Nearly one year after the fierce Syrian army takeover of Baba Amr, the former rebel stronghold in the central city of Homs, residents eke out a living in a devastated neighborhood frozen in time.

Bullet-pocked walls, collapsed balconies, fallen telephone poles and abandoned apartments make up the desolate scene.

At least 18 ancient mosaics depicting scenes from Homer's "The Odyssey" have been stolen in northern Syria, the culture minister was quoted as saying on Sunday.

"These mosaics were stolen during illegal excavations" on archaeological sites in the war-torn country's northeast, Lubana Mushaweh said in an interview published on Sunday by the government daily Tishreen.

Police in Belarus are going after gays, raiding their clubs and locking up clubbers overnight, and summoning gay activists for questioning. One activist accuses police of beating him during questioning, while others say they were interrogated about their sex lives. The leader of a gay rights organization was stripped of his passport just ahead of a planned trip to the United States.

That is the government's response to a decision by gay activists across the country to try in January to legally register their rights organization, GayBelarus. It marked a more resolute attempt to emerge from the shadows after being slapped down repeatedly by the authorities.

Bangladesh has banned the Japanese manga cartoon Doraemon from its TV screens over fears that youngsters who are hooked on the Hindi-dubbed version are struggling to learn their native Bengali.

Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu told parliament Thursday that television channels which have been screening Doraemon had been sent official notifications ordering them to take the series off air.

Lights began to shine on Tokyo's celebrated home of traditional kabuki theatre on Thursday, as the renovated venue prepares to raise the curtains on a new era.

The new Kabuki-za theater, part of a 29-storey office building in the upscale Ginza shopping district, has now started an evening illumination program ahead of its April opening.

Animal rights activists on Friday protested a traditional "holy pig" ritual in which the swine are force-fed before being sacrificed in public.

Farmers compete to raise the heaviest pig in the annual ceremony, later killing the animals to please the gods. Critics say the swine are often kept in small enclosures and are hit on the snout to force them to keep eating.

UNESCO chief Irina Bokova warned Thursday that ancient manuscripts from Timbuktu are at risk of being trafficked out of Mali and pledged to help restore the fabled city's heritage damaged by radical Islamists.

Al-Qaida-linked rebels who seized control of Timbuktu last year caused a global outcry by destroying ancient Muslim saints' shrines they considered idolatrous and burning priceless manuscripts before a French-led military campaign reclaimed the city on January 28.

France has said it will hand back seven old master paintings that hang in state galleries taken from two Jewish families during World War II.

The oil works were destined to be displayed in a gallery Adolf Hitler had planned. It ends years of struggle for the two families, whose claims were all validated by the French prime minister last year.

The sister of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a two-book deal.

HarperCollins announced Wednesday that Randi Zuckerberg plans a memoir and a children's book. The social media executive and entrepreneur left Facebook in 2011.

Nationality and age should not be key factors in choosing who will succeed Benedict XVI, a Brazilian cardinal considered in the running to be the future pope said here Wednesday.

Much more important will be the candidate's capacity to lead the Roman Catholic Church "at a time of great challenges," Sao Paulo archbishop Odilo Scherer told a press conference.