President Michel Suleiman honored Lebanese-French author Amin Maalouf at a ceremony held at Baabda Palace on Saturday.

Suleiman granted him the National Order of the Cedar medal with the Rank of Grand Cordon, and said a new stamp emblazoned with Maalouf's face will be issued soon.

After years of legal wrangling, a renowned art collection including pieces by the famous painter Georgia O'Keeffe and her late husband, Alfred Stieglitz, will make its debut at a museum in northwest Arkansas.

O'Keeffe gave the collection to Fisk University in Tennessee in 1949.

Forensic experts who examined the remains of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda found no evidence he was poisoned to death during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, an official said Friday.

"No relevant chemical agents that could be linked to Mr. Neruda's death were found," said Patricio Bustos, director of Chile's forensic medicine service.

The United States and Israel lost their UNESCO voting rights Friday after suspending funding to the organization in 2011 when Palestine was admitted, a source from the U.N. agency told AFP.

Neither the United States nor Israel "presented the necessary documentation this morning to avoid losing their right to vote," the source said on condition of anonymity.

A copy of Napoleon Bonaparte's will, drawn up in 1821 when the former French emperor was living in exile, has been sold at auction for 357,000 euros ($480,000).

The item went under the hammer at the Drouot auction house in Paris on Wednesday. It had been estimated fetch 80,000 to 120,000 euros by Artemisia Auctions, which organised the sale.

Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol: one was a surrealist from Spain, the other, a pop artist from Pittsburgh.

They were among the most famous artists of the 20th century, and in 2014, their works will be on exhibit in adjoining galleries at a museum in Florida.

Belgium will mark the centenary of World War I proud of its resistance to invading German troops in August 1914 but also haunted by the bloody disasters which followed.

The "Great War", the "War to End All Wars" ravaged Belgium but rallied national sentiment in its divided Flemish and French halves around King Albert I who refused to surrender.

Sotheby's on Wednesday auctioned off more than $290 million in impressionist and modern art in New York with old favorites Picasso, Monet and Giacometti commanding the highest bids.

The flagship November evening sale attracted record interest from Asian and Latin American buyers, underscoring extraordinary growth in an increasingly global market.

South Korea's state heritage body apologized Thursday for apparent structural problems at a landmark monument that only recently re-opened after a five-year, multi-million dollar restoration.

Seoul's 600-year-old Namdaemun (South Gate), listed as "National Treasure Number One" and a source of immense cultural pride, was burned pretty much to the ground on February 10, 2008.

Christie's auction house in New York says Pablo Picasso's model of his famed Chicago sculpture didn't sell at auction after bids failed to meet a minimum reserve.

Authorities had hoped the sheet metal model would bring between $25 million and $35 million when it went up for auction Monday in New York.