French President Francois Hollande on Thursday hit out at "homophobic" acts by opponents of a same-sex marriage bill following violent protests that included an attack on a gay bar.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls asked protest organizers to throw out members of far-right organisations who have been involved in the violence, as opposition intensifies ahead of the bill's expected final approval.

Spain's center-right government, under pressure from the Catholic Church and its ultraconservative wing, has vowed to "promptly" tighten the nation's abortion laws, angering the opposition Socialist Party which had eased access to the procedure.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy promised during the 2011 election campaign that swept his Popular Party to power to reform the abortion law but the changes to the legislation have been repeatedly put off, prompting a rebuke from the Spanish Church.

Mexican architect Pedro Ramirez Vazquez has died at the age of 94.

Ramirez Vazquez designed some of Mexico's biggest landmark modernist structures, including the new Basilica of Guadalupe, the Anthropology Museum and the Azteca Stadium, all in Mexico City.

The halls of Parliament echoed with a traditional Maori love song after lawmakers made New Zealand the 13th country in the world and the first in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage.

Supporters of the bill, including hundreds of gay-rights advocates, stood and cheered after the 77-44 vote was announced late Wednesday. Then as lawmakers tried to get back to business, someone started signing "Pokarekare Ana" in the indigenous Maori language, and soon nearly the whole room joined in.

A 16th century religious tapestry stolen from a Spanish cathedral in 1979 and sold at auction three years ago for $369,000 was returned to Spain on Wednesday by the US customs service.

In a statement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said special agents from its Homeland Security Investigations unit seized the artifact last November from the unidentified Texas business that had bought it.

A letter written in prison by Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish army captain whose dismissal more than a century ago on trumped-up charges of spying triggered a protracted national crisis in France, is to be sold at auction in Paris.

Written to the interior ministry in 1895, a month after he was sentenced for treason, the letter will be sold by Sotheby's in Paris on May 29 and is expected to fetch between 100,000 and 150,000 euros ($130,000 and $190,000), the auction house said in a statement.

The Gambia introduced a raft of new laws on Tuesday criminalizing male prostitution, cross-dressing and the singing of abusive songs in public.

The move reflects the "current socio-political realities" in the impoverished west African nation, Justice Minister Lamin Jobarteh told parliament, before lawmakers signed off on amendments to the criminal code act which also outlaw being irritating in public and "refusing to maintain" oneself.

New Zealand's gay community was gearing up Wednesday to celebrate the legalisation of same-sex marriage, which would make the country the first in the Asia-Pacific region to approve the measure.

Parliament will vote late Wednesday on a bill to amend the 1955 Marriage Act to describe marriage as a union of two people regardless of their sex, sexuality or how they choose to identify their gender.

A new survey from Somalia says the practice of female genital mutilation is on the decline.

The survey released Tuesday by UNICEF and the governments of Somaliland and Puntland found that 25 percent of girls ages 1 to 14 have undergone the practice, compared to 99 percent of women.

His graffiti once plastered Hong Kong, dense black ink calligraphy applied with a brush to any public surface, telling the outlandish story of why he believed the territory belonged to him.

The self-declared "King of Kowloon", Tsang Tsou-choi, lived in poverty but became a local hero and internationally renowned artist, creating around 55,000 outdoor works over five decades on everything from post boxes to flyovers.