A Tunisian court has sentenced a student to a year behind bars on charges of homosexuality, in a judgment condemned by local rights groups, his lawyer said Thursday. 

The youth had been detained on September 6 in the Mediterranean resort area of Sousse for questioning in connection with a murder after his telephone number was found on the victim, lawyer Fadoua Braham said.

Heavy regime bombardment has damaged parts of the ancient citadel in Syria's world heritage site of Palmyra, an archaeological expert and an activist said on Thursday.

At least 13 barrel bombs have exploded on the citadel and its surroundings since Monday, according to Cheikhmous Ali of the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archeology, which monitors damage to the country's heritage sites.

The Franciscan friar who brought Christianity to California in the 18th century was canonized by Pope Francis on Wednesday, to the anger of Native Americans who see his legacy as murderous.

Junipero Serra founded the first nine of what would become 21 Spanish missions stretching from San Diego to San Francisco, giving the Roman Catholic Church a firm foothold in what was then called New Spain.

Ali Salem, a famed Egyptian satirical writer whose works include one of the Arab world's most popular comedic plays, died Tuesday in his home in Cairo of natural causes, Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency said. He was 79.

Salem's writings include 15 books and 25 plays. His most famous work was "School of the Troublemakers," a 1971 comedic play about a class of riotous teenagers reformed by a female teacher.

The music publishing company that has been collecting royalties on the song "Happy Birthday To You" for years does not hold a valid copyright on the lyrics to the tune that is one of the mostly widely sung in the world, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge George H. King determined the song's original copyright, obtained by the Clayton F. Summy Co. from the song's writers, only covered specific piano arrangements of the song and not its lyrics. The basic tune of the song, derived from another popular children's song, "Good Morning to All," has long been in the public domain.

London's Tate Modern gallery said Tuesday it will open its new extension on June 17 next year, a development which expands its display space by 60 percent.

The gallery of international modern art, housed in a former power plant on the River Thames in London, is getting a new, 10-storey Switch House building shaped like a twisted pyramid.

This accompanies pictures by Sajjad Hussain and video by Agnes Bun

After decades of flocking to traditional livestock markets ahead of Eid, breeders in India are now heading online to haggle a good price for their prized animals.

Pope Francis delivered mass Tuesday in the Cuban city of Santiago, cradle of the communist island's 1959 revolution, calling for a new kind of "revolution": one of "reconciliation."

The pope, who sets off later Tuesday for his first-ever visit to the United States, delivered the last mass of the Cuban leg of his trip at a basilica to Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, the island's patron saint -- a mixed-race Mary that symbolizes its intertwined Spanish and African roots.

A growing number of "disillusioned" Islamic State fighters are defecting from the jihadist group and could be used by governments to deter potential recruits, a report published Monday said.

At least 58 people have left the group and publicly spoken about their defection since January 2014, according to the report by the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence (ISCR) at King's College London.

Eight centuries after the ruler of the greatest land empire in human history was born, the mighty Mongol Kublai Khan's descendants are a people divided between his homeland and the China he conquered, with both claiming him as their own.

Kublai Khan's birthday was 800 years ago Wednesday, when Mongolia will commemorate the anniversary in Ulan Bator, and China near the site of one of his capitals after he founded the Yuan dynasty in 1271.