Precious ivory artifacts which crime author Agatha Christie cleaned using her face cream after her husband had excavated them have been bought by the British Museum, it was reported Tuesday.

The prolific author was present at excavations directed by her second husband, Max Mallowan, in the former Assyrian capital of Nimrud.

The Israel Museum says a statue by French sculptor Auguste Rodin was stolen during the facility's recently completed renovation.

The nude bronze of French novelist Honore de Balzac was one of a series of studies Rodin cast for a monument to Balzac on display in Paris.

Thousands of Vietnamese jostled and climbed trees around a lake in the capital Tuesday hoping to see a rare giant turtle considered sacred by many but in desperate need of medical attention.

Dozens of workers waded chest-deep through the chilly green water in Hanoi's Hoan Kiem Lake to try to capture the giant freshwater creature for the first time, so it could be pulled to an island and treated. It is one of the world's most endangered turtles — one of only four Rafeteus swinhoei believed to be alive today — but its value to the nation transcends the natural world.

Providence smiled on Balinese seer Ketut Liyer the day U.S. tourist Elizabeth Gilbert came to visit -- her memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love", would make him richer than he ever dreamed.

The fortune teller said to be aged in his 90s -- no one knows exactly -- was a poor man when he looked into Gilbert's eyes and predicted she would live in Bali and find true love.

From shackles that bound African slaves when they arrived in America to a smiling image of President Barack Obama, the American I AM exhibit, currently in Washington, is a moving chronicle of African Americans' struggle and triumphs.

The exhibit has gathered more than 200 artifacts from personal or museum collections, along with photos and film clips, to chart how 500 years of hardship, faith and creativity have forged African American history and how black Americans have left a deep imprint on U.S. life.

The world's richest man, telecom tycoon Carlos Slim, gave a sneak peak Tuesday at the new museum where he plans to show his vast collection of art and collectibles, including priceless pieces by Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, French sculptor Auguste Rodin and Italian master Leonardo da Vinci.

The Soumaya museum — named after the tycoon's late wife — opens to the public on March 29 and admission will be free.

Surrogacy is forbidden under Islam, a religious authority in Malaysia said Tuesday after reports that the practice is becoming more popular in the Muslim-majority nation.

"If another woman is introduced into the situation, then it means the real mother of the child can be questioned," said Mat Jais Kamos from the Islamic affairs department in Malaysia's biggest state, Selangor.

Early French Renaissance art receives the royal treatment in the first major U.S. exhibit devoted to the period which opened this week at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Frst shown in Paris, the exhibit provides a rare glimpse of the period in which late Gothic exuberance was influenced by the energy and harmony of the Renaissance.

Purushottan H. Sakhare perches on a wall by a Mumbai pavement, slips a sheet of green paper behind the roller of his battered typewriter and winds it into position with two deft flicks of the wrist.

After pulling the carriage release lever towards himself, he punches the worn, black keys, the swift and precise movements of his fingers sending the slender metal type bars slamming into the black ink ribbon.

Papers relating to codebreaker and computer pioneer Alan Turing will go to a British museum after the National Heritage Memorial Fund stepped in to help buy them for the nation.

The government-backed fund said Friday it had donated more than 200,000 pounds ($320,000) to a campaign to stop the notes and scientific papers from going to a private buyer.