• Iconic French painting of 'Liberty' defaced with black marker

    Pascal Rossignol / Reutersfile

    A woman looks at Eugene Delacroix 's painting, "Liberty Leading the People at the Louvre museum in Lens, northern France, in this Dec. 3 file picture.

    By Vicky Buffery, Reuters

    PARIS -- A woman defaced Eugene Delacroix's painting "Liberty Leading the People" with a black marker as it hung in an outpost of the Louvre gallery in northern France.

    Police arrested a 28-year-old woman on Thursday for writing "AE911" across the bottom of a painting so closely identified with the French Republic that its image once graced the 100-franc note and it has been reproduced on postage stamps.

    "AE911Truth" is the name of a website called "Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth" whose backers say they are seeking to establish the truth of the Sept. 11, 2001 suicide airliner attacks on New York's Twin Towers.

    Painted in 1830, Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People" depicts a bare-breasted woman brandishing a tricolor flag and leading her people over the bodies of the fallen.

    Reuters

    Xavier Dectot, director of the Louvre-Lens Museum, speaks to the media after Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People," was damaged.

    It was painted after the 1830 July Revolution as a symbol of reconciliation following the overthrow of Bourbon King Charles X and the ascent to the throne of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans.

    The painting was later adopted as a revolutionary emblem in the 1848 uprising which overthrew the Orleans monarchy.

    It later disappeared from public view but resurfaced in the Louvre after the advent of the Third Republic in 1871 and sealed its place in the French national consciousness.

    "It had really become an icon, a sort of symbol of the Republic which has remained famous throughout the ages," said Vincent Pomarede, head of the Louvre's painting department.

    "We have a very passionate relationship with all our paintings and when something like this happens it's really hard to handle," he said.

    The work was on loan from the main Louvre in Paris to the new Louvre-Lens gallery in northern France inaugurated last December by President Francois Hollande when it was defaced.

    However, the Louvre confirmed Friday it had managed to save the painting as the black marker had not penetrated the upper layer of varnish and has been successfully removed. 

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Dozens rescued from Vietnam's blazing 'twin towers'

    Luong Thai Linh / EPA

    Smoke billows a blazing building in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Thursday.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Updated at 11:20 a.m. ET: At least 30 workers were rescued when an office block being built by Vietnam's state power company caught fire Thursday, engulfing part of downtown Hanoi in black smoke.

    Several workers waved their shirts from an upper-floor balcony to call for help after smoke began to engulf the building, The Associated Press reported. Others used cellphones and flashlights to summon help. At 10:15 p.m. local time (10:15 a.m. ET), it was not clear whether any people remained trapped in the complex, which was described by local media as the city's "twin towers."

    However, Tuoi Tre News reported that "all people trapped in the towers had been rescued."

    The official Vietnam News Agency said 30 workers were rescued, including 16 who were hospitalized for smoke inhalation.

    Witnesses said they saw flames in the basement of the 33-story building. The Thanh Nien newspaper quoted Nguyen Huy Hoc, a worker who escaped the blaze, as saying sparks from welding in the basement ignited nearby material in the air-conditioning system.

    Published at 9:10 a.m. ET: About 20 people were believed to be trapped Thursday after a blaze broke out at a skyscraper in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, according to reports.

    Tuoi Tre News reported that clouds of smoke billowed from the under-construction EVN Center for Telecommunications Information Management after the fire started around 4:30 p.m. local time (4:30 a.m. ET). Citing a source, it said at least two people had been rescued and taken to hospital from the "twin towers" complex.

    Tuoi Tre quoted an official as saying that some workers on the site "rushed to upper floors" when the fire erupted.

    According to BBC Vietnam, about 20 people were believed to be trapped inside.

    The BBC reported that one of the buildings is 33 stories, while the other has 29 floors.

    It added that either a gas explosion or faulty wiring was believed to have sparked the blaze.

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    The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.