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Banksy Takes on Migrant Crisis with Steve Jobs Image

Street artist Banksy has taken on the migrant crisis in a new mural at a migrant camp in France.

The elusive graffiti artist has depicted the late Apple guru Steve Jobs — whose biological father was from Syria — carrying a black garbage bag and an early model of the Macintosh computer.

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Colombia, Spain in Diplo-Row over Sunken Treasure Trove

Billions of dollars in gold and silver from an 18th century shipwreck have left Spain and former colony Colombia at odds over who rightfully owns the loot.

The disagreement is over the "San Jose," an treasure ship wreck that Colombia located recently off the coast of Cartagena de Indias, its old Caribbean port city.

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Going Underground: Moscow Renovates its Subterranean World of Kiosks

Selling everything from underwear to dried fruit to teacups, tiny glass-windowed kiosks packed with goods line Moscow's network of long, gloomy pedestrian underpasses.

But now the city's government has replaced the old, haphazardly-built kiosks with new purpose-built units and is trying to turn the underpasses into smarter shopping arcades for busy Muscovites.

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Catholic Theologians Say Jews Can be Saved without Converting

Jews can secure eternal salvation without converting to Christianity, senior Catholic theologians say in a report published Thursday in the latest refinement of their stance on a vexed theological issue.

Addressing a question that has long blighted relations between the two faiths, the report also unequivocally states that the Church should not actively seek to convert Jews to Christianity, echoing the stance outlined by former Pope Benedict XVI in a 2011 book.

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Turkey to Give Alevi Prayer Houses Legal Status

Turkey will give the prayer houses of its Alevi community a legal status, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday, in the most significant gesture yet made to the country's largest minority faith.

Alevis pray in a "Cemevi", meaning House of Gathering, which is a less formal structure than a mosque and allows men and women to mingle freely.

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Reports: Muhammad Ali Hits out at Trump over Muslim Ban

Muhammad Ali rebuked Donald Trump over his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States, news reports said Wednesday, as the boxing icon became just the latest high-profile name to lay into the presidential hopeful.

Ali, a Muslim, did not mention the Republican frontrunner by name, but a statement by the former heavyweight champ -- reported by NBC and ABC -- appeared directed squarely at Trump.

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Spiders on the Menu as Northeast India Embraces Slow Food

Welhite Naro proudly proffers his fried spiders and grilled crickets along with a somewhat less exotic dish of millet and squash -- a small sample of the disappearing delicacies of India's remote northeast.

Naro is a farmer from Nagaland, one of the eight states that make up northeast India -- an area connected to the rest of the country by only a narrow sliver of land and with its own distinct cultural and culinary traditions.

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Beatles' Spiritual Indian Retreat Opened to Public

An abandoned spiritual retreat in northern India where The Beatles famously learned to meditate has been opened to the public, with plans to turn it into a touristy yoga center.

The ashram, located in the town of Rishikesh on the banks of the holy Ganges River, became derelict after its flamboyant guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi abandoned the place in the 1970s.

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European States Urge Action against IS Antiquities Dealing

Germany, Italy and France called Tuesday for the European Union to crack down on the illegal trade in antiquities used to bankroll attacks by the Islamic State group.

The culture ministers of the three countries wrote in a letter to the European Commission urging concerted measures against the illicit trade in cultural treasures for the benefit of the jihadist group.

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Russia Holds 60-Hour Marathon Reading of Tolstoy's 'War and Peace'

Russia on Tuesday began a 60-hour marathon broadcast during which celebrities and members of the public will read aloud the whole of Leo Tolstoy's sprawling novel "War and Peace."

A total of 1,300 readers including actors, politicians and sports figures and ordinary people are taking part in the reading which began at 10 am (0700 GMT).

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