New York dropped its traditional crystal-encrusted ball to ring in 2020 in a packed Times Square, after crisis-marred celebrations in other countries ended a year of worldwide upheaval that saw strike-hit Paris welcome the new decade with fireworks, and London's Big Ben ring out after a long restoration.

Saudi Arabia has arrested more than 200 people for violating "public decency" -- including by wearing immodest clothing -- and "harassment", police said, in the first such crackdown since the ultra-conservative kingdom began easing social norms.

As Indian protests against a new citizenship law have intensified, so has police use of "lathis", sturdy sticks used to whack, thwack and quell dissent since British colonial times -- to sometimes deadly effect.

Far-right Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders said he was reviving a Prophet Mohammed cartoon competition Saturday, more than a year after cancelling a similar contest that sparked demonstrations and death threats.

A U.S. cardinal gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to powerful Catholic clerics including two popes while facing accusations of sexual harassment, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

An anti-racist association said Friday it has filed a complaint with French prosecutors over racist comments posted on social media after a black woman from Guadeloupe was chosen Miss France 2020.

The Russian Orthodox Church said Thursday it has cut ties with the leader of Egypt's Orthodox Copts, Pope Tawadros II, after he recognized Ukraine's independent Church.

Just steps from the U.S. Capitol, the Newseum's gleaming glass-and-steel structure has for over a decade been a shining symbol for the press and free expression.

Pilgrims from around the world gathered Tuesday in the biblical city of Bethlehem, revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus, to celebrate Christmas in the Holy Land.

Palestinians and foreigners began converging on the  "little town" in the Israeli-occupied West Bank from early morning, with Christmas Eve festivities taking place in and around the Church of the Nativity.

India's ruling party launched a video with animated Muslim characters on social media Monday in a publicity blitz aiming to bust "myths" around a new citizenship law that has sparked deadly protests.