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.

Archives documenting Nelson Mandela's life went on display Monday to mark 50 years since the iconic South Africa leader arrived at the infamous Robben Island to serve a life prison sentence.

The Johannesburg-based Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, which had been closed for renovations for nearly a year, houses a wide array of documents on the life of the anti-apartheid leader.

A grandson of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army captain wrongly accused of treason over a century ago, on Monday urged a private collector not to allow a letter penned by his ancestor to go under the hammer in Paris this week.

Written to the interior ministry in 1895, a month after Dreyfus was sentenced for treason, the letter is expected to fetch between 100,000 and 150,000 euros ($130,000 and $190,000) when it goes on auction at Sotheby's on Wednesday.

The 86th annual National Spelling Bee kicks off Tuesday with 281 youngsters from eight nations putting their ability to spell some of the most obscure words in the English language to the test.

Sponsored by the Scripps media group, the three-day competition at the Gaylord National Resort outside Washington is an American institution that's been won for the past five years by teenagers of South Asian heritage.

The first gay marriage in France was to take place Wednesday in the southern city of Montpellier, amid fears of protest after months of opposition that saw tens of thousands take to the streets

Officially a secular republic, France is overwhelmingly Catholic, and the issue of gay adoption and marriage -- a key campaign pledge of Socialist President Francois Hollande -- has caused deep divisions.

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi Monday criticized a ban on Rohingya having more than two children in strife-torn Rakhine state as counter to human rights, in rare comments on the plight of the Muslim group.

The opposition leader, who has been accused by activists of failing to speak up for the marginalized Rohingya, said she opposed the controversial rule, imposed by the previous junta and reaffirmed recently by local authorities in the wake of deadly unrest.

The commemoration of this year's milestone anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg will include amenities that soldiers would have relished 150 years ago — expanded cellphone coverage and dozens of portable toilets.

The National Park Service and a cadre of community organizers are busily putting the finishing touches on preparations for the commemoration of the pivotal battle of the American Civil War that cemented this small Pennsylvania town's place in U.S history. Tens of thousands of visitors are expected for a 10-day schedule of events that begin June 29.

Pope Francis on Saturday said the Catholic Church should not be closed off to sinners like a "pastoral customs house,” giving as an example baptisms for the children of unmarried mothers.

"We are often controllers of the faith instead of facilitators," the pope said at a mass in the Vatican residence where he has stayed since being elected instead of moving into the papal home.

Dan Brown's description of Manila as "the gates of hell" in the American novelist's latest book has not gone down well with officials in the Philippine capital.

The book "Inferno," which is being sold in the Philippines, describes a visitor to the city who is taken aback by poverty, crime and prostitution.