Seventy years ago, some 4,500 Jews gathered aboard a rickety old steamer in the French Mediterranean port of Sete, destined for a journey that would help spur the creation of an independent Jewish state.

Fears about the health of China's cancer-stricken Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo rose on Thursday as the hospital treating him said the liver function of the country's most prominent democracy advocate had deteriorated.

The United Nations' cultural arm will decide whether to declare the Old City of Hebron a protected zone this week, the latest Israeli-Palestinian spat at the international body.

Chinese cinema-goers now have to sit through a short clip promoting "core socialist values" and President Xi Jinping's "Chinese dream" political credo before the show starts -- and some aren't happy about it.

Hundreds of thousands of revelers young and old danced, cheered and partied on the rainbow streets of Madrid Saturday in the world's biggest march for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights.

Long lines snaked out of marijuana dispensaries in Nevada on Saturday, as the western U.S. state became the latest to legalize recreational pot.

Nevada joins Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska as states where recreational marijuana sales are permitted. While pot is legal in several other states, it is governed by complicated local laws and still illegal according to federal law.

Turkish authorities on Saturday banned transsexual rights activists from holding a planned march in Istanbul, the country's largest city, this weekend, a week after police used rubber bullets to thwart a Gay Pride parade. 

Germany legalized same-sex marriage Friday despite the personal objections of Chancellor Angela Merkel, as the nation joined many other western democracies in granting gay and lesbian couples full rights including adoption. 

Germany's parliament is set to vote on a bill to legalize same-sex marriage Friday after the lower house legislative committee put it on the agenda, its chairwoman said.

"The path to equality is open," said the chairwoman, Renate Kuenast of the left-leaning ecologist Greens opposition party, in a tweet on Wednesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday softened for the first time her opposition to gay marriage, as her conservative party comes under growing pressure on the issue ahead of elections in September.