Iraqi forces have retaken the ancient city of Nimrud, but it has been heavily damaged by the Islamic State group, an AFP journalist who visited the site on Tuesday said.

They were threatened, forced to spit on a crucifix or convert to Islam, but a handful of Iraqi Christians miraculously survived more than two years under Islamic State group rule.

Two white men in South Africa have been charged with assault after an online video emerged showing them pushing a black man into a coffin and threatening to burn him alive, a court official said Tuesday.

Switzerland will return to Egypt an ancient stela stolen from a temple dedicated to the goddess Isis, Geneva's public prosecutor said on Monday.

The number of divorces in Italy surged by more than half last year after the enactment of legislation making it easier and quicker to end failed marriages.

For more than 30 years, sharia courts enforcing Islamic law have been operating quietly across Britain. But two official inquiries have put them in the spotlight amid accusations that they discriminate against women.

Rock star Sting on Saturday reopened the Bataclan, the Paris concert hall where jihadists massacred 90 people, with a hugely symbolic and emotional show to mark the first anniversary of France's bloodiest terror attack.

People have long used ribbons, flowers, colors or badges to symbolize political causes, from the carnations of Portugal's 1974 revolution to the orange ribbons of Ukraine's 2004 revolution to the gel wristbands now worn to promote almost any charity.  

Enter the lowly safety pin. 

Members of Eagles of Death Metal, the U.S. group who were playing when jihadists attacked Paris' Bataclan concert hall last year, were turned away from the venue's reopening show Saturday over controversial remarks by their lead singer.

A London auction of music legend David Bowie's art collection has ended with sales totalling almost £33 million ($41.5 million), after exhibits of the works drew record crowds, Sotheby's said Saturday.