Jacques Brinon / AP

A visitor stands in front of the closed Louvre museum Paris, France, Wednesday.

PARIS - Tourists caught no glimpse of the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory or Venus de Milo on Wednesday due to a one-day closure of the Louvre, as guards protested that pickpockets were rampant at the world's most visited museum. 

Two hundred museum guards exercised their right to a work stoppage, forcing the museum to shut its doors for the day, union representatives said. 

The CGT union said guards were "fed up" by attacks and threats directed at them and visitors over the past few months by pickpockets.

The secretary general of the national union for museums (SNMD), David Maillard, said petty thieves were multiplying at the site, visited by nearly 9 million people each year.

"There are thefts and threats every day. The guards are fed up with being assaulted by pickpockets," Maillard told Reuters, adding that the unions want better security at the museum.

The Louvre, which confirmed the closure on its website, could not be immediately reached for comment, but unions said the museum would reopen on Thursday.

Paris police regularly patrol the city's most crowded tourist sites, such as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.

But thieves who often operate in organised gangs are a constant frustration for authorities as they are easily able to exploit tourists and can lose themselves in crowds.

Many of those arrested do not hold French nationality or are minors, complicating judicial pursuit. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Civil Police via AFP / Getty Images

Mugshots released by Brazil's Civil Police showing Jonathan Froudakis de Souza, 20, left, and Wallace Aparecido Silva, 22, who allegedly raped an American tourist in a minibus in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.

An American woman was gang raped and beaten aboard a public transport van while her French boyfriend was shackled, hit with a crowbar and forced to watch the attacks after the pair boarded the vehicle in Rio de Janeiro's showcase Copacabana beach neighborhood, police said.

A third man, aged 21, was arrested for the attacks, which took place over six hours starting shortly after midnight on Saturday, police said in a Tuesday statement. Two men aged 20 and 22 had already been taken into custody for the attacks, police said, and a young Brazilian woman has come forward to say that she, too, was raped by the same men in the van on March 23.

"The victims described everything in great detail, mostly the sexual violence," police officer Rodrigo Brant told the Globo TV network. "Just how they described the facts was shocking — the violence and brutality. It surprised even us, who work in security and are used to hearing such things. Their report shocked us."

The incidents raise new questions about security in Rio, which has cracked down on once-endemic drug violence in preparation for hosting next year's football World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic games. The city will also be playing host to World Youth Day, a Roman Catholic pilgrimage that will be attended by Pope Francis and is expected to draw some 2 million people in late July.

Officials from the local Olympic and World Cup organizing committees didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

The attack also drew comparisons with the fatal December beating and gang rape of a young woman on a New Delhi bus. Six men beset a 23-year-old university student and male friend after they boarded a private bus, touching off a wave of protests across India demanding stronger protection for women. Officials there say tourism has dropped in the country following the attacks.

In the Brazil case, a police statement said the suspects forced other passengers to get out of the van and then raped the female tourist inside the vehicle, which was one of a fleet of vans that serve bus routes and seat about a dozen people.

Such van services are often linked to organized crime in Rio, particularly the militias largely composed of former police and firemen that control large swaths of the city's slums and run clandestine services such as transportation and sell cooking fuel and illegal cable TV hookups. In general, tourists avoid the vans and opt for regular buses or taxis.

Sexual assaults on tourists are not common in Rio, with muggings and petty crime reported more frequently.

During the assault, the two foreigners were driven to the poor neighborhood of Sao Goncalo, where the two suspects were apprehended, a police statement said.

Reports said the two foreigners had been studying Portuguese in Rio for about a month and both left Brazil following the attack.

The police statement said that one victim's cellphone was found in the suspects' possession. The suspects had also used a debit card belonging to one of the victims at two gas stations, it said.

The Globo television network broadcast surveillance camera images of two men filling up the white van and showed police images of a crowbar the suspects used to beat and intimidate the victims. The victims positively identified the two suspects.

In an interview with Globo television, commanding officer Alexandre Braga, who heads the Rio police unit specializing in crimes against tourists, said the suspects had gone on a sex crime spree.

"The characteristics of both crimes, both the Brazilian case and the one with the foreigners, lead us to believe that they [the suspects] wanted to have a 'party of evil,' in quotes," Braga said. "The principal motive appears to have been the satisfaction of their lust."

He added that the robbery and other crimes appear to have been "secondary."

Multiple calls to police seeking further details on Tuesday were not immediately returned.

