Lacking the necessary cash and manpower, Pakistan is struggling to stem the flow of millions of dollars in ancient Buddhist artifacts that looters dig up in the country's northwest and smuggle to collectors around the world.

The black market trade in smuggled antiquities is a global problem that some experts estimate is worth billions of dollars per year. The main targets are poor countries like Pakistan that possess a rich cultural heritage but don't have the resources to protect it.

Orthodox Jewish Israelis, the driving force of the West Bank settlement movement, have begun to turn their attention inward to Israel itself, moving into Arab areas of mixed cities in an attempt to cement the Jewish presence there.

Activists say that in recent years, several thousand devout Jews have pushed into rundown Arab areas of Jaffa, Lod, Ramle and Acre, hardscrabble cities divided between Jewish and Arab neighborhoods. Their arrival has threatened to disrupt fragile ethnic relations with construction of religious seminaries and housing developments marketed exclusively to Jews.

Catholic bishops from around the world are convening for a synod starting on Sunday to debate how to counter rising secularism on the 50th anniversary of the historic but controversial Second Vatican Council.

The synod will hear a call from Pope Benedict XVI for a "new evangelization" drive for the Catholic Church, which is fast losing followers in Europe and feels increasingly discriminated against in many parts of the world.

Australian billionaire Clive Palmer said Wednesday he will unveil the design and plans for his ambitious Titanic II project in New York with the help of John F. Kennedy's daughter Caroline.

The flamboyant Palmer, who announced plans in April to construct the replica Titanic with exactly the same dimensions as its ill-fated predecessor, will hold a gala dinner on December 4 on the retired aircraft carrier USS Intrepid.

One of the Washington's biggest art museums lifted the wraps Tuesday on the first North American survey of the work of Ai Weiwei, with the Chinese dissident artist conspicuous by his absence.

"Ai Weiwei: According to What?" which opens Sunday, takes up an entire floor of the Hirshhorn Museum with the outspoken artist's photographs, videos, sculptures, installations and, on the walls, thought-provoking quotations.

 First delivered by horse-drawn carriages to Paris newsstands and hotels, the International Herald Tribune marks its 125th anniversary on Thursday amid troubling times for the newspaper industry.

But the pioneer of global journalism -- a dependable presence for international travelers whether in Paris, Kuwait or Tokyo -- is confident it can adapt to a digital age that has turned the newspaper business model on its head.

Eric Hobsbawm, the eminent British historian who chronicled the extremes of the 19th and 20th centuries from a Marxist perspective, died on Monday at the age of 95, his daughter said.

Hobsbawm was a distinguished but controversial figure due to his long and unapologetic membership of the Communist party, which he maintained despite atrocities in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe.

British author Salman Rushdie said Monday that if a fatwa calling for his murder over his book "The Satanic Verses" had been issued in the social networking era, it would have further endangered his life.

The writer, in Berlin to publicize his new account of the near decade he spent in hiding, said the campaign against his 1988 book had been "very efficient and very international" with just phones and fax machines.

As they work to give away part of Warren Buffett's roughly $47 billion fortune, his three children have adopted an approach that looks remarkably similar to their father's technique for making all that money.

Like Buffett, each relies on tiny staffs. And just like their father invests only in businesses he understands, they restrict their giving to their targeted projects.

When Wu Rui's 12-year-old daughter died she lost not just the only child she would ever have but also her source of security and support in old age.

Today the 55-year-old takes care of herself and her own elderly parents on a paltry pension in a ramshackle two-room home, living in fear of medical emergencies she has no way to pay for.