Switzerland will celebrate its founding this year with its own new apple species, the Galmac, adding a new twist to William Tell's mythical apple-shot which indirectly led to Swiss independence.

According to the ministry of agriculture, the apple "with a bright luminous skin, crispy, juicy and with a harmonious and refreshing taste", will for the first time be commercially available nationwide.

"Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization" (Penguin Group), by Richard Miles: For ancient Romans, "Carthage Must Be Destroyed" had to be the wave of the future if they were to become the unrivaled masters of the Mediterranean and the lands on its shores. Look at a map.

Carthage, a colony of seagoing Phoenicians from what is now Lebanon, was strategically on the Mediterranean's south coast, halfway between its Middle East homeland and the entry to the Atlantic. It was building an empire of its own, subjecting tribes in North Africa, Spain and the big islands of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica.

Lebanon's few remaining Arabic calligraphers, whose elegant script and interweaving words transport one to another era, are working to preserve an art form struggling to compete with new technology.

"The computer is a wonderful tool but in no way can it replace an artist or produce masterpieces," says Mahmoud Bayoun, one of the country's best-known calligraphers, whose works have been displayed in the United States and Iran.

Rural America now accounts for just 16 percent of the U.S. population, the lowest ever.

The latest 2010 census numbers hint at an emerging America where, by mid-century, city boundaries become indistinct and rural areas grow ever less relevant. Many communities could shrink to virtual ghost towns as they shutter businesses and close down schools, demographers say.

Hundreds of unticketed tourists have been turned away from Machu Picchu this week as Peru's famed Inca ruins reached capacity.

Angry tourists blocked a bridge for two hours Monday in the town of Aguas Calientes at the entrance to the ruins. That impeded buses that ferry visitors to the hilltop archaeological site.

A valuable 19th century Polish painting that went missing during World War II has been returned to Poland after being removed from auction in Germany, the culture minister said Wednesday.

Aleksander Gierymski's "Jewish Woman Selling Oranges" was unveiled to reporters by Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski, who said the painting was returned to Poland after many months of on-and-off negotiations with lawyers representing a German person.

Archaeologists believe they have discovered the tomb of Saint Philip, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ, in western Turkey, Anatolia news agency said Wednesday, quoting the team leader.

"We have been looking for Saint Philip's tomb for years," Italian Francesco d'Andria told the agency. "We finally found it in the ruins of a church which we excavated a month ago."

When the sun sets and shops close, Pakistan's gold scavengers come to life, sifting through dirt and sewers for precious yellow scraps they can turn to profit.

It is a painstaking, filthy job reserved for those dreaming of a rags-to-riches fortune in one of the poorest countries in Asia, better known for Al-Qaeda and bombs than social mobility.

Civil war or not, every year the holy Muslim month of Ramadan must be respected and in Libya's rebel stronghold of Benghazi women bakers are working overtime to meet demand.

Dozens of women knead dough into shape, making sweets and salty pies, at the iconic Al-Harabi bakery, undaunted by the unrelenting war, sweltering temperatures, power-cuts and tight budgets.

Two "extremely rare" gold medals awarded to Captain William Bligh of HMS Bounty fame will be auctioned in Melbourne this week in one of the most significant maritime history offerings in recent years.

"You'll never see the likes of the Bligh medals again. They're so historical," a spokesman for the auction house told Agence France Presse.