripture written in the Tibetan language, one of the museum's most treasured pieces.

In January, the National Palace Museum unveiled 500 copies of the 100,000-page book "Tripitaka in Manchu," written in gold and painted with Buddha statues just like the original. Each sells for 1.88 million New Taiwan dollars ($62,000).

Dressed in a black outfit brightened only by red poppy pins, Queen Elizabeth II led thousands of veterans and civilians in a solemn tribute to the country's war dead at the annual Remembrance Sunday ceremony.

The service at central London's Cenotaph war memorial, held on a sunny autumn morning, is a focal point of nationwide observances to honor those who lost their lives in fighting. Similar ceremonies were held in dozens of towns and cities throughout Britain and military outposts in Afghanistan and around the world.

While other national leaders play golf or ride horses to relax, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says he composes songs.

One of his compositions -- on the environment -- was played just before he spoke to business leaders on Saturday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Honolulu, Hawaii.