India's pilgrimage centers are fast becoming hot-spots for hotel chains, as both domestic and international groups look to plug a gap in the market for quality accommodation.

Devotees flocking to so-called "temple towns" such as Shirdi in western Maharashtra state, the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in Punjab and far-flung Haridwar have for years had to make do with basic facilities.

London is set to host the city's first ever celebration of contemporary culture from across the Arab world, according to a statement released by the British Embassy on Monday.

The festival has been in the planning stages since Autumn 2010 but will have a special resonance in light of the extraordinary changes that have swept the region in past month. For the Foreign and Commonwealth Office the festival is an opportunity to celebrate Arab youth empowerment and freedom of expression through the arts.

The National Ballet of Cuba plans to deliver a "message of peace" when it leaves Sunday for its first United States tour in eight years, its director, Alicia Alonso, said Friday.

"It will be wonderful to visit again... and bring to the United States our art, and a message of peace and love," the dance legend told reporters.

A painting by U.S. impressionist Lyonel Feininger sold for 5.7 million Euros ($8 million) in Paris Sunday -- more than double its estimated price and a nearly two-year French auction high.

A US collector paid 5,775,000 Euros for "Hafen von Swinemuende" ("Swinemuende Harbour"), the highest sum paid for a work at a French auction since 2009, the auctioneers said.

The National Ballet of Cuba plans to deliver a "message of peace" when it leaves Sunday for its first United States tour in eight years, its director, Alicia Alonso, said Friday.

"It will be wonderful to visit again... and bring to the United States our art, and a message of peace and love," the dance legend told reporters.

The French "wine capital" of Bordeaux hopes a dramatic new cultural centre dedicated to its best known export can set the seal on this once decaying port's ambitious renewal program.

The voluptuously rounded structure, dominated by glass and wood, will evoke gigantic drops of wine as they are swirled in a glass and transform the skyline of the historic city from its formerly shabby quayside site.

The Forbidden City, China's ancient imperial palace museum, is to loan more than 100 works to the Louvre in Paris, some of which have never left China.

The group of about 130 artefacts includes arms, clothing, bronzes, pieces of jade, lacquerware, enamels, seals, ceramics and personal effects of the Ming and Qing emperors, offering a window on life at China's imperial court.

A group of German brewers, politicians and public figures have called for the country's 14th century beer purity law to be included on the U.N.'s list of "intangible" world cultural treasures.

"This almost 500-year-old law is one of the oldest food and drink regulations in the world," the German institute for pure beer (DIRB) said after its annual meeting on Wednesday.

Striding across her vineyard in New Zealand's picturesque Marlborough region, winemaker Jane Hunter pauses for a moment to reflect on the woes besetting the industry she pioneered.

"It's been a bit soul-destroying really," she says. "If we're all going to survive, we've all got to work together."

In a hilltribe settlement in the forest of northern Laos, an old man sits on the ground weaving a basket while another villager hangs out her washing to dry.

It is a scene of everyday life for the Akha communities living in the Nam Ha Protected Area, where elephants, gibbons and leopards roam among giant bamboo near villages perched on the banks of a tributary of the Mekong river.