A Rohingya refugee gave birth to a baby boy on an overcrowded boat carrying around 110 people which arrived in Thailand from unrest-hit western Myanmar, an official said Thursday.

The southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu on Thursday defended its ban on a new film by veteran actor Kamal Haasan, which has renewed fears over freedom of artistic expression in the country.

Al-Qaeda's front group called on Iraq's Sunni population on Thursday to take up arms against the Shiite-led authorities and dismissed the country's Sunni ministers as weak and corrupt.

Egypt's top cleric on Thursday brought together rival political factions and called for dialogue over the political crisis and deadly unrest gripping the country.

Acclaimed British author Salman Rushdie cancelled a film promotional event and veteran Indian actor Kamal Haasan threatened to go into exile Wednesday after Muslim groups protested their work.

Thailand's navy blocked more than 200 Rohingya boat people from entering the kingdom as part of a new crackdown on refugees from violence-hit western Myanmar, officials said Wednesday.

A Cairo tribunal on Tuesday upheld death sentences passed on seven Egyptian Coptic Christians in absentia for their involvement in a movie that ridiculed the Prophet Mohammed, a judicial source said.

Another three people have been killed in the political violence sweeping Egypt, medics said on Tuesday, pushing the death toll from five days of clashes to at least 52.

Malian troops cemented control of the ancient city of Timbuktu on Tuesday, as donors gathered in Ethiopia to drum up funding for the French-led offensive to drive radical Islamists from the rest of the country's north.

French-led forces Monday seized Mali's fabled desert city of Timbuktu in a lightning advance north as fleeing Islamists torched a building housing priceless ancient manuscripts.

"We are independent again! We were held hostage for 10 months but it seemed like 10 years," exulted Hama Cisse, echoing the euphoria in Mali's historic city of Timbuktu which French-led soldiers freed from Islamist occupation on Monday.

Thailand will turn away any more Rohingya boat people from neighbouring Myanmar who try to land on its shores, a top official said Monday after an influx of refugees fleeing sectarian unrest.

Lebanon's top Sunni Muslim authority on Monday issued a fatwa against moves to legalise civil marriages inside the country, where couples of different faiths have to travel abroad to tie the knot.

Hundreds of people gave French-led troops a hero's welcome on Monday as they entered the historic city of Timbuktu, occupied for 10 months by Islamists who imposed a harsh form of sharia.

French-led troops ringed Mali's fabled desert city of Timbuktu Monday after seizing its airport in a lightning advance as fleeing Islamists torched a building housing priceless ancient manuscripts.

French-led troops surrounded Mali's fabled desert city of Timbuktu Monday after seizing its airport in a lightning advance against Islamists who have been driven from key northern strongholds.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of French-speaking Montreal and Quebec City on Sunday in support of gay marriage and adoption in parallel with a mass demonstration in Paris.

Tens of thousands of gay rights campaigners packed the streets of Paris on Sunday to call for the legalisation of gay marriage, two days before a key parliamentary debate on the hugely divisive issue.

Thousands of gay rights campaigners packed the streets of Paris on Sunday to call for the legalisation of gay marriage, two days before a key parliamentary debate on the hugely divisive issue.

The United Arab Emirates is to put on trial 94 Islamists accused of plotting against the Gulf state, attorney general Salem Kobaish announced on Sunday.