A South Korean court has ruled the killing of dogs for meat is illegal, in a landmark decision that animal rights activists said Thursday could pave the way to outlawing  eating canines.

The public relations blitz that has seen Saudi Arabia garner headlines this year culminates Sunday, when women take the wheel for the first time. But a draconian guardianship system remains.

G7 Ambassadors said Thursday they were deeply concerned about Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who has been on hunger strike for more than a month as he serves a 20-year term in a Russian prison camp.

British pub chain JD Wetherspoon will stop serving French Champagne in favor of sparkling wine made in Britain and outside the EU in the run-up to Brexit, it said Wednesday.

Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev hailed a "historic solution" on Tuesday after Skopje and Athens resolved a longstanding row by agreeing to rename his country the Republic of North Macedonia.

An 18th-century Chinese vase forgotten for decades in a shoe box in a French attic sold for 16.2 million euros ($19 million) at Sotheby's in Paris on Tuesday -- more than 30 times the estimate.

Even a year ago, it would have been hard to imagine -- Saudi women clad in skinny jeans and Harley-Davidson T-shirts, revving motorbikes at a Riyadh sports circuit.

A 13-ton statue of late pope Jean-Paul II was moved Monday to "private land" in northwestern France following a court ruling it had to be taken down due to strict secularism laws separating church and state.

Right-wing French leaders have condemned as "sacrilege" a decision to allow a provocative Muslim rapper to play the Bataclan concert hall in Paris where jihadists massacred 90 people three years ago.

Medine -- who caused an outcry when he attacked hardline secularists in a controversial 2015 song, "Don't Laik", a week before the Charlie Hebdo killings -- is to play the Bataclan for two nights in October.

Pope Francis accepted Monday the resignation of three Chilean bishops including the controversial Juan Barros following a child sex abuse scandal in Chile which has come to haunt his papacy.

The entire Chilean delegation of bishops tendered its resignation to the pope last month after a series of meetings at the Vatican.