Pope Francis has turned around the way the Catholic Church is seen but his promise of Vatican reform awaits next year and key problems remain, observers said on Tuesday, as the pontiff celebrated his 77th birthday.

After years of stagnation and turbulence, the first ever Latin American pope has brought a down-to-earth style to the papacy and has shown a willingness to tackle issues like the Vatican's secretive finances.

It has been standing for thousands of years, so Britain's ancient Stonehenge monument was due a makeover.

New visitor facilities and landscaping are designed to "restore the dignity" of the mysterious stone circle, and transform the way more than 1 million visitors a year see it.

The heady years of artistic experimentation and cosmopolitan life in Rome in the 1970s are the subject of a new exhibition that opens in the Italian capital on Tuesday.

Two hundreds works by some of the most famous artists of the time, including Alberto Burri, Cy Twombly, Jannis Kounellis and Sol Lewitt are on show at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni.

Witch doctors and religious charlatans beware: New legislation passed in a central Indian state aims to prosecute those who use beliefs and superstition to defraud or physically harm followers.

Maharashtra became the first state to pass such legislation in multicultural and secular India, where witch doctors and Hindu holy men enjoy huge popularity and can amass millions in contributions or fees for promised miracles and health cures.

Within their female-only campuses, women at Saudi Arabia's universities let loose. Trendy sneakers, colorful tops, a myriad of hairstyles. Some experiment with bleach blonde or even dip-dyed blue hair. The more adventurous ones have cropped their hair into short buzzes.

In their bags, the textbooks vary, but one item is mandatory: a floor-length black abaya robe that each must cover herself with when she steps through the university gates back to the outside world of the kingdom.

Cambodia announced Monday that leading auction house Sotheby's will return a 10th century Khmer statue worth up to $3 million said to have been looted during its civil war.

The statue of a warrior will be returned to the kingdom within 90 days under an agreement signed last week by Sotheby's, its Belgian client and U.S. authorities, said Deputy Prime Minister Sok An.

South Africa has unveiled a gigantic statue of anti-apartheid fighter Nelson Mandela to cheers and singing at the Union Buildings in its capital.

The mood was joyous Monday in Pretoria as a military band played and fighter jets flew overhead to honor Mandela after 10 days of mourning over his death ended Sunday with his burial.

An Indonesian man has admitted stealing human remains from graves to use in black-magic spells he believed would give him the power of flight and invisibility, police said Monday.

Police detained Resi Rokhis Suhana, 27, in the south of the main island of Java on Sunday, following reports that bones were stolen from graves, including those of twin babies.

Christie's hopes to help revive the Indian art scene this week with its first auction in the country, where the market is yet to return to the heady days enjoyed before a crash five years ago.

The international auction house is bringing 83 lots spanning a century of Indian art under the hammer on Thursday, including works by modern master M.F. Husain and national treasures Rabindranath Tagore and Amrita Sher-Gil.

January 1, 2014 marks the centenary of the amalgamation of southern and northern Nigeria but the anniversary looks set to be muted, amid lingering questions about whether the union can hold.

In the run-up to the landmark, opinion is split between those who think amalgamation has been a boon and others who consider it the first step in the creation of a still-failing state.