Their backs hunched, elderly Muslim pilgrims lean on walking sticks as others in wheelchairs nudge their way into Mecca's Grand Mosque where scores of people are encircling the holy Kaaba.

"Allahu akbar" (God is greater), they chant in unison.

Turkey's Islamic-rooted government has banned pupils from wearing tattoos or body piercings in schools, a measure denounced by opponents as oppressive and unenforceable, reports said Sunday.

While tattoos are frowned upon by conservative elements in Turkey's diverse society, they are highly fashionable among secular urban youth, including school-age teens.

Balazs Mikusi's heart started racing when he realized what the papers he held in his hand were: the long-lost original score of a famous Mozart sonata scribbled by the composer himself.

"When I first laid eyes upon the manuscript, the handwriting already looked suspiciously 'Mozartish'," said Mikusi, head of the music collection at Budapest's National Szechenyi Library.

The French illustrator of world-famous cartoon hero Asterix, Albert Uderzo, who had been locked in a bitter, years-long legal feud with his daughter said Friday the pair had finally buried the hatchet.

We are "reunited again and determined to make a clean sweep of the grievances raised by both sides," the 87-year-old and his daughter Sylvie wrote in a joint statement, adding they were dropping all existing complaints and legal actions.

An iconic building in Berlin that was occupied by squatting artists for two decades has been sold to an investment fund for 150 million euros ($190 million), German media reported on Thursday.

The five-storey Tacheles building, which was a magnet for tourists until its closure in 2012, was sold by the German Jagdfeld group to the New York-based Perella Weinberg Partners, reports said.

A rare remnant of the Berlin Wall lies at the end of an overgrown path next to the Spree River but as the 25th anniversary of its fall approaches, the relic is under threat.

Berliners ripped down the despised Wall as fast as they could in the giddy months after November 9, 1989, when the border between East and West was finally thrown open.

From war-ravaged Iraq and Syria to Ebola-hit Nigeria and dozens of other nations, pilgrims are converging on Saudi Arabia for the annual hajj, the world's largest Muslim gathering.

From early October, close to two million believers will congregate to follow the 1,400-year-old tradition of Islam's Prophet Mohammed.

The Mormon Church History museum is closing for one year for a total renovation of the 30-year-old building.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints says the Utah museum will close on Oct. 6, following the biannual general conference. It is scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2015 with a new floor plan and exhibits.

Malaysia's transgender population faces systematic repression, harassment and mistreatment, and the government must immediately repeal laws that criminalize their lifestyles, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

The U.S.-based group released a report it says details worsening abuses that transgender people face in the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian nation.

An exhibition by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has transformed the former island prison of Alcatraz into a tribute to the world's political prisoners, some famous and some forgotten.

Called "@ large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz," the installation opens Saturday at the former maximum-security prison in the San Francisco Bay.