GERMANY

The controversial artist and activist beat past winners Larry Gagosian and Hans Ulrich.

The National Transitional Council is still fighting to pry Sirte from the remaining Moammar Gadhafi loyalists in the city. Three members of the NTC said Wednesday that they had captured Gadhafi's son Mutassim trying to flee Sirte and taken him Benghazi.

Infectious diseases still kill millions of people annually worldwide, though not at the scale of the Black Plague.

They lowered their 2012 GDP forecast to 0.8 percent from their previous estimate of 2 percent, partially due to the spiraling debt crisis in the Eurozone.

All told, BP and its partners will invest nearly £10 billion ($15.7 billion) in North Sea oil and gas properties over the next five years.

Apple beat Samsung in an Australian court on Thursday, continuing the ban on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 from being sold Down Under.

Scientists claimed to have cracked the genetic DNA of the worst bubonic plague in Europe's history, the Black Death, for the first time after analyzing the teeth of more than 700 year-old skeletons.

Gold prices fell modestly Thursday as a rising dollar, boosted by signs the world's No. 2 economy is slowing, offset both steady Asian demand for jewelry and bullion as well as safe-haven buying by Euro-wary investors.

Italy's sale of 6.2 billion euros in bonds on Thursday eased investors' immediate concerns about its funding in the euro zone debt crisis, but stock markets were hit by weaker Chinese trade data.

Severe seasonal melting has reduced ice floes, floating chunk of ice, in the Arctic Ocean to the thinnest on record, according to researchers. Changes in sea ice thickness and extent also have direct consequences for the ecosystem of the Arctic Ocean, the researchers said.

Gold prices held steady on Thursday, as optimism for a solution to the Eurozone crisis underpinned sentiment, while tight physical supply in Asia continued to lend support.

The Black Death, the worst plague in Europe's history, killed between 30 million and 50 million people in the 14th century. Now, after analyzing dozens of skeletons, scientists claim to have cracked its genetic code. They say simple antibiotics available today can beat the disease.

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, whose 81-day detention earlier this year caused an international outcry, has been named the art world's most powerful figure in a new ranking.

Scientists have managed to map the entire DNA of the Black Death's bubonic plague from the teeth of four 650-year-old skeletons, the remains of victims buried in London's plague pits.

An Australian court slapped a temporary ban on the sale of Samsung Electronics' latest computer tablet in the Australian market on Thursday, handing rival Apple another legal victory in the two firms' global patent war.

Apple Inc debuts its fifth generation iPhone this week minus its visionary leader for the first time. But CEO Tim Cook may already be thinking ahead to his greatest challenge: repositioning the company's fabled marketing apparatus to safeguard the brand.

Forced by civil war from his post as governor of Afghanistan's central bank, Mir Najibullah Sadat Sahou was granted political asylum in the United States in 1992 after fighters in his native country seized his home.

Einstein fled Germany for the U.S. in 1933 when Adolph Hitler became the Chancellor.

Parties in Slovakia's fallen government struck a deal with the leftist opposition on Wednesday to ratify a plan to bolster the euro zone's rescue fund by Friday, effectively ending a crisis that had threatened the currency's main safety net.

The Americans continue to struggle to score.

Stocks opened higher on Wednesday, putting the S&P 500 on track for its sixth winning day in the past seven on optimism that Slovakia would reach a deal to expand the euro zone rescue fund.