Russia's renowned Hermitage museum warned of a return to Soviet-era repression of artists after local prosecutors said they were checking one of its exhibits for extremism.

The Saint Petersburg museum came under fire last week for hosting an exhibition by Britain's Jake and Dinos Chapman, visual artists known for their epic installations of little figurines in violent scenes.

Devoured by a giant squash, engulfed by flood or flames, frozen in a nuclear winter or new ice age, mankind has looked to The End with fear and fascination since the dawn of civilization.

Nature's cycles -- day succeeding night, the four seasons -- long fed fears of being plunged into eternal darkness, or an endless winter.

The skyline of Chile's capital has been altered over the past year by a skyscraper -- the tallest in South America and one so towering it casts a shadow nearly two kilometers (more than a mile) long.

The 70-story Gran Torre Costanera Center, a giant that dwarfs the city's other skyscrapers, overwhelms the view of a city founded in 1541 by Spanish conquistadors and that remains proud of its colonial-era buildings.

A breakthrough year for "brand Korea" -- led by the rapper Psy and electronics giant Samsung -- has boosted efforts to promote a country that still feels overshadowed, under-appreciated and misunderstood.

While some may question the benefit of a chubby thirty-something and his horse-riding dance becoming your best-known cultural export, the phenomenal success of Psy's "Gangnam Style" undoubtedly raised the national profile.

Hundreds of people formed a human chain in Rabat on Saturday to denounce all forms of violence against women, an AFP correspondent reported.

"We are here to denounce physical, verbal and moral violence, as well as the harassment of women," said a member of "Spring of Dignity," a coalition of 22 groups defending the rights of women.

Nelson Mandela was on Saturday admitted to a hospital for tests consistent with old age and is doing well, the office of South Africa's president, Jacob Zuma, announced.

"Former President Nelson Mandela has today, 8 December 2012, been admitted in hospital in Pretoria to undergo tests," Zuma's office announced. Mandela "is doing well and there is no cause for alarm," it added.

La Scala opera house in Milan on Friday celebrated the start of its 2012/2013 season with Richard Wagner's "Lohengrin" -- a disputed choice ahead of the bicentenaries of the famous German composer and his Italian rival Giuseppe Verdi.

The premiere coincides with the Feast of Saint Ambrose, the patron saint of Italy's commercial capital, and the country's economic and political elites were out in force for the gala.

Mo Yan was assailed Saturday in the Chinese dissident community as a "prostitute" after his Nobel lecture, which was acclaimed in the communist state's media.

In the Nobel lecture in Stockholm on Friday, Mo, the vice-chairman of the government-backed China Writers' Association, took a swipe at his critics, saying their target "had nothing to do" with him, and urged them to read his books.

French and Italian archaeologists have found the remains of a grain port that played a critical role in the rise of ancient Rome, France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) said on Thursday.

Cores drilled at a location at the mouth of the River Tiber have revealed the site of a port whose existence has been sought for centuries, it said in a press release.

The newly-opened Ropac Gallery, housed in a refurbished early 20th-century boiler works, symbolizes the transformation under way in Pantin and other gritty, working class suburbs to the north and east of Paris.

Paris is a compact city and as it deals with increasing demands on space, many residents and businesses are looking to the surrounding suburbs, which are home to the bulk of the 12 million people in the French capital's agglomeration.