The Qatari prince who owns the Hotel Lambert in Paris vowed Thursday to restore the landmark mansion to its original grandeur after it suffered severe damage in a fire.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani said he was determined to follow through with the restoration of the mansion after the fire on Wednesday at the 17th-century townhouse on Ile Saint-Louis overlooking the Seine.

Some arrived in Porsches or BMWs, which were whisked away by valet parking attendants. The hotel lobby was awash with the celebrated and powerful including A-list actors, well-known artists and captains of commerce.

For one glimmering moment late last month, the Iranian capital was the talk of the world's art market after 80 works sold for $2 million, astonishing a country whose economy is battered by Western sanctions but still has pockets of wealth looking for investment havens for their money.

The thugs ordered Kyaw not to look as they killed his classmates, but the terrified teenager still caught glimpses of the merciless beatings as a wave of anti-Muslim killing engulfed his school town in central Myanmar, leaving dozens dead.

"They used steel chains, sticks and knives... there were hundreds of people. They beat anyone who tried to look at them," the 16-year-old told Agence France Presse.

An original Apple computer from 1976 has sold at auction for nearly $388,000.

Known as the Apple 1, it was one of the first Apple computers ever built.

St Mark's Square in Venice on Wednesday was the spectacular backdrop to a tragic opera in the first open-air performance in 43 years by the famous La Fenice theatre -- a new must on the global culture calendar.

La Fenice is staging Italian maestro Giuseppe Verdi's interpretation of Shakespeare's "Othello, the Moor of Venice" -- with South Korea's Myung-Whun Chung conducting La Fenice's orchestra and choir.

The ever-disputed investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is getting a fresh look.

Former New York Times correspondent and best-selling author Philip Shenon has a book coming out this fall that alleges "powerful" people interfered with the Warren Commission's efforts to determine whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in shooting JFK in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Kamiran Aziz Ali grimaces and leans forward, his hands behind his back, re-enacting the moment in January 1990 when Saddam Hussein's henchmen flung him into a jail cell in the "Red House".

"I am still in pain," Ali says. "I cannot sit down for a long time anymore."

A major fire caused "irreversible" damage on Wednesday to a landmark 17th-century Paris mansion, the Hotel Lambert, as it was undergoing controversial renovations by the Qatari royal family.

Murals, frescoes and paintings dating back hundreds of years were completely destroyed by the blaze which broke out around 1:30am (2330 GMT Tuesday).

Part of an ancient Egyptian king's unique sphinx was unveiled at a dig in northern Israel on Tuesday, with researchers struggling to understand just how the unexpected find ended up there.

The broken granite sphinx statue -- including the paws and some of the mythical creature's forearms -- displayed at Tel Hazor archaeological site in Israel's Galilee, is the first such find in the region.

Some 1.5 million pilgrims are expected in Rio late this month for Pope Francis' visit during a major Roman Catholic youth fest, a top state security official said Tuesday.

"According to the latest figures, we are expecting up to 1.5 million people" for World Youth Day (WYD) July 23-28," said Roberto Alzir Dias Chavez, the deputy security secretary for Rio de Janeiro state.