A Syrian expert for the U.N.'s cultural body said Monday she was "very doubtful" the destruction caused to Palmyra's ancient monuments during its occupation by the Islamic State group can be repaired.

Bangladesh's high court on Monday rejected a petition by secular activists to scrap Islam as the state religion in the wake of nationwide protests by hardline Islamist groups.

A special bench of three judges threw out the petition within moments of opening the case and without allowing any testimony, an AFP correspondent at the court said.

An American museum on Monday  returned to Cambodia a 10th-century sandstone sculpture of the Hindu god Rama decades after it was looted from a jungle temple during the kingdom's civil war.

The 62-inch-tall torso, which was stolen in the 1970s from the Koh Ker temple site near the famed Angkor Wat complex, was handed over by the Denver Art Museum at a ceremony in Phnom Penh. 

Syria's antiquities chief said on Monday that his department would need five years to restore the ancient ruins of Palmyra damaged by the Islamic State jihadist group.

"If we have UNESCO's approval, we will need five years to restore the structures damaged or destroyed by IS," Maamoun Abdulkarim told Agence France Presse.

Ancient artifacts in the city of Palmyra are in much better shape than expected, Syria's antiquities chief said Sunday after regime forces recaptured the desert oasis from the Islamic State group. 

An effigy of U.S. presidential contender Donald Trump -- a hated figure for many in Mexico -- was set ablaze late Saturday in a contemporary twist on a Holy Week ritual.

A smiling figure of the billionaire American businessman went up in flames during the Easter eve "Burning of Judas," a tradition in which Mexicans torch effigies of the devil -- and of public figures they dislike.

Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima's new work "Time Waterfall" has been shrouded in dense fog for most of the week, his trademark numbers partly hidden as they cascade down Hong Kong's tallest building.

But despite the heavy weather, Miyajima is still hopeful that his creation will deliver a message to the bustling city's residents: to be in the moment.

Thousands of hardline Islamists on Friday staged protests across Bangladesh against an imminent court hearing on scrapping the state religion of the Muslim-majority nation.

More than half of Russians believe the Soviet dictator Stalin was a wise leader, a new poll by Levada independent polling center showed Friday.

Levada found 57 percent of Russians said they entirely or generally agreed that Stalin was a "wise leader who made the USSR powerful and prosperous." 

The veteran Algerian writer Boualem Sansal weighed in Thursday to defend his compatriot Kamel Daoud, who is at the center of storm over his claim that sex "is the greatest misery in the world of Allah".

Daoud, who won France's top literary prize the Prix Goncourt last year, sparked outrage for an article he wrote in France's Le Monde daily in the wake of the wave of sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year's Eve.