A 16-year-old girl is thought to have become the first person to speak from the House of Commons despatch box in the British parliament while wearing a hijab, The Times newspaper reported Saturday.

Sumaiya Karim a biology, chemistry, history and maths student, was speaking as the Youth Parliament held its annual session in the lower house's chamber, where Britain's MPs gather.

Italian archaeologists say they have discovered a cemetery that reveals complex funeral rites dating back more than 3,000 years in Pakistan's Swat valley, recently controlled by the Taliban.

The Italian mission began digging in the 1950s at Udegram, a site of Buddhist treasures in Swat, the northwestern district formerly known as the Switzerland of Pakistan for its stunning mountains, valleys and rivers.

At a colorful temple next to the turquoise sea off Ly Son Island, weather-beaten Vietnamese fishermen offer up their prayers to an unusual god -- "Ca Ong" or Mr Whale.

Before setting sail on a month-long voyage, Nguyen Hoang Loi makes a pilgrimage to the ornately decorated Tan Temple, which houses the remains of two sacred giant whales.

Novelist Philip Roth's decision to lay down his pen despite seemingly good health and his formerly unstoppable production at the age of 79, has stunned U.S. literary circles.

The low-key announcement first appeared in the French cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles and was missed by many in the United States, where Roth was one of the country's "literary lions," as The New York Observer said.

An art installation in Buenos Aires called attention Friday to the physical abuse of women, ahead of a date set aside by the United Nations to raise awareness of the problem.

Sunday marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women designated by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1999.

Sudanese-born British Taghreed Elsanhouri, whose documentary about last year's partition of Sudan premiered in her homeland on Thursday night, is making footsteps.

The award-winning film-maker said she wanted Sudanese to have "ownership" of their history -- and by doing so to take responsibility for what happened.

As part of its yearly art exhibitions and fairs’ program, and following a successful launch of the Beirut Photo Fair, Artheum is pleased to introduce the Beirut Furniture Expo, for contemporary and vintage designs.

The Beirut Furniture Expo will take place from December 12-22, from 4 p.m. until 9 p.m. at Artheum venue for arts and entertainment.

Who said porn was a man's thing? A study released on Friday challenges the myth, showing that four fifths of French women have watched a porn movie before -- one in two of them without their partners.

Fully 82 percent of women questioned said they had watched an X-rated film at least once before, compared to 99 percent of men, according to the study of 579 women carried out by the IFOP polling institute in September.

Singaporeans have reacted to a survey depicting them as the world's most emotionless people with many saying the city state's competitive culture leaves them no room for feelings.

"Singaporeans are the least likely in the world to report experiencing emotions of any kind on a daily basis," U.S.-based pollster Gallup said in a report on a three-year study conducted in more than 150 countries.

At a colorful temple next to the turquoise sea off Ly Son Island, weather-beaten Vietnamese fishermen offer up their prayers to an unusual god -- "Ca Ong" or Mr. Whale.

Before setting sail on a month-long voyage, Nguyen Hoang Loi makes a pilgrimage to the ornately decorated Tan Temple, which houses the remains of two sacred giant whales.