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.

European bookshops are taking a stand against competition from the Internet, boosted by a renaissance in independent stores and their enhanced know-how despite still facing a difficult climate, industry players say.

"The findings are the same everywhere: it's difficult," Mathieu de Montchalin, president of the national trade union of French bookshops, said.

Renowned Lebanese singer Wadih al-Safi passed away on Friday after a battle with illness.

Al-Safi, 92, died at Bellevue Medical Center in al-Metn's neighborhood of al-Mansourieh, al-Jadeed television reported.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons won this year's Nobel Peace Prize on Friday "for its extensive efforts" to rid the world of such arsenals, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

"The conventions and the work of the OPCW have defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law," the committee said. "Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons."

Take a Monet, a Turner and other paintings worth millions of dollars and lend them to schools for a day. It may sound like a looming disaster, but not to British organizers of a project bringing great art to kids.

At Addey and Stanhope, an ethnically-diverse school in south London, 11- and 12-year-old pupils had no idea that the artwork they had been studying was coming to visit them until it turned up this week, accompanied by a white-gloved expert.

Auction houses have sold $700 million-worth of artwork in recent days in Hong Kong and set a series of world records, as Asia's art market heats up anew and competition mounts between Chinese and foreign firms.

Western giants Christie's and Sotheby's are increasingly focused on China but barred from selling the hottest item -- antiques -- by laws aimed at protecting cultural heritage.

Nigeria's Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of the bestseller "Half of a Yellow Sun", said writing a novel about the civil war which devastated her home region helped people connect with a past that most no longer discussed.

A month after the film based on "Half of a Yellow Sun" premiered, Adichie, 36, reflected on the impact of the book about Nigeria's 1967-1970 Biafra War, which left more than one million people dead after the writer's home southeastern region tried to secede.