When Islamic State group militants invaded the Central Library of Mosul earlier this month, they were on a mission to destroy a familiar enemy: other people's ideas.

Residents say the extremists smashed the locks that had protected the biggest repository of learning in the northern Iraq town, and loaded around 2,000 books — including children's stories, poetry, philosophy and tomes on sports, health, culture and science — into six pickup trucks. They left only Islamic texts.

Fifty years after Winston Churchill's death, Britain on Friday paid tribute to its wartime prime minister, who remains a touchstone of political life and a reminder of a faded age of global influence. 

London's Tower Bridge was raised and the HMS Belfast warship fired a gun salute as the boat that carried his coffin up the River Thames in 1965 retraced its procession, with music from  bagpipers on board.

A statue of French president Charles de Gaulle was unveiled in Beijing on Friday to be permanently displayed in the National Museum on Tiananmen Square in an exceptional honor for a foreign head of state.

The bronze, by Jean Cardot, is a replica of one on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, showing the French leader striding along in military uniform and his distinctive kepi.

An outspoken, billionaire Saudi prince will on Sunday launch a pan-Arab satellite news channel aimed at challenging established networks in the region.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is a nephew of King Abdullah, who died on January 23.

With a giant stainless steel elephant, a graffiti mural and a dying tree branch, the Indian Art Fair opened Friday hoping to tap into the country's growing demand for contemporary art.

Growing wealth has fuelled an interest in art collecting among India's super rich, but the New Delhi fair's organisers said a rapidly rising middle class has also played a role in recent years.

Fifty years after Winston Churchill's death, the wartime prime minister remains a touchstone of British political life -- and a reminder of a faded age of global influence.

Top politicians will be among those attending a re-enactment of his funeral procession in London Friday, 50 years to the day since it was watched on television by 350 million people, complete with a gun salute and the raising of Tower Bridge.

U.S. poet, songwriter and singer Rod McKuen has died at the age of 81, U.S. media reported.

His work included the Academy Award-nominated song "Jean" for the 1969 film "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie."

China's education minister has vowed to ban university textbooks which promote "Western values", state media said, in the latest sign of ideological tightening under President Xi Jinping.

"Never let textbooks promoting Western values appear in our classes," minister Yuan Guiren said, according to a report late Thursday by China's official Xinhua news agency.

An online gallery marking the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo went live Wednesday, showing off 200 relics from the time -- including the Duke of Wellington's famous boots.

Drawn from museums and private collections across Europe, the historical objects recall the events south of Brussels in June 1815, when Wellington led the British and allied forces to a final, decisive victory over French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Smithsonian network of world-famous museums in Washington is looking to set up an exhibition space in London, on the site of the 2012 Olympics, it announced Wednesday.

It would mark the first time that the Smithsonian -- which traces its origins to an Englishman who never visited America -- has set up a long-term venue outside the United States.