To Scrabble fanatics, big gifts sometimes come in small packages.

The word "te" as a variant of "ti," the seventh tone on the musical scale, is a hardworking little gem among 5,000 words added to "The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary," out Aug. 11 from Merriam-Webster.

It was inaugurated 25 years ago to much pomp on the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, but Margaret Thatcher no doubt remembered it more as the place where she got stuck in the toilets.

Today, the gigantic Grande Arche on the outskirts of Paris is in a sorry state -- the prized Carrara marble covering parts of the structure is worn down, businesses snub its cramped office space and the entire building is now closed to the public for security reasons.

Feeling dejected and drained, Che Esa consulted not a doctor but her local Malay shaman, who diagnosed a repression of her "angin", a metaphysical "wind" affecting spiritual and emotional health.

Her treatment -- known as "main puteri" -- included Che Esa tussling with two men, enduring pokes, taunts and even slaps from the shaman and, finally, a rousing Malay song and dance performed by about 50 fellow villagers.

Acclaimed Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, who overcame a battle with cancer, brushed aside the idea of his death Monday as a premier classical music festival was renamed after him.

The Saito Kinen music festival, held every summer since 1992 in the central city of Matsumoto, will be named the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival from next year to honour the maestro's contribution to the event.

A Solomon Islander who helped save John F. Kennedy when a Japanese destroyer sank the future U.S. president's patrol boat during World War II has died aged 93, his family said Monday.

Eroni Kumana and his fellow islander Buiku Gasa were out in a canoe in 1943 when they came across the injured Kennedy, who was then a naval lieutenant, and members of his crew stranded on a coral atoll.

When the clouds of World War I first gathered, Britain and its empire were less than fully ready to weather the storm.

Once derided as a drink for destitute drunkards, Mexico's smoky-flavored mezcal liquor has come out of the shadows to become a trendy booze in fashionable bars from Mexico City to Sydney.

Human bones have been found near a military base in central Chile where political prisoners were tortured during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, officials said Friday.

Muslim visitors to Japan are expected to reach one million a year by 2020, triple the 2013 level, as it further opens up to tourists, a specialist travel firm said Friday.

Singapore-based CrescentRating, which promotes "halal" or Islam-compliant travel, said Southeast Asia would be a key source for Muslim tourists after Tokyo eased visa requirements.

A rabbi, an imam and a priest start praying together under the same roof. It may sound like the start of a joke, but hopes are high it will become reality in Berlin.

The three men are working together to build a common house of worship — the "House of One" — in the center of the capital that will include a church, a mosque and a synagogue, as well as a joint meeting hall at the center of the building.