Have you needed to use your high school chemistry recently? Anyone asked you lately who won the U.S.-British war of 1812? Probably not. 

But have you taken out a loan to purchase a car or a house or go to college? Looked for a job? Got a credit card? Seen your paycheck disappear more quickly as prices rise? 

Equipped with an inexpensive camera and a big red balloon, Firas Ismail -- a 20-year-old Palestinian refugee in southern Lebanon -- is not your typical urban planner.

From a distance, there's little to suggest that the building at the entrance of the Druze heartland village of Mukhtara in Lebanon's Chouf mountains is a mosque.

Two rare busts rescued from the Islamic State group's destruction of the ancient city of Palmyra will soon be heading back to Syria, after a painstaking restoration in Italy.

The publisher of one of Turkey's most prominent cartoon magazines on Friday shut down the weekly and fired all its staff after it published a cartoon of the Prophet Moses deemed to be offensive.

Lisbeth Salander, the tattooed computer hacker from the Millennium books, is back: the fifth tome in the best-selling crime series will hit the streets on September 7 in 26 countries, publisher Norstedts said Friday.

A coffee shop that recently opened in California is serving customers more than just steamy cups of latte or espresso, offering an additional true life lesson about an issue roiling the country -- refugees.

Founded by Rachel Taber and Doug Hewitt, 1951 Coffee Shop is entirely staffed by refugees from various countries -- including Syria, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Uganda and Eritrea -- who are trying to build a new life after escaping wars or persecution.

The Church of England's General Synod on Wednesday rejected a report which ruled out accepting homosexual marriage and had led to a gay rights protest outside the meeting of Anglican bishops.

Tamil women who survived Sri Lanka's civil war now face widespread sexual exploitation by officials in their own community as well as from the army, the head of an ethnic reconciliation body said Wednesday.

Indonesian authorities raided convenience stores and seized condoms in a major city to stop teenagers having casual sex on Valentine's Day, an official said Tuesday, the latest crackdown on the holiday in the Muslim-majority nation.