From billboards across Nazareth shines the discreet smile of Hanin Zuabi, a controversial Arab woman MP who is hoping voters will chose her as mayor of Israel's largest Arab city.

This 44-year-old former maths teacher, her black hair cut into a sleek bob, is the only woman running for leadership of the sprawling northern city revered by Christians as Jesus' childhood home.

A Romanian man who has admitted stealing masterpieces by Gauguin, Monet and Picasso, wants to pin the blame on the Dutch museum for failing to protect the works, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Radu Dogaru is among six Romanians on trial for the spectacular three-minute heist from the Kunthal museum in Rotterdam in October 2012 which stunned the art world.

The already remarkable life of Holocaust survivor George Horner is about to take another exceptional turn.

The 90-year-old pianist will make his orchestral debut with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma on Tuesday night at Boston's Symphony Hall. And they'll be playing music composed 70 years ago at the Nazi prison camp where Horner was incarcerated.

The Sultan of Brunei on Tuesday announced the phased introduction of tough Islamic punishments including death by stoning for crimes such as adultery, in the monarchy's latest step towards conservatism.

Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah -- one of the world's wealthiest men -- said in a speech that a new Sharia Penal Code which has been in the works for years had been gazetted Tuesday and would "come into force six months hereafter and in phases."

Iran's Culture Minister Ali Janati said Monday his department will review a ban imposed on certain books which censors have barred from publication, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"Those books subjected to censorship or denied permission to be published in the past will be reviewed again and new decisions will be made," IRNA quoted Janati as saying.

New Jersey's first-ever same-sex marriages were celebrated Monday with cheers and laughter as a flurry of excited, beaming couples married minutes after midnight.

Republican Governor Chris Christie, who had appealed against the judicial decision to allow the weddings, later that morning dropped his fight to get it overturned.

Pope Francis has met with a German bishop whose 31 million-euro ($42 million) building renovation has scandalized Germany.

The Vatican gave no details about Monday's meeting with Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, bishop of Limburg.

We all know to back up our files and photos, but what about our castles and churches?

A nonprofit named CyArk has created digital copies of more than 100 of the world's best-known monuments, mapping Roman ruins, ancient statues, and even an entire island. Now it plans 400 more, with the goal of preserving the world's most important sites against war, wear, and the impact of climate change.

An online Islamic sex shop selling condoms, massage oils and perfumes has been launched in Turkey, becoming the first of its kind in the predominantly Muslim country.

The "Halal Sex Shop" website presents its products as being "entirely safe," and in compliance with Islamic norms.

Americans are growing more comfortable with online dating, and many are finding a spouse or partner in cyberspace, a survey showed Monday.

The Pew Research Center found 11 percent of Internet users -- or some nine percent of all American adults -- said they have personally used an online dating site.