The Israeli army announced Monday special measures to ease the movement of Palestinian Christians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from now till into January to allow for seasonal celebrations.

The West Bank Christians will be allowed to visit Israel in the period up to January 20 without any age limitations, the army said in a statement, without saying how many would be allowed in.

As India inched towards independence, hundreds of mixed-race Anglo-Indians feared for their future and retreated to a self-styled homeland in a thickly forested part of the country.

Ernest McCluskie, an Indian of Scottish descent, established McCluskieganj in what is now the eastern state of Jharkhand, hoping to attract Anglo-Indians anxious about the impending demise of the British Empire.

The most complete ancient copy of the Biblical Ten Commandments goes on public show Friday in New York for a rare viewing outside of its home in Israel.

The yellowed scroll, written in Hebrew, measures 18 by 2.7 inches (45 cm, 7 cm) and dates to between 50-1 BC, according to the Discovery Times Square Exposition, mounting the "Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times" exhibition.

A room in Gaza's only music school fills with the sound of the qanun, a traditional Middle Eastern instrument, transporting listeners far from the impoverished territory.

Seven-year-old Zeina al-Hamamra confidently picks out a melody on the instrument, a kind of zither, leaning forward to pluck the farthest strings with tiny fingers strapped with silver picks.

At the stroke of midnight this New Year's, millions of people around the globe will hold hands and belt out the famous song "Auld Lang Syne" -- but how many will have a clue what it means?

The Scottish poem and heartstring-tugging tune are reckoned to vie for the title of most widely recognized song on the planet after "Happy Birthday".

Danielle Arbid's movie Beirut Hotel was banned in Lebanon by the General Security because it contains explicit scenes and it "puts Lebanon's security in danger".

The director Danielle Arbid said on her Facebook page that her latest film "cannot be shown in Lebanon ! Its release in Beirut, originally scheduled for 19 January 2012, has just been cancelled."

A new documentary about Benito Mussolini examines the near cult-like fascination that many Italians had with the fascist dictator — and how his body became a focus for the fixation.

"Il Corpo Del Duce," ("The Duce's Corpse"), contains some gruesome, never-before-seen images of Mussolini's decayed corpse hanging upside down in a Milan square on April 29, 1945 after he was shot by anti-fascist partisans.

A German octogenarian puts his lifelong fascination with armor under the hammer Tuesday when the largest private collection of medieval weapons goes on sale for millions of euros.

The collection valued at between three and four million euros ($4-5.4 million), goes up for auction in Brussels and includes not only classical armor and weaponry such as shields, helmets and swords, but also crustaceans.

The Indian capital of New Delhi marked its 100th birthday on Monday without any official celebrations of a day that revives memories of British rule over the country.

On December 12, 1911, visiting King George V told crowds at an elaborate imperial ceremony that India's capital would be moved from the eastern port of Calcutta to a new city to be built next to the ancient settlement of Delhi.

Kensal Rise library was opened by Mark Twain in 1900 -- and how it could do with the support of the great American man of letters now to fight off its threatened extinction as government cuts bite.

The red-brick Victorian building has closed its doors and will be shut down permanently unless a determined campaign organized by the residents of the multi-ethnic district of north London can save it.