Bits of the oldest known pottery, some 2,000 years older than previously found pieces, have been uncovered in China, researchers said in the U.S. journal Science on Thursday.

The fragments were believed to belong to a community of roving hunter-gatherers some 20,000 years ago and apparent scorch marks indicate they may have been used in cooking.

An Italian battleship which sank during World War II off the coast of Sardinia after it was bombed by a German warplane has been found, Italy's navy said in a statement on Thursday.

"The battleship Roma was sunk on September 9, 1943, by a German plane, in an attack which killed 1,352 sailors. Only 622 people survived," it said.

The U.N. cultural organization UNESCO on Thursday listed the entire town of Timbuktu in the west African nation of Mali as endangered world heritage because of ongoing violence in the region.

UNESCO said the decision to place both the town and the nearby Tomb of Askia on its List of World Heritage in Danger "aims to raise cooperation and support for the sites threatened by the armed conflict in the region."

A 415-year-old atlas stolen from Sweden's Royal Library more than a decade ago was recovered in the United States and has been returned to the Scandinavian country, officials said Wednesday.

The Cornelius van Wytfliet atlas, which contains 19 rare maps, vanished alongside 55 other books, a theft later attributed to the former head of the library's manuscript department, Anders Burius, who committed suicide in 2004.

"A few steps take you from one culture to another," said Vedia Izzet, a Turkish Cypriot, speaking of her daily trips between the Cypriot capital's Turkish-controlled north and Greek Cypriot south.

"It's like walking through a film between two parallel space-time dimensions, as if the film were punctured," she said of the divide in a country that assumes the European Union's rotating presidency on Sunday.

Britain's famous parliament clock tower is to be renamed Elizabeth Tower in honor of the queen's diamond jubilee, officials announced on Tuesday.

The change comes after dozens of lawmakers signed up to a campaign to change the name of the tower -- officially named the Clock Tower but commonly known as Big Ben -- in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II's 60th year on the throne.

Michael Curtiz's best director Oscar award for the Hollywood classic "Casablanca" could fetch up to $3 million when it goes under the hammer next week, organizers said.

"Casablanca" is one of the most popular and beloved movies worldwide," said Nate Sanders, owner of Nate D. Sanders Auctions. "It's only one of a handful of films from the Golden Age of Hollywood that everyone has seen and is immediately recognizable."

In a country where music was silenced in the name of Allah for five years, the beat is back and even rock shares the airwaves with the romantic strains of traditional Afghan songs.

The Islamist Taliban, who banned all music as sinful while they were in power between 1996 and 2001, are now waging an insurgency against the Western-backed government -- but they can't stop the music.

With furrowed brows and fervent nods, the French and native American musicians were introducing a new form of jazz to New Orleans centered on a colonial trade language used by their ancestors.

There were no furs or beads on the table. Instead, the musicians were exchanging traditions to create a unique sound that hops from jazz standards to blues, to reggae to mellow, cymbal-heavy lounge music.

Archaeologists in Greece's second-largest city have uncovered a 70-meter (230-foot) section of an ancient road built by the Romans that was the city's main travel artery nearly 2,000 years ago.

The marble-paved road was unearthed during excavations for Thessaloniki's new subway system, which is due to be completed in four years. The road in the northern port city will be raised to be put on permanent display when the metro opens in 2016.