The Vatican's culture minister says Mexico's folk Death Saint is a blasphemous symbol that shouldn't be part of any religion.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi says worshiping such an icon is a degeneration of religion.

Authorities are investigating whether one of China's top film directors fathered seven children in violation of the country's strict family planning laws, state media and a local official said Thursday.

Reports circulated online this week that Zhang Yimou, director of "The Flowers of War" starring Christian Bale and also known as the architect of the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, has seven children from his two marriages and from relationships with two other women.

Pelicans and their prey are back in Havana Bay in a sign that efforts to clean up the historic and once splendid port of the Cuban capital are paying off.

"They disappeared long ago but because of the cleanup the fish have returned -- and therefore so have the pelicans," said fisherman Eduardo Lozano who spends every day out on the sheltered expanse of water.

An Impressionist oil painting depicting a chef in his white uniform fetched a tasty $18 million on Wednesday, the most ever paid at auction for a work by the artist Chaim Soutine.

Soutine's "Le Petit Patissier" (The Little Pastry Chef), was the highlight of the Christie's auction in New York. It was estimated before the sale to be worth $16-22 million.

A French painting owned by Madonna has sold at a New York City auction for more than $7 million.

Sotheby's auction house hasn't said who bought Fernand Leger's "Three Women at the Red Table" for $7.2 million on Tuesday. The abstract work had a pre-sale estimate of $5 million to $7 million.

Welcome to Orania, South Africa: a whites-only enclave established in 1991 during the dying years of apartheid.

The town in the sparsely populated Karoo region is inhabited only by Afrikaners.

Paul Cezanne's "Les Pommes" sold for $41.6 million at an auction of Impressionist and Modern art held by Sotheby's in New York, while a painting owned by pop star Madonna went for $7.16 million.

"Les Pommes," a landmark still life of apples on a table from 1889-90, went for the highest price at the Tuesday night auction, followed by Amedeo Modigliani's famed portrait "L'Amazone," which went for $25.9 million.

Europeans appear to be more closely related than previously thought.

Scientists who compared DNA samples from people in different parts of the continent found that most had common ancestors living just 1,000 years ago.

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) urged Europe's governments to consider a ban on far-right parties Tuesday at the end of a three-day conference held in Budapest.

The WJC, which represents Jewish communities outside Israel, adopted a resolution calling on governments in Europe to "consider banning neo-Nazi parties or organizations whose aim is to overthrow the democratic order, or which pose a threat to the safety and well-being of ethnic, religious or other minorities."

Punk and high fashion can now share the same stage, and a new Costume Institute exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Punk: Chaos to Culture," celebrates that influence.

It's an enduring irony that probably makes punk's rebellious originators cringe — and might make those wearing expensive couture dresses with heavy hardware and sexy slashes a little uncomfortable, too.