The French army general charged with the rebuilding of Paris' fire-ravaged Notre-Dame was rebuked by the government Thursday after telling the chief architect to "shut his mouth" in a sign of tension over the cathedral's future appearance.

Roman Polanski may sue the French newspaper that published accusations he raped a former actress in the 1970s, his lawyer said Sunday, as he comes under renewed fire over the latest claim of sexual assault to emerge against the Oscar-winning director in recent years.

Taking vibrant spray paint to Baghdad's grimy concrete walls, Iraqi artists protesting against the government -- many of them young and female -- are sketching out their vision for a brighter future.

An Israeli film released to coincide with the 24th anniversary of the assassination of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin offers fresh insight into his killer -- and contemporary politics in Israel. 

A visitor wondering what the deadly unrest in Chile is about can learn a lot from the graffiti that has blanketed the capital's streets.

Germany marks three decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall this week, but a hint of a return of the Cold War and the rise of nationalism is dampening the mood.

If Mary Poppins had been U.S. President Donald Trump's nanny, she would have "shaped him up pretty quickly," says Julie Andrews, the actress who immortalized the singing governess with magical powers on the big screen. 

Many foreign women at Saudi Arabia's Davos-style investment conference have donned an array of colorful tunics, happily avoiding the austere black "abaya", a garment until recently obligatory in the ultra-conservative country.

An 8,000-year-old pearl that archaeologists say is the world's oldest will be displayed in Abu Dhabi, according to authorities who said Sunday it is proof the objects have been traded since Neolithic times.

Television medical dramas do not show how cynical and jaded doctors are in real life, doctor-turned-scriptwriting star Jed Mercurio said Wednesday.