The Chicago Symphony Orchestra directed by Italian maestro Riccardo Muti begins a tour of Italy in Rome on Monday with a concert of music by Richard Strauss, Dmitry Shostakovich and Nino Rota.

The award-winning orchestra is widely regarded as one of the best in the world and received critical acclaim on its tour of Russia earlier this month.

Romania's new National Library opened its doors Monday in a monumental building in the capital city, more than 20 years after its foundations were laid under the communist regime.

"This is a superb transformation of grey, communist-era ruins," Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu said during the opening ceremony.

"Please Look after Mom", a novel of family love and loss by award-winning author Kyung-Sook Shin, has sold more than two million copies in her homeland South Korea, the publisher said Tuesday.

Lee Sang-Sul, director at publisher Changbi, said only two other novels since the 1990s had sold more than two million in South Korea, "so it's a rare achievement for a pure literary work".

Some 270 ships pass each week through the Panama Canal, but one now gives tourists the chance to experience the storied waterway on the "Islamorada," Al Capone's legendary rum-runner.

The wooden ship, famous for smuggling liquor for the U.S. mobster during the prohibition era, turned 100 this year and has been refurbished for guided tours of the canal's locks and shoreline wildlife.

"One Day on Earth" -- touted as the first film with footage from every country taken on the same day -- was to be screened for the first time Sunday around the world, including at the U.N.

Organizers say the documentary, to be shown at the United Nations General Assembly and in more than 160 countries, addresses issues such as cultural diversity, environmental waste, extreme poverty and the status of women.

African designers are fast re-defining styles emerging from the continent as they defy stereotypes and move beyond outsiders' cliched ideas of how Africans dress.

Without abandoning their roots, designers have long embraced a range of new ideas and continue to expand; spreading their influence globally while staying in sync with evolving tastes back home.

The gates of one of Nepal's top private schools swing open and 20 children who hope to be the doctors, lawyers and scientists of tomorrow spill out into a smart Kathmandu suburb.

But while their classmates come from the country's wealthiest elite, these children were rescued seven years ago, dirty and sick, from a cowshed on the edge of the capital.

Andy Warhol once predicted 15 minutes of fame for everyone.

But 25 years after his death, the pop artist's reputation and impact on the contemporary art world show no signs of fading. His iconic images of everyday consumer objects and celebrities consistently command high prices and draw enthusiastic crowds to museum and gallery shows.

For young Gypsy musicians, it's a unique opportunity to get ahead in life.

Renowned Hungarian jazz guitarist Ferenc Snetberger's music school for Roma kids is coming to the end of its inaugural year, with around 60 students getting instruction not just in their instruments but also in subjects such as English and computer skills seen as key to building a professional career.

To get to North Korea, one can make the rare journey by taking a plane from Beijing to Pyongyang. But for those who have the opportunity, the train offers a unique glimpse of the most closed country in the world.

It is 9:30 am when we leave Dandong, the last Chinese town before crossing the Yalu river that separates the two countries. We are the only Westerners on board the train which takes more than 10 hours to cover the 240 kilometers (150 miles) to Pyongyang.