Having to wear ski jackets in Riyadh is unheard of, but a new snow park in the Saudi capital has made them a must despite outside temperatures exceeding 45 Celsius.

Sitting in a Mexican prison's library, murder convict David Guzman tattooed a skull on a leather patch for a designer handbag to be sold in a luxury shop.

Guzman, 34, took drugs and stole at a young age, falling into a "nefarious" world that landed him in prison, but five years into his murder sentence, he appeared at peace as he drew the skeletal figure.

Christopher Sayegh holds up two syringes filled with cannabis compound, primed to pump tiny amounts into a pomegranate sorbet, or a juicy cut of Wagyu Japanese beef as part of a bold new sensory experiment.

As more US states move to legalize the use of recreational marijuana, the California chef is aiming to elevate haute cuisine to a new level.

Pope Francis took part in religious celebrations on Saturday at sites tied to two saints cherished in Poland — late pope St. John Paul II and St. Faustina, a mystic who had been a source of comfort to him.

Francis, who devoted the day to the theme of mercy, arrived early at the imposing Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Lagiewniki, a district of Krakow.

An elderly Afghan cleric has been arrested after he married a six-year-old girl, officials said Friday, in the latest case highlighting the scourge of child marriages in the war-battered country.

The U.S. Navy will name a ship after gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk, a San Francisco politician who was assassinated in 1978, a naval official said Friday.

Nicknamed "the gay Martin Luther King, Jr" for his work to end discrimination against gay people, Milk was killed one year after winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which made him the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in America.

A defining portrait of England's queen Elizabeth I has been bought for the nation, auctioneers said Friday, after thousands of donations to a fundraising campaign to keep the painting in Britain.

Italy's long-awaited, much-disputed law allowing gay civil unions took effect Friday after it was published in an official journal, as couples start applying for legal recognition of their same-sex relationships.

A Palestinian plan to sue Britain over a 1917 declaration backing a Jewish homeland in Palestine could help rally supporters, but has little chance of success, legal analysts say.

Pope Francis on Friday walked alone through the notorious wrought-iron "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate at Auschwitz-Birkenau, beginning a historic visit to the former Nazi death camp.

His head bowed, the pope prayed in silent contemplation before meeting Holocaust survivors -- some of whom he tenderly kissed -- in front of the death wall where the Nazis summarily executed thousands of people by firing squad.