Malaysia's top court on Monday upheld a government ban forbidding non-Muslims from using "Allah" to refer to God, rejecting an appeal by the Roman Catholic Church that argued that the ban failed to consider the rights of minorities in the mostly Muslim nation.

The Federal Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that the church's newspaper has no grounds to appeal a lower court decision last year that kept it from using "Allah" in its Malay-language weekly publication.

U.N. cultural agency UNESCO on Saturday granted its coveted World Heritage status to a vast and ancient Inca road system spanning six countries in South America.

The listing of the Qhapaq Nan roads will boost efforts to preserve and promote the network -- an engineering marvel comparable to the vast road system of the Roman Empire.

The Arbil Citadel that dominates the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan was granted World Heritage Site status Saturday in a move praised as a rare "note of optimism" amid the country's violence.

Delegates at UNESCO's World Heritage Committee voted to grant the coveted status at a gathering in Doha, where they are considering some 40 cultural and natural wonders for inclusion on the U.N. list.

Druids and pagans were among the nearly 40,000 people who gathered at Britain's ancient Stonehenge monument to hail the summer solstice at dawn on Saturday.

Police said they arrested 25 people, mostly for drug offences, during the all-night celebration to mark the longest day of the year.

"The Girl With a Pearl Earring" has come home.

After a two-year global tour that drew record crowds in Japan, Italy and the United States, Johannes Vermeer's 1665 masterpiece and other works from the Netherlands' 17th-century Golden Age have returned home to the newly renovated Mauritshuis museum in the Hague.

Guam may ditch the colorful blossoms of an invasive plant and instead adopt the white petals of a native shrub as its national flower.

Speaker Judith Won Pat introduced a bill that would make the torchwood plant known as gaosali the U.S. territory's official flower, the Pacific Daily News (http://bit.ly/1pt0hbC ) reported.

"We are in a war."

Hundreds of conservative Republicans who gathered for the Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority conference this week in Washington see a conflict raging across the United States pitting their faith and family values against liberal encroachment fueled by President Barack Obama.

The West Bank community of Battir, granted UNESCO endangered World Heritage status on Friday, is famous for its Roman-era irrigation system that is under threat from the Israeli separation barrier.

The U.N. cultural agency's World Heritage Committee granted protected status to the agricultural community south of Jerusalem, where Israel plans to build part of the barrier, after an emergency nomination by Palestinian officials.

Open one door to see a naked woman perched on a bicycle seat high on a wall; enter another room and find twins reading identical books under a pair of dot paintings.

Fleeting installations involving living people are stealing the show at this year's Art Basel, the world's biggest meeting place for deep-pocketed collectors.

The writers' group PEN is honoring Salman Rushdie for his "outstanding" literary output and support for freedom of expression.

The India-born writer, who spent years in hiding after his novel "The Satanic Verses" drew a death edict from Iran's religious authorities, was named winner Friday of the PEN/Pinter prize.