Vandals have attacked portraits of Holocaust victims in the streets of central Vienna, President Alexander Van der Bellen said Monday, adding that he was "deeply worried" over the assaults.

The minaret of Jam, a revered Afghan historical treasure, has been saved from imminent danger after hundreds of workers diverted surging floodwaters that were gnawing at the 12th-century tower, officials said Monday.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said Sunday that Germany's warning to Jews on the dangers of wearing the traditional kippah cap were a "capitulation to anti-Semitism" and evidence Jews were unsafe there.

Germany's government commissioner on anti-Semitism has warned Jews about the potential dangers of wearing the traditional kippah cap in the face of rising anti-Jewish attacks. 

"I cannot advise Jews to wear the Kippah everywhere all the time in Germany," Felix Klein said in an interview published Saturday by the Funke regional press group.

An almost unwatchable "lech fest" of a film by one of France's top directors that includes some two and a half hours of twerking and pole dancing was savaged at the Cannes film festival Friday.

A film starring a former under-age escort at the heart of a scandal that shook the French football team won one of the top prizes at the Cannes film festival Thursday.

The mysterious British artist Banksy has apparently left his mark on a crumbling wall in Venice, and even claimed to have set up an unlicensed art stall in Italy's famous "floating city."

Malaysian officials are disguising themselves as cooks and waiters to catch Muslims who don't fast during Ramadan, with a rights group Thursday blasting the "disgraceful act of spying".

Nevada and Vermont are poised to enact laws that protect access to abortion, at a time when conservative US states have adopted highly restrictive measures.

The business executive who became the first black African woman to climb Mount Everest said Wednesday that knowing her climb would be in the record books helped her push on to the top.