A 48-million-year-old fossil of a pregnant horse and fetus is the oldest of its kind known to science and contains unusually well-preserved evidence of tissue from the womb, researchers said Wednesday.

The fossil was discovered in Germany in 2000, but the scientific analysis was only now completed and published in the open-access journal PLOS One.

Iran said Wednesday it will boycott next week's Frankfurt Book Fair after organizers invited the controversial author Salman Rushdie, whom Iranian scholars said should be killed, as a guest speaker.

The foreign ministry said the fair had, "under the pretext of freedom of expression, invited a person who is hated in the Islamic world and create the opportunity for Salman Rushdie... to make a speech."

From the migrant crisis to the anti-nuclear camp, speculation is rife about who will win the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, with Angela Merkel and John Kerry among the names mentioned.

The only one of the six Nobel prizes to be awarded in Oslo -- the others are announced in Stockholm -- the Peace Prize is the one that garners the most attention and speculation.

A rare drawing of comic book hero Tintin by Belgian cartoonist Hergé fetched over a million dollars at auction in Hong Kong Monday as experts say comic art is becoming as collectible as paintings.

The artwork is an illustration from the cartoonist's "The Blue Lotus" book, published in 1936, which sees Tintin and sidekick Snowy the dog on an adventure in Shanghai.

The studious mood could scarcely be further removed from the sequin-studded, festive tone of Gay Pride marches.

In the days leading up to a synod of bishops at which the Church's approach to homosexuality will come under review, representatives of gay Catholics from nearly 40 countries have descended on Rome.

New York Catholics basking in the glow of Pope Francis's recent visit are hoping that the imminent synod at the Vatican will make remarried divorcees more accepted by the church.

Three weeks of debate among bishops on the family that could radically reshape the Church's approach to divisive issues of divorce and homosexuality is due to begin in Rome on Sunday.

Swedish inventor and scholar Alfred Nobel, who made a vast fortune from his invention of dynamite in 1866, ordered the creation of the famous Nobel prizes in his will.

His 1895 testament stipulated his fortune was to be placed in a fund destined to honour "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".

No need to make peace in the Middle East, resolve one of science's great mysteries or pen a masterpiece: the easiest way to get yourself a Nobel prize may be to buy one.

In the 114 years since the Nobel prizes were first handed out, they have been awarded 889 times for pioneering work in the fields of peace, literature, medicine, physics, chemistry and, since 1969, economics.

Spain said Friday it was speeding up applications for 4,300 Sephardic Jews seeking Spanish nationality under a new law to atone for their expulsion five centuries ago in the Inquisition.

The law allowing dual citizenship for descendants of Jews who were forced to flee Spain in 1492, known as Sephardim, was approved by the Spanish parliament in June and came into force on Thursday.

Concerts by famed Argentinian pianists Martha Argerich and Nelson Goerner on Thursday launched this year's edition of the prestigious Chopin competition, which has drawn fans of the romantic composer to Warsaw for decades.

A total of 78 young pianists from 20 countries will tinkle it out on the ivories for the gold medal and 30,000-euro ($33,500) prize at the 17th edition of the musical marathon.