Saudi Arabia is preparing to host the annual hajj pilgrimage beginning Sunday, as over 1.6 million Muslim faithful from abroad have arrived in the ultraconservative kingdom.

The pilgrimage represents one of the five pillars of Islam and is required of all able-bodied Muslims once in their life. In recent weeks, the faithful have arrived in Mecca from across the world, all chanting "Labayk Allahuma Labayk," or "Here I am, God, answering your call. Here I am."

Two million Muslims gather in Saudi Arabia this week for the hajj as the annual pilgrimage becomes increasingly hi-tech with apps to help the faithful navigate Islam's holiest sites.

This year the hajj comes with the ultra-conservative kingdom witnessing an unprecedented pace of change, finally ending a ban on women driving while remaining firm in the face of any dissent.

With hotels facing mass cancellations, Iraqis in the holy city of Najaf are being hit hard by US sanctions on neighbouring Iran, which have forced cash-strapped pilgrims to stay home.

An antiquities museum in Syria's rebel-held province of Idlib said to house one of the world's oldest dictionaries reopened on Monday after five years, an AFP correspondent said.

Dozens of visitors trickled into the museum in Idlib city to see what an official said represented just a fraction of the building's collection.

Fifty years after the Beatles came to India, the bungalows where the Fab Four lived, the post office where John Lennon sent Yoko Ono postcards and the giggling guru's house are all ruins.

It's barely 6:00 am and Alfred is already busy milking cows. But when his chores on the farm are done, he won't be going home -- he'll be returning to his prison cell.

The British Museum said Thursday it is returning to Iraq a collection of 5,000-year-old looted antiquities seized from a London dealer shortly after the US-led invasion in 2003.

Lithuania's capital is pressing ahead with controversial plans for a raunchy international advertising campaign that refers to the city as the "G-spot of Europe", despite opposition from the church and central government.

Despite the law now being on their side, Zeineb, a Tunisian woman, and her Italian fiance Sergio cannot find a local notary to marry them unless he converts to Islam.

Israeli filmmaker Moshe Mizrahi, the country's only director of an Oscar-winning film, is to be buried in Tel Aviv on Monday following his death last week, friends and colleagues said.