Italy on Wednesday said it had recovered a painting worth millions of euros by Paul Gauguin, stolen in London in 1970, bought by an Italian factory worker for a pittance and hung in his kitchen for almost 40 years.

The artist's "Fruit on a table or small dog" was stolen from a house in the British capital along with "Woman with two chairs" by fellow Frenchman Pierre Bonnard, and they were recovered together in Italy from the pensioner, who used to work for Italian auto giant Fiat.

Italy's top art detectives, global experts in finding stolen works, launched a smartphone app Wednesday to get people to collaborate on cracking crimes.

The application, which will be available to download from AndroidMarket and AppleStore soon, was "thought up and created for citizens", according to Mariano Mossa, the head of Italy's heritage police.

Wife swapping among Namibia's nomadic tribes has been practiced for generations but a legislator's call to enshrine it in law has stirred debate about women's rights and tradition in modern society.

The practice is more of a gentlemen's agreement where friends can have sex with each others' wives with no strings attached.

Three statues linked to royal burial ceremonies in Sudan's ancient Napatan civilization have been stolen from a museum near a UNESCO World Heritage site, an official said on Tuesday.

Their disappearance underscores the lack of protection afforded Sudan's rich but under-developed archaeological heritage.

The voices of popes from as long ago as 1884 can be heard by the public after the digitizing of 8,000 tapes from the Vatican Radio's pontifical archives, the Vatican said Tuesday.

The initiative was launched as part of preparations for the sainting of John Paul II and John XXIII (1958-63) on April 17, in the first double papal canonization ceremony in Church history.

Claims that the Holy Grail has been found after sitting for 1,000 years in a Spanish church face a tough inquisition from doubtful historians.

Visitors flocked to the museum of the San Isidro basilica in Leon after a new book said it contained the chalice from which Jesus Christ sipped at the Last Supper.

Australia's highest court on Wednesday recognized the existence of a third "non-specific" gender that is neither male nor female, in a landmark ruling campaigners said will help end years of discrimination.

The High Court ruled that not everyone should be forced to identify as a man or woman when dealing with officials, saying some people could legitimately describe themselves as gender neutral.

Frenchman Jacques Le Goff, one of the most influential medieval historians of modern times, died in Paris on Tuesday aged 90, his family told newspaper Le Monde.

Over a long career in academia and public broadcasting, Le Goff transformed views of the Middle Ages from a dark and backward time to a period that laid the foundations for modern Western civilization.

A Syrian artist has set a Guinness record for the world's largest mural made of recycled materials, aiming to inspire hope and creativity in his war-ravaged country.

Guinness World Records announced on its Facebook page that Moaffak Makhoul and his team completed the mural in Damascus in January, two months shy of the third anniversary of the grim conflict in Syria.

Curators were forced to remove a precious cup from display in a church in Spain when crowds swarmed there after historians claimed it was the Holy Grail, staff said.

Visitors flocked to the San Isidro basilica in the northwestern city of Leon after two historians published a book saying the ancient goblet was the mythical chalice from which Christ sipped at the Last Supper.