Women are far more exposed to disasters than men given their frontline roles in the home and in healthcare, the UN says, arguing that improving gender equality is key to saving lives.

Globally, women and children are up to 14 times more likely than men to die in a disaster, according to UN Population Fund account executive Lamar Dawson.

In 1857, bushy-whiskered Emperor Franz Joseph proclaimed that his rapidly growing imperial capital Vienna needed a radical makeover befitting Austro-Hungary's wealth, might and technological prowess.

This year, the centerpiece of the mammoth urban engineering project that ensued -- the resplendent, five-kilometer (three-mile) "Ringstrasse" boulevard ringing old Vienna -- turns 150.

Hailed as one of the greatest living composers, Pierre Boulez is earning worldwide praise as he approaches 90, even as he sometimes suffers in his native France from the idea that he is stern and dogmatic.

Ahead of his birthday on March 26, the Philharmonie de Paris -- the brand-new, ultra-modern concert hall that was conceived in no small part by Boulez -- is seeking to dispel that notion with a new exhibition. 

A statue of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled on Saturday at the symbolic heart of the British establishment that once loathed him for his campaign against imperial rule.

Gandhi joins figures including Britain's World War II leader Winston Churchill, who described him as a half-naked "fakir", in London's Parliament Square, opposite Big Ben and the House of Commons.

The Italian government has moved to block new building regulations for Lombardy which would make it virtually impossible to build any new mosques in the northern region, officials said Friday.

The regulations, which have become known as the "anti-mosque" law, were approved by the right-wing dominated regional council at the end of January.

In a pitch-black theater, a disembodied mouth spews Samuel Beckett in a breathless, non-stop monologue over a Paris theater audience, in English, without subtitles.

On the face of it, Beckett's "Not I" appears designed to be as indigestible as it is possible for a play to be: just eight minutes long, no other point of focus other than the floating mouth surrounded by blackness, and a galloping, demented text that is stream-of-consciousness with no obvious structure.

Germany's top court said Friday that Muslim teachers can wear the Islamic headscarf in class as long as it doesn't disrupt school activities, in a ruling likely to revive emotional debate.

The Constitutional Court said Muslim teachers in state schools could no longer face a blanket ban on the headscarf, effectively revising its 2003 decision that left the door open to it being barred.

The shattered wreck of a Japanese World War II battleship was shown lying on a Philippine seabed in startling detail Friday, as the first images emerged from the historic discovery by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

American billionaire and explorer Allen announced the find of the Musashi -- one of the most sophisticated battleships ever built -- in the Sibuyan Sea in the central Philippines eight days ago, after a high-tech mission lasting eight years.

Hong Kong's Art Week will consume the city for the next few days but creative displays will not be confined to galleries and exhibition halls -- they will also be splashed across plates and in cocktail glasses.

The city's restaurants and bars have drawn up their own culinary canvas to tap into the growing interest surrounding Art Week, which centers around Hong Kong's Art Basel fair and sees art shows pop up all over town.

British author Terry Pratchett, whose science-fantasy Discworld novels are some of the best-selling works in English fiction around the world, died on Thursday aged 66 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Pratchett, who sold more than 85 million books worldwide, "passed away in his home with his cat sleeping on his bed, surrounded by his family", said Larry Finlay, managing director at Transworld Publishers.