The U.S.-led coalition carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State group must try to protect archaeological sites being destroyed by the jihadists, Iraq's tourism and antiquities minister said Sunday.

IS smashed priceless artefacts at the Mosul museum, then bulldozed the city of Nimrud, which was founded in the 13th century BC.

From drag queens to scantily-clad dancers, thousands of people paraded through Sydney on Saturday for the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras which this year highlighted homophobia in sport.

Spectators thronged Darlinghurst's Oxford Street for the colorful parade which featured some 150 floats ranging from 'dykes on bikes' motorcyclists to those calling for same-sex marriage.

It begins with moans, then screams and feverish dancing followed by mad dashes through a densely packed crowd.

Thousands of Buddhist devotees gathered Saturday at Thailand's Wat Bang Phra temple for an annual festival celebrating traditional Sak Yant tattoos, which wearers believe will bring them good luck and protection from harm.

Qatari women are increasingly defying social constraints and joining the workforce in the booming energy-rich country, which offers support for new enterprises and encourages start-ups by university graduates.

They benefit from a national "Qatarisation" program, which aims to increase the number of working citizens by guaranteeing them jobs and high wages in industry and government departments.

Tracing the footsteps of civil rights leaders who made his journey to the White House possible, President Barack Obama will on Saturday visit Selma, Alabama to enlist a new generation in their fight.

America's first black president will mark the 50th anniversary of the fateful march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where brutal state suppression only catalyzed support for black voting rights.

Archaeologists have uncovered a stone tool at an ancient rock shelter in the high desert of eastern Oregon that could turn out to be older than any known site of human occupation in western North America.

The find was announced Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which controls the land on which the site was found.

Condemnation poured in Friday of the Islamic State group's bulldozing of the ancient city of Nimrud, the jihadists' latest attack on Iraqi cultural treasures that the U.N. termed a "war crime".

After rampaging through Mosul's museum with sledgehammers and torching its library last month, IS "bulldozed" the nearby ruins of Nimrud Thursday, the tourism and antiquities ministry said.

Millions across India welcomed spring with their annual "festival of colors" on Friday, celebrating by covering each other in water and dazzling paint.

The ancient Hindu festival of Holi, which heralds the end of winter and the victory of good over evil, is marked with a national public holiday and sees revelers pour onto the streets.

Austria could find itself Friday facing the loss of one of its most treasured artworks with an expert body due to make a recommendation on whether to return it to the descendants of its Jewish former owners.

If Austria's Art Restitution Advisory Board decides Gustav Klimt's monumental "Beethoven Frieze" should be given back, it would mark one of the most spectacular art restitution cases for works looted by the Nazis.

The Islamic State group began bulldozing the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in Iraq on Thursday, the government said, in the jihadists' latest attack on the country's historical heritage.

IS "assaulted the historic city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy vehicles," the tourism and antiquities ministry said on an official Facebook page.