Peru finally put into effect a 90-year-old law allowing abortions in certain cases, after the government issued a new decree on how to apply the law.

The new guidance covers abortions at up to 22 weeks of pregnancy and only when a mother's health or life is in danger.

Sunni jihadists have declared an "Islamic caliphate" on territory they have seized in Iraq and Syria, reviving a system of rule abolished nearly one century ago.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, renamed itself simply as the Islamic State, and ordered the world's Muslims to obey Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, now the "caliph" or successor to the Prophet Mohammed.

Waving pots and pans, police pushed back dozens of hungry Iraqi refugees as they rushed to seize free food, ending their first daylong fast of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in an encampment for the displaced.

Shouting men scrambled Sunday to reach pots of rice, meat and chicken stew in this dusty, hot encampment some 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the northern city of Irbil, the capital of Iraq's self-ruled Kurdish region. The chaotic scene underscored the fearful insecurity of displaced Iraqis as they begin Ramadan in a nation gripped by unrest and bitterly divided along sectarian lines.

A book importer in China said Monday it scrapped plans to distribute Hillary Clinton's memoir "Hard Choices," which talks about Chinese censorship and a dissident who took refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, due to sensitive content.

Shanghai Book Traders canceled after discovering the content, said an employee of the company, who would give only his surname, Hua. He refused to say which parts of the book the importer deemed sensitive.

A Stradivarius viola considered to be one of the world's finest instruments has failed to sell, auctioneers Sotheby's said on Thursday.

The minimum asking price was $45 million (33 million euros), reflecting the rarity of the 'Macdonald' Stradivarius, one of only ten surviving violas made by the Italian master Antonio Stradivari.

An auction of Native American masks originating from the Hopi tribe went ahead in Paris on Friday despite objections from the U.S. embassy and members of the 18,000-strong Arizona community.

Auction house Eve defended the sale, saying that "no American law has been violated".

Frank Sinatra's first New Jersey driver's license has sold for $15,757 at auction.

The yellowed, text-only 1934 license was issued, typo and all, to Francis Sintra, 841 Garden Street, Hoboken, New Jersey.

Hundreds of police and soldiers raided a huge red-light district in Indonesia's second-biggest city Friday to close down brothels before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Scuffles briefly broke out between security forces and people protesting the raid in the area known as "Dolly" in Surabaya, on Indonesia's main Java island, where women advertise their services by sitting in brightly-lit shop windows.

Dutch King Willem-Alexander on Friday officially reopens the renovated Mauritshuis museum, home to Vermeer's iconic “Girl with the Pearl Earring" and a treasure trove of other Golden Age masterpieces.

The elegant 17th-century mansion in The Hague has undergone a 30-million-euro ($40-million) revamp and more than doubled its floor space thanks to an art deco extension accessed through a light-filled underground atrium.

Trundling down dun-colored mountain slopes, they ignore hard stares and vulgarities from passing men, reveling in an activity that seemed unthinkable for previous generations of Afghan women –- riding a bicycle.

The sight of a woman on a bicycle may not be unusual in most parts of the world, but it is a striking anomaly in Afghanistan where strict Islamic mores deem the sport unbecoming for women.