In Brazil, more than 5,300 cases of sexual assault were reported between January and June 2012, according to the country's Health Ministry.

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This story was originally published on Mon Apr 1, 2013 5:26 PM EDT

By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent

If you’ve followed each blog post, and you’ve wondered how to venture beyond the web and touch the so-called seventh continent, you have one choice: Go by boat.

There is no commercial airport in Antarctica.

Nery Ynclan / NBC News

Icebergs in Antarctica

Antarctica doesn’t even have a government. This land is controlled by a treaty with numerous nations. The companies that take passengers (tourists and scientists alike) generally sail from New Zealand or Argentina.  That means you have to fly before you can sail. Then you need to buy passage on a ship. Some ships are comfortable, some a little more spartan, but all are so-called "expedition ships." Costs to travel are in the thousands of dollars, but for those willing to book 18 months early, the passage can be significantly less expensive. Just remember: This is not a cruise in the Caribbean.

Our ship, the Ocean Diamond, had seven decks and room for about 180 passengers. Not everyone on our voyage was a journalist or scientist. On our passage,  we met a 13-year-old boy holding strong with some of the huskier men who spend their weekends camping and hiking.

Nery Ynclan / NBC News

A Zodiac boat and the Ocean Diamond expedition ship

If you're prone to seasickness, then it’s certain you will feel the motion of the ocean on the notorious Drake Passage, just off the southernmost tip of South America. 

On our return, the waves were more than 17 feet high as we rounded Cape Horn. At one point, winds hit the ship at gusts of 127 miles per hour. The Drake Passage has been a graveyard for many explorers over the centuries because of these rough conditions, but it can also be quite still. On the way down from Argentina, the Drake Passage became more like the Drake Lake. The swells were only a couple of feet against our hull, making it feel like we were sailing through a bathtub.

From left, Nery Ynclan, Kerry Sanders and Kyle Eppler

If you want to experience this trip, I’d recommend you have no fear of water. Not that falling in is likely, but much of those up-close, inspiring moments I've been writing about are best experienced in the inflatable Zodiacs as they skip across the seas.

If you do make the trip, be sure to bring a camera and take some amazing photos and videos, like those you see here. But don't be afraid to put the camera down once in a while and take it all in. With so much change happening here, Antarctica won't look like this forever.

Day 1: Greeted by dirt, not ice

Day 2: Climate change decimates food supply for penguins

Day 3: Watching Mother Nature in action

Day 4: How to sleep outdoors in Antarctica

NASSAU, Bahamas -- Voters on Monday overwhelmingly rejected a referendum to legalize gambling for citizens of the Bahamas, where locals are already barred from betting in casinos at the islands' tourist resorts. 

AFP/Getty Images file

A tourist plays in a casino at a resort in Nassau, Bahamas. Locals are barred from betting in casinos at the islands' tourist resorts.

Underground gambling operations called "web shops" where Bahamians bet on numbers in televised U.S. lotteries have become commonplace in recent years. The shops operate in violation of Bahamian law, but police and political leaders have largely turned a blind eye to them for years.

In a two-part referendum, voters were asked whether gambling shops on the archipelago off Florida's east coast should be legalized, regulated and taxed, and if the government should create its own national lottery. 

But election officials said that a majority of Bahamians clearly voted no on both questions, forcing the government to start the arduous task of shutting down dozens of the underground operations. Voter turnout was apparently quite low.

Bradley Roberts, chairman of the ruling party, said late Monday that Prime Minister Perry Christie's government recognized the results. Christie's administration had encouraged citizens to support legalizing the gambling shops, arguing that the underground houses employ a few thousand Bahamians and could generate $20 million a year in taxes if they were regulated.

"The prime minister was clear that his government would be guided by the results of the referendum and the will of the people, notwithstanding the low voter turnout," Roberts said. "The people have spoken."

The islands' powerful church lobby and the political opposition fiercely opposed any legalized betting for locals. Religious leaders were thrilled by the measure's defeat.

"This is a victory for the church," said Dr. Ranford Patterson, head of the country's powerful Christian Council. "We are excited and thanking God."

Karen Demeritte, a 51-year-old administrative assistant, said she voted against legalizing gambling because she believed that the societal costs would far outweigh the benefit to tax coffers in the Caribbean country of about 350,000 inhabitants.

"We have not given any kind of thought to the downside and the social ills attached to gambling," she said.

