Brazil's Carnival is back.

Glittery and outrageous costumes are once again being prepared. Samba songs will ring out 'til dawn at Rio de Janeiro's sold-out parade grounds. Hundreds of raucous, roaming parties will flood the streets. And working-class communities will be buoyed, emotionally and economically, by the renewed revelry.

Tens of thousands of revelers danced in the streets of Cologne, Duesseldorf, Bonn and other cities and towns across the Rhineland Thursday as they celebrated the traditional start of Carnival in Germany.

Dressed up in bright colors and creative costumes, they sang loudly and swayed to familiar tunes of brass bands and folklore music, and drank lots of beer.

Greece's Culture Ministry announced plans Wednesday for a major renovation of the National Archaeological Museum, expanding exhibition space at the Athens site that houses what is considered the most important collection of Greek antiquities in the world.

The project, expected to last four years, will be led by the British architect Sir David Chipperfield, whose major works include restoration of the Neues Museum in Berlin and the design of the East Building at the Saint Louis Art Museum.

China and Iran have urged mutual neighbor Afghanistan to end restrictions on women's work and education.

The call came in a joint statement Thursday issued at the close of a visit to Beijing by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during which the two sides affirmed close economic and political ties and their rejection of Western standards of human rights and democracy.

Half of Americans in a recent survey indicated they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting.

The survey, released Wednesday by Gallup and the Knight Foundation, goes beyond others that have shown a low level of trust in the media to the startling point where many believe there is an intent to deceive.

Oprah Winfrey has chosen Susan Cain's "Bittersweet" as her new book club pick.

"Bittersweet," released last year, is the most recent work from the author of "Quiet," the 2012 bestseller that contended introverted people had been misunderstood and overlooked.

Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi, David Lau, ruled Friday that emergency teams deployed to Turkey to help in the earthquake response should work through the Jewish sabbath to save lives.

Some art lovers make it a mission to visit and view as many works as possible by 17th-century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer.

Starting Friday, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is making their lives a whole lot easier.

The U.N.'s cultural agency UNESCO said on Tuesday it was ready to provide assistance after two sites listed on its World Heritage list in Syria and Turkey sustained damage in the devastating earthquake.

As well as the damage to the old city of Syria's Aleppo and the fortress in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, UNESCO said at least three other World Heritage sites could be affected.

An ivory spoon dating back 2,700 years that was recently repatriated to the Palestinian Authority from the United States has sparked a dispute with Israel's new far-right government over the cultural heritage in the occupied West Bank.

The clash brings into focus the political sensitivities surrounding archaeology in the Middle East, where Israelis and Palestinians each use ancient artifacts to support their claims over the land.