A U.S. congressman who sponsored legislation criminalizing late-term abortion announced Wednesday he will not seek re-election next year, after a report revealed he urged his mistress to have an abortion.

"After discussions with my family and staff, I have come to the decision that I will not seek reelection to Congress at the end of my current term," House Republican Tim Murphy, who has been popular with members of the pro-life movement, said in a statement according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The board of the U.N.'s cultural body on Wednesday began vetting eight candidates vying to head an organization accused of bias in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and foot-dragging on reforms.

A crowd of ministers and high-level government officials and experts came Wednesday to the ESCWA headquarters in Beirut to take part in the 8th Session of the ESCWA Committee on Women.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCWA Mohamed Ali Al-Hakim said: "Even as we welcome the positive developments with regard to guaranteeing equality and social justice in Arab societies and reforms aimed at enhancing women’s rights and their participation in community building, we should not overlook the tremendous challenges facing our region. Arab countries are racked by all manner of violence and conflicts that, aside from shattering the peace, are threatening all that has been achieved in terms of social development and progress. One country in particular, Palestine, has suffered under, and continues to endure, decades of occupation.”

Ernesto "Che" Guevara was not just a guerrilla fighting for his ideals, he was a man "haunted by death" according to Argentine-born author and academic Marcela Iacub.

With many carrots and some sticks, ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia seeks to tackle entrenched male attitudes towards women drivers before millions take the wheel, many for the first time, next June.

Lebanon's popular alternative rock band Mashrou' Leila has denounced a "witch-hunt" by Egyptian authorities against homosexuals after a rainbow flag was raised at one of the group's concerts in Cairo.

Nearly two dozen people have been arrested by Egyptian authorities since the flag, a symbol of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, was waved by several people at a Mashrou' Leila concert on September 22.

A Tinder-style dating app for polygamists has sparked controversy in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation -- but its developer says he "just wants to help" unmarried middle-aged women.

Two German men made history Sunday by saying "I do" and becoming the first same-sex couple to marry after decades of struggle, but campaigners say the battle for equal rights isn't over.

Germany celebrates its first gay marriages on Sunday after lawmakers voted in June to grant full marriage rights to same-sex couples who have since 2001 been allowed to live in civil unions.

Most schools in the state worst-hit by the Boko Haram conflict remain shut, the UN children's agency said on Friday, blaming the jihadists for deliberating targeting education.