Nazi memorabilia that belonged to Adolf Hitler and air force chief Hermann Goering have been withdrawn from a Paris auction following objections from Jewish bodies.
Goering's passport and a wooden chest presented to Hitler emblazoned with swastikas were among the items that were to have gone under the hammer in a sale organised by the Vermot de Pas auction house on April 26.
Full StoryA lock of Napoleon Bonaparte's hair and other "priceless" artifacts linked to the French emperor have been stolen from a museum in Australia, police said Tuesday.
Burglars broke into the building on Victoria state's Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne, in what was believed to be a targeted robbery.
Full StoryFrance's main Jewish body on Sunday called for the cancellation of an auction of Adolf Hitler and Nazi air force chief Hermann Goering's personal effects due in Paris next month.
The umbrella organisation CRIF said the sale, planned for April 26, was "a form of moral indecency" and disrespectful to "the victims of Nazi barbarism".
Full StoryA pair of rhinestone earrings Marilyn Monroe wore to a 1955 Hollywood film premiere have sold at auction for $185,000.
Julien's Auctions said in a statement Sunday that the actress wore the jewelry when she attended the opening of "The Rose Tattoo."
Full StoryValparaiso, the Chilean port city of 270,000 ravished by fire, is a UNESCO world heritage site once dubbed "the jewel of the Pacific" by visiting sailors navigating around South America.
The port city is visited by thousands of tourists every year who marvel at the historic center with its cobbled streets and colored houses dating from the city's glory days from the mid-19th century to the early 20th.
Full StoryWhile he may not be widely known internationally, pope John XXIII holds a special place in the heart of many Italians and nowhere more so than in his homeland of Bergamo where he was born into a farming family.
But locals say the man nicknamed "Good Pope John" for his down-to-earth personality -- similar to that of Pope Francis -- should be remembered as a driving force behind reforms in Catholicism still relevant today.
Full StoryBefore selfie-snapping Francis, there was John Paul II, the charismatic Polish pope who made a name for himself by circling the globe and talking to anyone and everyone.
"He broke protocol. I know that security had trouble keeping an eye on him. He sometimes wandered off when he felt like it," Warsaw sociologist Pawel Boryszewski said of the soon-to-be saint who died in 2005.
Full StoryComedian and writer Carol Leifer has something serious to say in her new book, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Crying."
Why listen to a comic? First, it's important to remember that with show business, the accent is on "business." If Leifer could make it in that unforgiving industry, she may be able to help others make it anywhere.
Full StoryWorkers are rushing to finish the reconstruction of the Sarajevo Library — a landmark destroyed during the Bosnian war — in time for the June ceremonies marking the centenary of the assassination that ignited World War I.
The reconstruction has taken 18 years — nine times longer than the building's original construction 120 years ago by the Austro-Hungarian Empire that ruled over Bosnia then and built it to be the City Hall. Later it was turned into the National Library.
Full StoryNoel Biderman insists he has no problems sleeping at night after launching an adultery hook-up site in South Korea where marital infidelity is a crime punishable by up to two years in prison.
Biderman is the CEO of Canada-based AshleyMadison.com -- slogan: "Life is short. Have an affair" -- which claims more than 25 million subscribers in 35 countries and launched in South Korea last month.
Full Story