Uruguayans are petitioning the Royal Spanish Academy to expunge as discriminatory the expression "to work like a black" from its dictionary, the ultimate authority on the Spanish language.

"We ask that you review this expression's remaining in the dictionary," said the petition. "We, for our part, commit ourselves to erase all discriminatory expressions from our plazas, our playing fields, our schools and especially our houses."

When Kholoud Sukkariyah and Nidal Darwish married in defiance of Lebanon's ban on civil unions, they had no idea their initiative would attract so much support from fellow citizens -- and even the president.

The entire process took nearly a year and was done in secret to sidestep political obstacles.

Three Romanians allegedly involved in a spectacular theft from a Dutch museum last year were caught while negotiating the sale of the stolen masterpieces, a Romanian newspaper reported Wednesday.

Romanian police and the prosecutor's office dealing with terrorism and organised crime (DIICOT) declined to comment on the report in Evenimentul Zilei.

In just three sentences on a large wall in Cairo, the artist sums up the evolution of the Egyptian revolt: "2011, Down with Mubarak's rule. 2012, Down with military rule. 2013, Down with Brotherhood rule."

Since the start of the popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, street art has become the newest form of alternative media, documenting events, struggles, highs and lows with political messages that are as gutsy as they are colorful.

The Dalai Lama is set to headline India's Jaipur Literature Festival to speak about faith with one of his biographers, Pico Iyer.

The Tibetan spiritual leader will hold a session on the festival's first day, Thursday, titled: "Kinships of Faiths: Finding the Middle Way."

Eighty years after Adolf Hitler's rise to power, a novel that imagines his return to modern-day Berlin has become a bestseller in Germany, though a comedy about the Fuehrer is not to everyone's taste.

Instead of committing suicide in his bunker on April 30, 1945, in "He's Back" (Er Ist Wieder Da), Hitler wakes up in 2011 without the slightest idea what has happened in the intervening 66 years.

A U.S. federal court handed down prison terms Tuesday to an American man and a Mexican woman for trying to sell a $3 million Henri Matisse painting stolen from a Venezuelan museum.

Pedro Antonio Marcuello Guzman, a 46-year-old resident of Miami, was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison, while 50-year-old Maria Martha Elisa Ornelas Lazo of Mexico City got one year and nine months.

Syrians on both sides of the conflict must take steps to protect the country's rich historical and archeological heritage stretching back thousands of years, a top U.S. official warned Tuesday.

"We are always concerned in situations like this. And we've seen it in other areas of conflict, whether it was in Afghanistan, or in Iraq," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

An official says Nepal's government will begin issuing citizenship certificates with the category "third gender" for people who do not wish to be identified as male or female.

Activists hailed the decision, saying it was an achievement for gay and transgender rights.

An exhibition of the largest collection of modern Aboriginal paintings to have gone on display outside of Australia has been a major hit with art lovers in Paris.

The exhibition, "The Sources of Aborigine Painting", drew 133,716 visitors to the Quai Branly Museum in the space of just over three months, making it the 5th most popular exhibition the center has hosted.