Rick Lowe, general manager of a car dealership in Nassau, countered that various forms of gambling are clearly widespread on the islands and adults should be able to spend their money as they see fit.

"Society has passively approved it. It is impossible to stop gambling," said Lowe, who said he declined to vote.

LONDON – London’s legendary blue plaques -- historical markers commemorating the lives of eminent figures -- face an uncertain future because of austerity cuts at England’s official heritage agency.

More than 850 ceramic signs honor key people who lived in the U.K. capital, and their contribution to human history.

Toby Melville / Reuters (file)

One of London's 869 blue historical markers.

But the program -- almost 150 years old and believed to be the first of its kind in the world -- now faces a “very uncertain future,” according its lead administrator at English Heritage.

“These are extremely difficult times for English Heritage and for the scheme,” wrote Emily Cole in a letter made public earlier this month.

Existing plaques will remain, but no new locations are planned and the panel of historians and experts that considers nominations for future signs has been suspended.

The news has been greeted with dismay in London.

“Blue plaques are one of the most charming ways a capital has ever found to preserve historical memory,” cultural commentator Jonathan Jones wrote in The Guardian newspaper. “They eschew the pomposity of statues.”

David Tucker, who leads thousands of tourists on guided walks of London every year, told NBC News: “The plaques are part of the fabric of the city and it’s such a shame.

“As an American living here for 30 years, I can say that I still find myself coming across plaques I have never seen before and learning new things.”

The earliest surviving plaque, erected in 1867, marks the building in King Street where French emperor Napoloeon III once lived. (The first, erected the same year to commemorate the birthplace of Lord Byron, was lost when that building was demolished in 1889.)

In total, the city is dotted with 869 circular, domed signs. Among those honored are Americans with London connections including Jimi Hendrix -- who lived on Brook Street while recording 'Electric Ladyland' -- author Mark Twain, inventor Samuel Morse and broadcast journalist Edward Murrow.

Similar historical markers now exist elsewhere in England in many other cities around the world, including in the United States through bodies such as the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission.

“Over the next eighteen months, we will work up the details of a new and more cost-effective approach to its administration,” said Ellen Harrison, a spokeswoman for the English Heritage, adding that it would need to “become more cost effective and more self-sustaining.”

Each sign costs $1,500 to manufacture and a further, variable, sum to install, while the overall program costs $400,000 a year to operate.

English Heritage last year generated around $86 million from membership subscriptions and admission fees at its historic sites. But it is still heavily reliant on public cash, and faces a 34 percent cut in its grant from Department for Culture, Media and Sport, from $218 million in 2010 to $147 million in 2014, as the U.K. government struggles to reduce a huge budget deficit.

One plaque marks the site of the studio used by sculptor Sir William Reid Dick, who wrote that buildings are “more than just bricks and mortar…they are the theaters in which our lives are enacted.”

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LONDON -- Unexplained delays, equipment failures and chronic rush-hour overcrowding are among the reasons Londoners have a love-hate relationship with their remarkable subway system, dubbed the Tube.

But it was day of gratitude for commuters - and tourists - on Wednesday as the creaking London Underground celebrated its 150th birthday.

It is a remarkable milestone for the network, carved from the hot clay beneath London’s streets and which survived the bombs of World War Two.

Abraham Lincoln was President when the world’s first subterranean passenger service opened between Paddington and Farringdon on Jan. 9, 1863.

Most of the original station building is still in use at Farringdon, where passengers on Wednesday reflected on the history of the Tube.

Science & Society Picture Librar / via Getty Images

Construction of the first section of London's Tube began in the 1860s.

“The old Circle Line carriages could do with being pensioned-off,”  Dave Rodgers, 54, told NBC News. “Some of them look like they are 150 years old. Perhaps they are originals.”

Owen Blake, a 50-year-old printer, was waiting for his train home after a night shift. “I’ve used the Underground all my life,” he said. “As a teenager, it was wonderful to be able to travel from Islington to other places across London. You felt connected, you could go anywhere.”

Peter Jeary, NBC News

Commuters on Wednesday at Farringdon, one of the original London Underground stations.

But Leanne McCabe, a 24-year-old healthcare worker, spoke for many when she said: “I only travel once a month on the Tube, but they always seem to be doing engineering work on the line.”

Upgrading a system whose core infrastructure is more than a century old is a tough task for planners and engineers.

At its start, steam trains ferried carriages between the affluent suburbs of Victorian west London and the money-making heart of the City financial district.

