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Giacometti Exhibit in Rome Explores Power of Human Body

The striking, skeletal forms of Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti are juxtaposed with corpulent neo-classical and baroque Italian masterpieces in a new exhibition in Rome exploring the evocative power of the human body.

Forty Giacometti gems, including his famous spindly "Walking Man" in bronze, have been scattered around the permanent collection at the Villa Borghese Gallery in the Italian capital, dotted in among classics such as Bernini's "David" or Canova's "Pauline Borghese".

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'Her,' 'Captain Phillips' Win Writers Guild Awards

Spike Jonze's "Her" and Billy Ray's "Captain Phillips" have earned top screenplay honors from the Writers Guild of America.

Winning the prize for original screenplay on Saturday was "Her," Jonze's futuristic exploration of a man's relationship with his computer, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson as the voice of an operating system.

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Wary NKorea Struggles to Stay Afloat in Info Age

It's late afternoon at the e-library in North Korea's Kim Il Sung University, where row after row of smartly dressed students sit quietly, their faces bathed in the glow of computer displays as they surf the Internet. On the surface, it's a familiar-seeming scene, which is exactly why officials are offering it up for a look.

North Korea is literally off the charts regarding Internet freedoms. There essentially aren't any. But the country is increasingly online. Though it deliberately and meticulously keeps its people isolated and in the dark about the outside world, it knows it must enter the information age to survive in the global economy.

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Spanish Theatre a Crumbling Symbol of Tangiers' Rich Past

A century after it was built, the Cervantes theater in Tangiers, once a symbol of the famed Moroccan city's cultural vibrancy, is derelict and risks disappearing altogether, eclipsed by flashy new developments.

The 1,400-seat playhouse, just a short distance from the old port, is a masterpiece of early 20th-century Spanish architecture in the once-international city that in its heyday hosted a wealth of colorful characters and communities.

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Abortion-Rights Rally in Madrid over Planned Curbs

Thousands of pro-choice campaigners converged on the Spanish capital Saturday to voice their opposition to a government plan to restrict access to abortion in the mainly Catholic country.

Demonstrators shouting slogans and carrying banners that read "It's my right, It's my life" crowded around a Madrid station to greet a "freedom train" of activists from northern Spain for the country's first major protest against the plan.

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Tape of Martin Luther King Jr. Ariz. Speech Found

Mary Scanlon had no idea a $3 purchase from a Goodwill resale store in Phoenix would turn out to be a rare link to the civil rights movement's most revered leader.

Last April, Scanlon was at the thrift store when she spotted a pile of 35 vintage reel-to-reel tapes, including one labeled with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s name. Despite the moldy and torn packaging, she snapped up all of them.

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Astrodome Designated U.S. National Historic Place

A glimmer of hope surfaced in the effort to keep the Houston Astrodome —the world's first multipurpose domed stadium — from being torn down with its addition this week to the National Register of Historic Places.

But the designation alone will not be enough to prevent the demolition of the so-called "Eighth Wonder of the World," according to officials.

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Obama Presidential Library Search Kicks Off

The formal process to build a library housing President Barack Obama's presidential records and artifacts began Friday with the formation of a new foundation, launched by top supporters with Obama's blessing, that will develop and build the monument to his legacy.

The nonprofit Barack H. Obama Foundation will be led by Marty Nesbitt, a close Obama friend from Chicago, and Julianna Smoot, a former White House social secretary and top official in Obama's re-election campaign.

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Crushed Hopes in Egypt Become Art in New York

The brutal aftermath of the once euphoric Egyptian revolution is on stark display in a powerful New York exhibition that lays bare grief, death and shattered hopes.

Three years after protests first erupted across the Arab world, ultimately deposing autocratic rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, the hopes of millions now lie stagnant or in tatters.

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A Touch of Red Helps Global Art Market Boom

Want to sell that masterpiece for a fortune? It might help if it's red.

That's just one trend from an art market that has come roaring back from the global financial crisis, with buyers from emerging markets such as China molding tastes and driving top-end prices ever higher.

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