Military cemeteries around the world housing American soldiers who died in key battles during the First and Second World Wars were temporarily closed from Tuesday due to the U.S. government shutdown.

The move affects some 20 cemeteries in France, Belgium, Britain, Italy, Tunisia and Mexico which serve as the final resting place for troops who died in landmark campaigns such as the Normandy D-Day landings, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) said on its website.

A patriotic Russian group on Tuesday called for President Vladimir Putin to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his Syria diplomacy, claiming he was more deserving of the award than laureate U.S. President Barack Obama.

A group that lists senior Russian officials among its members announced at a news conference that it had written to the Nobel prize committee backing Putin for the prize awarded to Obama in 2009.

The world is aging so fast that most countries are not prepared to support their swelling numbers of elderly people, according to a global study being issued Tuesday by the United Nations and an elder rights group.

The report ranks the social and economic well-being of elders in 91 countries, with Sweden coming out on top and Afghanistan at the bottom. It reflects what advocates for the old have been warning, with increasing urgency, for years: Nations are simply not working quickly enough to cope with a population graying faster than ever before. By the year 2050, for the first time in history, seniors older than 60 will outnumber children younger than 15.

Books about Margaret Thatcher, Roman Britain and bumblebees are among finalists for Britain's leading nonfiction book prize.

Charles Moore's "Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography," Charlotte Higgins' portrait of ancient Britain, "Under Another Sky," and "A Sting in the Tale" by bee conservationist Dave Goulson are on the shortlist for the Samuel Johnson Prize.

"Who Asked You?" (Viking), by Terry McMillan

Terry McMillan treads familiar territory in her latest novel, "Who Asked You?" Four sisters and their families struggle through life, love and real-world crises.

Jews in the United States are overwhelmingly proud to be Jewish, yet nearly one in five of them describe themselves as having no religion, according to a Pew Research Center survey published Tuesday.

The gap is generational, with 32 percent of Jewish Millenials identifying as Jewish on the basis of ancestry, ethnicity or culture -- compared with 93 percent of Jews born in 1914-27 who identified on the basis of their faith.

A Bhutanese film directed by a monk opens Asia's largest cinema festival in South Korea on Thursday, a selection organizers say celebrates the diversity of talent in a region where box office takings are overshadowing Hollywood.

"Vara: A Blessing" directed by Khyentse Norbu -- who will miss the festival because he is taking part in a silent mountain retreat -- is the first of 301 movies to be screened at the 18th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF).

Poland's powerful Roman Catholic church on Monday hailed a Vatican announcement that its own John Paul II would be one of two late popes to be made saints next April.

"It will be a great day for the whole church worldwide, for Poland's church and for our country," episcopate spokesman Father Jozef Kloch told reporters Monday in Warsaw.

Israel has posthumously honored an Egyptian doctor for his role rescuing Jews during World War II, the first time a citizen of the Arab country has received the award.

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial authority in Jerusalem, awarded Dr Mohammed Helmy the honor of "Righteous Among The Nations," which is given to non-Jews who stood up to the Nazi genocide during the war.

Afghanistan on Monday began two days of official mourning for people killed by the communist regime in the late 1970s after a list of thousands of the dead was released.

The names of nearly 5,000 Afghans tortured and killed in 1978 and 1979 by Afghan intelligence officials were published this month by the Dutch prosecutor's office as part of a war crimes investigation.