DONG HOA, Vietnam (Reuters) – While coronavirus lockdowns caused many men across the world to grow their hair longer than usual, none compare with Vietnam’s Nguyen Van Chien who has gone almost 80 years without a trim. The 92-year-old from the southern Mekong ... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – The gunman who killed 51 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand’s worst mass shooting faces a life prison term, possibly without parole, with multi-day sentencing hearings taking place this week. Brenton Tarrant, an Australian, has pleaded gu... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Raphael probably didn’t like his nose, and replaced it with an idealised version in his famous self-portrait. That is the conclusion of Rome University scientists who produced a 3D computer reconstruction of the Renaissance master’s face from ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The location of TikTok owner ByteDance’s headquarters is a commercial decision for the company to make, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday, responding to a report that the firm could move to London. “It would... More »
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) – Huawei Technologies’ founder Ren Zhengfei’s global ambitions are marked in bricks and mortar at a new company campus in southern China, where the buildings are replicas from European cities. Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance, the ... More »
NEW DELHI/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Reuters) – India’s Supreme Court on Monday upheld the right of a former royal dynasty to run the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple, one of the world’s richest places of worship, after the state government tried to take it over when the f... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A Turkish court on Friday annulled a 1934 government decree that had turned Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia into a museum, opening the way for the sixth-century building to be converted back into a mosque. President Tayyip Erdogan, whose ruling AK... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – UNESCO must be notified of any change in the status of Istanbul’s sixth-century Hagia Sophia museum and the changes may have to be reviewed by its World Heritage committee, the United Nation’s cultural body said on Thursday. Turkey’s top admi... More »
(Reuters) – The Dalai Lama made a bid for music chart stardom on Monday, his 85th birthday, with the release of an album of mantras and teachings. “Inner World” kicks off with the track “One Of My Favourite Prayers” and continues with the exiled Tibetan spirit... More »
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan would welcome a visit by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, its foreign ministry said on Monday, a trip that would infuriate Beijing which views him as a dangerous separatist. The Dalai Lama has not visited the Chinese-cl... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – More than 75 U.S. senators and House members on Thursday urged the Trump administration to take a tougher stance on China over its crackdown in that country’s Xinjiang province and make a formal determination whether its treatment of Mus... More »
KINSHASA (Reuters) – In central Kinshasa, freshly painted murals show traditional idols wearing medical masks or applying hand sanitiser, part of an art initiative to counter public disbelief in the face of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping Democratic Republic... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness to six and a half years in prison after finding him guilty of organising the activities of a banned extremist organisation, his lawyer said. The ruling at the Pskov City Court, handed ... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Genetic sampling of the Dead Sea Scrolls has tested understandings that the 2,000-year-old artefacts were the work of a fringe Jewish sect, and shed light on the drafting of scripture around the time of Christianity’s birth. The research ... More »
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – If you’ve ever dreamed of being in the Sistine Chapel without feeling like you are craning your neck in a packed open-top tourist bus, now is your chance. The Vatican Museums re-opened to the public on Monday after being closed for nea... More »
LAGOS (Reuters) – Two dozen Lagos healthcare workers in scrubs and face masks rushed outside the isolation tents and, making sure to keep six feet apart on the bright green grass, danced and swayed as a saxophone and trumpet struck up the band. Inside the tent... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A grandiose mosaic depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and other high-ranking officials will not be put on display in a new military church after objections from the Kremlin leader, a church official said on Friday. Russia is building... More »
(Reuters) – It is a Ramadan like never before for Muslims across Asia as mosques that would normally be packed for prayers are deserted and in some places locked up as governments enforced measures to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. At Indonesia’s ma... More »
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan Cardinal Baltazar Porras led Easter Mass on Sunday from an empty church, offering a sermon that was broadcast over Instagram to hundreds of people quarantined in their homes because of the coronavirus pandemic. Standing before 51... More »
