Mercury Prize nominees revealed, and other top stories...

A legal wrangle is ensuing over the ownership of unseen Franz Kafka manuscripts and drawings that are contained in a safety deposit box in Zurich. Two Israeli sisters and the Israeli state are battling to secure them, while Germany's literary archive has offered to buy them. Kafka's dying wish was for the manuscripts to be burned. They have been stored in both Tel Aviv and Zurich during the last 50 years. If his wishes had been honoured, his novels The Trial and The Castle would both have been destroyed before their publication after his death in 1924...

Barbican's current head of theatre and arts projects is to become the arts centre's first director of programming. Louise Jeffreys has been at the Barbican since 1999 and has previously held the position of technical director at English National Opera and administrative director at Nottingham Playhouse. The inaugural position will allow her to reformulate and deliver Barbican's artistic programme. Meanwhile, artistic director Graham Sheffield will leave to become the chief executive of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority in mid-August...