Pakistan's truck artists, who transform ugly lorries into flamboyant moving works of art, fear boom times for their trade could be at an end as NATO winds down its mission in Afghanistan.

The workhorses of the Pakistani haulage industry are often aging, patched-up Bedford and Dodge models, but almost without exception they are lavishly decorated.

In a grassy downtown plaza, strolling musicians wearing glitzy cowboy outfits blast a mariachi song, while Spanish-speaking shoppers bustle between farm stands, sampling tart cactus leaves, sniffing roasting chilies and buying bundles of warm pork tamales.

The scene is an increasingly typical one in towns across California, where Hispanics are on pace to become the largest ethnic group next year. And Watsonville is but one of dozens of California communities where Hispanics outnumber whites.

China's top film director Zhang Yimou has said he violated the country's one-child policy because of the traditional belief that having multiple children would lead to greater prosperity, state media said.

After months of rumors that he had fathered as many as seven children with several different women, Zhang issued an apology on December 1 acknowledging that he has two sons and a daughter with his current wife, and another daughter with his ex-wife.

First, he stuffed Spanish dictator Francisco Franco into a fridge. Now, he has transformed Franco's head into a punching ball.

Not surprisingly, 36-year-old Spanish artist Eugenio Merino's headline-grabbing works have won few fans among the late dictator's admirers.

Marijuana users in Colorado and Washington are counting down the hours before the western U.S. states become the first to legalize recreational pot shops on January 1.

Blazing a trail they hope will be followed in other parts of the United States, cannabis growers and others are also rubbing their hands, while tax collectors are eyeing the revenue the newly-legalized trade will generate.

Saudi police on Saturday pulled over a woman minutes after she got behind the wheel in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after activists called for a new challenge to a driving ban.

"Only 10 minutes after Tamador al-Yami got behind the wheel police stopped her," activist Eman al-Nafjan told Agence France Presse, adding that Yami carries an international driving licence and was with another woman who was filming her in the car.

As soon as the beat started, the young veiled woman bobbed her head to the rhythm, raised her hands to get the crowd clapping and then unleashed a flood of rap lyrics that tackled some of the biggest social challenges women face in the Arab world.

With the Middle East's hit TV show "Arabs Got Talent" as her stage, 18-year-old Myam Mahmoud rapped about sexual harassment, second-class treatment of women, and societal expectations of how a young religious woman should behave.

With India's wedding season in full swing, the glass sales counters in Mumbai's famed Zhaveri gold bazaars are crowded with customers eyeing elaborate headpieces, nose rings and necklaces. No one does jewelry quite like an Indian bride, who by tradition wears all the gold she can stand up in and her family can afford.

These days, though, even the most ambitious bridal budgets don't bring the bling like they used to, thanks to hikes in import duties and a rise in local gold prices that have shoppers like Rajanikant Mehta grumbling.

A Roman Catholic church official in the U.S. who has been in prison for more than a year for his handling of priest sex-abuse complaints had his conviction reversed and was ordered released Thursday.

Monsignor William Lynn has been the first U.S. church official ever charged or convicted for the handling of clergy-abuse complaints.

A senior Iranian official said Thursday that the ancient citadel of Bam, destroyed by an earthquake a decade ago, will again be a major tourist attraction by 2016, media reported.

"Over the next two or three years, Arg'e Bam will be rebuilt so it again becomes a major tourist attractions" Fars news agency quoted Mohammad Ali Najafi, head of Iran's heritage organisation as saying.