Russian officials and Orthodox priests on Tuesday unveiled a statue in Moscow of inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov, whose iconic AK-47 assault rifle has claimed countless lives worldwide.

Malaysia has canned an annual craft beer festival after an Islamist party warned it would turn the city into "the biggest centre of vice in Asia".

Israel's justice ministry said Sunday the government would advance legislation giving gay couples equal rights in adopting children following controversy over the issue.

He has been beaten up, received death threats and hundreds of insulting emails, but Karamba Diaby is not one to give up.

Serbia's lesbian prime minister is set to take part in Belgrade's Pride parade on Sunday, an event held yearly under heavy security after previous marches were disrupted by anti-gay violence.

The "secret" art collection amassed by Claude Monet, the father of Impressionism, went on display for the first time in Paris on Thursday, 90 years after the great painter's death.

A French court on Wednesday banned a couple from giving their baby a name containing a tilde, ruling that the "n with a squiggle over it" was incompatible with national law.  

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish Israeli lawmaker quit his seat on Wednesday under fire from religious colleagues and rabbis for attending a gay relative's wedding, his daughter said.

The Coromoto ice cream parlor had it all - chocolate and vanilla for sure, though also garlic, avocado and even octopus sorbets... but the things you can't find in Venezuela any more, like milk and sugar, means the landmark has had to close for good.

When Manuel Da Silva first opened its welcoming yellow doors in 1981, the Heladeria Coromoto offered its clients the tried and trusted  - vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and coconut flavors.

US author Paul Auster tops the shortlist for Britain's prestigious Man Booker Prize published Wednesday, one of six books that organisers said "collectively push against the borders of convention".