With burger patties sizzling over a hot grill, a Saudi eatery did the unthinkable as a muezzin's call to prayer sent Muslim worshippers scrambling to lower their shutters: it stayed open.

Sudan's Christians suffered decades of persecution under the regime of Islamist general Omar al-Bashir. Now they hope his downfall will give the religious freedom they have long prayed for.

Greece has asked France to loan a Parthenon marble frieze fragment displayed at Paris's Louvre Museum to mark its 200th independence anniversary in 2021, an official said Saturday.

"There has been a proposal by the Greek side and it is been evaluated in a positive manner," a government source told AFP.

The Women's Rugby World Cup in 2017 will be the last to bear that title with World Rugby announcing on Wednesday they are adopting a policy of gender neutrality for their tournaments.

French workers on Monday resumed efforts to secure the cathedral of Notre-Dame following the devastating April fire, after a three-week pause due to the risk of lead contamination.

The Woodstock name has become more brand than spirit for many hippies, but people spanning the generations continue to seek its aura, looking for more "authentic" ways to pay homage to the spot where it all began.

A generation-defining political statement, an epiphany of peace, three chaotic days that altered music history -- the tropes of Woodstock are many, sometimes muddying meaning with myth.

A fictional caper about an antiquities heist set in an ancient Jordanian city has stirred widespread outrage over the film's portrayal of historical Jewish ties to Jordan, shining a light on the tenuous peace with neighboring Israel and prompting the government to suspend the movie's production.

Based on a book of the same name, the movie, "Jaber," follows a Jordanian boy who uncovers a stone in the rose-colored, rock-hewn city of Petra with a Hebrew inscription on it. He sets off to sell it to the highest bidder, but interested parties in Israel catch wind of the find, dispatching a Russian organized crime group to pursue the boy and retrieve the stone at any cost.

Even for Ernest Hemingway, a man whose bravado was matched only by his thirst, his liberation of the Ritz Hotel's bar in Paris was the stuff of legend.

Five-star hotels with views of Islam's holiest site and luxury hajj pilgrimage packages are attracting a super-wealthy clientele and establishing Mecca as the capital of premium religious tourism.