On a scaffold five meters off the ground, artist Meg Saligman uses her paintbrush to carefully touch up an enormous mural covering an entire wall of a Philadelphia parking lot.

"At first, I was afraid of heights, but I'm not anymore. Now I actually love it," Saligman said from her perch where she worked on refurbishing the 500-square-meter (nearly 5,400-square-foot) painting.

A blockbuster auction of Contemporary art in New York, including a record $58.4 million for a Jackson Pollock drip painting, fetched nearly half a billion dollars on Wednesday -- the biggest haul ever at an art auction.

Christie's said its sale raised a "staggering" total of $495,021,500, with 94 percent of lots finding buyers. Nine of the works sold went for more than $10 million and 23 for more than $5 million.

The White House threw its weight Wednesday behind a bid to pass a law to strengthen journalists' rights to protect their sources, amid controversy over the seizure of a news agency's phone records.

Following allegations that federal investigators had gone too far in their move against the Associated Press, a spokesman said President Barack Obama had contacted lawmakers to ask that the bill be brought forward.

The government said Tuesday it is pursuing a "vigorous" investigation into a road-building company's near destruction of one of the largest Mayan pyramids in Belize.

The Ministry of Tourism and Culture expressed outrage at the demolition of the Nohmul complex in northern Belize to extract crushed rock for a road project. It said it is investigating to determine precisely how it happened.

A Turkish parliamentary committee is set to debate Wednesday a proposal by the Islamic-rooted government to introduce new curbs on the consumption and advertising of alcohol, a parliamentary source said.

The supporters of the measure say the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) bill seeks to protect society, particularly children, from the harmful effects of alcohol.

Women in Japan's island chain of Okinawa on Wednesday demanded an apology from an outspoken Japanese politician who suggested U.S. troops there make use of its thriving sex industry.

The comments from Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto came after he said "comfort women" -- who most historians agree were pressed into sexual slavery for the Japanese imperial army during World War II -- served a "necessary" role by keeping soldiers in line.

The Catalonia bookshop in Barcelona survived a civil war and a fire over its 88 years of business -- but nothing could protect it from Spain's recession.

Like bookshops, theaters and cinemas across Spain, it was no longer getting enough punters to survive.

A top judicial panel cleared the way for same-sex marriage in Brazil Tuesday, ruling that gay couples could not be denied marriage licenses.

The National Council of Justice, which oversees the Brazilian judicial system and is headed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, said government offices that issue marriage licenses had no standing to reject gay couples.

Politicians in northern Australia said Tuesday they were considering putting neglected Aboriginal children up for adoption, sparking fears of a new "stolen generation".

Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles, Australia's first indigenous state or territory leader, said he was advocating the plan on a case-by-case basis to protect vulnerable children.

Britain's famous Oxford University is to honor former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who died last month, with a £100 million ($153 million, 118 million euros) scholarship trust for "future leaders", the Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

The Margaret Thatcher Scholarship Trust, backed by patrons including fellow former prime minister Tony Blair and ex-U.S. president George Bush senior, is aimed at giving young people who have succeeded "against the odds" the opportunity to study at the prestigious institution.