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Salvadoran President's Home Becomes Gallery with Focus on Poor

The Salvadoran president's residence, a posh home in an upscale San Salvador district, reopened Sunday as a museum with a focus on welcoming the poor.

New leftist President Salvador Sanchez Ceren -- an ex-rebel commander who has decided to keep living in his family home in a middle-class area of the city -- reopened the building as a place where the socially excluded can come to reflect on their country and its artistic wealth.

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In Turkey, Party Goes on Despite New Alcohol Curbs

The sun is setting but the party is only just beginning for 29-year-old Merve Kortan, one of the many young Turks who hang out in Istanbul's vibrant Beyoglu district.

New alcohol legislation has made it more expensive and harder to buy or sell alcohol in Turkey, with critics accusing the Islamic-rooted government of imposing a religious agenda in the mainly Muslim but officially secular nation. 

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Muti Conducts 'Requiem' for WWI 100th Anniversary

Maestro Riccardo Muti is conducting Verdi's Requiem Mass in northeastern Italy to mark the 100th anniversary of World War I's outbreak in Europe and honor its millions of war dead.

The Italian orchestra conductor has called the musical tribute Sunday night at the Redipuglia monument to WWI dead a "message of reconciliation."

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Gehry Redesign of Art Museum Yields more Space

Traditionalists can rest easy knowing architect Frank Gehry's vision for the Philadelphia Museum of Art does not include wrapping the neoclassical building in his trademark chunky silver swooshes.

But he just might take a chunk out of the famed "Rocky" steps.

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Revellers Cram Madrid in Top Pride Parade

Vast crowds of revelers in high heels, wigs and figure-hugging dresses cavorted in the streets of Madrid on Saturday in what is billed as the biggest gay pride parade in Europe.

Tens of thousands crammed one of the Spanish capital's broad central avenues, the Paseo del Prado, in the early evening to the din of drums and whistles in a parade scheduled to last seven hours.

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Turkey's Erdogan Rebukes Footballer Over 'Foreign' Tattoo

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan chided a promising young footballer on Friday for having a tattoo on his wrist, warning such foreign-inspired body art could give him skin cancer. 

The incident occurred when Erdogan visited the Turkish national team's training facilities in Istanbul, where he chatted and shook hands with young players. 

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India Bans Foie Gras

India has banned the import of foie gras, a government notice said, after animal rights activists complained that the method used to produce the duck liver delicacy was cruel.

"Import policy of the item 'foie gras'... is revised from 'free' to 'prohibited'," the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in the notice on its website.

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Turkey Ruling Party Orders Official to Resign for 'Drinking Alcohol'

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered a senior regional party official to resign after pictures apparently showed him drinking alcohol, media reported Friday.

Mustafa Celebi, the head of the AKP in a district of the southwestern Mugla province, can be seen in photos posted on social media drinking alcohol with two colleagues, according to the website of the Hurriyet daily.

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Report: Japan Woman Dies at Hands of Professional Exorcist, 81

Japanese police probing the death of a woman who reportedly died after being forced to a drink a lot of water, have arrested an 81-year-old professional exorcist, her younger sister and the victim's husband.

Reports said Rie Fukuda, aged 51, was pinned down and made to swallow a large volume of water in what detectives said was an "exorcism" carried out by her husband and two elderly women.

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Pastor of State Church 'Sentenced to 12 Years' in China

A pastor of a state-sanctioned church in China has been sentenced to 12 years in prison, his lawyer and an overseas rights group said Friday, accusing authorities of "fabricated charges.”

Zhang Shaojie was detained with about 20 other members of the Nanle County Christian Church in the central Henan province last November.

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