PARIS – The glories of Istanbul have arrived in Paris.
From white marble statues of Greek and Roman gods to gleaming medieval Christian icons to a huge red Ottoman tent, an exhibition devoted to Istanbul seeks to expand French awareness of the city's multicultural heritage in a country deeply skeptical of Turkey's European aspirations.
Some 300 works of art from museums in 14 countries in Europe, Turkey and Qatar cap two years of work to create the exhibit "From Byzantium to Istanbul" at the Grand Palais. Some of the pieces from Turkish museums have left their country for the first time.
Bathed in subdued red light, the exhibition takes the visitor through 8,000 years of history of the "city of a hundred names" known as Byzantium, then Constantinople and now Istanbul. It focuses on its role linking Europe and Asia as "one port for two continents."
The exhibition, opened this month by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Turkish President Abdullah Gul, is the centerpiece of the "Year of Turkey," a panoply of some 400 Turkish cultural events over nine months offering everyone a chance to become better acquainted with Turkey's culture.
"(Istanbul) always has been a multicultural city, with many different languages, ethnicities, religions," said Nazan Olcer, director of the Sakip Sanci Museum in Istanbul and curator of the exhibition.
"I wanted to bring also this colorful face of the city to the exhibition. Maybe, you know, you cannot change all the prejudices with one exhibition only, but at least you can try to open a window to the visitor, to ask him to think differently," she told The Associated Press in an interview.
Olcer says she has collaborated on many international exhibitions that included art from Turkey. Some had focused just on Ottoman art, some on different periods of Turkish art and sometimes just one period of the Turks.
The decision to extend the time span and to focus on Istanbul gives the visitor insight into the array of cultures that have shaped the city, as well as its major role as capital of the Christian Byzantine and the Islamic Ottoman empires.
"The strategy was this. We all are sometimes tending to simplify many things. If Byzantium was a Christian capital, so we think it's been only a Christian capital. If we say after the conquest, after the fall, all of a sudden it has become an Islamic capital. No. It was not like this. Istanbul has been always a multicultural city," she said.
The visitor begins by looking at artifacts from the Neolithic era and glides into the 8th century B.C., when Greek settlers developed a flourishing port they called Byzantium. A stern marble head of the Greek god Heracles stares out, a stark reminder of the city's classical heritage. Next, a bust of the Roman emperor Constantine, who transformed Byzantium into the capital of his eastern Christian empire in the 4th century.
Golden icons and crosses as well as chalices elaborately decorated with precious stones and pearls evoke the long centuries of the city's Christian era when it was known as Constantinople.
Key to understanding the exhibition is a striking section devoted to Mehmed II, who conquered Constantinople in 1453 at age 21 and ended Byzantine rule. His childhood notes written in Turkish using Arabic script and a letter he wrote to the Italian painter Gentile Bellini inviting him from Venice are displayed alongside a 13th-century copy of Homer's Iliad in Greek, one of the seven languages Mehmet knew.
The exhibition includes portraits by Italian painters of Mehmed and his successors, including Suleyman the Magnificent, a testament to European fascination with the east.
Turkey's ethnic and religious minorities long present in Istanbul do not figure prominently, but they are not absent. Engraved stone funeral steles in Armenian, Hebrew and Greek document the city's diversity.
The exhibition ends on a contemporary note with a room devoted to a slideslow of color photographs of the city today and a remarkable display of artifacts of an ancient Byzantine port discovered in 2004 during the construction of an underwater metro station.
"Maybe this exhibition also can open new windows for them (visitors) by looking at the old city with all of its secrets," Olcer said.
"From Byzantium to Istanbul" runs through Jan. 25, 2010.

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On the Web:

