Moe Pwint Oo shoots the grimy punchbag a steely glare before slamming her fist into it, striking a blow for equality as she practices Myanmar's homespun martial art Lethwei -- a sport that encourages head-butting and grants victory by knock-out only.

The petite medical sciences student is one of a growing number of women taking up Lethwei kickboxing, building up a sweat in the yard of a gritty Yangon gym where some of the country's best fighters train alongside local enthusiasts, expats and even the odd actress.

With their narrow head and long legs, greyhounds are one of the fastest dog breeds on earth, making them the preferred choice of hunters in Spain to catch rabbits and hares.

But instead of being rewarded, campaigners say greyhounds are often mistreated, especially once they have become too old to hunt.

Energy-rich Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said foreign academics must earn government approval before publishing research on the isolated country in comments relayed by state television on Saturday.

"Foreign academics can only publish their scientific work after consideration of the Ministry of Culture or the academic committees of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan," the 58-year-old president said, without specifying how the government could prevent independent research being published. 

As U.S. President Barack Obama lounged with his family on a Massachusetts beach Thursday, the White House released a list of six books that he took on vacation.

The always keenly watched -- some say overwatched -- presidential reading list included some unsurprising choices, such as Ron Chernow's acclaimed biography of first president George Washington.

The United States on Thursday returned to French authorities an oil painting by Pablo Picasso that was reported stolen from a major Paris museum 14 years ago.

"The Hairdresser," which Picasso created in Paris in 1911 during his Cubism period, was seized by U.S. customs agents in New Jersey.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday will make a statement just ahead of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

His remarks will be closely watched by Asian neighbors China and South Korea, which suffered from Tokyo's 20th century militarism. They warn any watering down of previous statements with explicit apologies would jeopardize diplomatic ties.

A Paris beach event celebrating Tel Aviv attracted a handful of visitors but a huge number of journalists, riot police and security guards on Thursday, as well as a much larger "Gaza Beach" protest.

Bemused locals who headed down to "Tel Aviv Sur Seine" had to maneuver through bag checks, security pat-downs and metal detectors to reach the small stretch of sand on the banks of the Seine. 

A Japanese court on Thursday sentenced a South Korean monk to six years in prison for stealing a Buddha statue and a set of scriptures from an island that has long been a historic gateway between the two nations.

Kim Sang-ho, 70, together with four other South Koreans, stole the statue and 360 volumes of Buddhist scripture, worth around 110 million yen ($884,000) in total, according to the ruling by the Nagasaki District Court.

"La Coiffeuse," a cubist work by Picasso worth about $15 million, will be returned to France where it was stolen 17 years ago, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The painting, whose name means "The Hairdresser," was recovered last year around Christmas, wrapped in parcel paper. 

Even Cubans who don't speak a word of English eat "un cake" on their birthdays.

They wear "los tennis" and "bloomers." Their kids go crazy for Taylor Swift and "The Big Bang Theory." U.S. science fiction master Ray Bradbury has pride of place on their bookshelves beside revolutionary poet Jose Marti.