Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday renamed the country's airports to commemorate tsars and space pioneers as well as writer Anton Chekhov and operatic tenor Dmitri Hvorostovsky after an online poll that stirred up controversy.

Lebanon's Telecommunications Ministry has ordered the blocking of the popular dating application Grindr, used mainly by gay men and trans men, saying it facilitates meetings between bisexuals or people of the same sex.

Amnesty International called the decision "a deeply regressive step, and a blow" to the LGBT community in Lebanon.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to take up a case about abortions based on sex, race or potential disability of the fetus, after the high court sidestepped the issue.

Netflix on Tuesday became the first major studio to say it would reconsider its investment in Georgia should a controversial abortion law in the U.S. state, known as the Hollywood of the South, go into effect.

The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on the explosive issue of abortion on Tuesday, upholding part of an Indiana law that requires the remains of aborted fetuses to be cremated or buried but sidestepping a separate case on the legality of the procedure.

A woman jailed in Iran for one year for removing her hijab in public to protest against the country's Islamic dress code has been released early, her lawyer said Tuesday.

Hunched over a thick book, George Zaarour uses a magnifying glass to decipher Aramaic script -- the biblical language of Jesus that is starting to disappear from everyday use in his village. 

Vandals have attacked portraits of Holocaust victims in the streets of central Vienna, President Alexander Van der Bellen said Monday, adding that he was "deeply worried" over the assaults.

The minaret of Jam, a revered Afghan historical treasure, has been saved from imminent danger after hundreds of workers diverted surging floodwaters that were gnawing at the 12th-century tower, officials said Monday.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said Sunday that Germany's warning to Jews on the dangers of wearing the traditional kippah cap were a "capitulation to anti-Semitism" and evidence Jews were unsafe there.