Marie, the biggest of all the new bells being made for Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral on its 850th anniversary next year, left its foundry in the Netherlands on Thursday headed for France.

"Marie left the foundry around 2 pm and should arrive in Normandy for final adjustments around 11 am tomorrow," the head of the Eijsbouts royal bell foundry, Joost Eijsbouts, told Agence France Presse.

Canada's top court ruled Thursday that Muslim women wearing the niqab can be forced to remove their veils when testifying, but only if absolutely necessary and after any objections have been considered.

The case, considering a rape victim's request to wear the veil at trial, pitted religious freedoms set out in the constitution against a defendant's right to face an accuser in court, which is deeply entrenched in Canadian law.

While doomsayers hunkered down to await the coming apocalypse, others took a more lighthearted view Friday of a Mayan prophecy of the world's end and marked the event with stunts and parties.

Interpretations of the Mayan "Long Count" calendar point to an era of more than 5,000 years coming to a halt on December 21, although in Sydney it was business as usual.

Turkish officials have taken down an exhibition of paintings of nude women at a state art gallery, a trade union activist said Wednesday, condemning the move as censorship.

The show of 29 oil paintings by prolific Turkish artist and teacher Emin Guloren was due to run in the State Fine Arts Gallery in the northwestern city of Eskisehir for 10 days but was closed down earlier this week, a union official said.

The tomb of the Roman general who inspired the film "Gladiator" risks falling into oblivion despite a plea from Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe to save it, as recession-hit Italy struggles to preserve its archaeological jewels.

"It's incredibly sad, this is an extraordinary site. Its fate has caught the eyes of the world," said Daniela Rossi, head archaeologist on the dig that unearthed the tomb of Roman general Marcus Nonius Macrinus.

Norhima Hayral from the Philippines sought refuge in a shelter for abused Asian housemaids in Jordan to escape from employers she says both beat and raped her.

"The recruitment agency took my passport the second I arrived in Amman's airport" six months ago, 27-year-old Hayral told Agence France Presse at the shelter funded by Manila's Overseas Labor Office.

China has arrested nearly 1,000 people in a crackdown on a Christian sect that spread doomsday rumors and targeted communist rule, state media said Thursday ahead of the supposedly Mayan-foretold apocalypse.

The Christian-inspired group "Almighty God" has been accused of spreading doomsday rumors apparently linked to the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar and urging followers to slay the "red dragon" of communism, state media reports said.

Dim lighting and quiet music accompany a faint smell of decomposing skeletons to complete a ghoulish ambiance that is proving to be a hit with visitors to a giant bone repository in the Czech Republic.

The long-forgotten ossuary in the southern city of Brno opened its doors to the public this year with a display of the best-preserved remains of tens of thousands of souls.

At its peak, the Maya civilization had one of the richest cultures in the Americas. Today, ethnic Mayas in central America and Mexico suffer from discrimination, exploitation and poverty.

In Guatemala, where nearly half of the population is indigenous, descendants of the once-mighty ancient civilization have even fallen victims to genocide.

Malaysia has removed quotas and other restrictions on Christians from the Muslim majority nation making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem, government and church officials said.

The move comes after a string of clashes in recent years between the government and the Christian minority and ahead of national polls which must be held by the middle of next year.