Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill will this week embark on his first visit to the Holy Land since becoming head of the powerful church in 2009, a church official confirmed on Tuesday.

Kirill, who became patriarch in February 2009 after the death of his predecessor Alexy, will visit Christian sites in Israel and the Palestinian territories from November 9-14, Orthodox church spokesman Alexander Volkov told Agence France Presse.

Patriarch Maxim, Bulgaria's religious leader for over 40 years and the longest-serving Orthodox Christian leader in Europe, died early Tuesday, the Holy Synod announced. He was 98.

"This morning around 4:00 am (02H00 GMT) at the age of 98, the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Patriarch Maxim has presented himself to God," the synod said in a short statement.

Two Chinese antiques have been withdrawn from auction in Britain, the auctioneer said, after the proposed sale sparked fury in China amid claims they were looted from Beijing in the 19th century.

Bonhams issued an apology as it confirmed the two jade carvings would not be sold after the owner withdrew them from a planned auction on Thursday to "avoid any possible offence".

A skeleton dug up in a car park has triggered a tug-of-war between two English cities, with the royals, the government and the Church involved -- because the bones are thought to be those of king Richard III.

In September, archaeologists acting on historical records unearthed a skeleton which has clear similarities to descriptions of Richard, who ruled England from 1483 until his death at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

In a busy sculpture workshop in west India, there is one unfamiliar face alongside the images of divine figures such as Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Hindu goddess Parvati.

This is Ivy, the late beloved wife of 82-year-old Peter Pereira, and she is being commemorated in a life-size bust. The fibreglass figure is the latest example of a growing trend: commissioning memorial sculptures of the dead.

A Chinese cultural heritage official has hit out at a planned auction in Britain of two antiques it claims were looted from Beijing in the 19th century, state media said Friday.

London-based auctioneers Bonhams will auction a Qing dynasty jade disc and a jade hanging vase which were "retrieved from the abandoned Summer Palace in Beijing" in 1860, the company said in an online statement.

The Louvre museum in Paris on Friday said there had been no official demand from Ankara to return tiles that a Turkish daily claims were stolen from a historic mosque, adding they had been acquired legally.

The tiles are part of a 12-metre- (40-foot-) long mosaic put together by the museum and one of the highlights of a new wing of Islamic art which was launched at the end of October.

A group of museums commemorating China's violent Cultural Revolution is opening up normally tightly controlled discussion of the chaotic era -- but only up to a point.

Businessman Fan Jianchuan has opened six museums about the ten year period beginning in 1966 when China's then-leader Mao Zedong called on ordinary citizens to struggle against entrenched interest groups -- including government officials.

President Barack Obama is leading against challenger Mitt Romney in a straw poll at Harry's Bar, an iconic Paris watering hole which has held a vote ahead of U.S. elections since 1924 and only got the results wrong twice.

The birthplace of the Bloody Mary and the haunt of the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Harry's New York Bar -- a small corner of Manhattan in the heart of Paris -- is the best election soothsayer, its owner said.

The plunge in Iran's currency is proving bad for business in neighboring Iraq.

Yousif Jassim Mohammed would know. The Iraqi merchant's gift shop sits on prime real estate opposite the gold-domed Imam Ali shrine in Najaf, one of the holiest sites for Shiite Muslims and a huge draw for the busloads of Iranian pilgrims that form the bedrock of Iraq's tourist trade.