The first Van Gogh painting to go under the hammer in France in more than two decades was unveiled Wednesday.

Yuri Gagarin, feted as a Soviet national hero for being the first man in space, was killed in a plane crash 50 years ago but the details of his death remain shrouded in mystery.

On March 27, 1968, at 10:18 am, Gagarin was preparing for a training flight in his MiG-15 plane at the Chkalovsky aerodrome near Moscow, his former cosmonaut colleague Vladimir Aksyonov recalls. 

As a child, Adnan Khalaf used to marvel at the Iraqi city of Basra's "shanasheel", finely crafted bay windows complete with intricate wooden latticework and ornate stained glass.

Barely clothed or naked and perched suggestively on a bed or chair, the plastic dolls on offer in the most controversial "brothel" in Paris have led to accusations that they could encourage rape.

Since February, four silicone figures have been on offer at hourly rates of 89 euros (110 dollars) in a discreet apartment in the south of the city, far from the historic red-light district around the Pigalle area in the north. 

Saudi Arabia is seeking to purge its school curriculum of any influence of the Muslim Brotherhood and dismiss employees who sympathise with the banned group, the education minister said.

U.S. Supreme Court justices from across the ideological spectrum reacted with skepticism Tuesday to a California law requiring private anti-abortion facilities to inform pregnant clients they can obtain the procedure elsewhere.

Stephen Hawking's ashes will be buried near the graves of fellow British scientists Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin at Westminster Abbey, it was announced Tuesday.

An Austrian official is to receive more than 300,000 euros ($370,000) for being unfairly passed over for promotion because of his gender, Austrian media reported on Tuesday.

An Egyptian theatre group said a play it had cancelled after state censors demanded scenes be removed would go ahead after authorities reconsidered their stance.

"Before the Revolution", by playwright and independent theatre director Ahmed El Attar, was meant to open this week at the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF) but was cancelled on Sunday after censors demanded five scenes be removed.

Inside Syria's Afrin on Monday, the statue of a famous Kurdish hero hung battered and partly defaced from its mantle a day after Turkey-led forces overran the city.