The last of nearly 4,500 metal stars was placed Sunday on the outer layer of the dome on Abu Dhabi's Louvre museum, expected to open by the end of 2016.

The final star was added in the presence of prize-winning French architect Jean Nouvel, said Abu Dhabi's Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC).

This story accompanies photos by Hoang Dinh Nam and video by Cat Barton

Vu Thi Thoan's family has been making papier mache masks, part of traditional Vietnamese celebrations for the mid-autumn festival, for over four decades. But cheap Chinese toys are threatening her business.

Four years after a joyous celebration of the end of censorship with the fall of dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Libyan artists have had to put their creativity back on hold.

"We have lost all source of inspiration," said Marii Tillissi, an artist in his 50s known for his hyper-realist paintings. "The times are not conducive to creation."

A bottle of 1915 Krug champagne went under the hammer for $116,375 in New York, one of just four left in the cellars of the sparkling drink makers.

The lot sold Friday also included a tasting journey for four people who will enjoy the bottle on location in France's northeastern Champagne region.

A cushion-shaped pink diamond is expected to raise up to $28 million when it goes under the hammer in Geneva on November 10, auction house Christie's said on Thursday.

The 16.08-carat diamond is set as a ring and is sufficiently pink to qualify under Gemological Institute of America guidelines as a "fancy" stone, according to Christie's, which said only three "vivid pink" diamonds of over 10 carats have been up for sale in 250 years.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper sought to win over the key French-Canadian vote in an election debate Thursday with a firm defense of a popular niqab ban that has split his rivals.

With only four weeks left before October 19 legislative elections, a woman's right to wear the veil, which covers all of her face except the eyes, has become a hot-button issue.

A Tunisian court has sentenced a student to a year behind bars on charges of homosexuality, in a judgment condemned by local rights groups, his lawyer said Thursday. 

The youth had been detained on September 6 in the Mediterranean resort area of Sousse for questioning in connection with a murder after his telephone number was found on the victim, lawyer Fadoua Braham said.

Heavy regime bombardment has damaged parts of the ancient citadel in Syria's world heritage site of Palmyra, an archaeological expert and an activist said on Thursday.

At least 13 barrel bombs have exploded on the citadel and its surroundings since Monday, according to Cheikhmous Ali of the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archeology, which monitors damage to the country's heritage sites.

The Franciscan friar who brought Christianity to California in the 18th century was canonized by Pope Francis on Wednesday, to the anger of Native Americans who see his legacy as murderous.

Junipero Serra founded the first nine of what would become 21 Spanish missions stretching from San Diego to San Francisco, giving the Roman Catholic Church a firm foothold in what was then called New Spain.

Ali Salem, a famed Egyptian satirical writer whose works include one of the Arab world's most popular comedic plays, died Tuesday in his home in Cairo of natural causes, Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency said. He was 79.

Salem's writings include 15 books and 25 plays. His most famous work was "School of the Troublemakers," a 1971 comedic play about a class of riotous teenagers reformed by a female teacher.