Tens of thousands of people gathered in Hiroshima Thursday to mark 70 years since the atomic bombing that helped end World War II but still divides opinion today over whether the total destruction it caused was justified.

Bells tolled as a solemn crowd observed a moment of silence at 8:15 am local time (2315 GMT), when the detonation turned the western Japanese city into an inferno, killing thousands instantly and leaving others to die a slow death with horrible injuries.

When Elena and May were growing up, you didn't talk about the separatist group ETA and the decades of killings in their native Basque country. Now they are shouting and crying about it.

Actors in their forties, they are at a high school, playing out for their young audience the dramatised scenes of hatred and tension that Basques in northern Spain have suffered.

School holidays are a bad idea, at least when it comes to children's spelling and arithmetic in the short term, according to scientists in Austria.

A study by Graz University of 182 children aged 10-12 showed that after Austria's nine weeks of summer vacation, the children showed "significant falls" in these areas.

The Enola Gay was on its long flight back to its Pacific island base when co-pilot Captain Robert Lewis opened his log and scribbled down the many questions racing through his mind.

"Just how many Japs did we kill?" wondered Lewis after the dazzling silver B-29 bomber dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan -- and, in doing so, altered the course of history forever.

It's just a few cryptic notations on a badly yellowed sheet of paper, but it changed the course of world history.

An original copy of the operations order for dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, is on display at the Museum of World War II as the 70th anniversary of the attack is marked Thursday. It is being featured there along with other related artifacts.

Apparently modest reform proposals for primary education in Algeria have touched off a firestorm of protest, highlighting deep sensitivities about language and identity half a century after independence from France.

Standard Arabic has been the North African nation's sole official language since 1962, even though virtually no Algerians have it as their mother tongue and it has to be learnt at school.

A Syrian archbishop said the United States' reluctance to offer asylum to persecuted Christians is "unjust and condemnable" and appealed to the American people for help withstanding Islamic militants fighting to root out their faith.

The Islamic State group's rise has forced hundreds of thousands of Syrian and Iraqi Christians from their homes, threatening a religion that has survived in the region for 2,000 years and spurring a growing worldwide humanitarian effort.

The first Catholic bishop to be ordained in China for more than three years was consecrated on Tuesday amid a heavy police presence, worshippers said.

Joseph Zhang Yilin was installed as the official bishop of Anyang in the central province of Henan, as hundreds of police blocked access to the Sacred Heart of Jesus church. Agence France Presse was denied access to the ceremony.

Iran's top sculptor Parviz Tanavoli is to dedicate a new work to Cecil, the lion who was killed by an American dentist in Zimbabwe sparking an international outcry.

"The cruel killing of the Zimbabwean lion known as Cecil broke my heart," said the 78-year-old, who has created many distinctive sculptures of lions in a career spanning six decades.

Workers in Cuba have begun building the altar where Pope Francis will deliver mass during a landmark visit next month, placing it just to the left of a giant image of Che Guevara.

Francis, who hails from Argentina like the famous revolutionary, will visit Cuba September 19 to 22 as part of a tour that will later take him to the United States.