They are the traditional markers in Nigeria of both ethnic and social identity -- and even royalty -- but for Raphael Akindele and young men like him, hats are sometimes quite literally a pain.

"I just don't feel smart and comfortable wearing a hat on a 'buba and sokoto'," said the 21-year-old, referring to the traditional long robe and trousers worn by many Nigerian men.

A fire has destroyed more than 100 homes in a Chinese village built three centuries ago, state media said on Sunday, the third blaze to ravage a cultural site in weeks.

The blazes, which all erupted in the southwest of the country, often burned down old wooden structures.

Sorcery, plate-smashing and animal sacrifice are not often associated with Sufi festivals, but they all feature at a popular annual pilgrimage to a Moroccan shrine linked to the "queen of the genies".

In the town's main square, to a chorus of trilling pipes and banging drums, spectators press around a cluster of believers, who sway to the hypnotic rhythms in a trance-like state, sometimes leaping up and down in ecstasy, sometimes cutting themselves on the scalp with sharp tools.

Spain's government Friday slashed a tax on sales of works of art as a "first step" to help the cultural industry, which has been howling about the impact of a 21-percent sales tax.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government decided at a ministerial meeting to cut the sales tax for works of art by more than half, to 10 percent.

Two versions of Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" are going on display side-by-side in London.

One is owned by Britain's National Gallery, the other by Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum, which has loaned its painting to London for an exhibition.

It was a vast boat that saved two of each animal and a handful of humans from a catastrophic flood.

But forget all those images of a long vessel with a pointy bow — the original Noah's Ark, new research suggests, was round.

Centuries-old glass and porcelain pieces were smashed to powder, a priceless wooden prayer niche was destroyed and manuscripts were soaked by water spewing from broken pipes when a car bombing wreaked havoc on Cairo's renowned Islamic Art Museum.

Experts scrambled to try to save thousands of priceless treasures as ceilings crumbled in the 19th-century building, which had just undergone a multimillion-dollar renovation.

Malaysian Christians must obey rules forbidding them from using the word "Allah", the country's leader was quoted saying Friday, breaking his silence in a festering row that has raised fears of religious conflict.

The comments by Prime Minister Najib Razak met with immediate dismay from Christians, who have called the issue an example of growing Islamic intolerance that threatens to tarnish the Muslim-majority country's moderate image.

A court in Pakistan has sentenced a British man to death for blasphemy for claiming to be a prophet of Islam, a prosecutor and police said Friday.

Mohammad Asghar, a British national of Pakistani origin, was arrested in 2010 in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, for writing letters claiming to be a prophet, police said.

Best known as a celebrity restaurateur whose 1960s mission to change Western attitudes to Chinese food has lasted nearly 50 years, Michael Chow is also a trained painter who, until recently, had not picked up his brushes for decades.

Mr Chow restaurants became glamorous centers for Swinging London, New York's disco days and today's Hollywood and art world elite. The man behind them has unveiled his first solo exhibition in Asia, a show he says reflects his complicated relationship with China and the father he last saw when he was 13.