London`s Natural History Museum opened its doors Friday on an eagerly-awaited exhibition on the life of British naturalist Charles Darwin, father of the theory of evolution.

LOS ANGELES, Oct 23, 2008 (AFP) - A wildfire forced the closure of Los Angeles's famous Getty Center museum early Thursday before being halted in its tracks by an army of firefighters, officials said.

From ancient Egyptian ceremonial incense to pungent Mesopotamian ointments and lotions dating back to medieval France, a newly re-opened French museum traces perfume`s lesser-known past.

In the lush countryside painted by Claude Monet lies an unusual gem: a museum of US art in the cradle of French Impressionism. Now after 16 years, it is shedding its American label to tell a wider story.

The sandbags, sniper slits and pockmarked facade of a Beirut house stand as a chilling reminder of Lebanon`s 1975-1990 civil war.

Now, over 15 years after the end of the fighting, the building is poised to become a museum aimed at ensuring no-one ever forgets the horrors of those dark days.

SALONIKA, GREECE, Oct 14, 2008 (AFP) - Police in Salonika, northern Greece have arrested an archaeological museum employee suspected of peddling hundreds of illegally-obtained antiquities, a local police source said on Tuesday.

The 41-year-old man and his 44-year-old alleged accomplice were caught on Monday by officers posing as buyers, the police said.

ADDIS ABABA, Oct 13, 2008 (AFP) - Ethiopia's tiny village of Bekoji, which has produced some of the country's greatest athletes is to be inaugurated a museum in their honour, state-media said on Monday.

KIGALI, Oct 8, 2008 (AFP) - The house of former Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, whose 1994 assassination triggered the genocide, will be turned into a museum promoting national healing, the culture minister said Wednesday.

'Rwanda has decided to transform Habyarimana's former presidential residence into a museum,' Sports and Culture Minister Joseph Habineza told AFP.

BRATISLAVA, 25 sept 2008 (AFP) - An exhibition of Andy Warhol prints in the only museum in Europe dedicated to the American pop icon has been cancelled due to a hole in the roof, its chief curator said Thursday.

TBILISI, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) - Georgia will update a museum in honour of its best-known son, Joseph Stalin, to reflect last month's Russian military onslaught on the country, the Georgian culture ministry said on Thursday.

VERSAILLES, France, Sept 24, 2008 (AFP) - The Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette's pastoral hideaway in the grounds of Versailles Chateau, is about to reopen after being restored to the way it was the day the doomed queen left in 1789 to face the guillotine.

ATHENS, Sept 16, 2008 (AFP) - The opening of a new, ultra-modern Acropolis museum located below the ancient Athens landmark has been pushed back until February or March next year, Culture Minister Michalis Liapis said Tuesday.

BERLIN, September 13, 2008 (AFP) - Adolf Hitler returned to the Madame Tussauds waxworks museum Saturday, two months after being 'decapitated' by an angry visitor.

The waxwork statue of the Fuhrer, shown behind his workdesk in his Berlin bunker, has been put behind a glass screen as a safety measure, the museum's management said in a statement.

STOCKHOLM, September 13, 2008 (AFP) - A museum dedicated to legendary Swedish pop group ABBA has hit snags, and will not open as planned in June next year, the founder said Saturday.

'There will be for sure a museum but we don't know when and we do not even know where,' Ulf Westman told AFP.

'The only thing we are sure is we won't have the ABBA museum in Stockholm in 2009.'

KATHMANDU, September 13, 2008 (AFP) - Nepal's Prime Minister Prachanda on Saturday visited the palace of the king his Maoist party battled to overthrow, which is being turned into a museum.

'Prime Minister Prachanda came to inspect the preparations to open former King Gyanendra's palace as a museum,' Sharad Bista, a senior official at the Narayanhiti Palace Museum told AFP.

NEW YORK, September 9, 2008 (AFP) - New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art on Tuesday named a renowned British-born expert in tapestries as the cultural giant's first new director in three decades.

Thomas Campbell, 46, will replace Philippe de Montebello, who led the Met since 1977, the museum said in a statement.

NEW YORK, July 28, 2008 (AFP) - New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) showcases the inspiration the Big Apple exerted on the world's top architects in the 1970s through a collection of drawings, projects and scale models reflecting both the pragmatic and utopian views of the city.

STOCKHOLM, July 18, 2008 (AFP) - Thieves broke into a Swedish art museum early Friday and made off with several works by American icons Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol worth some 320,000 euros (503,000 dollars), the museum said.

The robbers broke into the Lasse Aaberg Museum, located in Baalsta some 50 kilometres (31 miles) northwest of Stockholm, around 2:00 am (0000 GMT).

