Pilgrims in their hundreds of thousands thronged Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia from early Monday for the climax of the annual hajj pilgrimage, arriving on foot, by train or in vehicles.

Officials said they expected around 1.5 million pilgrims to descend on the site, where later in the day they will perform prayers and listen to the annual sermon from Saudi top cleric Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh.

Split, stolen, even stashed in a salt mine, one of the world's most mythical oils, Flemish masterpiece "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb", is undergoing its most ambitious clean-up in 600 years.

By Flemish primitive masters Hubert and Jan Van Eyck -- though Hubert remains something of a mystery -- the 24-panel work is also known as the Ghent Altarpiece or Lamb of God, and features the first known nudes in Flemish art, Adam and Eve.

A Malaysian appeals court on Monday upheld a government ban against the use of the word "Allah" to refer to God in non-Muslim faiths, overruling claims by Christians in this Muslim-majority nation that the restriction violates their religious rights.

"Allah" is the Arabic word for God and is commonly used in the Malay language to refer to God. But the Malaysian government insists that "Allah" should be exclusively reserved for Muslims because of concerns its use by others would confuse Muslims and could be used to convert them.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the Louis Armstrong museum in the modest brick house where he lived for 28 years, curators are unveiling one of the jazz trumpeter's most unusual artifacts — a plaster mask that had been stored in a cupboard for decades.

Armstrong, who was known for documenting his career in unusual ways, had the life mask with a painted bronze-patina finish made in the 1950s. David Reese, curator of the Louis Armstrong House Museum, said it reveals creases on his forehead, bags under his eyes and scars on his lips from a lifetime of horn-playing.

Elderly parents in China can now sue their grown children for both financial and emotional support.

The changes in the law in China reflect an increasingly urgent dilemma across the world: As populations age faster than ever before, families and governments are struggling to decide who will protect and provide for the old. Too often, the answer is nobody.

Late legendary singer Wadih al-Safi will be laid to rest on Monday in his hometown of Niha in the Chouf region.

His family explained that he would be buried in Niha “so that his grave will serve as a cultural landmark for all Lebanese and all his admirers throughout the world.”

Some two million Muslims poured out of the holy city of Mecca Sunday to begin the annual hajj, their numbers reduced on fears of the MERS virus.

Saudi Health Minister Abdullah Al-Rabia told reporters late Saturday that authorities had so far detected no cases among the pilgrims of the virus which has killed 60 people worldwide, 51 of them in Saudi Arabia.

The death of music legend singer Wadih al-Safi was mourned on Saturday by several Lebanese figures who expressed that his passing “is a national loss.”

Renowned Lebanese singer Sabah issued a statement mourning her “life long friend, the great artist” Wadih al-Safi.

The art collection of a Holocaust survivor who became one of the foremost Pablo Picasso dealers goes on sale in New York next month for an expected $170 million.

The 160 drawings, paintings and sculptures owned by Jan Krugier include Old Masters and 20th century European masterpieces, as well as Latin American and African art.

There was no mistaking the muscular roar of the big radial engine as the most famous trainer to come out of World War II soared above this rural Virginia town.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the North American T-6 Texan, the big tandem-seat warbird in which countless pilots from dozens of countries honed their flying skills.