Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday praised female bosses and their "typically feminine traits" during a visit to a pastry factory ahead of International Women's Day. 

Iranians gave a warm welcome to a new exhibition by France's Louvre on Tuesday -- the first major show by a foreign museum in the country. 

Saudi-owned broadcaster MBC has stopped airing Turkish soap operas, a spokesman said on Tuesday, prompting fans to take to social media to express dismay.

Mervat Bukhari, a force of nature draped head-to-toe in Islamic niqab, braved insults and taunts to become the first Saudi woman to work at a gas station, something unimaginable not long ago.

A "No dancing or swaying" instruction on tickets to Egyptian pop sensation Tamer Hosny's upcoming concert in Saudi Arabia has triggered an avalanche of mockery and ridicule on social media.

Once Yemen's capital and famed as an architectural marvel of early Islam, the town of Zabid is fighting to survive as a brutal war closes in on its fortified walls.

A topless model lies in front of a Russian flag, apparently studying a campaign brochure, as a second young woman prepares to cast a vote in her lingerie.

Tunisia's ministry of culture has banned the Oscar-nominated film "Call Me By Your Name", a love story between two men, one of its main distributors said on Wednesday.

A South African court has fined a self-styled prophet who sprayed his followers in the face with insecticide as a supposed cure for illness.

A top Vatican investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, concluded a visit to Chile on Wednesday after meeting with sexual abuse victims in a case that created a major public controversy for Pope Francis.