Egypt has foiled an attempt to smuggle out of the country Jewish antiquities used during religious ceremonies, the antiquities ministry said on Friday.

The artefacts were discovered in the Mediterranean city of Damietta as they were about to be shipped to Belgium, a ministry statement said.

Thousands of Guatemalan Catholics broke their own Guinness record for the world's longest sawdust carpet Thursday with a multi-colored masterpiece stretching down the main avenue of the capital's historic center.

Completed in anticipation of Easter, it was more than 2,000 meters long (6,600 feet) and constructed of dyed sawdust and flowers.

Haruki Murakami's first collection of short stories in nine years hit the shelves in Japan on Friday with some excited fans queuing for the midnight launch.

Around 70 fans took part in a countdown ceremony at Kinokuniya bookstore in Tokyo's entertainment and shopping district of Shinjuku, where firecrackers were set off as the clock ticked to the witching hour.

Thousands of people flocked to rural fields in the Philippines on Friday to witness the gruesome spectacle of men being crucified in their annual Easter re-enactment of the death of Jesus Christ.

The ritual, held every year to mark Good Friday in Asia's bastion of Catholicism, has been going on for decades, becoming a major tourist draw despite official disapproval from Church leaders.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Nobel-winning Colombian author who used magical realism to tell epic stories of love, family and dictatorship in Latin America, died Thursday at the age of 87.

Known affectionately as "Gabo," the author of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" became one of the most popular Latin American novelists in the world and the godfather of a literary movement that witnessed a continent in turmoil.

A religious school for women in the Pakistani capital Islamabad has renamed its library in honor of slain al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

The seminary is run by controversial hardline cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz, the imam of the city's Red Mosque, once notorious as a hideout for hardliners with alleged militant links.

To mark the 70th birthday of one of Africa's most accomplished living artists, a Lagos museum chose to focus on pretty much anything but El Anatsui's globally renowned work. 

Instead, three decades of payslips from the University of Nigeria, where Anatsui has taught since 1975, are collected in a binder that hangs by a string in the center of the room.

Call her the miracle lady on the hill -- one with a brain aneurysm whose healing was declared a miracle, clearing the way for the late John Paul II to become a saint.

Floribeth Mora, a 50-year-old Costa Rican, has now become a sort of religious icon herself.

Greek Cypriots have been authorized to hold a Good Friday mass at a church in the Turkish-held town of Famagusta on divided Cyprus for the first time in decades.

Famagusta mayor-in-exile Alexis Galanos said Friday’s landmark service at Saint George Exorinos church will send a message of reconciliation on one of the most important dates in the Greek Orthodox calendar.

Ancient paintings of fornicating Chinese couples and phalluses made of stone are among items that Dutch art collector Ferdinand Bertholet hopes will help China reconnect with its sexually charged past.

Explicit works spanning from the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) are among more than 100 pieces on display in Hong Kong, drawing surprise and giggles from some viewers unaware of China's ancient relationship with sex.