Italy's highest court has allowed a lesbian to adopt the daughter of her partner in a landmark ruling a month after a law on gay civil unions was passed without any such provisions.

Before dawn in Istanbul, in the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. A turbaned Turkish cleric kneels on a prayer carpet and prepares to recite verses from the Koran.

Pushing his cart through the teeming Egyptian capital, 71-year-old Cairo street sweeper Abdallah Mohamed says nothing can stop him from fasting during Ramadan.

Israel's military said Wednesday it was looking into why soldiers at an air force base were ordered to line up in a formation spelling out the word Google for a visit by the company's top gun.

Russia's security service said Tuesday it had raided over a dozen locations linked to the Church of Scientology in the latest step of a long-running battle between authorities and the U.S.-based organization.

Giorgio Armani has urged Britain to stay in the European Union, warning that the bloc would be worse off without England's influence on fashion and design.

Crowds flocked to China's most notorious dog meat festival to buy butchered canines as it opened Tuesday, activists on the scene said, as the annual slaughter proceeded despite international outrage.

Michel Ayoub's holy racket begins each day at 2:00 am, when he steps into the cobbled streets of Acre's old city with tambourine in hand, awakening Muslims for Ramadan.

His role as the city's "mesaharati" is a traditional one during the sacred fasting month, but Ayoub is by no means a traditional holder of the position: He is Christian.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shared a Ramadan dinner with Turkey's best-known transgender celebrity hours after riot police broke up an LGBT rally in Istanbul, pictures distributed by his office on Monday showed.

Within the framework of the partnership between the Tourism Office of Lebanon in Paris and the Arab World Institute, Lebanese Minister of Tourism, Michel Pharaon hosted Mr. Jack Lang, President of the Arab World Institute (Institut du Monde Arabe) and Founder of “La Fête de Musique” (35th edition in France), in Lebanon from June 18 to 20, 2016, to promote arts and culture across Lebanon, meet Lebanese artists and creators and visit different museums and art galleries. The official agenda included the inauguration of the sculpture Museum of Assaf Assaf in Ain Zhalta, followed by a luncheon at Pharaon’s house in Ain Zhalta in the presence of president of the Socialist Party, MP Walid Junblat and French Ambassador to Lebanon, Emanuel Bonn.

The date of this three-day visit was chosen in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Embassy of France in Lebanon to coincide with the “Fete de la Musique” in Beirut. The official delegation took part in a tour of various Lebanese art and culture sites, such as the Sursock Museum, Beit Beirut cultural house, the Aishti Foundation, as well as various Fete de La Musique performances. The purpose of this visit is to underline the position of Lebanon as a cultural beacon of the Arab World, due to its prominence in the cultural realm.