The British Library officially opened its newsroom on Monday, where the public can access more than 300 years of newspaper history dating back to the English Civil War for free.

In the new center at the national library in London, visitors can plough through 7.8 million scanned pages of historic newspapers and 4.8 million archived British Internet domain websites, totaling more than a billion individual web pages.

A vast necropolis with some 50 mummies, including pharaonic royalty, has been discovered in Egypt's famed Valley of the Kings near the temple city of Luxor, officials said Monday.

"The immense necropolis contains the remains of mummies that could have been members of the royal family, in particular the sons of the kings Tutmoses III and Tutmoses IV of the 18th dynasty," which ruled from 1550-1292 BC, the antiquities ministry said.

Mejah Mbuya hops off his bike outside a building that seems to be unoccupied.

"There used to be a plaque around here somewhere," he murmurs, searching in vain. The building is in central Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's steamy port city, and looks like many of the other older buildings in the area, in need of repair and dwarfed by proliferating highrises.

Harper Lee has signed on for Scout, Boo Radley and Atticus Finch to enter the electronic age.

Filling one of the biggest gaps in the e-library, "To Kill a Mockingbird" will become available as an e-book and digital audiobook on July 8, HarperCollins Publishers announced Monday. Lee, in a rare public statement, cited a "new generation" of fans in agreeing to the downloadable editions of her Pulitzer Prize-winning classic.

The three brothers who run Spain's El Celler de Can Roca were hoping Monday that it would keep its crown as the world's best restaurant, as the results of a survey by Britain's Restaurant magazine were unveiled.

The Girona-based restaurant, known for its dishes inspired by perfumes, took the top spot from Danish foraging restaurant Noma in 2013.

Pablo Picasso's anti-war masterpiece "Guernica", one of the world's most iconic paintings, on Sunday served as a backdrop to a dance performance for the first time in its 77-year history.

About 80 people sat on the floor or stood as Josue Ullate, a bare chested dancer in black tights, jumped and leapt in front of the large black-and-white canvas at Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum.

Once pilgrims came on camels or on foot in their thousands, now millions of Muslims make the journey to the Mecca each year, traveling by boat, coach and budget airline, and their number is constantly rising.

In the past century new modes of transport and technological advances have transformed the hajj.

A high school curriculum, billed as a way to teach archaeology, history and the arts through Bible stories, also tells students God is always there in times of trouble and that sinners must "suffer the consequences" of disobeying.

The Mustang School Board in suburban Oklahoma City voted this month to place the Museum of the Bible's curriculum in its schools as an elective for a one-year trial after being assured that the intent is not to proselytize but to use the Bible to explain key principles in the arts and sciences.

In his native Poland, Pope John Paul II's old stomping grounds are places of pilgrimage. Here are the top five spots in Poland associated with the superstar pope, who will be made a saint at a ceremony in Vatican on Sunday.

THE PALACE OF THE KRAKOW BISHOPS

The world's largest blue diamond will go under the hammer in Geneva next month, with the rare gem expected to fetch up to $25 million, auctioneers said Friday.

"The Blue", a shimmering pear-shaped rock the color of cobalt and weighing 13.22 carats was described by Christie's as "the largest fancy vivid blue diamond in the world."