Like many other Londoners who make a living showing tourists around the city, Viv is telling a group of visitors how Waterloo Bridge was largely rebuilt by women after World War II.

But Viv, 56, is no ordinary tour guide. She is homeless -- and the stairs under the bridge, which boasts majestic views of the Houses of Parliament and St Paul's Cathedral, were once her home.

Praying with a Koran on his knees in a mud-strewn camp, Rohin Mullah is one of thousands of Muslims uprooted by sectarian bloodshed in Myanmar. But the former monk's story is far from normal.

Born a Buddhist, he fell in love with a girl on the other side of the religious divide -- a member of the Rohingya minority group shunned by Myanmar society at large.

Global miner Rio Tinto said Monday there was unprecedented demand for its rare pink and blue diamonds at its annual sale, with India and Japan among the keen buyers.

The 2012 Argyle Pink Diamonds Tender, seen as the world's most exclusive diamond sale, featured 56 single pink diamonds, including two red stones, and 19 blue diamonds from the company's Australian mine.

National Geographic Society has chronicled scientific expeditions, explorations, archaeology, wildlife and world cultures for more than 100 years, amassing a collection of 11.5 million photos and original illustrations.

A small selection of that massive archive — 240 pieces spanning from the late 1800s to the present — will be sold at Christie's in December at an auction expected to bring about $3 million, the first time any of the institution's collection has been sold.

The Penn Museum is unwrapping the mystery of mummy conservation, giving the public an unusual close-up of researchers' efforts to preserve relics from ancient Egypt.

Human and animal mummies, as well as an intricately inscribed coffin, are among the items undergoing treatment and repair at the Philadelphia institution's newly installed Artifact Lab.

For conservative Muslim-majority Bangladesh, it is a forgotten and often shocking part of history: a time when aristocrats would openly flaunt male teenage singers whom they took as lovers.

Homosexuality remains illegal in Bangladesh, but the practice of rich Muslim landlords in rural areas publicly living with adolescent "Ghetu" males each monsoon season was widely accepted 150 years ago.

World War II veterans and delegates from former foes gathered Saturday in the Egyptian town of El-Alamein to mark 70 years since the decisive battle that sealed the Allied victory in North Africa.

Many on wheelchairs or using walking sticks, the veterans -- most now in their 90s -- wandered the cemeteries where their comrades were buried, handkerchiefs in hand as emotions welled.

Human rights groups in Greece are accusing the government of subjecting asylum seekers to a "degrading and illegal" application process that aims to discourage them from formally requesting state protection.

Fourteen local rights groups said Friday that refugees from war zones, including Syria, and other repressive regimes are effectively unable to file for asylum because Greece's main processing center in Athens accepts as few as 20 applications each week. They issued a 50-page report criticizing the process that they are sending to the European Union.

Jake Finkbonner was so close to death after flesh-eating bacteria infected him through a cut on his lip that his parents had last rites performed and were discussing donating the 5-year-old's tiny organs.

Jake's 2006 cure from the infection was deemed medically inexplicable by the Vatican, the "miracle" needed to propel a 17th century Native American, Kateri Tekakwitha, on to sainthood. Kateri will be canonized on Sunday along with six other people, the first Native American to receive the honor.

Dorothy's blue and white dress and her sparkling ruby slippers have traveled from Oz to London's Victoria and Albert museum, where more than 130 of cinema's iconic costumes star in a new exhibition.

The show, which opens to the public Saturday, examines the role of costume design in a century of cinema storytelling, from Charlie Chaplin to the recent remake of "Anna Karenina", with a journey through hits from Hollywood's Golden Age.