Israeli archaeologists have unearthed a rare sarcophagus featuring a slender face and a scarab ring inscribed with the name of an Egyptian pharaoh, Israel's Antiquities Authority said Wednesday.

The mystery man whose skeleton was found inside the sarcophagus was most likely a local Canaanite official in the service of ancient Egypt, Israeli archaeologists believe, shining a light on a period when pharaohs governed the region.

The mangled remains of a powerful Corvette — barely recognizable to its former owner — were pulled from the depths of a sinkhole at a Kentucky museum Wednesday, completing weeks of painstaking work to retrieve eight classic cars that were gobbled up by the gaping hole.

The 2001 Mallett Hammer Z06 Corvette was buried in dirt and rocks, deep beneath the surface of the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green. The mood was somber as the crumpled car, which boasted 700 horsepower thanks to performance enhancements, was pulled to the surface.

Saudi Arabia is considering ending its controversial ban on sports in girls' state schools, after its consultative council recommended the ban be lifted over vociferous opposition from traditionalists.

Following a heated debate on Tuesday, the Shura Council recommended that the longstanding ban, already relaxed in private schools in May last year, be ended altogether, state media reported.

A landmark exhibition opens in New York next week exploring the ancient kingdoms of Southeast Asia and introducing to the outside world the first treasures from Myanmar seen abroad.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art spent five years preparing the exhibition of Hindu-Buddhist sculptures from a region and ancient culture little known in the United States.

The J. Paul Getty Museum has agreed to return to Greece a Byzantine New Testament manuscript illegally taken from a monastery on Mount Athos over 50 years ago, it said Monday.

The documented was acquired in 1983 as part of a "large, well-documented collection," but recent research indicated that it had been stolen from the Holy Monastery of Dionysiou, said the Los Angeles-based museum.

Four steel plates rise out of Qatar's desert sands like behemoths, symbolizing, according to U.S. artist Richard Serra who created the sculpture, the connection between the wealthy Gulf state's two regions.

The sculpture, East-West/West-East, was unveiled on Tuesday in a desert area around 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the capital Doha, by the sister of Qatar's emir, who has been named by Britain's ArtReview as the most influential figure in the art world.

Thousands of Muscovites and several top international architects have launched an unprecedented campaign to save an elegant steel tower that has loomed over Moscow's skyline since 1922.

The Russian communications ministry says it will dismantle and relocate the Shukhov tower, a masterpiece of design often compared to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Derek Kitchen and Moudi Sbeity have become superstars in the gay marriage movement in Utah. Raised in Mormon and Muslim families, they have given speeches at raucous rallies and have appeared in so many media stories that strangers come up to them and thank them for what they've done.

They are one of three gay and lesbian couples who are plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the conservative western U.S. state that led a federal judge to overturn Utah's gay marriage ban in December. More than 1,000 gay and lesbian couples were able to marry after the ruling.

A rare Ming-era wine cup broke the world auction record for any Chinese porcelain on Tuesday, selling in Hong Kong for $36.05 million to Shanghai tycoon Liu Yiqian, Sotheby's auction house said.

The tiny white porcelain cup, decorated with a color painting of a rooster and a hen tending to their chicks, was made during the reign of the Chenghua Emperor between 1465 and 1487.

A court in Egypt sentenced four men to up to eight years in prison on Monday for practicing homosexuality, a judicial official said.

Prosecutors had accused the men of holding "deviant parties" and dressing in women's clothes.