China’s lost art

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According to reports in the state press, China will send a team of experts around the world to catalog cultural relics it claims were looted from Beijing’s Old Summer Palace by European armies at the end of the 19th century. The World’s Alex Gallafent looks at an episode many Chinese regard as one of the most humiliating in their history. Download MP3

• BBC coverage

Catholic relics tour

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The UK is getting its first Catholic relics tour since the reformation. The relics will then go on a month-long tour of 28 venues, starting on Wednesday at Portsmouth Cathedral. The Catholic Church said huge crowds had flocked to see the casket, which contains portions of bones of St Therese, in the 42 countries it had visited. Laura Lynch reports from Portsmouth, UK. Download MP3

• BBC coverage
• Guardian coverage
• St Therese relics blog