To an ear-splitting soundtrack of chanting and drums, 400 young dancers in spangled outfits clanged sickles and kick-stepped before thousands of spectators and a dais of a dozen Chinese officials.

The performance was one of many at Leishan county in the southwestern province of Guizhou, as a lavish government-sponsored opening ceremony kicked off new year celebrations for the Miao ethnic minority -– a group of about 12 million people who are more at home in their own languages than in Mandarin Chinese.

They were tortured to death, fatally strung up by their feet, shot or thrown into quicksand.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday unveiled a giant statue by the Kremlin of his namesake Vladimir the Great, a revered leader and Orthodox saint, that has faced criticism from locals and conservationists. 

A Renaissance painting that was badly damaged in a 1966 flood in Florence will be unveiled to the public after years of painstaking restoration.

Giorgio Vasari painted "The Last Supper" in the 16th century on five large wood panels that together measure 6.6 by 2.6 meters (21.7 by 8.5 feet). The work was among thousands that were badly damaged and covered in mud when the Arno river broke its banks.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's battle against a German comic over a satirical poem went to the next round Wednesday, as a court in northern Germany began hearing a civil case brought by the Turkish leader.

Saudi Arabia's Shura Council, which advises the cabinet, has turned down a proposal to study the issue of women's driving, a Shura member told AFP on Wednesday.

Protesters demanding equal prayer rights for women at one of Judaism's holiest sites scuffled with ultra-Orthodox Jews on Wednesday as they sought to approach Jerusalem's Western Wall, organizers said.

Pope Francis held a public mass on Tuesday for the Catholic minority in Sweden, a Lutheran but secular country where same-sex marriage is allowed even for priests.

French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday said the Louvre could house threatened treasures from Iraq, Syria and other war-torn countries at a secure site in northern France.

Beirut's National Museum has opened its basement of ancient treasures for the first time in four decades to show the public its stunning array of funerary art, including the world's largest collection of anthropoid sarcophogi.

The new exhibition's 520 pieces range from the Paleolithic period to the Ottoman Empire. They include Phoenician stelae and rare medieval Christian mummies along with the anthropoid coffins, which display  a human face on the sarcophogus and were long a standard for the elite.