The destruction by jihadists of Mosul's leaning minaret "deepens the wounds" in war-torn Iraq, UNESCO chief Irina Bokova said Thursday.

A notorious Chinese dog meat festival opened on Wednesday with sellers torching the hair off carcasses, butchers chopping slabs of canines and cooks frying up dishes, dispelling rumors that authorities would ban sales this year.

Afghan women are redrawing the media landscape in the deeply conservative country with the launch of a new magazine and a television channel, risking the anger of extremists by giving their gender a glamorous voice.

A group of award-winning authors on Sunday launched a book highlighting Israel's 50-year occupation of the Palestinian territories, raising money for an NGO hated by the Israeli government.

Serbia's president on Thursday named Ana Brnabic as the next prime minister, making her the first openly gay premier in the conservative Balkan region and the first Serbian woman in the top job.

An Israeli human rights group disliked by the government welcomed Thursday the donation of prize money from the Man Booker International Prize won by David Grossman.

One in five children in rich countries lives in relative poverty, according to a UNICEF report published Thursday that put the US and New Zealand among the world's worst performers for youth well-being.

Nearly 13 percent of children in those countries lack access to sufficient safe and nutritious food, the report said, with that number rising to 20 percent in the US and Britain.

A long queue of men and women standing in separate lines extends from an Istanbul mosque to see a centuries-old garment pressed down flat inside an glass exhibition case: the Prophet Mohammed's sacred cloak made of linen, cotton and silk.

A popular Lebanese rock band has been banned from performing in Jordan for the second year in a row, amid allegations that the musicians violate the kingdom's traditions.

Rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday dismissed as "absurd" the jailing in Tunisia of people who fail to observe the Ramadan fast.