SAMARKAND-In this stunning Uzbek city, the most popular item on the menu,is Plov the national dish, a culinary masterpiece, cooked with rice, lamb or beef, carrots, onions, and cumin. This is usually accompanied by Uzbek bread, lepeshka, which is round and flat and is baked in a clay oven.

 On most menus were samosas, pastries filled with meat onions and potatoes, and kabob skewers. Achichuk was the most popular salad choice I had a chance to sample, consisting of cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, with oil vinegar and lemon juice.

 ROME -- At the launch of the Napoli2500 celebrations, the City of Naples and the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte have come together to present NAFRICA–MASKS. A joint initiative curated by Simon Njami and produced by Andrea Aragosa for Black Tarantella, this event was realised under the artistic direction of Laura Valente, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, the University of Naples Federico II, L’Orientale University, and the Museum of Civilizations (MUCIV).

 ROME – A Japanese tourist, 69, died late on Friday evening after plunging from a 7-metre-high wall by the Pantheon in Rome, police said.

 The tourist, named as Hibino Morimasa, had been on holiday with his daughter in Rome when he fell from the wall surrounding the Pantheon in central Rome. The wall has a 7-metre drop from the current day street level to the street level as it was in Ancient Rome and is often to referred to as the Pantheon’s moat.

 ROME – The recently completed work in front of the new Naples Centro Direzionale station has been criticised by some Neapolitans as “shoddy workmanship”, already falling apart mere months after the works were completed.