HERCULANEUM, July 9, 2008 (AFP) - Visitors to Herculaneum, destroyed along with Pompeii in the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius, can now take a 3D virtual tour recreating life in the ancient Roman town.

BERLIN, July 7, 2008 (AFP) - The new Madame Tussauds museum in Berlin said Monday a wax figure of Adolf Hitler would go back on display once it has been repaired after a visitor ripped off its head on opening day.

BERLIN, July 7, 2008 (AFP) - The new Madame Tussauds museum in Berlin said Monday it would repair a wax figure of Adolf Hitler that had its head ripped off by a vandal but was unsure whether it would go back on display.

'The statue will be repaired but first we will today evaluate the extent of the damage,' said a spokeswoman for the museum that opened Saturday.

BERLIN, July 5, 2008 (AFP) - A wax figure of Adolf Hitler had its head ripped off soon after the opening of a new branch of Madame Tussauds in Berlin on Saturday, police said.

BERLIN, July 5, 2008 (AFP) - A wax figure of Adolf Hitler had its head ripped off soon after the opening of a new branch of Madame Tussauds in Berlin on Saturday, police said.

BERLIN, July 5, 2008 (AFP) - A wax figure of Adolf Hitler had its head ripped off soon after the opening of a new branch of Madame Tussauds in Berlin on Saturday, police said.

A 41-year-old Berliner had been arrested and faced charges of causing criminal damage and bodily harm, after he hit another visitor who tried to stop him, spokesman Uwe Kozelnik said.

BERLIN, July 5, 2008 (AFP) - A wax figure of Adolf Hitler had its head ripped off soon after the opening of a new branch of Madame Tussauds in Berlin on Saturday, police said.

A 41-year-old Berliner had been arrested and faced charges of causing criminal damage and bodily harm, after he hit another visitor who tried to stop him, spokesman Uwe Kozelnik said.

BERLIN, July 4, 2008 (AFP) - A new branch of Madame Tussauds opens in Berlin on Saturday, including in its display of famous figures in Germany history the most notorious one of all, Adolf Hitler.

ADDIS ABABA, June 9, 2008 (AFP) - Japan is to grant Ethiopia 7.4 million dollars (4.7 million euro) to equip its national museum and improve water supply in a northern state under a deal signed Monday.

JOHANNESBURG, June 8, 2008 (AFP) - It was just a farm, but what went on there was extraordinary: Nelson Mandela, disguised in blue overalls, plotting with other anti-apartheid leaders against South Africa's racist regime.

QUEBEC CITY, June 6, 2008 (AFP) - The Louvre museum on Thursday opened an exhibit in Quebec City of some of its greatest treasures for the city's 400th anniversary, with rare European and Islamic artifacts from its Paris hub.

LOS ANGELES, June 5, 2008 (AFP) - The J. Paul Getty Museum of Los Angeles has acquired a third-century Roman sarcophagus depicting classic bacchanalian scenes it intends to make a centerpiece of its antiquities collection, the museum said Thursday.

LONDON, June 5, 2008 (AFP) - London waxwork museum Madame Tussauds on Thursday unveiled its latest star as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, mobile phone in hand, took his place among other world leaders.

GENEVA, June 5, 2008 (AFP) - Clad in the blue and white stripes of Argentina, the dark-haired Messiah appears serene as red devils, guardian angels and big game hunters all eye each other up on the pitch.

At his side, the Pope stands next to a glamorous blonde while a hooded thug brandishes his baseball bat and a stern judge waves the rule book.

BERLIN, May 30, 2008 (AFP) - A new branch of Madame Tussauds in Berlin is to include in its display of German historical figures the most notorious one of all -- Adolf Hitler, a spokeswoman for the world-famous museum said on Friday.

A new branch of Madame Tussauds in Berlin is to include in its display of German historical figures the most notorious of all -- Adolf Hitler, a spokeswoman for the world-famous museum said on Friday.

The spasm of sex, drugs, rock music and politics that was the historic 1969 Woodstock festival has spawned a museum in tribute to the birthplace of US counterculture.

A half-million 'hippies' turned out in the small farming village of Woodstock, north of New York City, to enjoy music performances by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.

HELSINKI, May 26, 2008 (AFP) - A popular open-air museum in Helsinki showing the traditional Finnish way of life on Monday begged the public to stop feeding local squirrels, saying they were eating away at the displays.

WASHINGTON, May 24, 2008 (AFP) - There are bank robbers, mafiosi and serial killers in one hall, while nearby, civilians are exploring a police forensics lab and joining in an FBI shoot-out.

Happily, it's not another ordinary day in Washington, but opening day at an extraordinary new museum in the US capital, the Museum of Crime and Punishment.