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Akos Vanek, a former triathlon World Cup winner, works as a paramedic these days in Budapest taking patients ill with COVID-19 to hospital as Hungary fights the coronavirus crisis. Vanek, who won the 2014 Triathlon World Cup, hung up his r... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has ordered more than 10,000 ventilators from a consortium of leading aerospace, engineering and Formula One racing teams which have met an urgent government plea for help with production due to start this week. The group, including ... More »
(Reuters) – A British vicar got more than he expected from his first attempt at an online sermon when he leaned too close to a candle on a cross and his sweater caught fire. Stephen Beach of St Budeaux Parish Church in Plymouth, southwest England, was getting ... More »
DEPOK, Indonesia (Reuters) – While many Muslims in Indonesia’s capital accepted advice to avoid religious gatherings and prayed at home on Friday elsewhere in the world’s most populous Muslim country, people ignored the risk of coronavirus and crowded into the... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has asked 65,000 former nurses and doctors to return to work and will deploy final-year medical students to fight the coronavirus health crisis, the health ministry said. As the coronavirus outbreak sweeps across the world, governmen... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Bavaria’s Passion Play, staged every decade since the 1630s when villagers thanked God for the end of the plague, has been postponed for two years due to the coronavirus, organizers in the German village of Oberammergau said on Thursday. Abo... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden’s government on Monday said it had decided to send troops to Mali to join French-led special forces that are fighting militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State in the Sahel region of North Africa. The Social Democrat and Green... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Muslims gathered in smaller-than-usual numbers at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on Friday after religious authorities decided to keep Islam’s third holiest site open for prayers but enact health measures to prevent the spread of the coronav... More »
SEOUL/GAPYEONG, South Korea (Reuters) – The founder of the church at the center of South Korea’s coronavirus outbreak apologized on Monday after one of its members tested positive for the virus and infected many others, calling the epidemic a “great calamity”.... More »
WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s government appointed a new director of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews on Thursday, as the ruling nationalists face accusations of politicizing museums to reflect their view of history. POLIN, which opened its main ex... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday took up an appeal by President Donald Trump’s administration seeking to enforce new federal rules allowing employers to obtain religious exemptions from an Obamacare requirement that health insurance that... More »
BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday overturned an injunction against Netflix Inc that had prevented the video streaming service from showing a domestically-made controversial Christmas special that depicts Jesus as gay. The Suprem... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. congressional report called for sanctions against China over human rights abuses, and for U.S. officials to keep rights concerns in mind during dealings with Beijing, including trade negotiations. The annual human rights report fr... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday that a U.S. Congressional report that called for sanctions against Beijing over human rights abuses was neither objective nor credible. The United States should reflect upon its human rights situati... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican and Democratic members of the U.S. Congress predicted on Wednesday that the House of Representatives and Senate would agree on a compromise version of legislation requiring a tougher Trump administration response to China’s cr... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday the House would vote on a resolution intended to limit President Donald Trump’s military actions regarding Iran, stating that concerns about the administration’s strate... More »
(Reuters) – Ram Dass, who in the 1960s joined Timothy Leary in promoting psychedelic drugs as the path to inner enlightenment before undergoing a spiritual rebirth he spelled out in the influential book “Be Here Now,” died at home on Sunday. He was 88 years ol... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers who control the fate of President Donald Trump left Washington for a holiday break on Friday with no agreement over how they will handle the Senate trial to consider his impeachment charges in January. Trump, a Republican,... More »
GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) – With a voice known to millions of Indian movie goers, Zubeen Garg crooned one of his old songs with patriotic fervor, but he is protesting against the government, not singing its praises. Like many people from India’s northeastern s... More »
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – They could be called the Vatican’s vampire prints – works by masters such as Henri Matisse, Edvard Munch and Salvador Dali so delicate that they usually lie dormant for years in dark storage in its museums. Now, 150 etchings, woodcuts,... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – More than 100 activists protesting against a new Indian citizenship law were injured in New Delhi on Sunday as they clashed with police who used tear gas and baton charges to disperse demonstrators at a major university. Prime Minister Na... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Pope Francis expressed concern about future energy sources as he comforted victims of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster on Monday, noting a call by Japan’s Catholic bishops to abolish nuclear power outright. Around 18,000 people die... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Few aspects of life escape the touch of high tech in cutting-edge Japan, including an official song written to welcome Pope Francis when he visits Japan from Saturday. Written by Jun Inoue, the song, “Protect all Life – The Signs of the Times... More »
THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Gambia has filed a case at the United Nations’ top court accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority, Gambian Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou said on Monday. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), a... More »
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in central Baghdad on Monday, defying the prime minister’s plea to end protests which he says are costing Iraq’s economy billions of dollars and disrupting daily life. The protests have broke... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday he will never allow electronic cigarette companies to produce their products in Turkey, urging Turks to drink tea instead. Speaking at an event against smoking in Istanbul, Erdogan said he had ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior members of Congress held talks in Jordan on Saturday with King Abdullah II and other top Jordanian officials. Pelosi said in a statement the visit was at “a critical time for the security ... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – French auction house Millon denied accusations by the Mexican government that a sale of dozens of pre-Columbian artifacts was illegal and proceeded with an auction on Wednesday. Mexico’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said that 95 of the 120 pie... More »
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Marc Chagall, the 20th century French-Russian artist who delighted fans with his vividly coloured, whimsical works, did many of his paintings using the same nine pigments – and hardly ever used black, researchers said on Friday. He was al... More »
BERUWALA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Sri Lanka presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been a polarizing figure for much of his political life. It is an image he is trying to change. When he was defense chief in his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government he c... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – Eid Al Salwaawi, 69, paints murals of the rituals of the haj pilgrimage on the walls of a house in Cairo’s Sayeda Zainab neighborhood. Sometimes he volunteers to paint scenes that celebrate the haj and religious stories and lessons, other tim... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The ancient Philistines, the Biblical villains whose origins have puzzled scholars for decades, came to the Middle East from southern Europe more than 3,000 years ago, new DNA testing has shown. The genetic findings came from skeletons un... More »
OFRA, West Bank (Reuters) – An American comic book illustrator once feted for a portfolio including Batman and Wonder Woman covers has found a new calling in the Holy Land – drawing the everyday good and bad guys he sees on all sides. Michael Netzer’s own life... More »
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar’s most prominent group of nationalist Buddhist monks on Monday condemned sedition charges against one of its leading members, Wirathu, ahead of a hearing in the fugitive monk’s case expected on Tuesday. Police issued an arrest warran... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Franco Zeffirelli, who directed the world’s greatest opera singers and brought Shakespeare to the cinema-going masses, has died. He was 96. In a statement, his foundation said he died in Rome on Saturday. “Ciao Maestro,” said the announcement.... More »
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Jailed former Vatican treasurer George Pell will appeal on Wednesday against his convictions for sexually abusing two choir boys in the 1990s and if an Australian court rules in his favor could be released or face a retrial. Pell, 77, the... More »
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – On a studio set in Baghdad, a director watches the star of his TV series hold a knife against the neck of a fellow actor, in a dramatic revival of fortunes for Iraq’s entertainment industry. Filmed in Iraq where the entertainment industry h... More »
GRIMBERGEN, Belgium (Reuters) – Belgian monks at the Grimbergen abbey are on the verge of brewing beer again after a break of more than 200 years. The abbey, whose emblem is a phoenix with the Latin motto “Ardet nec consumitur”, meaning “Burned but not destroy... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka on Monday temporarily blocked some social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, after attacks on mosques and Muslim-owned businesses in the worst unrest since Easter bombings by Islamist militants. Th... More »
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand began the third and final day of coronation ceremonies for King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who will meet foreign diplomats and greet his subjects from atop a balcony, a day after a grand procession through Bangkok. The coronation started... More »
BATTICALOA/COLOMBO (Reuters) – State schools in Sri Lanka resumed classes on Monday amid tight security after the Easter Sunday bombings, but many anxious parents kept their children at home over fears of more attacks by Islamic militants. Two weeks after suic... More »
