Mo Yan, one of China's leading writers of the past half-century, on Thursday won the Nobel Literature Prize for his writing that mixes folk tales, history and the contemporary, the Swedish Academy announced.

"Through a mixture of fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives, Mo Yan has created a world reminiscent in its complexity of those in the writings of William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, at the same time finding a departure point in old Chinese literature and in oral tradition," the academy said.

Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday marked the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council — the church meetings he attended as a young priest that brought the Catholic Church into the modern world but whose true meaning is still hotly debated.

Benedict celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Square, accompanied by patriarchs, cardinals, bishops and a dozen elderly churchmen who participated in the council, and later will greet the faithful, re-enacting the great procession into St. Peter's that launched the council in 1962.

Dressed in mini skirts barely covering their hips, the two girls took to the neon-lit stage and moved vigorously to the loud, pumping pop music. Their job: to appease the wandering spirits.

As the temple facade in the background changed color from the fireworks lighting up the Taiwanese night sky, the show climaxed with pole-dancing and striptease in front of an audience consisting of men, women and children.

Archaeologists said Wednesday they believe they have found the exact spot in Rome where Julius Caesar was stabbed to death on March 15, 44 BC.

The stabbing of the dictator by Roman senators was recorded by ancient historians and dramatized by William Shakespeare who gave Caesar the last words: "Et tu Brute? Then fall, Caesar."

Greater efforts must be made to protect girls in Afghanistan, where nearly half are married as child brides and almost one in six weds before they turn 15, the United Nations said Thursday.

"Early marriage is a fundamental violation of human rights and impacts all aspects of a girl's life," a group of U.N. organisations said in a statement to mark the International Day of the Girl Child.

Roy Lichtenstein, the American painter whose comic book-inspired canvases gave the Pop Art movement some of its most vivid images, is getting his first major retrospective since his death 15 years ago.

Beginning Sunday, the National Gallery of Art in Washington will be exhibiting 130 of his paintings, drawings and sculptures, reflecting a long and prolific career that ended when he passed away at the age of 73.

Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday pronounced a blessing in Arabic at his weekly audience in front of 20,000 pilgrims on St. Peter's Square -- the first time the language has been used at such an event.

"The pope prays for all Arabic speakers. May God bless you all!" the pope said in Arabic at the audience, after a bishop read out an Arabic translation of the pope's comments praising the results of the Second Vatican Council.

In the Nepalese hamlet of Simen, five days' walk from the nearest town, children pay for schooling with wood or animal dung, and life appears untouched by modernity -- but change is coming.

Just two valleys away in Dho Tarap village, business is booming and satellite dishes that beam in American wrestling are set up beside traditional prayer flags as the high Himalayan landscape of Upper Dolpa opens up to the outside world.

Fifty years after the Cuban missile crisis, Havana remains virulently hostile to the United States, which reciprocates by maintaining a crippling economic embargo against the communist-ruled island.

Despite the passage of time, official speeches from the Castro regime and state-controlled media still refer to the superpower 90 miles (145 kilometers) across the Florida Strait as "the enemy" or "the Northern empire."

Once a sign of Iraq's cultural revival after decades of conflict, the Baghdad International Film Festival ended on a sour note Sunday with complaints of poor organisation and a lack of funds.

Several prominent directors were absent, there was a palpable lack of resources, and obvious disinterest from the government as the five-day festival drew to a close on Sunday night.