The Philippine Catholic church on Sunday defended boxing hero Manny Pacquiao for his opposition to gay marriage, saying he was only quoting the Bible.

But Father Jerome Secillano also said over radio station DZMM that Pacquiao should respect homosexuals and not judge and condemn them after the eight-division world champion last week described them as worse than animals.

France marks the centenary of the start of the Battle of Verdun -- the longest battle of World War I which became a symbol of the country's suffering -- on Sunday, focusing on educating the young rather than honoring veterans.

With all the combatants now dead, the military element of previous commemorations will be replaced by a visit to the battle site by thousands of French and German children for a memorial ceremony.

Italy was in mourning Saturday following the death of Umberto Eco, the intellectual and literary giant who wrote "The Name of the Rose" and was cherished as one of his country's favorite sons.

Eco, who had been suffering from cancer, passed away at his Milan home late on Friday, his family told Italian media. He was 84. 

Russia's parliament on Friday debated a controversial homophobic bill to fine and jail people for up to 15 days for coming out in public as gay.

Lawmakers expressed support while rejecting the bill in its current wording as not legally valid.

Pope Francis insisted Thursday that abortion was always a crime but hinted that the Church could exceptionally relax its ban on contraception for women at risk of contracting the Zika virus.

"Abortion is not a lesser evil. It is a crime," Francis said in response to a question about how best to combat the outbreak across Latin America of a virus linked to birth defects.

A haunting black-and-white image of a refugee passing a baby under a barbed wire fence won the prestigious World Press Photo Award on Thursday, highlighting Europe's worst migrant crisis since World War II.

Snapped by Australian freelance photographer Warren Richardson, the picture titled "Hope for a New Life" captures the drama of one border crossing between Serbia and Hungary, as more than a million people made their way to Europe's shores in 2015 -- nearly half of them fleeing Syria's brutal civil war.

The Vatican defended Pope Francis' "human reaction" after he briefly lost his temper when an over-enthusiastic admirer in Mexico tugged him over on top of a child in a wheelchair.

The 79-year-old pontiff was greeting worshipers Tuesday in the city of Morelia when a member of the crowd pulled him forward by the hand, causing Francis to fall on top of the wheelchair user.

In the remote wilderness of the Belinga mountains in northeast Gabon, men with shovels in hand dig from morning to night, filling wheelbarrows with soil laced with what they are looking for: gold.

The clearing in the equatorial forest is covered with dozens of holes, some four metres (13 feet) deep.

With her kohl-rimmed eyes cast down, Nadia lilts through a folk couplet before a secret assembly of women poets on a forbidden subject that often gets people killed in Afghanistan -- love.

"Like a candle I burn all night, separated from my lover," the 20-year-old intones in Pashto.

The director of Poland's national library Tuesday dismissed a BBC report alleging that pope John Paul II had a close relationship with a married woman lasting 30 years as a "Valentine's Day joke."

"It's a rather bad joke," said Tomasz Makowski of the BBC documentary aired Monday that was based on more than 350 letters written by Karol Wojtyla both as a cardinal and pope.