Early humans were already using stone tips to enhance the killing power of spears at least 500,000 years ago, some 200,000 years earlier than previously thought, anthropologists said Thursday.

Attaching stone points to spears -- a technique known as "hafting" -- requires more planning and effort than simply sharpening a stick, and was important in the development of early hunting weaponry.

The Soviet Union 50 years ago allowed publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's landmark account of life in the Stalin prison camps "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", shocking readers by revealing a hitherto hidden horror.

In November 1962, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was looking for a powerful symbol that could help his risky campaign to expunge Stalin's lasting impact on political and cultural life. He found it in a story by the then unknown author Solzhenitsyn.

Political talk flowed as freely as booze in the lively Khartoum of decades past, and The Grand Hotel was its fountain.

Behind the colonial-era walls, deals were made and gossip exchanged by an elite group of civil servants, politicians, intellectuals and businessmen.

Milan cathedral has launched a campaign to adopt its gargoyles to help it raise the 25 million euros ($32 million) needed to clean up the landmark monument as culture budgets take a hit from the crisis.

A total of 135 gargoyles are up for adoption and donors who cough up more than 100,000 euros ($128,000) will have their name engraved under the gargoyle.

When the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science opens, visitors will be able to feel the ground shake beneath them in an earthquake simulation, program a robot to navigate a maze and even test their speed against a virtual Tyrannosaurus rex.

"It's just going to be an incredible hands-on learning experience for people interested in nature and science," said Nicole G. Small, the museum's chief executive officer.

A conch pearl and diamond bracelet that once belonged to Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain fetched 3.2 million Swiss francs (2.7 million euros, $3.4 million) at auction in Geneva on Wednesday, more than doubling reserve estimates.

Spectators in a packed auction room at Sotheby's looked on as bids for the baby-pink and diamond-encrusted Cartier piece surpassed expectations, which had put the final sale price at 750,000 to 1.5 million Swiss francs.

Britain has some of the best galleries in the world, but the vast majority of the oil paintings in public ownership have for decades been hidden away in private offices or storage. Until now.

By the end of the year, 210,000 paintings will have been dusted off and photographed for inclusion in a ground-breaking online museum, accessible to members of the public at just a click of a button.

A canvas of violent black brushstrokes by abstract expressionist Franz Kline sold for $40.4 million at Christie's in New York on Wednesday, setting a new record by far for the artist.

The result was four times higher than the previous high auction price for Kline, whose works have tended to be overshadowed by those of more famous abstract artists like Mark Rothko.

The Vatican on Thursday opened an exhibition devoted to art treasures from oil-rich Azerbaijan -- one of the few predominantly Muslim countries with which it enjoys close ties.

President Ilham Aliyev's wife Mehriban and Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture, inaugurated the show.

Rousing desert rhythms brought to life the oasis of M'Hamid, last stop in Morocco before the vast empty wastes of the Sahara, as musicians from across the region descended on the dunes.

The Taragalte music festival kicked off in earnest at the weekend under a spectacular star-lit sky, with a list of women's groups, from Morocco, Mauritania and Mali topping the bill.