Salafists protested on Friday against government plans to reopen synagogues which were closed for security reasons during Algeria's civil war of the 1990s.

After weekly Friday prayers at Al-Mouminine mosque in the poor Belcourt district of Algiers, dozens of worshipers tried to march in the streets but were blocked by police, an Agence France Presse journalist reported.

A "bamboo ceiling" exists in Australia for Asians entering positions of power in business, education and politics, the country's race discrimination commissioner has suggested.

Tim Soutphommasane said that while Australia's cultural diversity was to be welcomed, equality of opportunity in the top echelons was lacking.

The Church of England could be set to allow its first female bishops -- and not before time, says one of those tipped for the job, adding the days of women being left to arrange the flowers are gone.

Rose Hudson-Wilkin thinks it would be "seismic" if the Church votes on Monday to allow Anglican women to take the top jobs after decades of debate on their role.

It was one of the greatest love stories in history and now the marriage certificate that sealed the union of Napoleon and his first wife Josephine is to be sold at auction in September.

The document dated March 8, 1796, was signed by the future Napoleon I and his fiancee Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, or Josephine, the Viscomtesse de Beauharnais.

Many Germans still love to bask naked on the beaches of Spain and France but at home, long the land of the all-over tan, the nudist movement is in decline.

For almost a century, German sun-worshippers have been known to rip off their clothes at the first sighting of the country's all-too-rare summer rays.

Prayer rooms, hijabs made from local silk and even halal-certified whale meat are appearing in Japan as tourism bosses wake up to the demand from Muslim travelers.

For a largely homogeneous country with only around 100,000 practicing Muslims, that means groping its way through unfamiliar customs as it looks to tap a growing market to help it double the number of overseas visitors by 2020.

A lost Van Dyck painting spotted on a British television program failed to find a buyer at a Tuesday auction despite estimates it would fetch 1,000 times its original price.

Auctioneers Christie's had estimated the sketch for the 1635 work "The Magistrates Of Brussels" would sell for between £300,000 and £500,000 ($856,000, 630,000 euros), but it did not find a buyer.

A Philippine priest faces possible sanctions after his scathing condemnation of an unwed mother in church ignited a social media firestorm, his religious superiors said Tuesday.

Father Romeo Obach angrily scolded a young mother in church on Sunday as she held her newborn baby in her arms to be baptized, apparently unaware his comments were being videotaped.

Cerro Rico, the fabled peak towering over the Bolivian city of Potosi that supplied silver to fund Spain's colonial empire, is at risk of collapse from overmining, putting thousands of workers in jeopardy.

Potosi, which earned UNESCO World Heritage status in 1987, was seen as the world's largest industrial complex in the 16th century thanks to its massive deposits of silver and tin. 

A lost Van Dyck painting bought for £400 ($685, 500 euros) is expected to fetch £500,000 at auction on Tuesday after being spotted on a British television program.

The painting, a sketch for the 1635 work "The Magistrates Of Brussels", was bought by Catholic priest Father Jamie MacLeod from an antiques shop in Cheshire, northern England.