He is the self-declared foe of unbridled capitalism, rabid consumerism and have-it-all lifestyles -- but are conservatives right in fearing Pope Francis is anti-American at heart?

The pontiff's attacks on those who worship the "God of money", appeals for an ecological revolution and criticisms of an unjust global economic system that excludes the poor have all wound up economic ultra-liberals.

Every morning in Thailand's far north, a convoy of orange-robed Buddhist monks and novices riding on horseback leave their mountain-top temple in the kingdom's notorious Golden Triangle region to collect alms.

At first glance these equestrian ascetics look like a throwback to a forgotten era -- but they are in fact part of an innovative drive to help young boys in this drug-ravaged region escape addiction through horses, Thai boxing and meditation.

The Labor Party's new leader Jeremy Corbyn is facing a new dilemma in his rocky first days in the job -- whether or not to kneel before Queen Elizabeth II.

The republican leftwinger has to formally swear allegiance to the 89-year-old monarch at a ceremony in the coming weeks as part of his new posting.

Some prominent South Africans have dismissed the discovery of a new human ancestor as a racist theory designed to cast Africans as "subhuman", an opinion that resonates in a country deeply bruised by apartheid.

"No one will dig old monkey bones to back up a theory that I was once a baboon. Sorry," said Zwelinzima Vavi, former general secretary of the powerful trade union group Cosatu, a faithful ally of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

Hounded by both religious extremists and state officials at the Syrian university where they were teaching, Muhammad and Joury left on a journey helped by a British charity that has taken them to Scotland.

The husband and wife spent more than two years wandering across the Middle East, then to Turkey and finally to the University of Glasgow in Scotland, thanks to the Council For At Risk Academics (CARA).

A Tehran court has fined two women $260 for violating the Islamic dress code by not wearing their mandatory hijabs (headscarves) properly in the street, a judicial official was quoted Wednesday as saying.

"In recent days several cases have been filed in the court for bad hijabs and, in two of them, the accused were sentenced to pay 9 million rials ($260/232 euros) in cash," reformist daily Arman quoted the official as saying.

A major retrospective of the work of Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei opens at London's Royal Academy of Arts on Saturday, exploring his subversive exploration of human rights abuses.

The London exhibition is a landmark for the artist as it is the first in five years which he could personally supervise after having recovered his passport, confiscated by Chinese authorities in July 2011.

Archeological sites in Syria are being looted "on an industrial scale," with proceeds being used to fund Islamic State extremists, the head of UNESCO warned Wednesday.

"Satellite imagery shows that archeological sites in Syria are dotted by thousands of illegal excavations... that show there is looting on an industrial scale," Irina Bokova said in Sofia.

Agatha Christie fans have descended on her hometown of Torquay on the English Riviera for the 125th anniversary of the murder master's birth on Tuesday as the crime novel enjoys a global revival.

Simplicity is the key to her enduring popularity, said Christie's only grandson Mathew Prichard, who has been the chief custodian of her work since the queen of crime fiction died in 1976.

As vespers drew to a close at the St. Egidio Catholic community center, a dozen homeless men in threadbare pants and rumpled T-shirts shuffled into a side room where volunteers handed out cups of soda and soft yellow rolls spread with mayonnaise.

"This is like my home," said Ernesto Gutierrez, a 66-year-old retired policeman who sleeps in parks and other public places because he has no relatives overseas helping to supplement his meager pension. Often the sandwich he gets at St. Egidio is his only meal of the day: "I appreciate it so much."