Despite early hazards for passengers such as asphyxiation from smoke and petty crime, it proved a tremendous success, with 26,000 daily users within six months of opening.

The privately funded network grew rapidly, adding new lines and stations as railway entrepreneurs – and tunneling engineers - found there were profits to be made by digging deep under London.

By the time the New York subway opened in 1904, London had six underground lines and was on track to be powered entirely by electricity.

Peter Jeary, NBC News

Steam locomotives and carriages were replaced by electric trains on London's Underground at the turn of the 20th century.

By opening up London’s suburbs to fast, efficient mass transit, the Underground helped shape the way the city grew. New communities grew up around areas connected by the Tube -- as it became known by 1890 in honor of its increasingly deep and narrow tunnels. The network’s expansion at the turn of the 20th century linked the capital’s population with new opportunities for work and leisure.

A record 1.171 billion passenger journeys were made during the 2011-12 financial year, across a city-run network that now covers 249 miles and connects 270 stations on 12 lines – arteries through which London’s lifeblood flows.

A tourist attraction in its own right, it is frequently featured in popular culture, such as the James Bond movie "Skyfall," the Sherlock Holmes tales and songs by The Jam and Duffy – a legacy the pioneers could have never imagined.

“Today of all days, learn to love the Tube,” implored railway historian Christian Wolmar in Wednesday’s London Evening Standard newspaper. “Marvel at the diversity of people from all classes and of all ages who rely on it, day in, day out.”

Updated at 7 p.m. ET: Seven employees of U.S.-based Columbia Helicopters were killed in a helicopter crash on Monday in Peru's Amazon jungle, the company said on Tuesday.

Columbia, known for its tandem rotor cargo helicopters that are used in logging and oil exploration work, said four of the employees were based in the United States and three in Peru. 

"This is a very sad day for Columbia Helicopters," said Michael Fahey, the president of the company from Portland, Oregon. "We may operate globally, but we are still very much a family." 

Fox12 Oregon identified those who died in the crash: Dann Immel, of Gig Harbor, Wash., co-pilot Igor Castillo, of Peru, maintenance crew chief Edwin Cordova, of Melbourne, Fla., mechanic Luis Ramos, of Peru, mechanic Jaime Pickett, of Clarksville, Tenn.; senior load manager Darrel Birkes, who lived in Peru but was originally from the Portland, Ore. area; and load manager Leon Bradford, of Utah.

More world coverage at NBCNews.com

The helicopter crashed minutes after taking off from Pucallpa, about 485 miles east of Lima, on a flight to Tarapoto. It apparently tried to drop cargo as it lost power, and at least three people leapt from the aircraft, Peru's La Republica newspaper, citing witnesses, reported on Tuesday. 

There were no survivors, a Peruvian judicial official said. 

Local media reports initially said on Monday that those on board worked for Petrominerales Ltd, a Canadian-based oil exploration firm focused on Latin America. Petrominerales later denied those reports. 

Columbia said it would work with witnesses and authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the crash. 

Reuters contributed reporting to this story.

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Stringer / Reuters

Soldiers stand at the crash site of a Air Bagan plane in Myanmar, Tuesday.

YANGON, Myanmar – A passenger jet missed an airport runway in heavy fog and landed in a rice paddy, killing two people on the ground and injuring 10, state television in Myanmar said Tuesday.

The pilot of the Air Bagan plane touched down beyond Heho airport in Shan state, killing an 11-year-old passenger and a motorcyclist on the ground, MRTV said.

Four foreigners and the pilot were among the injured. The plane was carrying 63 passengers, 51 of whom were foreigners. MRTV said.

Air Bagan is one of five airlines operating domestic routes in Myanmar.

Stringer / Reuters

People gather at the crash site of a Air Bagan plane in Myanmar, Tuesday.

Owned by Tay Za, a local tycoon blacklisted by the United States for his alleged links to former military regime, Air Bagan was the country's first privately run carrier when it was established in 2004.

Agence France Press (AFP) reported that the aircraft - one of two Fokker-100s in the Air Bagan fleet - was forced to make an emergency landing two miles from Heho airport, which is the gateway to the popular tourist destination of Inle Lake.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Alexander F. Yuan / AP

Chinese tourists take photos on a rebuilt part of the Great Wall in Luanping, in northern China's Hebei province, Friday, Dec. 14, 2012.

Slideshow: Winter's frozen splendor

Arno Balzarini / EPA

Ice and snow changes our environment, as winter engulfs our world.

Launch slideshow

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