"Big wave incoming, use your legs!" shouts Gabriella Lazzari, as her laughing students try out their new gondoleering skills in the sunshine of Venice's lagoon.

Construction of Barcelona's Sagrada Familia may have started 137 years ago, but the emblematic basilica only got a building permit... on Friday.

Greece's leftist government on Friday said an official mosque in Athens, over a decade in the making, would open by September to satisfy a longstanding demand by tens of thousands of Muslims in the capital.

Just 10 years before he was crowned the world's best sommelier after winning a rigorous global competition against dozens of elite beverage connoisseurs, Marc Almert thought wine "stank."

Pope Francis has named a special envoy to prioritize spirituality at the Roman Catholic shrine at Lourdes in France over "managerial and financial" aspects.

Thousands took part in Jerusalem's Gay Pride parade Thursday, waving rainbow flags and calling for tolerance in the Holy City with security tight following a 2015 knife attack by a Jewish extremist that killed a teenager.

Chinese artist Badiucao, whose anonymous political satire infuriated Beijing, on Thursday announced a protest campaign against Twitter for what he says is pandering to China, after the platform's refusal to create a special tank man emoji to mark the 30th Tiananmen anniversary.

She has gone down in his history as the muse who was almost Picasso's match, but a new show in Paris tries to drag Dora Maar out from under his shadow.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tapped Amir Ohana as acting justice minister, the first openly gay minister in the country's history.

Japan's health and labor minister has defended workplaces that require women to wear high heels to work, arguing it is "necessary and appropriate" after a petition was filed against the practice.
