Justice Minister Tzipi Livni is pushing to change the law in Israel to allow civil unions, including between gays and lesbians, an official said Monday.

The purpose of the ministerial proposal, currently in the form of a memorandum, is "to legislate an official status for the union of couples for joint life, which reflects their will to live together, have a family life and joint household, without marrying according to personal law as applied in Israel."

Turkey's conservative Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stirred controversy with weekend remarks in favor of single-sex dorms in the mainly Muslim but staunchly secular country.

"Female and male students cannot live in the same house," the head of the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) was quoted as saying by the Turkish press on Monday.

An Israeli parliamentary committee held a heated debate Monday on whether to begin allowing Jews to pray on what they call the Temple Mount, the compound housing Al-Aqsa mosque.

But there was no outcome to the Knesset internal affairs committee's hearing, which was repeatedly disrupted by Arab MPs who were eventually ejected from the room.

Jung Chang says she does not enjoy arguments, but the latest book from the writer whose works are banned in China is proving to be typically contentious.

The "Wild Swans" author has offered a revisionist account of Empress Dowager Cixi, the concubine who ruled behind the scenes from 1861 until her death in 1908.

The discovery in a rubbish-strewn flat in Germany of nearly 1,500 paintings including works by Picasso and Matisse looted by the Nazis sparked urgent calls Monday to hunt for their rightful owners.

The shock find, valued at an estimated one billion euros ($1.3 billion dollars), was reported Sunday by news weekly Focus. Authorities repeatedly declined to comment on the trove apparently uncovered in 2011.

Author Yasmina Khadra said on Saturday that he plans to run as an independent candidate in Algeria's April 2014 presidential election.

"It's official. I am a candidate for the 2014 presidential election," he told Agence France Presse by telephone.

A three-tonne (3,000 kilo) stone has fallen from a wall surrounding a pharaonic tomb outside Cairo but the burial site was not damaged, Egypt's ministry of antiquities said on Saturday.

The incident occurred on Friday morning and work was on to restore the stone to its position, the ministry said, adding that Antiquities Minister Mohammed Ibrahim had visited the site on Saturday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans on Saturday to be vigilant to the dangers of anti-Semitism ahead of the 75th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom.

In her weekly podcast, Merkel described the events of November 9, 1938 -- also known as 'The Night of Broken Glass' -- as "one of the darkest moments in German history."

Some of the finest masterpieces of 20th century art are the highlights of New York's November auction season, poised to set new sales records in a flourishing market.

The sum total of impressionist, modern, post-war and contemporary art being offered by Christie's and Sotheby's is expected to fetch more than $1.5 billion at combined evening and day sales from November 4 to 13.

Classes are overcrowded, curriculums out of date and facilities crumbling. In Egypt, frustrated parents have for decades relied on private tutors as overpopulation and government neglect have eviscerated public education.

And with the Arab world's most populous country plunged into turmoil since 2011, when a popular uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak, hopes for reform are slimmer than ever as security dominates the political agenda.