Deep in northern Colombia's mountains, an isolated community of indigenous Wiwa people struggled Tuesday to comprehend why 11 of their own were struck dead by a bolt of lightning during a tribal ceremony.

"We're trying to recover our spirits, because this was a big shock to our community. That nature would treat us this way -- we are in mourning," Lorenzo Gil, a Wiwa member told AFP.

A U.S. federal court swept away bans on same-sex marriage in up to five more U.S. states Tuesday, bringing the number where gay weddings are permissible or likely soon will be to 35.

In the second piece of good news for same-sex marriage supporters in as many days, the appeals court handed down rulings covering Nevada and Idaho, but likely to also cover Alaska, Arizona and Montana which are under its jurisdiction.

The east German city of Leipzig celebrates Thursday its pivotal role in toppling the Berlin Wall 25 years ago, when it harnessed the combustive force of mass candlelight vigils and firebrand pastors.

In the 1980s, French sociologist Michel Maffesoli coined the term "urban tribes" to describe small groups of people defined by shared interests and lifestyle preferences around which modern societies are organised.

Comics are serious business in the land of of Tintin and The Smurfs, and nowhere more so than in Europe's biggest and oldest museum dedicated to the art form as the venue celebrates its 25th birthday. 

Enter the Belgium Comic Strip Center and you pass a giant model of the red and white moon rocket used by the ginger-quiffed boy detective, along with other life-size replicas from other famed comics.

U.N. experts have concluded that a wreck off Haiti is not Christopher Columbus's flagship from his first voyage to the Americas, UNESCO said Monday, contradicting claims by a U.S. marine archaeologist.

"There is now indisputable proof that the wreck is that of a ship from a much later period," the U.N. cultural body announced in a statement.

Two million Muslim pilgrims begin leaving the holy city of Mecca on Monday, concluding the annual hajj during which Saudi leaders lashed out at Islamic extremism.

The call to prayers, a fixture across Egypt at sunrise, sounded more jubilant than ever as a country weary after years of turmoil began marking the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

In Cairo, typically smog-filled streets of honking cars stood empty and quiet, aside from the occasional bleat of a ram.

Greek police say two Russians, both aged 23, were arrested Sunday for scaling a wall on the Acropolis and damaging it while doing acrobatics.

The two were observed by a guard preparing to scale the wall and were warned against it. They ignored the warnings, police say. As they scaled the wall and were doing acrobatic moves, several stones fell off of the wall, which is a medieval addition.

Nobel season opens with speculation rife over fugitive U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden's prospects for the peace prize and whether the first award announced Monday -- the medicine prize -- could go to research into chili, heat and pain.

U.S. physiologist David Julius has been touted by Sweden's leading daily Dagens Nyheter to win the medicine prize for discovering that pain receptors have the same reaction to pain, temperature and the spicy component of chili.