socit News

Apo - The UN children's fund warned Tuesday that a funding gap and the start of winter could leave nearly one million children "out in the cold" in the Middle East and North Africa.

Beni Mellal - A Moroccan teenager allegedly kidnapped and gang-raped by men from her village called Wednesday on other girls "to be brave" after meeting with the judge investigating her case, which has shaken the nation.

Vienna - Austria is tiring of its reputation as "the ashtray of Europe" -- at least according to the results of a nationwide petition backing a ban on smoking in cafes and restaurants.

Casablanca - A group of 53 Moroccan activists involved in protests which rocked the North African country will appeal their jail terms of up to 20 years, their lawyers said Monday.

Tunis - Islamist-backed candidate Souad Abderrahim defeated a city official who served under ousted despot Zine el Abidine Ben Ali on Tuesday to become the first woman mayor of the Tunisian capital.

Tehran - Tehran's largest football stadium is to admit thousands of women together with men for the first time since the the Islamic revolution of 1979 as World Cup fever grips Iran for its Wednesday evening group game against Spain.

San Francisco - Facebook, embattled in a scandal over the mishandling of user data, confirmed Monday that it also collected information from people beyond their social network use.

Tehran - Four people have been killed and thousands injured during celebrations of Iran's annual fire festival ahead of the Persian new year, an official told state TV on Wednesday.

Bogota - With his tight trousers and boots, Luis Miguel Castrillon is dressed to kill as he prances, feints and pirouettes around a charging bull. The crowd applauds, but for animal rights campaigners in Colombia, the bullfighter is a cruel killer.

Sarajevo - Bosnian Roma actor Nazif Mujic, who won a Silver Bear acting award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013, has died aged 48, following a harrowing descent into extreme poverty despite his film success.

Bucharest - A trove of objects from the household of the former Romanian Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu will go under the hammer on Wednesday in an auction drawing on the enduring fascination his memory holds amid the country's current political turmoil.

Beirut - Dozens of people protested on Saturday outside the Lebanese parliament against violence against women, denouncing inaction by the authorities after eight women have been killed since early December.

Riyadh - Saudi Arabian women will be able to drive trucks and motorcycles, officials have said three months after the kingdom announced a historic decision to end a ban on women driving.

Washington - Democratic Senator Al Franken on Thursday became the latest in a succession of famous American men felled by allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Nairobi - As Kenya wrestles with its worst political crisis in a decade, more and more of its people see themselves as hostages of the ethnic rivalries of the country's politicians and beg for new leaders who will fight for all citizens.

Casablanca - A 1,200-kilometre (750 mile) round bus trip taking about 22 hours: that is the weekly grind faced by families of activists arrested over a protest movement in northern Morocco if they want to see their loved ones jailed in Casablanca.

Bejing - A Chinese court has ordered a psychiatric hospital to compensate and apologise to a gay man who was forced to undergo conversion therapy -- a ruling hailed by LGBT rights groups.

Seoul - Rounder eyes, narrower faces, bigger breasts: a South Korean girlband is celebrating the country's obsession with surgically-enhanced beauty by going under the knife to praise the virtues of "Becoming Pretty".

Seoul - Rounder eyes, narrower faces, bigger breasts: a South Korean girlband is celebrating the country's obsession with surgically-enhanced beauty by going under the knife to praise the virtues of "Becoming Pretty".

Mazar-e Sharif - An Afghan woman whose husband cut off her ears said Thursday she was seeking donations for treatment abroad, as activists condemned the latest gruesome incident to highlight the abuse of women in the conservative country.