Bestselling French novelist Michel Houellebecq will promote his new book imagining a France under Islamic rule next week in Germany after suspending a French tour in the wake of the Paris attacks, his publisher said Tuesday.

He is to present the book, whose German translation will hit bookstores Friday, in the western city of Cologne Monday, French publishing house Flammarion told Agence France-Presse.

An indignant letter from a British aristocrat who survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 is coming up for auction in the United States next week.

Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon, a target of public outrage after she fled the doomed ocean liner on a nearly-empty lifeboat, penned the two-page letter in London a month after the disaster.

Born when a Qing dynasty emperor was on the throne, the man who helped invent the Pinyin writing system used for transliterating Chinese worldwide turns 109 on Tuesday. But Zhou Youguang’s outspoken support for democracy means his writings are still censored by the ruling Communist party.

"After 30 years of economic reform, China still needs to take the path of democracy," Zhou told Agence France Presse in an interview, his wrinkled face topped with a patch of white hair. "It's the only path. I have always believed that."

Paris is known for its many Belle Epoque cultural landmarks -- ornate museums, gilded theaters, the stately Eiffel Tower. But its brand-new concert hall opening Wednesday undoubtedly comes from a different era.

The ultra-modern, multi-layered, crested structure, designed by leading French architect Jean Nouvel and planted in the northeast of the French capital, would not look amiss in a glittering, modern desert city like Doha or Dubai.

The Cold War finally came to an end in Switzerland late last year, without a bang.

A quarter century after the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, the Swiss army has finally finished demining hundreds of bridges, tunnels, roads and airfields. And much to the surprise of many residents.

After years of war forced it into near silence, Damascus' once-thriving Opera House is slowly coming back to life, bringing respite and a little culture to residents of Syria's capital.

Recent weeks have seen a sharp increase in the number of performances at the Opera House, as residents look to revive some of the capital's cultural life despite a civil war that has killed more than 200,000 people.

Pope Francis on Monday slammed "deviant forms of religion" following deadly attacks by Islamist militants in France last week which left 17 people dead.

"Losing their freedom, people become enslaved, whether to the latest fads, or to power, money, or even deviant forms of religion," he said, laying the blame on "a culture of rejection" which leads to "the breakdown of society and spawning violence and death."

Hundreds of Tanzanian schoolgirls returned home Monday after spending three months hiding in safe houses to escape genital mutilation, state television said.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) can range from hacking off the clitoris to the removal of the entire female genitalia.

China's push to encourage more couples to have a second child after decades of restrictive family planning policies has fallen short of expectations in the first year, state media reported Monday.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission received less than half of the expected two million annual applications for couples to have a second child, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, without citing exact numbers.

Turkey's increasingly stringent television watchdog has fined a national private channel over a show where the characters discussed the merits of strawberry-flavored condoms, the Hurriyet daily reported Saturday.

TV 2 was fined 12,353 Turkish lira ($5,320) for broadcasting the segment from the French-produced comedy sketch show "Vous Les Femmes", which in Turkish is broadcast as "Ah Biz Kadinlar" and in English-speaking countries as "Women!".