Romania recovered gold coins and silver jewels dating back to the first century BC that were stolen from the site of Sarmizegetusa Regia, the capital of the ancient Dacian people, the national history museum said Tuesday.

"The recovery of five coins and 14 pieces of jewelry is the crowning of more than two years of efforts made by prosecutors, policemen and by Romanian and German experts," the museum said in a statement.

As it trundles down busy roads, the minibus packed with tourists would be unremarkable except for two things -- its passengers are Westerners and the city they are in is Baghdad.

Iraq is no stranger to tourism, with countless pilgrims visiting its religious shrines, but now the country that touts itself as the "cradle of civilization" also wants a different kind of visitor.

An original manuscript of a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe has sold for $300,000 at an auction in Massachusetts.

The Standard Times of New Bedford reports that the handwritten poem with Poe's signature was purchased Saturday in Marion, about 50 miles south of Boston, by a collector who was given 10 days to verify its authenticity.

British police said Tuesday they have recovered a rare Stradivarius violin worth £1.2 million ($1.8 million, 1.4 million euros) that was stolen from its owner in a London railway cafe in 2010.

Thieves took the antique instrument, which was made in 1696, and two valuable bows from Korean-born violinist Min-Jin Kym as she ate at London's Euston station.

Hundreds of Buddhists in Nepal's capital are holding demonstrations near the government's main office to protest authorities stopping them from building a shrine in the jungles of western part of the Himalayan nation.

The protesters, some of them monks, blocked streets around the central secretariat during rush hour, preventing government workers from reaching their offices.

Riots broke out over a full-face Islamic veil. A woman may have lost her unborn baby in another confrontation over her face covering. Tensions flared over a supermarket chain's ad for the end-of-day feast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

France's enforcement of its prized secularism is inscribed in law, most recently in a ban on wearing full-face veils in public. Meant to ensure that all faiths live in harmony, the policy instead may be fueling a rising tide of Islamophobia and driving a wedge between some Muslims and the rest of the population.

Pope Francis celebrated Sunday mass with three million pilgrims jammed onto a Brazilian beach, wrapping up a landmark trip to reignite the Catholic faith in a festive atmosphere with young believers.

Latin America's first pontiff was given a rock star's welcome on Rio de Janeiro's legendary Copacabana beach, with a sea of faithful waving flags, dancing and chanting "long live the pope!" on the crescent-shaped shoreline.

A team of archaeologists said Monday it has unearthed an unusual coffin-within-a-coffin in the central England parking lot where it found the skeleton of King Richard III, and that they hope to identify the remains within.

University of Leicester scientists have been digging at the Grey Friars site in Leicester after finding the body of Richard there in September. He died nearby in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

In the concrete jungle of New York City, where open sky can be hard to find, the latest luxury offering is a night under the stars -- or, under twinkling city lights, at least.

From terraces and high-rise balconies atop Art Deco buildings or glass-walled modern structures, this new breed of hotel offers straight-up views, with nary a window pane or curtain to impede the breeze.

The sun has barely risen and already dozens of Afghan men are swapping fistfuls of bank notes, frantically betting in one of the country's goriest pastimes: bird fighting.

In a shady patch, under a cluster of trees in a Kabul park, two partridges face off at opposite ends of a small square of dirt.