(Reuters) – A Church of Scientology cruise ship quarantined by the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia for measles is due to arrive on Saturday back at its home port on the island of Curacao, where it will face similar restrictions, a top health official there said.... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Authorities lifted a curfew in Sri Lanka on Monday, a day after a string of bombings at churches and luxury hotels across the Indian Ocean island killed 290 people and wounded about 500, but there were warnings more attacks could come. Ther... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said in a revised travel advisory ‘terrorist groups’ were continuing to plot possible attacks in Sri Lanka after 290 people were killed and about 500 wounded in blasts in churches and luxury hotels on Sunday. “Terrorists m... More »
(Reuters) – Easter Sunday bomb blasts at three churches and four hotels in Sri Lanka killed more than 200 people and wounded at least 450, police officials said, the first major attack on the Indian Ocean island since the end of a civil war 10 years ago. Polit... More »
(Reuters) – Bomb blasts ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing 207 and injuring 450 people, in the first major attack on the Indian Ocean island since the end of a civil war 10 years ago. Here is a timeline of the expl... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – The death toll from attacks on churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka rose significantly to 290, and about 500 people were also wounded, police said on Monday. The death toll overnight had stood at 207. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunaseker... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s top legislature will consider tougher rules on research involving human genes and embryos, the first such move since a Chinese scientist sparked controversy last year by announcing he had made the world’s first “gene-edited” babies.... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Four-hundred-year-old paintings hung high inside Notre-Dame were damaged by the immense fire that engulfed the Paris cathedral, but emergency workers formed a human chain to whisk gem-studded chalices and other priceless artefacts out of harm... More »
NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – India and Pakistan are quarrelling over reports of an alleged kidnapping and religious conversion of two Hindu girls in mostly Muslim Pakistan last week. The spat began on Sunday when India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj tweet... More »
(Reuters) – Brazilian physicist and astronomer Marcelo Gleiser has been awarded the 2019 Templeton Prize, worth $1.4 million, for his work blending science and spirituality. Gleiser, 60, is the first Latin American to win the award which honors “a living perso... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Authorities in China have arrested almost 13,000 “terrorists” in Xinjiang since 2014, the government said on Monday, in a policy paper defending its controversial de-radicalisation measures for Muslims in the restive far western region. Chi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Sunday championed a Fox News personality who made anti-Muslim remarks as his White House rejected any attempt to link the U.S. leader to a shooter who killed 50 people in two New Zealand mosques. The violence ag... More »
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sharply criticised U.S. military intervention in the Middle East on Monday as he began a first official visit to Iraq, aimed at shoring up Tehran’s influence and expanding trade ties. The visit also sends a ... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India will hold a general election in seven stages starting on April 11, the election commission said on Sunday, in what will be the world’s biggest democratic exercise with Prime Minister Narendra Modi likely to benefit from tensions wit... More »
ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, facing mass protests over his 20 years in power, will run in April’s elections, his campaign manager said on Sunday, with Ennahar TV saying he had offered to step down after a year if re-elected. The... More »
ALGIERS (Reuters) – Hundreds of Algerians gathered in the capital and other cities late on Sunday to protest against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s plan to seek re-election, according to residents and footage posted online. Hundreds of youths gathered in the... More »
YANGON (Reuters) – A Myanmar policeman who told a court last year how officers planted secret documents on two Reuters reporters in order to “entrap” them was released from prison on Friday, after being sentenced to a year in jail for violating police discipli... More »
YANGON (Reuters) – Myanmar’s government under Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has used repressive laws to prosecute peaceful critics, dashing hopes that its first democratic leader in decades would safeguard free speech, Human Rights Watch said on Friday. Free... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An Indian court on Friday sentenced seven Muslim men to life in prison for the murder of two Hindu men in 2013 in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, an incident that had sparked religious riots killing about 65 people and displacing tho... More »
PARIS/LONDON (Reuters) – Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi said she first had doubts about the 1979 Islamic Revolution when members of the Shah’s regime were executed on the rooftop of a school housing its leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. She ha... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Islamic State is far from defeated, and instead is morphing into an asymmetrical warfare force after the militant group lost almost all of the territory it once controlled in Syria, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday. Merkel’s re... More »
