More than 60 percent of Slovenians voted against legalizing gay marriage in a referendum Sunday marked by low turnout, according to near-complete results from the electoral commission.

Just 35.65 percent of registered voters turned out to have their say on whether the country should approve legislation -- already passed in parliament -- that would have given gay couples the right to marry and adopt.

The homework assignment at a U.S. high school asked students to reproduce a sample of classical Arabic handwriting, to help broaden their appreciation of its "artistry."

Instead, it sparked an uproar -- and even threats of violence -- that led officials on Friday to temporarily shut down the entire school district.

Parliamentarians from India's right-wing government on Friday blocked a private member's bill to decriminalize gay sex, in a setback for sexual freedom in the world's biggest democracy.

Shashi Tharoor, a lawmaker from the opposition Congress party, sought to table a bill to amend section 377 of the Indian penal code, which bans homosexual acts as "carnal intercourse against the order of nature". 

Pope Francis has recognized a second miracle attributed to the late Mother Teresa, clearing the path for the nun to be elevated to sainthood next year, the Vatican said Friday. 

Mother Teresa, celebrated for her work with the poor in the Indian city of Kolkata, is expected to be canonized as part of the pope's Jubilee year of mercy.

In a tiny flat in a rundown alley in New Delhi, Rakesh Kumar Misra is working against the odds to bring India's ancient Sanskrit language to the country's millions.

The 4,000-year-old classical language was traditionally used by Brahmin intellectuals and Hindu priests. Rarely spoken as a mother tongue in India, Sanskrit is often dismissed as a dead language.

A Brazilian lawmaker who said Amazon tribal peoples should be left to starve to death and are "a bunch of little gays" has been named Racist of the Year by an NGO.

The man who made these remarks in July is Fernando Furtado, a lawmaker in Maranhao state, said Survival International, which works to protect indigenous groups.

Licio Gelli, a masonic grand master implicated in some of the darkest chapters of Italy's post-war history and one of the worst scandals to rock the Vatican, has died at the age of 96.

Gelli, a fascist sympathizer who was the founder and leader of of the notorious P2 masonic lodge, passed away on Tuesday evening at his villa in Arezzo, Tuscany, his family said, according to local media.

Human rights groups called on Tunisia Wednesday to repeal a law criminalizing homosexuality after six students, who had been forced to undergo anal examinations, were jailed in the North African country.

The 13 NGOs demanded in a joint statement that the authorities "abrogate Article 230 and revise all draconian provisions of the Tunisian Penal Code" stating that homosexuality is illegal.

Japan's top court on Wednesday upheld a law that requires married couples to have a common surname, sparking criticism from activists who complain the rule is sexist and outdated.

In a separate but also highly anticipated decision, the Supreme Court said a six-month waiting period for women remarrying after divorce was excessive and should be reduced.

The wife of jailed Saudi blogger Raif Badawi on Wednesday accepted the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize on his behalf, urging Arab countries to reject theocratic diktats and tolerate differing views.

Ensaf Haidar told the packed assembly that her husband, sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for insulting Islam, believed "freedom of expression is like the air that we breathe."