http://www.rmn.fr/De-Byzance-a-Istanbul

ORANGE PARK, Fla. – After 7-year-old Somer Thompson vanished on her way home from school, investigators tailed nine garbage trucks from her neighborhood to a Georgia landfill nearly 50 miles away, then picked through the trash as each rig spilled its load.
They sorted through more than 225 tons of garbage before their worst fears were realized: Sticking out of the rubbish were a child's lifeless legs.
Sheriff Rick Beseler said the quick discovery of Somer's body on Wednesday, two days after she disappeared, may have saved precious evidence that could lead to her killer.
"Had we not done this tactic, I believe that body would have been buried beneath hundreds of tons of debris, probably would have gone undiscovered forever," he said Thursday.
An autopsy to establish the cause of death was performed Thursday, but authorities would not disclose their findings. At a news conference, Beseler would not say if Somer had been sexually assaulted or answer other questions about the condition of the body.
"I fear for our community until we bring this person in. This is a heinous crime that's been committed," Beseler said. "And we're going to work as hard as we can to make this community safe."
Searching landfills is common when children disappear, but it is unusual to try to zero in on them more efficiently by tracking a neighborhood's garbage trucks, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
"Time is the enemy in these cases and the sheriff used every resource," Allen said.
The sheriff said police have questioned more than 155 registered sex offenders in the area so far. State online records show 88 sex offenders live in Orange Park, a Jacksonville suburb of about 9,000 people just south of Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
Beseler would not say whether investigators believe the crime was committed by more than one person.
Somer's father and other family members were "torn up" upon hearing the news, aunt Laura Holt said.
As for the killer or killers, "I don't think they deserve to live," Holt said. "I don't think there's anything worse that a person can do — to kill a child and dump her in the dump like a piece of trash?"
The girl disappeared in a heavily populated residential area about a mile from a stretch of fast-food restaurants and other businesses. Investigators will presumably try to pinpoint the trash bin or garbage can where she was dumped, based on the trash around her and the truck's pickup route.
Tuesday was trash day in Somer's neighborhood, and it was Detective Bruce Owens' idea to track the garbage trucks to the landfill they use in Folkston, Ga., 48 miles way.
"At that time I realized that this is probably not going to turn out good," the 10-year veteran of the Clay County Sheriff's Office told The Florida Times-Union. But he said he had been expecting to find perhaps a backpack or a piece of clothing, not a body.
The sheriff said he had told the girl's mother, Diena Thompson, to prepare for the worst, and called her after receiving the news Wednesday night.
"Needless to say, she was absolutely devastated," Beseler said. "It was the hardest phone call I've ever had to make in my life, and I hope I never have to make another one like that."
Somer vanished on Monday during her mile-long walk home from school. Authorities said she squabbled with another child and walked ahead of the group. She was last seen outside a vacant house that was on her route home, sheriff's spokeswoman Mary Justino said. Investigators are examining the house for evidence, Justino said.

On Thursday, flowers and dozens of teddy bears were heaped around an oak tree across the street from Somer's home where about 200 people gathered for a candlelight vigil in front of the family's home just after sundown.

Diena Thompson came out to thank the group who sang "Amazing Grace" and "You Are My Sunshine," then recited the Lord's Prayer.

"I wish I could hug every one of you," Thompson said. "I love every one of you."

Neighbor Carter Beukema shouted his comments about if the accused killer goes to trial: "I hope I'm on the jury. He will pay."

Somer "was always happy unless she couldn't find anyone to play with," neighbor Robert Ocain said. "She trusted anybody. Honestly, I think all the kids around here do."

At the tree, Catherine Sullivan held her teary-eyed 5-year-old daughter, Nya Frederick. They drove to the Thompsons' neighborhood from Jacksonville because Sullivan wanted to show her child the dangers of being too friendly with strangers.

"She seemed to understand when I explained to her her mommy wouldn't see her anymore," the mother said.

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Associated Press writers Suzette Laboy, Sarah Larimer and Jennifer Kay in Miami and Katrina Goggins in Columbia, S.C., contributed to this story.

CAIRO (AFP) –
Ghana overcame Brazil 4-3 on penalties in the final of the Under-20 World Cup at the Cairo International Stadium here on Friday to become the first African side to win the tournament.

Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu struck the winning spotkick in sudden death after substitute Maicon had spurned the chance to give Brazil their fifth title by placing his penalty over the crossbar.

Ghana fought manfully after the controversial first-half dismissal of Daniel Addo, taking the game to extra-time and then riding their luck in the shootout after 120 goalless minutes.

Goalkeeper Daniel Aygei kept Ghana in the game earlier in extra-time with a point-blank save from Maicon, who had been teed-up 10 yards out by Alex Teixeira's cut-back.

Reported Manchester United target Douglas Costa twice went close in the additional 30 minutes, while Aygei was also called into action by Wellington Junior.

The game changed with the straight red card shown to Ghana centre-back Addo, who was very harshly dismissed for a halfway-line foul on livewire striker Teixeira in the 37th minute despite the presence of a covering defender.

Ghana's numerical disadvantage handed their opponents the initiative after an attritional first 45 minutes and Brazil dominated the second half.

Striker Alan Kardec scored Brazil's winner in the 1-0 semi-final victory over Costa Rica but he was in profligate form against Sellas Tetteh's men.

He spurned four chances inside 12 second-half minutes, first diverting a cross straight at Aygei before twice heading over and also firing into the side netting after a burst down the left.

Tetteh punched the air at the end of extra-time, proud to have kept the favourites at bay despite being a man down.

His joy turned to delirium when Agyemang-Badu slotted his penalty into the bottom-right corner after Maicon had fluffed his chance to give Brazil an unassailable 4-2 lead in the shootout.

Earlier, Hungary secured victory in their third-place play-off match against Costa Rica after heroics from goalkeeper Peter Kulacsi in another penalty shootout.

Marcos Urena's fine 81st-minute opener for Costa Rica was cancelled out by an injury-time penalty from Vladimir Koman and in the ensuing shootout Kulacsi saved three penalties and saw one strike the crossbar to earn the Europeans a 2-0 spotkick victory.