Adeline Sire

Madonna has announced plans to auction off a masterpiece painting “Three Women at the Red Table” that she’s owned for over 20 years. She says she’s doing it to raise money to support girls’ education in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Many world leaders attended the funeral of President Hugo Chavez. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was one of them. Mohammed Manzapour of the BBC’s Persian Service said Venezuelans view his presence according to their political affiliation.

Residents of a medieval winemaking village in Burgundy are upset by the sale of the village’s castle to a businessman from China.

This Saturday will mark the end of an era in France when the Minitel wil be switched off. The Minitel was a groundbreaking home electronic terminal, created in 1982, almost a decade before the commercialization of the Internet.

New York’s Metropolitan Opera just ended its first run of a brand new “Ring” cycle. Several years ago, the Met asked visionary playwright and theater director Robert Lepage to produce Wagner’s epic four-part “Ring of the Nibelungen.”