The eagerly awaited premiere of Iran's multimillion-dollar film "Muhammad" about the childhood of the prophet was postponed Wednesday for 24 hours due to technical problems, a spokesman said.

The huge production cost an estimated $40 million and took more than seven years to complete.

The award-winning director of Iran's most expensive ever film, "Muhammad", says he hopes it will improve Islam's "violent image", but the religious epic risks angering many Muslims despite not showing the prophet's face.

The huge production about the childhood of the prophet cost up to an estimated $40 million and took more than seven years to complete.

Idaho is home to one of the biggest concentrations of Basques in the United States, and the best way to learn more about that heritage is by visiting the Basque Block, tucked in the center of the state's capital city.

Basques began settling in southwestern Idaho as early as the late 1800s, with many coming from the Basque region on the border of Spain and France to work as sheepherders in Idaho. Nearly 8,000 residents of the Gem State identify as Basque today.

The former head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee which awards the Peace Prize each year, historian Francis Sejersted, has died aged 79 following a long illness, his family said Tuesday.

Sejersted headed the five-member committee from 1991 to 1999, when it bestowed the prestigious honour on some of the world's most iconic pacifists, including Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991 and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, who shared the 1993 prize together with South Africa's then-president Frederik de Klerk.

How to define Nazi-era "loot" is central to what could prove a touchy book launched Tuesday on the controversy surrounding one of Europe's most prestigious private art collections, the impressionist works acquired by E.G. Buehrle.

The late industrialist amassed a fortune selling weapons to both the Nazis and the Allies during World War II, wealth that helped buy several hundred artworks -- some from Jews under threat -- that will soon go on show at one of Switzerland's leading museums, the Kunsthaus in Zurich.

The head of the U.N. cultural watchdog on Monday branded the destruction by IS jihadists of an ancient temple in Syria's Palmyra ruins as a "war crime."

"This destruction is a new war crime and an immense loss for the Syrian people and for humanity," UNESCO chief Irina Bokova said in a statement, adding that the "perpetrators must be accountable for their actions."

Argentina will return thousands of stolen archaeological pieces to South American neighbors, President Cristina Kirchner said Saturday.

"We are doing something unusual, really special: restoring cultural wealth to other countries, in this case Ecuador and Peru. We are returning to them more than 4,000 pieces that had been stolen and have been recovered," she said at the National Museum of Fine Art in the capital.

China is heavily promoting Shanghai's role sheltering European Jews from the Nazis as part of its commemorations for the 70th anniversary of victory over Japan, which will culminate in a huge military parade.

As the "port of last resort", China's commercial hub provided a home to tens of thousands of Jewish refugees who fled persecution in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s.

Islamic State militants blew up the ancient temple of Baal Shamin in the UNESCO-listed Syrian city of Palmyra on Sunday, the latest in a series of cultural relics to be destroyed by the jihadist group.

The jihadists have become notorious for demolishing archaeological treasures since declaring a "caliphate" last year straddling Iraq and Syria.

Palmyra, the ancient Syrian city that has fallen to the Islamic State jihadist group, has withstood the last 2,000 years with its immaculate temples and colonnaded streets.

Listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, the "pearl of the desert" is a well-preserved oasis 210 kilometres (130 miles) northeast of Damascus.