A Vincent Van Gogh painting fetched more than $66 million at a New York auction on Tuesday, the most paid for a work by the Dutch post-impressionist artist since 1998.

According to the Sotheby's auction firm, Van Gogh's "Les Alyscamps," which depicts a stand of autumnal trees, had been expected to go for around $40 million but ultimately an Asian collector paid $66.3 million after an intense bidding war between five potential buyers.

Russia is pulling out all the stops for celebrations on Saturday marking the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany with 16,000 troops marching in a Red Square parade, along with hundreds of units of military hardware.

In a defiant show of military strength despite international condemnation over its actions in Ukraine, Russia will roll out new Koalitsiya-SV howitzers as well as cutting-edge Armata T-14 tanks for the first time. 

An official says Turkey's Culture Ministry has launched an inquiry following reports that priceless ancient mosaics had been ruined while being restored and moved to a new museum in southern Turkey.

A newspaper in Hatay province said several mosaics at the Archaeological Museum were badly restored and seriously damaged while being moved to the museum's new premises in the city of Antakya. Hurriyet newspaper published before-and-after pictures of three of the mosaics, in which the restored versions appeared to be distorted.

Law student Mikhail Kosyrev used to have a negative view of Stalin but his attitude has drastically changed in recent years, he said, insisting the wartime tyrant meant well.

"Over the past five years I've often watched documentary films about Stalin, about that time on television and learnt more about him," the 29-year-old told Agence France Presse.

Many faced social stigma and were long kept in the dark about their true parental origins, with birth certificates that usually said "father unknown".

Now, 70 years after the end of World War II, many German children of Allied occupation forces are breaking the silence on what was long a taboo subject.

The Danish editor who commissioned the Mohammed cartoons that triggered deadly protests a decade ago said Monday the failed attack on a Texas cartoon exhibition won't change how "politically correct" Americans feel about the drawings.

"The lines have already been drawn in this debate in the U.S. and I do not think events like these can change anything, because people will read their own opinions into it," Flemming Rose told Jyllands-Posten, where he is currently the foreign editor.

Hairstyles of a spiky and unorthodox nature have reportedly been banned in Iran because they imply devil-worship, while tattoos and other male bodily adornments are also being outlawed.

Jagged haircuts have become fashionable among all strata of Iran's youthful population in recent years, but have divided opinion and been deemed by the authorities as western and un-Islamic.

A district in Indonesia's Aceh has passed legislation banning unmarried men and women from riding together on motorbikes, a lawmaker said Monday, the latest new Islamic regulation in the conservative province.

Members of parliament in North Aceh district last week approved the regulation, which will come into effect in a year, said lawmaker Fauzan Hamzah, adding that authorities were making "efforts to implement sharia law fully".

Kenya's deputy president, William Ruto, has told worshippers at a church service in Nairobi that homosexuality had no place in the east African nation, reports said Monday.

Homophobia is on the rise across much of Africa and remains illegal in many countries, including Kenya where it was outlawed under British colonial legislation.

Ten pro-Kremlin Russian bikers, part of a larger group on a controversial World War II victory ride through Europe, reached the German border late Sunday, the Bavarian authorities said.

Having been turned back at the Polish and Lithuanian borders the members of the Night Wolves, a fiercely nationalistic motorcycle club backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, still hope to ride into the German capital Berlin on Saturday to celebrate the Soviet Union's role in the victory over Nazi Germany.