With a deft clip here and a gentle tug there, Makoto Ishibashi sculpts trees with the skill of an artisan whose work is far more than just a job.

The heir to a centuries-old family business, he creates masterpieces that can turn a pine tree into a work of art that could fetch $40,000.

The world's tiny but hugely successful Zoroastrian community will confront a demographic crisis which threatens its very existence when it gathers en masse in its spiritual home of Mumbai this week.

The four-day World Zoroastrian Congress, beginning Friday, brings together followers of one of the world's oldest religions, many of whom are descended from Persians who fled to India to escape persecution more than 1,000 years ago.

French authorities have given permission for a new Russian Orthodox church to be built near the Eiffel Tower, a project that has been blocked since 2010, the Russian embassy said Wednesday.

The plan for the church dates back to 2007 when Alexy II, the now deceased patriarch of Moscow, visited France and said the Russian Orthodox church wanted a bigger edifice in Paris.

Published 40 years ago in Paris, Russian dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn's masterpiece, "The Gulag Archipelago", revealed the shocking truth about Soviet terror and changed the way the USSR was viewed in the West.

When Solzhenitsyn's mammoth tome hit bookshops on December 28, 1973 the shock was enormous as it brought to light the horrific scale of the repression under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

Centuries ago Kwanggaet'o the Great ruled over a mighty empire stretching from south of Seoul deep into Manchuria in China's northeast, but his Koguryo dynasty is now at the center of a historical tug-of-war.

He is revered as a Korean national hero on both sides of the divided peninsula, while Chinese attempts to claim Koguryo as its own have provoked fury among its neighbors.

Experts who are painstakingly rebuilding the Bam citadel after an earthquake destroyed it a decade ago say Iran's architectural masterpiece will never return to its past glory but are hopeful they will restore some of it.

A thousand kilometers (600 miles) southeast of Tehran, the pre-Islamic desert citadel was the largest adobe monument in the world made of non-baked clay bricks.

Pope Francis on Tuesday prepared to celebrate his first Christmas as pontiff with a mass in St Peter's Basilica as a giant traditional Nativity scene named in his honor was unveiled on St Peter's Square.

The Nativity scene made by Naples artisan Antonio Cantone this year is entitled "Francis 1223 -- Francis 2013" -- a reference to St Francis of Assisi, who inspired the pope's choice of name when he was elected.

As winter approaches, the Samis of northern Sweden move thousands of reindeer down from the snow-covered mountains for lowland grazing. They have done so for centuries, but they wonder how much longer they can continue.

The mining industry is one of several modern threats to the unique way of life of the Samis, the only indigenous people in the EU, and one small, tightly-knit community has decided to fight back.

British retailer Marks & Spencer faced criticism on Monday after it emerged that it allows Muslim staff to refuse to sell customers pork and alcohol.

More than 8,000 people have signed up to a Facebook page calling for a boycott of the chain after an "extremely apologetic" Muslim checkout worker told a customer they would have to wait for another employee to sell them a bottle of champagne.

After a decade of unrest, Bethlehem has seen a surge in visits to Christ's traditional birthplace, raising hopes of a tourism bonanza in the West Bank town despite Israel's separation barrier.

The Palestinian territories' top tourist destination is a victim of the barrier which cuts off the town from nearby Jerusalem, just 10 kilometers (six miles) away.