U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pleaded Sunday for the United States to be re-elected to UNESCO's executive board, pledging to do his utmost to restore U.S. funding to the U.N. cultural body "in full."

The United States and Israel in 2013 lost their UNESCO voting rights in the Paris-based U.N. agency's 195-member assembly, two years after suspending their financial contributions to the organization over Palestinian membership.

University student Santadevi Meghwal has been threatened, harassed, ostracized and even fined by a council of male elders in her village in India.

But the 20-year-old is determined to push ahead with annulling her child marriage, and join a small but growing number of youngsters in northern India rejecting the ancient tradition.

Villagers in northern India beat a Muslim man to death for attempting to smuggle cattle for slaughter, police said Friday, the latest victim of soaring religious tensions in a country where the majority consider cows sacred.

Twenty-year-old Noman, whose full name is not known, and four others were severely beaten before being handed over to police in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh on Thursday, according to officials.

Pakistan's Supreme Court has granted bail to a woman who is on trial for blasphemy after she spent three years in jail, her lawyer told AFP Friday, a rare decision in a country where such charges are hugely sensitive.

Waliaha Arfat was accused of desecrating a copy of the Koran and jailed in 2012 in the eastern city of Lahore, where her trial in a lower court is still ongoing.

Food and shelter may be a priority for the record numbers of often desperate refugees arriving in Germany but they also need "intellectual nutrition", say experts at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Underlining the crucial part education plays in migrants' integration, the fair's organizers and the German book trade association launched a special initiative entitled "Books Say Welcome" last month.

A masterpiece of the American pop art movement hits the auction block in New York next month, expected to set a new record for artist Roy Lichtenstein and continue a record-setting year in art sales.

Christie's has set the low estimate for Lichtenstein's iconic "Nurse" at $80 million, but believes it could fetch in excess of $100 million at a specially curated evening sale in New York on November 9.

A top African cardinal has described the threat posed by Islamic extremism and western liberal culture as the twin "Beasts of the Apocalypse" comparable to Nazism and communism.

In an intervention at an ongoing synod of bishops on the future of Catholic teaching on the family, Guinean cardinal Robert Sarah reportedly described Islamist militants and western thinking on abortion and homosexuality as sharing "the same demonic origin."

A 47-year-old Iowa-raised designer might seem like an unlikely candidate for overnight success in Japan, but the country's long-running love affair with classic American style has turned Todd Snyder into a fashion heavyweight.

Japan's fondness for American fashion has seen Snyder open three stores in the country in less than two years, and sparked a creative boom.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke his silence Wednesday over the lynching of a Muslim man suspected of eating beef, calling it "unfortunate", after criticism over his failure to speak out.

Modi accused the opposition of trying to stir up controversy over the incident last month in which Mohammad Akhlaq was dragged from his home and beaten to death over rumors he had eaten beef.

New Zealand censors on Wednesday overturned the country's first book ban for more than two decades, ruling an award-winning teen novel could go on sale with no restrictions.

The book, "Into the River" by Ted Dawe, was ordered off shelves last month after conservative lobby group Family First complained about depictions of sex and drug use.