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Nepal's Thirsty Capital Loses Ancient Taps to Construction

From early morning, housewives carrying buckets and brass pots queue in the back streets of Nepal's capital for the free water pumped from a network of ancient stone spouts.

A lifeline in a city with erratic government supplies and expensive private alternatives, Kathmandu's intricately carved communal spouts have survived invasions and earthquakes.

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Texas Movie Set Used by John Wayne Fading Away

Time and Mother Nature are threatening to dismantle the Alamo. Not the original, but the replica 18th-century Spanish mission and Old West movie set John Wayne built for his Oscar-nominated 1960 movie and that for decades was a tourist mecca and film production site.

"It's not just something that represents history to a movie set — it is now history for sure," says Rich Curilla, the one-man curator and custodian of the now-closed Alamo Village.

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Egypt Axes 'Exodus' Film, Citing Historical Mistakes

Egypt has banned the Hollywood biblical epic movie "Exodus: Gods and Kings" citing historical inaccuracies, the culture minister said Friday, a day after a similar move by Morocco.

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India's Brass Bands Struggle amid Changing Tastes

The wedding season is in full swing in India, marking what should be the busiest time of year for the traditional brass bands that lead raucous processions announcing the arrival of the bridegroom to the neighborhood.

Dressed in faded military-style uniforms or long silken tunics and turbans, brass bands playing the latest Bollywood tunes have long been a must-have at any Indian wedding.

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Israel's Ultra-Orthodox Mull Bigger Role for Women

A struggle for women's rights is brewing within Israel's deeply conservative ultra-Orthodox community, where women, largely shut out of politics, are beginning to demand greater representation in the country's parliament.

More than 20 percent of Israeli lawmakers are female, but not one woman serves from the country's two ultra-Orthodox, or haredi, parties. In haredi communities, women are expected to manage a home, raise children and provide an income for the family, often while the husband studies Torah.

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Report: Chinese City Makes 'Socalist Values' Mandatory

A Chinese city is attempting to force its eight million residents to memorize and recite a series of "socialist values," state-media reported Friday, with spot-checks to ensure conformity.

The central Chinese city of Wuhan is calling on "all residents to internalize" 12 "core socialist values," which are part of an ideological campaign by China's ruling Communist party, reported the Global Times tabloid.

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After Decades of Repression, Myanmar Catholics Find Voice

Six decades after its first saint was murdered for his faith amid a bloody civil war, Myanmar's Catholic Church is stepping up calls for peace and religious tolerance as it celebrates its 500th anniversary. 

The grisly 1950 killing of Isidore Ngei Ko Lat, a religious teacher travelling with an Italian priest in the wild and war-ravaged eastern borderlands, had been almost forgotten after decades of military rule that severely restricted religious minorities in the mainly Buddhist country.

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Iran Censors 'Offensive' Instagram Pictures

Iran has started censoring images posted on photo sharing app Instagram, removing content deemed "offensive" as part of a government project to screen social networking accounts, local media reported Thursday.

"The filtering of pages with immoral content began yesterday (Wednesday) evening on Instagram," the government daily Iran said.

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Acclaimed Film 'Selma' Disappoints LBJ Historian

The widely acclaimed movie "Selma" about the 1965 Civil Rights movement has disappointed at least one moviegoer: a leading historian of President Lyndon B. Johnson.

The director of the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, which hosted a major civil rights summit this year that was headlined by four U.S. presidents, said the film that opens in theaters Thursday incorrectly portrays Johnson as an obstructionist to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Cuba Relations with Catholic Church at High Point

Golden rays of tropical sunlight slant through the caved-in roof of Saint Thomas de Villanueva chapel, illuminating tiles graced by the faces of saints. Vandals shattered the stained-glass windows and scrawled their names on the thick walls during decades of frigid relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Cuba's communist government.

But a new chain-link fence surrounds the building, protecting it for a future that once seemed unimaginable.

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