Before the creation of the Earth, there was only silence and darkness, only the sky and the sea until the deities Tepeu and Gucumatz created trees, animals and man -- so says the Mayan holy book.

The Popol Vuh is a spiritual and philosophical book that explains the creation of the world. Even today, it plays an important role in defining the identity of ethnic Mayas in Mexico and central America.

Christians are the world's biggest religious group, numbering some 2.2 billion people, according to a study released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Pew assembled data on the size and geographic distribution of eight major religious groups, including non-believers.

Dozens of British lawmakers signed an open letter published Monday opposing government plans to introduce same-sex marriages.

A cross-party group from the elected lower House of Commons and the largely appointed upper House of Lords signed the letter to The Daily Telegraph newspaper warning ministers that they had no mandate to "redefine" the meaning of marriage.

A French auction house is to put on sale Monday a historic Chinese seal despite threats of legal action alleging the piece may have been stolen from Beijing's Forbidden City by Anglo-French forces in 1860.

The green jade seal is expected to fetch up to 200,000 euros ($263,000) and dates from the Qianlong period (1736-95).

With Bible in hand as a shield against adversity, Paraguay's Mennonites have celebrated their bounty 85 years after settling in the inhospitable plains known as El Chaco.

Established in 1927 by Mennonites fleeing Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin, the deeply pacifist Protestant community has survived and flourished to become an important generator of wealth for Paraguay, said Ronaldo Dietze, a descendent of German settlers.

China has detained dozens of people, some of whom it terms doomsday cult members, as part of a nationwide crackdown on rumors about a supposed forthcoming apocalypse, state media said Monday.

Authorities in five different areas have detained 52 people for spreading predictions of a December 21 "doomsday" linked to the ancient Mayan calendar, the state news agency Xinhua reported.

South Africa's former president Nelson Mandela remained in hospital for a ninth straight day on Sunday as he recovered from a lung infection and gallstone surgery.

The office of the president, which has been sending out brief updates on the health of the 94-year-old Mandela, did not release any information Sunday and the presidential spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan, a major figure in 20th-century classical music, was a bigger fan of the Nazis than he made out, according to a historian who has unearthed previously unseen documents.

"It is time to probe scientifically the claims that Karajan constructed and cobbled together... and which in the end he really believed himself," said Oliver Rathkolb from Vienna University.

The piano used for the song "As Times Goes By" in the classic 1942 film "Casablanca" has fetched more than $600,000 at auction.

The 58-key upright was sold to an unidentified buyer for $602,500 at Sotheby's New York on Friday.

Stuck in a small Athens flat all day to avoid being caught by police, earning another stint in prison and possibly a beating, 29-year-old Cameroonian Eugene Manaa rues the day he came to Greece.

"Life is not just difficult here. It's impossible," says Manaa, who recently spent two months in prison on the island of Crete for illegal entry into Greece.