Rima Singh, an executive with an Indian outsourcing company, smokes, drinks and dates boyfriends in New Delhi --- but doesn't tell her parents back home in small-town India.

Three years ago, the 24-year-old left what she described as a mundane life full of strict social conventions in the town of Mathura in northern India and headed for the bright lights of New Delhi.

Survivors and descendants of Jews killed during the Iasi pogrom in Romania on Tuesday attended ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of one of the worst single Holocaust massacres.

"We are here today next to the Iasi Synagogue, the oldest in Romania. We are inaugurating an obelisk which is a monument to remember the thousands of Jews slaughtered here at the end of June 1941", the president of the Iasi Jewish community, Abraham Ghiltan, said.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation on Monday launched a new book that distills his wisdom into 2,000 quotes on everything from prison life to reconciliation to his grief over the ravages of AIDS.

The foundation said the project was born from the thousands of requests received every year from people and organizations across the globe seeking to verify statements attributed to Mandela, both celebrated and obscure.

French archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of colored limestone blocks dating back 3,000 years and thought to have been used to build a sacred lake for the goddess Mut, the antiquities ministry said Monday.

Most of the blocks, which were unearthed in the Nile Delta town of San al-Hagar, could have belonged to King Osorkon II of the 22nd dynasty, while some bear inscriptions from his successors King Osorkon III and IV, the ministry said.

Tamyras Publishing house has launched its new book titled Losing Touch, Beyrouth Des Petits Metiers, a book of encounters with those who, at a street corner, offer their expertise and their smile. In Order not to lose that heritage, three young people went to discover these forgotten artisans… Kaak hawker, silverer, circumciser…

These Men and women may be the last witnesses of the Beirut Of yesteryear. From These 50 Artisans from Beirut, Telling us their profession, their passion, their dreams and wishes, we will remember their unwavering commitment to the city, their fear of losing their livelihood and their desire to pass on their experience.

A night out in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi is not everyone's idea of fun. There are no cinemas, no clubs, only a handful of open restaurants and alcohol is illegal.

But while the war being fought 240 kilometers (150 miles) away is on everyone's mind, Libyans are still game for a night out.

For the tattered-clothed young men in this remote community, milking a camel's stubby utters at sunrise is not a novelty, but a daily chore to get milk valued by their tribe for generations.

But camel's milk, long-cherished by the Cushite people of central Kenya, is now enjoying a renaissance in the capital Nairobi and could, some say, become an internationally coveted health food product worth 10 billion dollars a year. "Camels are better than cows because they can survive when there is drought, but the cows cannot, so I can make a profit even during dry season," said Halima Hussein, 45, whose 84-strong flock makes her a local camel-mogul.

French Egyptologist Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, known for her books on art and history and for saving the Nubian temples from flooding caused by the Aswan Dam, has died at the age of 97, her editor Telemaque said Friday.

In a career spanning more than half-a-century, Desroches-Noblecourt also helped preserve the mummy of King Ramses II, which was threatened by fungus, and became the first French woman to lead an archaeological dig in 1938.

A magnum of wine from a French vineyard owned by Denmark's Prince Consort Henrik has been sold in Beijing for one million Yuan (110,000 Euros, 155,000 dollars), the vineyard said Thursday.

Guillaume Bardin, director of the Chateau de Cayx vineyard in southwest France, said the magnum was sold in the Chinese capital on Wednesday "during a charity auction to benefit an association that cares for the disabled".

China has overtaken the United States as the biggest auction market for art and collectable objects, after its sales more than doubled in just one year, according to research made public on Thursday.

A report for the Conseil des Ventes Volontaires (CVV, the French Auction Market Authority) said sales in China, including Hong Kong, grew 137 percent in 2010 to 7.6 billion Euros (10.8 billion dollars).