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. 

Masterpieces belonging to controversial former Sotheby's owner A. Alfred Taubman went on show in Hong Kong Friday, touted as the most valuable private collection ever offered at auction. 

Sotheby's estimates the 500 works will fetch U.S.$500 million -- they include Modigliani's "Portrait de Paulette Jourdain", as well as pieces by Picasso, Degas, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko.

Egyptian authorities promised Thursday they will move quickly to get new radar equipment needed to search for Queen Nefertiti's tomb amid a new theory it could be in an alleged, hidden chamber behind King Tutankhamun's tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings.

The theory, presented this summer by British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves, speculates that King Tut, who died at the age of 19, may have been rushed into an outer chamber of what was originally Nefertiti's tomb.

The Vatican's increasingly high-profile cricket club has set the date for a highly symbolic first match against an all-Muslim team from Britain, organizers said Thursday.

In a series of matches this month, the St. Peter's cricket club, made up of mostly South Asian Rome-based seminarians and priests, will also take on a team from Pope Francis's home town of Buenos Aires and get a chance of revenge against a Church of England XI.

The Association for the Promotion and Exhibition of the Arts in Lebanon (APEAL) announced the launch of a design competition for a new modern and contemporary art museum in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon.

Assemble, the architectural collective shortlisted for this year's Turner Prize, reckon their nomination has launched a fresh debate about the state of contemporary art in Britain.

The London-based group has blurred traditional boundaries between art and design with its redevelopment plans for 10 Victorian houses in the run-down Toxteth district of Liverpool, northwest England.

Orson Welles' personal manuscripts for "Citizen Kane," including the film's final revised shooting script, brought over $102,000 at auction.

The three screenplays were offered by Profiles in History on Tuesday. They illustrate the evolution in the creation of the classic masterpiece.

Indian police said Wednesday they had arrested six people after a 50-year-old Muslim man was beaten to death over rumors he had eaten beef, a taboo in the Hindu-majority nation.

Mohammad Akhlaq was dragged from his house on the outskirts of the capital and attacked by around 100 people on Monday night, a police officer told Agence France Presse.