The relics from the Mary Rose, the flagship of England's navy when it sank in 1545 as a heartbroken king Henry VIII watched from the shore, have finally been reunited with the famous wreck in a new museum offering a view of life in Tudor times.

Skeletons, longbows, tankards, gold coins and even nit combs are going on display alongside the remains of the pride of Henry's fleet.

Iraqi authorities have contracted a Czech firm to carry out a 10-month restoration of the ancient Arch of Ctesiphon as part of a plan to boost tourism to the once-popular site.

Through the decades of conflict that have wracked Iraq, the famed 6th century monument, which is the world's largest brick-built arch and the last structure still standing from the ancient Persian imperial capital Ctesiphon, has fallen into disrepair.

Whatever their social or political differences, Cairo's residents agree on one thing: the traffic is a nightmare.

Increasingly desperate to escape the gridlock and pollution of the Egyptian capital, more people are now using the Nile for their daily commute to work.

Investigators are analyzing ashes found in the house of a Romanian suspect charged for the spectacular Dutch museum heist, judicial sources said Wednesday, raising fears that the seven stolen masterpieces may have been burnt.

"Tests are underway, they will take some time," Gabriela Neagu, a spokeswoman for the Romanian prosecutor's office, told Agence France Presse.

The world's oldest complete Torah scroll has been found in a university archive in Bologna, according to an Italian professor who said the text could be from the 12th century.

The precious lambskin scroll had been classified by the university library as being from the 17th century and was named simply "Scroll Number Two".

Egyptian restoration experts have managed to remove graffiti from an ancient monument after it had been defaced by a Chinese tourist, the antiquities department said on Tuesday.

Authorities had assigned a committee to assess the damage and concluded that the marks on the 3,500 year-old panel were superficial.

Rare plants, enchanting ruins and the tinkle of waterfalls: the English-style botanical oasis of Ninfa near Rome is a secret idyll billed as "the world's most romantic garden".

The exquisite garden dates back to the late 19th century when the aristocratic Caetani family took over lands deserted for centuries including Ninfa, a town that was abandoned in the Middle Ages.

Archives documenting Nelson Mandela's life went on display Monday to mark 50 years since the iconic South Africa leader arrived at the infamous Robben Island to serve a life prison sentence.

The Johannesburg-based Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, which had been closed for renovations for nearly a year, houses a wide array of documents on the life of the anti-apartheid leader.

A grandson of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army captain wrongly accused of treason over a century ago, on Monday urged a private collector not to allow a letter penned by his ancestor to go under the hammer in Paris this week.

Written to the interior ministry in 1895, a month after Dreyfus was sentenced for treason, the letter is expected to fetch between 100,000 and 150,000 euros ($130,000 and $190,000) when it goes on auction at Sotheby's on Wednesday.

The 86th annual National Spelling Bee kicks off Tuesday with 281 youngsters from eight nations putting their ability to spell some of the most obscure words in the English language to the test.

Sponsored by the Scripps media group, the three-day competition at the Gaylord National Resort outside Washington is an American institution that's been won for the past five years by teenagers of South Asian heritage.