LONDON (AFP) - Documentary film makers have radar scanned William Shakespeare's grave this year as Britain celebrates the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death, Channel 4 said and the Daily Telegraph reported Monday.　The grave in the Holy Trinity Church in Shakespeare's birthplace of Stratford upon Avon is a place of pilgrimage for fans and has an inscription on it with a curse against anyone planning to tamper with it.　“Bleste be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my b

NAPLES (AFP) - Thousands of protesters demonstrated in Naples on Saturday in a bid to prevent the Catholic Church gaining any control over the treasure of a local saint that is reputedly worth more than British crown jewels.　“We're protecting a centuries-old institution, we will not stand for interference from either the Church or the government,” Paolo Jorio, director of the San Gennaro museum where the jewels are kept, told AFP.　The protest was sparked by a decree issued by Interior Minister A

A young Korean-American adoptee returns home for the first time in desperate search for his birth-mother. For musical director, conductor and actress Kolleen Park, the plot of her latest musical production “Airport Baby” may seem like an all-too-familiar tale. But add local musical actor Choi Jae-rim to the mix and the result is an unexpectedly moving portrayal of a troubled young soul. Following her role as a mother struggling with bipolar disorder in the Korean rendition of the off-Broadway mu

Actor and film director Ha Jung-woo has put up his painting “Keep Silence” for auction, art auctioneer I Auction announced Wednesday.The auctioneer described Ha’s works as an outlandish and humorous depiction of the conflict between oneself and the character he or she plays, adding that it evokes pop art and expressionism.The auctioneer estimated the value of Ha’s work to range from 13 million won ($ 10,647) to 25 million won. Ha’s career as an artist started as a hobby in 2007, when he was a co

``Charlotte Bronte: A Fiery Heart‘‘ By Claire HarmanAlfred A. Knopf (480 pages, $30)Two hundred years after her birth, Charlotte Bronte‘s rage over social expectations for women and thwarted ambitions are as relevant as ever, and a new biography by Claire Harman makes the ``Jane Eyre’‘ author fresh and relatable to readers who might only think of the Brontes as figures long buried in tragic myth.Bronte and her sisters Emily and Anne published their poems and novels -- including ``Wuthering Heigh

Artist couple behind 30 statues of teenage girls presents six different versions of the symbolic statue at an exhibit in Seoul

LJUBLJANA (AFP) - Three ancient Mesopotamian sculptures, thought to have been excavated illegally in Syria or Iraq, have been found in a Slovenian refugee camp on the border with Croatia, police said Wednesday.　The National Museum in Ljubljana confirmed the alabaster objects were authentic Mesopotamian temple figurines and probably dated back to the B.C. third millennium.　“Since the objects have no registration or inventory signs, we believe they were excavated illegally,” museum archeologist Pe

LONDON (AFP) - Hundreds of personal items from the estate of an eccentric British duchess, the youngest of six sisters who scandalized 1930s British high society, were auctioned in London on Wednesday.　A collection of insect brooches, 36 model hens and a phone topped with a foot-high figure of Elvis Presley that dances and sings when the phone rings were among the items belonging to Deborah, the late duchess of Devonshire and one of the Mitford sisters.　“Together, the objects tell this amazing s

Physically, the Corzo Center for the Creative Economy at University of the Arts is little more than a tiny lounge, seeming far too small to contain the force in perpetual motion that is Neil Kleinman.　Not that it matters. Kleinman's mission as the center’s director encompasses the whole city, and he seems to be exploring every pocket of Philadelphia for partners willing to support it.　One day, he's at the Free Library; another, at Drexel University or the People’s Emergency Center in West Philad

MOSCOW (AP) _ The staff of Moscow's Tretyakov Gallery is packing up some of Russia’s finest paintings to send to London for a landmark exhibition, proving, the gallery's director says, that cultural exchange between the Russia and the West is alive and well.The 26 portraits being sent to the National Portrait Gallery for an exhibition March 17 to June 26 are part of an exchange that also includes major British works loaned to Russia. Despite chilly relations between Moscow and the West and an ec

YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar has backpedalled on a ban on climbing temples at the tourist hot spot of Bagan, following fears visitors would no longer be able to enjoy the ancient capital's famed sunsets. 　The Ministry of Culture on Monday barred visitors from clambering over the monuments.　But by late Tuesday it had revised the order to let tourists ascend five of the largest pagodas -- in a field of more than 3,000 Buddhist structures. 　“We would like to replace the statement about banning the climbi