MOSUL, Iraq(Reuters) – A raven perched on the shoulder of a woman with flaming hair is Iraqi artist Marwan Fathi’s symbol for the terrible events he and his home city Mosul have had to endure. Three years under the oppressive and violent rule of Islamic State ... More »
MANILA (Reuters) – Philippines security forces investigating a deadly twin bombing at a church on a predominantly Muslim southern island are zeroing in on what they say is an affiliate of the militant Abu Sayyaf Group. Twenty people were killed and more than 1... More »
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Roseanne Barr, the American comedian whose television show was canceled last year after she made a racist remark on Twitter, visited Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday as part of a tour of Israel. Barr arrived in Israel last week with celebri... More »
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican’s Swiss Guard, the colorfully dressed mini-army that helps protect the pope, will have cooler heads now they have swapped their ancient metal helmets for ones made by 3-D printers. The new helmets, made of a thermoplastic, ... More »
HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) – An Israeli museum plans to withdraw a sculpture depicting the McDonald’s mascot as the crucified Jesus following protests which briefly united the country’s Christian minority, its populist culture minister and the pro-Palestinian art... More »
MADRID (Reuters) – Dogs, cats and birds were blessed at a church in Madrid on Thursday on the feast day of St. Anthony, the patron saint of animals, with many of the owners making an annual pilgrimage for their pets. St Anthony the Abbot’s church priest Angel ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Final Season is coming – and it’s all about Jon Snow, and (just for a change) it portends death. Or at least that’s the impression U.S. satellite network HBO chooses to give in the teaser for Game of Thrones that it unveiled on primetime TV ... More »
MANILA (Reuters) – Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos joined an annual procession in the Philippine capital to kiss or touch a centuries-old black wooden statue of Jesus Christ, believed to have miraculous healing powers, in a grand display of Catholic devotio... More »
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Authorities in Sudan have arrested at least nine opposition leaders and activists, a group of civil society groups said on Friday, ahead of fresh anti-government protests expected after weekly Muslim prayers. The head of the media office a... More »
KABUL/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – As moves toward peace pick up in Afghanistan, the Taliban are trying to show they have changed since the brutal days of the 1990s when they banned music and girls’ education and carried out public executions in Kabul’s foot... More »
DHAKA/NOAKHALI, Bangladesh (Reuters) – Bangladesh has a general election this weekend, but opposition candidate Abdul Moyeen Khan says he has yet to hold a single public meeting in his constituency about 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Dhaka, the capital. Thousa... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Sister Wendy Beckett, a nun and art historian who became an unlikely television star in Britain in the 1990s, died at the age of 88 on Wednesday, the Carmelite monastery at Quidenham in Norfolk said on Wednesday. “I can confirm that Sr Wendy... More »
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis has given the homeless a Christmas gift of a new clinic in St. Peter’s Square where they can get free medical help, the Vatican said on Saturday, announcing his latest move to help Rome’s destitute. The Rome Catholic chari... More »
PODGORICA, Montenegro (Reuters) – In a nostalgic homage to a now-defunct nation, a bronze statue of former Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito was unveiled on Wednesday in Montenegro’s capital Podgorica. Tito, who led former communist Yugoslavia from the end of Wo... More »
(This December 17 story corrects spelling of surname “Kamara” in eighth paragraph.) By Hereward Holland NAIROBI (Reuters) – Why don’t chickens fly? When did the moon learn to be kind? Those and other mysteries were unraveled by dozens of African storytellers i... More »
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The traditional nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square won’t be so traditional this year. For the first time, it is made of sand – 720 tons of it. For the past two weeks, Rich Varano, a professional sand artist, has been guiding three sc... More »
MIT NAMA (Reuters) – When Houaida Mabrouk heard about a government campaign that offers free hepatitis C screenings, she hesitated, afraid of testing positive. But after many from her community started visiting health clinics to get checked, she changed her mi... More »
YATED, Israel (Reuters) – The clang of hammer on metal and the roar of a blowtorch can be heard long before you walk into Israeli metal sculptor Yaron Bob’s workshop. Featured prominently in his workshop is a quotation from the Book of Isaiah: “And they shall ... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – As a child, Riham would wake up at night to her half-brother molesting her. Now she is one of seven women recounting their suffering in a play about sexual violence in Lebanon. Recordings of the women’s voices ring out as the audience moves ... More »
