Christie's on Thursday kicked off its first independent auction in mainland China, marking its full-fledged entry into a market considered a key growth engine for global art sales.

Hundreds of people showed up as 42 items -- from Asian contemporary art and Western masterworks to jewelry, watches and wine -- went under the hammer with estimates for their combined totaling 100 million yuan ($16.3 million).

A flawless 59.60-carat pink diamond known as the "Pink Star" is up for grabs at a Sotheby's auction in November with an asking price of $60 million (49 million euros), the highest ever sought at auction for a gemstone.

David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby's jewelery division in Europe and the Middle East, said the diamond belonged in "the ranks of the Earth's greatest natural treasures".

Jesus Christ was the world's first tweeter because his pronouncements were "brief and full of meaning", Vatican cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi said Wednesday.

Christ "used tweets before everyone else, with elementary phrases made up of fewer than 45 characters like 'Love one another'", said Ravasi, the Vatican's equivalent of a culture minister.

The Miss World final takes place on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Saturday after weeks of protests from Muslim hardliners and warnings that extremists could attack the pageant.

Police and traditional Balinese security personnel, wearing sarongs and armed with daggers, will be out in force on the Hindu-majority island as the beauty queens take to the stage.

The Sukkot holiday has come at a time of raised hopes for the small Jewish community in Iran of a new approach towards minorities under the Islamic republic's new President Hasan Rowhani.

In a radical about-turn from his Holocaust-denying predecessor, Rowhani, in an interview with CNN, condemned the Nazi genocide as a "reprehensible" crime.

A giant purple structure believed to be the world's first inflatable concert hall is to open on Japan's disaster-hit northeastern coast, promoters said Wednesday.

British sculptor Anish Kapoor and Japanese architect Arata Isozaki created the unusual Ark Nova, a balloon made of a coated polyester material which has been erected at a park in the town of Matsushima.

Consider this the sequel you never knew you were waiting for, but will be very glad it arrived.

Thirty-six years after introducing readers to Danny Torrance and a precognitive ability he came to call "the shine," Stephen King is back with another creepy tale featuring the now adult Dan, a young girl named Abra and a mysterious group of soul-sucking creeps known as the True Knot.

The old man couldn't control his diabetes, no matter how closely he followed his doctor's instructions. A nurse visited him to find out why the insulin wasn't working, only to watch the nearly blind man inadvertently inject himself with a syringe filled with nothing but air.

It sounds simple to track a patient outside of office visits. But the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation found the idea genius.

Extolling the virtues of Harlem's rich cultural history, Michelle Obama hosted a luncheon for the spouses of foreign dignitaries Tuesday in the historic New York City neighborhood she described as "quintessentially American."

The first lady spoke to about 50 spouses of chiefs of state and heads of government who are attending the U.N. General Assembly.

The male nude took centre stage in Paris on Tuesday as a controversial exhibition celebrating the masculine form went on show at the celebrated Musee d'Orsay.

Juxtaposing traditional painting and sculptures with contemporary homoerotic photography, a museum better known for its impressionist masterpieces has brought together more than 200 pieces in a collection designed to stimulate and amuse in equal measure.