It's been called the biggest art heist in U.S. history, perhaps the biggest in the world. But 25 years later, the theft of 13 works from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum remains unsolved.

The theft has spawned books, rumors and speculation about who was responsible — and multiple dead ends.

Syrian and Iraqi Christians have pleaded for more international assistance from new homes in Lebanon where they recently arrived after fleeing attack by militants from the Islamic State group.

They spoke on Tuesday in two Beirut churches where they lined up to receive food baskets and other humanitarian assistance from a non-profit organization called In Defense of Christians (IDC), whose mission is to protect Christians in the Middle East.

A bill for $1.40 sent out by a Maine water district almost a half-century ago has finally been returned.

The Brunswick and Topsham Water District mailed the bill to a resident of Topsham in October 1969. The bill was supposed to be returned to the water district by the post office because the customer's post office box had been closed.

The Harvard president told students at one of China's most prestigious universities Tuesday that academic institutions must be unfettered places where every topic can be raised and every question asked to help tackle challenges such as climate change.

The comments by Drew Gilpin Faust were part of a 30-minute speech at Beijing's Tsinghua University on climate change in which she urged universities in the two countries to collaborate on research and on teaching the next generation how to deal with climate change.

Sunderland hired former Netherlands manager Dick Advocaat as coach on Tuesday until the end of the season, tasked with keeping the northeast club in the English Premier League.

Sunderland made the appointment less than 24 hours after firing Gus Poyet after 17 months in charge, with the team a point above the relegation zone with nine matches to go.

Celebrating her 100th birthday with a parachute jump is not enough for South African Georgina Harwood. She plans to make her centenary even more exciting by doing a shark cage dive on Monday.

Her birthday skydive was a tandem jump in which she was in harness with another person. The jump took place Saturday near the Melkbosstrand area north of Cape Town.

Coca-Cola is working with fitness and nutrition experts who suggest its soda as a treat at a time when the world's biggest beverage maker is being blamed for helping to fuel obesity rates.

In February, several of the experts wrote online posts for American Heart Month, with each including a mini-can of Coke or soda as a snack idea. The pieces — which appeared on nutrition blogs and other sites including those of major newspapers — offer a window into the many ways food companies work behind the scenes to cast their products in a positive light, often with the help of third parties who are seen as trusted authorities.

Nepal is adding more medical staff at Mount Everest's base camp and working to speed up rescue efforts, officials said Tuesday, in steps to boost safety after 16 local guides were killed by an avalanche last year in the deadliest disaster ever on the world's highest peak.

Four doctors, up from two or three in the past, will be stationed at the base camp's emergency room tent, which will be equipped to handle almost any medical need, said Devi Bahadur Koirala of the Himalayan Rescue Association Nepal.

Actor Emile Hirsch is making his first court appearance since being charged with assault for allegedly putting a studio executive in a chokehold and dragging her across a nightclub table while he was in Utah for the Sundance Film Festival.

Hirsch was charged last month with aggravated assault, which is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. He is also facing a misdemeanor count of intoxication.

The starving sea lion pup was so tiny that it looked like a rock at the base of the seaside cliff until it struggled to raise its head as humans approached.

It bleated weakly as volunteer Brennan Slavik eased it into a crate for transport to a rescue center, where it peered from a child's playpen with woeful eyes made enormous by an emaciated frame.