Michelle Obama arrived Monday in Qatar on the opening stage of her first solo Middle East tour, where she is expected to call for addressing "cultural beliefs" obstructing girls' education. 

The U.S. first lady is set to speak at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) on Wednesday, as part of her well-publicized efforts to promote girls' education globally.

Northern Ireland's assembly on Monday voted in favor of same-sex marriage for the first time -- by just one vote -- but the ruling Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) sank the motion with a constitutional veto.

The power-sharing assembly had voted narrowly against the legalization on four previous occasions, but the tables turned ever so slightly with Monday's vote, when it prevailed by 53 votes to 52.

The veteran Franco-Tunisian author Hedi Kaddour is the favorite to win France's top literary award, the Goncourt, when it is announced on Tuesday, but the gong often throws up a surprise.

The novel by 70-year-old Kaddour, "Les preponderants" (which roughly translates as "The principals"), about colonial society deeply rooted in its ways in 1920s north Africa, figures on a host of award lists and has already been the co-winner of the prestigious Academie francaise prize this year.

The cry of roosters drowns out the roar of engines beneath a Bangkok flyover as all eyes are trained on two sparring birds, a bloody, high stakes battle in a country where cockfighting is big business.

The birds do not usually fight to the death, as in many parts of the world, but they can still inflict fatal damage to their opponents in contests almost always accompanied by lucrative gambling.

Two famous paintings thought to be works of medieval Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch are likely to have been imitations painted around the same time, Dutch media reported on Saturday.

The works "Christ Carrying the Cross" (around 1515-16) and "The Seven Deadly Sins" (around 1500) "were made at the same time, but likely to have been made by imitators," public news broadcaster NOS said.

Three's a crowd? Not in Brazil, where three women have defied deeply conservative trends in Congress and wider traditional mores by celebrating a polyamorous civil union.

The happy trio, who reportedly have shared a bed for years and say they want to raise a child, took an oath of love in early October in the presence of Rio de Janeiro notary public Fernanda de Freitas Leitao.

It's fall. Leaves in Central Park are golden and so are profits in the art world, as Christie's and Sotheby's prepare to auction off $2 billion worth of works in New York.

From November 4 to 12, the two auction houses go head to head in selling hundreds of pieces of modern, impressionist, post-war and contemporary art, six months after the spring season smashed a string of records and netted more than $2.6 billion.

Frenchman Vincent Vallee was crowned the world champion chocolate maker in Paris on Friday, beating top chocolatiers from around the globe in a three-day final.

"It's the first time a French chef has won the competition," said organizers Cacao Barry, who have held the tournament finals in the French capital since 2005.

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for insulting Islam, was awarded the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize on Thursday.

The 31-year-old blogger, who was arrested in 2012, is an outspoken advocate of free speech whose vicious public flogging in January, when he was subjected to a first round of 50 lashes, triggered an international backlash.

It is the world's largest producer of milk and also the largest consumer. And for good reason. Because in India, milk is not just the morning glass you drink before you sprint out of the house. Its uses go far beyond the dietary and nutritional.

By the end of 2014, India was producing 140 million metric tons of milk per year — roughly 50 percent more than the United States, the second-biggest producer.