Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims began a mass movement out of the holy city of Mecca towards the nearby Mina Valley in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, beginning the hajj.

One of the world's largest annual gatherings and a pillar of the Islamic faith, this year's hajj comes with authorities striving to protect pilgrims from two deadly viruses, Ebola and the MERS coronavirus.

Visitors who wear face veils to Australia's Parliament House have been restricted to sound-proof enclosed galleries usually reserved for noisy school groups under a new counterterrorism security measure.

Some senators accused the Parliament of sending a message to the nation that Muslim women can be treated as second-class citizens.

Four flower vases adorn the living room of Hossam al-Dabbus's home. Initially inconspicuous, a closer look reveals they are made of Israeli tank shells collected by war-scarred Gazans.

The refugee camp dweller has picked through the rubble of the coastal strip to turn the remains of a conflict that killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians and more than 70 Israelis, into objects of art.

Skyscrapers are shooting up all over London, transforming a skyline once dominated by Big Ben and St Paul's Cathedral.

Some Londoners are delighted at their city's "Manhattanisation" but others warn it risks losing its soul.

Japan's "shinkansen" train, which led the world in super-fast rail transport technology, celebrated its 50th birthday Wednesday with ceremonies hailing its contribution to the country's post-war economy and its safety record.

A sleek, airplane-shaped N700A train left Platform 19 of Tokyo's central station at 6:00 am, exactly 50 years since the launch of the service along the Pacific industrial belt between the capital and the western megacity of Osaka.

Thieves have stolen a painting by French master Edgar Degas valued at six million euros ($7.6 million) from the home of a 70-year-old Greek Cypriot, Cyprus police said on Tuesday.

The painting, entitled "Ballerina adjusting her slipper", was taken on Monday from the home in the island's second city Limassol and was not insured, a police spokeswoman told AFP.

Philippine authorities moved Tuesday to seize paintings by Picasso, Gauguin, Miro, Michelangelo and other masters held by Imelda Marcos after getting a court order against the former first lady.

Police and lawyers will search the homes and offices of the widow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos after a court awarded the artworks to the government, said a state body pursuing the Marcoses' allegedly ill-gotten wealth.

A bouquet of wildflowers painted by Vincent van Gogh weeks before his death is going on the auction block in New York City.

Sotheby's says "Still Life, Vase With Daisies and Poppies" could sell for $30 million to $50 million on Nov. 4.

The author of the story collection "Godforsaken Idaho" has won a $25,000 prize.

Shawn Vestal is the winner of the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut fiction. He was to receive the award Monday at a New York ceremony organized by the PEN American Center, the literary and human rights organization.

Islamic State jihadists occupying parts of Iraq are destroying age-old heritage sites and looting others to sell valued artifacts on the black market, experts gathered at UNESCO's Paris headquarters warned Monday.

The extremist group has destroyed shrines, churches and precious manuscripts in Mosul, Tikrit and other areas of Iraq it controls and excavated sites to sell objects abroad, in what UNESCO chief Irina Bokova described as "cultural cleansing".