China's state cultural authority criticized a French auction house for selling a historic seal allegedly looted by foreign troops in the 19th century, state media reported Wednesday.

An unidentified official from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage said China opposes and condemns the sale of cultural relics illegally taken out of the country, the Beijing News reported.

Qatar-based company Alnoor Holding has said it will raise the budget for a planned movie series on the life of Prophet Mohammed to $1 billion dollars from the $1.5 million announced three years ago.

The biopics will be produced as a series of "seven films -- instead of three films as per an earlier announcement -- with a total budget of $1 billion," Alnoor chairman Ahmed al-Hashemi said in a statement received by AFP on Tuesday.

AltCity and Migrant Workers' Task Force (MWTF) are holding an event to coincide with International Human Rights Day from December 16 to 22.

“Everyone in Lebanon has human rights. Through photo essays, infographics, and positive social interactions we are working toward justice for migrant workers in Lebanon,” Dima Saber, Co-founder of AltCity, said.

A painting by the 80-year-old Spanish artist who became famous for her botched restoration of a Christ fresco in a small-town church has fetched €1,080 ($1,421) on eBay.

The closing price Tuesday for Celia Gimenez's oil painting "Las Bodegas de Borja" ("Borja's Wine Cellar") more than tripled its starting price after 52 bids.

Chinese police have detained more than 100 people, among them members of a fringe Christian group, for spreading rumors about the world's impending end, state media reported Tuesday.

Police seized leaflets, video discs, books and other apocalyptic materials in the recent arrests of 101 people across eight provinces and regions, from the prosperous east coast to less developed western China, the Xinhua News Agency said.

Before the creation of the Earth, there was only silence and darkness, only the sky and the sea until the deities Tepeu and Gucumatz created trees, animals and man -- so says the Mayan holy book.

The Popol Vuh is a spiritual and philosophical book that explains the creation of the world. Even today, it plays an important role in defining the identity of ethnic Mayas in Mexico and central America.

Christians are the world's biggest religious group, numbering some 2.2 billion people, according to a study released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Pew assembled data on the size and geographic distribution of eight major religious groups, including non-believers.

Dozens of British lawmakers signed an open letter published Monday opposing government plans to introduce same-sex marriages.

A cross-party group from the elected lower House of Commons and the largely appointed upper House of Lords signed the letter to The Daily Telegraph newspaper warning ministers that they had no mandate to "redefine" the meaning of marriage.

A French auction house is to put on sale Monday a historic Chinese seal despite threats of legal action alleging the piece may have been stolen from Beijing's Forbidden City by Anglo-French forces in 1860.

The green jade seal is expected to fetch up to 200,000 euros ($263,000) and dates from the Qianlong period (1736-95).

With Bible in hand as a shield against adversity, Paraguay's Mennonites have celebrated their bounty 85 years after settling in the inhospitable plains known as El Chaco.

Established in 1927 by Mennonites fleeing Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin, the deeply pacifist Protestant community has survived and flourished to become an important generator of wealth for Paraguay, said Ronaldo Dietze, a descendent of German settlers.