In a small beige building in a leafy Stockholm suburb, Maria Sjodin bustles around her design studio putting the finishing touches on her sleek fashions for an unexpected clientele: female clergy.

One of the pioneers in the industry, Sjodin creates sophisticated, tailored garments for women pastors and ministers that feature a discreet flair: form-fitting black tops and dresses with three-quarter or trumpet sleeves, or a pronounced architectural cuff. 

A video of a Saudi religious policeman shouting at a veiled woman and barring her from entering a shop for not wearing gloves has gone viral on the Internet.

The religious police, known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, is notorious for imposing Saudi Arabia's strict version of Islam.

Australia is world-renowned for its love of beer. But its passion for a different type of brew -- coffee -- is what has been making global headlines recently.

Sasa Sestic, from the capital Canberra, is the second coffee maker from Down Under to win the World Barista Championship in the competition's 15th year which drew national champions from some 50 countries.

Leading Sunni Muslim body al-Azhar said Sunday the world must unite in a "battle of all humanity" to prevent the Islamic State group from destroying Syria's ancient city of Palmyra.

The appeal came a day after Syria's antiquities director said that IS fighters had entered the museum in Palmyra and raised their black flag over the ancient citadel that overlooks the archaeological site.

Bullets whistled overhead, a black Islamic State flag flapping in the distance, but all Friar Najeeb Michaeel could think of as he fled the jihadists was how to save hundreds of ancient Iraqi manuscripts in his possession.

"You are going to get us killed with your archives," Michaeel's assistant Watheq Qassab grumbled as he struggled to carry six boxes of the documents dated between the 13th and 19th century across the border from Iraq into Kurdistan in August last year.

A painting by Max Liebermann from a Nazi-era art trove found in Germany last year will go on sale in London next month, the first from the collection to be sold off, Sotheby's said on Friday.

One of the rightful heirs -- to whom the painting was returned -- last remembered seeing it the day his great-uncle signed over his estate to the Nazis at a villa in what is now Poland.

Ireland waited Saturday to learn the outcome of a historic referendum on same-sex marriage, with crowds of anxiously optimistic "Yes" supporters expected at Dublin Castle to hear the result.

Counting was due to begin at 9:00 am (0800 GMT) in 43 constituencies across the country, with the smallest among them expected to start producing results from midday. The nationwide result is expected in the afternoon.

Tens of thousands of Catholics gathered in the Kenyan town of Nyeri on Saturday for the beatification ceremony of an Italian nun, a key step towards sainthood.

Irene Stefani was an Italian member of the Consolata Missionary Sisters who helped the wounded in Kenya and Tanzania during World War I before shed died of the plague in 1930.

The Dutch cabinet on Friday approved a partial ban on wearing the face-covering Islamic veil, including in schools, hospitals and on public transport.

"Face-covering clothing will in future not be accepted in education and healthcare institutions, government buildings and on public transport," the government said in a statement after the cabinet backed Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk's bill.

Camille Pissarro's famous "Boulevard Montmartre at Night" shows a brightly illuminated avenue in Paris — the city lights turned into gentle dabs of oil paint. Next to the French impressionist's 1897 work is a painting by German expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner from 1912 depicting a Berlin street scene in flashy yellow, blue and black — the broad brush stokes clearly visible.

Both masterpieces are featured in "Impressionism - Expressionism: Art at a Turning Point," a Berlin exhibition which opens Friday at the city's Alte Nationalgalerie museum.