The secular Bangladeshi publisher who survived a horrific weekend attack at the hands of suspected Islamist extremists has vowed to continue his work, and says the country needs to do more to promote free speech.

Ahmedur Rashid Tutul was chatting with two writers in the office of his publishing firm in Dhaka on Saturday, when a group of young men wielding machetes and meat cleavers stormed the building.

A female judge wearing an Islamic headscarf has conducted a trial in Turkey for the first time in the history of the Muslim but secular state, media reports said Wednesday.

A picture of a young, black-robed judge wearing a dark-coloured headscarf in an Istanbul courtroom has been widely shared on social media, with some Twitter users denouncing it as "the declaration of Islamic sharia law".

Michelle Obama called for an end to "outdated laws and traditions" preventing millions of girls around the world from completing their education, in an impassioned speech Wednesday in Qatar.

The U.S. first lady, on a seven-day tour of the Middle East, told an education conference in Doha that an "honest conversation" was needed across the globe about how women were treated and how this prevented millions of girls from finishing school.

The proportion of Americans who say they are "absolutely certain" God exists has dropped sharply from 71 percent to less than two thirds, the Pew Research Center said Tuesday.

The share of U.S. adults who say they believe in God declined from 92 to 89 percent over the same period, from 2007 to 2014, but is still remarkably high compared to other developed countries.

Iranian police have swooped in to shutter a fried chicken shop using the brand name of U.S. fast food giant KFC, local media said Tuesday.

"Police closed the 'KFC' restaurant as it didn't have authorization and had been operating under a false license," reported the news site of Iran's Young Journalist Club, which is affiliated with state television. 

Nepal's first international photo festival opened on Tuesday on the streets of the quake-devastated Kathmandu Valley, with exhibits set up alongside damaged and spectacular temples and palaces.

The Photo Kathmandu festival takes visitors on a tour of the historic city of Patan, past intricately-carved statues and ancient water spouts, and chronicles Nepal's chaotic transformation from a Hindu monarchy to a secular republic.

South Korea on Tuesday pushed ahead with a highly controversial plan to introduce government-issued history textbooks in schools, despite angry protests by opposition parties and academics.

The policy has become a bitter ideological battleground between left and right in South Korea, with critics accusing President Park Geun-Hye's administration of seeking to deliberately manipulate and distort the narrative of how the South Korean state was created.

Its elaborate Baroque facade now sparkles in the sun, scaffold-free: Rome's Trevi Fountain will gush its emerald waters once again Tuesday after a clean-up funded by Italian fashion house Fendi.

Crowds of frustrated tourists have spent months peeking at bits of the monument from a special walkway put in over the fountain while repairs were carried out to the tune of over 2.0 million euros ($2.2 million).

As children elsewhere celebrate Halloween in fancy costume dress, for the Misak people of southeastern Colombia the coming of November is a solemn occasion to honor the dead.

Of the scores of indigenous groups in Colombia, the Misak are considered to have best conserved their ancestral traditions, which at the coming of winter means making offerings to their ancestors.

Writer Mathias Enard won France's top literary prize Tuesday in a race dominated by books about West's love-hate relationship with Islam and the Arab world.

A scholar of both Arabic and Persian, Barcelona-based Enard, 43, wove a poetic eulogy to the long history of cultural exchanges between East and West in "Boussole" ("Compass"), and had been the critics' favorite for the award.