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Saudi Activists Rev Up Women's Right-to-Drive Campaign

Activists in Saudi Arabia are revving up a right-to-drive campaign using social media in the world's only country that bans women from getting behind the wheel, a campaigner said on Thursday.

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New Phase for Crystal Bridges: Contemporary Art

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened in 2011 in Wal-Mart's hometown, Bentonville, Arkansas, with a respectable collection of work by famous artists from Norman Rockwell's "Rosie the Riveter" to a George Washington portrait by Gilbert Stuart.

But the museum has just opened a massive exhibition of contemporary art called "State of the Art" that could be a game-changer. The museum is sometimes mocked by critics from outside the region for its location and Wal-Mart connections — its permanent collection was funded by Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton — but the new show represents a serious effort to introduce contemporary art to a mainstream audience far from the rarefied galleries of hipster neighborhoods and urban centers.

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How to be Emirati in a Sea of Foreign Influence

Think of the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf and what springs to mind? Billowing white robes against desert dunes, camel racing and falconry or futuristic buildings needling skywards?

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Japan's Sozzled Salarymen: The Lost tribe in a Modern Pickle

In a Tokyo karaoke booth thick with cigarette smoke, Shinsuke Chiba's eyes bulge as the 41-year-old rips into an enthusiastic, if somewhat misjudged, rendition of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the UK".

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India Relic Hunters to Search for WWII Aircraft Wrecks

A search team is set to salvage the wrecks of Japanese and British military aircraft which crashed in a northeastern Indian lake during fierce fighting in World War II, an organizer said Wednesday.

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Indonesia Pledges to Protect Ancient Cave Paintings

Indonesia pledged Thursday to step up protection of ancient cave paintings that researchers say show that Europe was not the birthplace of art as many had long believed. 

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Anarchy in the People's Republic, Say Chinese Punks

A marigold and magenta mohawk adorning his shaven skull, Chinese punk rocker Shan Lin has a subversive message in a country that suppresses dissent -- a rebel with a cause.

"The more anarchists the better, the more chaos and the more we love that! This country is so screwed up! There's a reason our band is called The Demonstrators," said the 30-year-old, before taking the stage at a punk festival in Beijing.

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The Bloody Underworld of Central America's Gangs

Jose was 13 when he entered the violent, murky underworld of the "maras," the gangs that have stained Central America's streets in blood.

Like the tens of thousands of young people who have joined these brutal urban tribes, the olive-skinned 26-year-old wears his fate tattooed on his skin -- though his are less visible than many members' full-body tattoos.

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Lab Sleuths Help Art World Uncover Fakes

Dressed in an immaculate white lab coat, Sandra Mottaz stares intently through a stereo microscope at a bold-coloured painting purportedly by French master Fernand Leger, searching for signs of forgery.

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For Colombia's Wiwa, Revered Lightning Takes Deadly Toll

Deep in northern Colombia's mountains, an isolated community of indigenous Wiwa people struggled Tuesday to comprehend why 11 of their own were struck dead by a bolt of lightning during a tribal ceremony.

"We're trying to recover our spirits, because this was a big shock to our community. That nature would treat us this way -- we are in mourning," Lorenzo Gil, a Wiwa member told AFP.

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