Italy's health minister is proposing doubling a 'baby bonus' incentive for couples to have more children to combat what she calls a catastrophic decline in the country's birth rate.

As the commander of a Cold War submarine tracking the Soviets, John Jeanette's dresses were stashed away in a locker reserved for top-secret documents.

Soon, this former Norwegian navy captain will be recognized for what she is: a woman born in a man's body.

At the "East is Red" shop in Shanghai, every nook and cranny is packed with memorabilia of China's Cultural Revolution, from small badges of Chairman Mao Zedong to gigantic posters of his iconic image.

Owner Guo Bing himself is a child of the Cultural Revolution, born in 1966, the year the chaotic and violent decade was launched on May 16. His parents named him with the Chinese character for "soldier", a common practice at the time.

A year ago, 28-year-old pianist Aeham al-Ahmad was performing in the ruins of Damascus.

But after Islamic State jihadists torched his beloved piano, he fled to Germany where he now sings to audiences of the troubles in his home country.

You're love-struck and can't wait to have your partner's name or face etched onto your skin for eternity.

Or you've just turned 18, and your first rebellious act upon reaching the age of majority is to have a dragon tattooed on your chest.

The global SlutWalk movement is known for its topless protests demanding respect for women's rights, but a row broke out on Friday in Israel over the right to bare all.

A powerful Egyptian film, shot entirely inside a police van crammed with secular revolutionaries and Muslim Brotherhood supporters as riots rage in Cairo, has brought the country's post-Arab Spring woes to the Cannes film festival.

A painting by Frida Kahlo depicting two nude women sold Thursday in New York for a record $8 million, the highest price yet for any work by the iconic Mexican artist, Christie's said.

The 1939 painting "Two Nudes in the Forest (The Earth Itself)" was estimated to be worth $8 to $12 million. Despite selling at the bottom of that range, it surpassed the previous auction record for Kahlo.

Words most commonly heard on the streets of Hong Kong and Singapore like "yum cha" and "wah" have entered the linguistic mainstream, with the Oxford English Dictionary including them in its latest update.

The terms -- a type of Chinese breakfast and an expression of delight, respectively -- enter along with phrases like "dai pai dong", "ang moh" and "chilli crab" (an open-air food stall, a light-skinned person, and a regional delicacy).

When the critical eye of Mao Zedong's wife fell upon a non-conforming artist during China's Cultural Revolution the assessment could be devastating.

The consequences may be less brutal now, but China's Communist authorities still impose strict controls and censorship.