After a Pole and a German, will the Roman Catholic Church revert to an Italian leader once again?

Italy has the biggest voting bloc in the conclave to elect the next pope, with 28 of the 117 cardinal electors, but only one Italian, Milan Archbishop Angelo Scola, is widely seen as "papabile", or a strong candidate to succeed Benedict XVI.

Two years after the revolution, a Tunisian version of Macbeth is parodying deposed dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, cast in the mold of William Shakespeare's notorious villain alongside his scheming wife.

"Macbeth, Leila and Ben", which premiered in Tunis last week, revisits 30 years of autocratic rule that finally led to Ben Ali's ouster in January 2011, while taking a swipe at the ruling Islamists who succeeded him.

Fireworks lit up the sky across China on Sunday and straw-hatted farmers in one village hurled molten metal into the air, as the country marked the end of Lunar New Year festivities.

China's Lantern Festival traditionally signals the close of just over two weeks of rest and feasting during the Lunar New Year, the country's biggest holiday, which sees hundreds of millions return to their ancestral homes.

Catholicism in Latin America is "lively and dynamic," Brazilian Cardinal Raymundo Damasceno Assis said Sunday, suggesting that the church look to Latin America for leadership.

Damasceno is one of the the 117 "cardinal electors" that will participate in the upcoming conclave to elect a new pope. No favorite has to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who announced that he is stepping down at the end of the month.

Egyptian police said Saturday they have arrested four students who filmed themselves publicly dancing in their underwear, as more people around the world emulate a viral dance craze called the "Harlem Shake."

The four pharmaceutical students shocked residents of a middle class Cairo neighborhood when they removed most of their clothes and videotaped themselves performing the pelvis-thrusting dance, a police official said.

Kosovo's culture minister on Friday said Germany had returned seven millennia-old artefacts that were smuggled out during the 1998-1999 war with Serbia and were unexpectedly found in a German police raid.

The seven terracotta items, including a small bowl, date back to the neolithic era, between 3,500 to 4,000 BC. They were found by German police in an unrelated investigation against two Serbs several years ago, Memli Krasniqi said, adding that it took a while to confirm the items came from Kosovo.

Pope Benedict XVI's impending resignation is dividing many Catholics between those who see it as a gesture of hope and renewal for the Church and those for whom it is an admission of weakness.

"It is a break that encourages the Church to examine its conscience to start afresh," said Paolo Colonnetti from the Focolare lay movement.

Lying face down in deep snow, naked, in bone chilling sub-zero weather is enough to make anyone think twice.

But such are the extremes required to penetrate the mysteries of the "pirts" - Latvia's little-known and complex interpretation of what is known in other parts of the world as the sauna, banya, hammam, Roman bath or Native American sweat lodge.

For the first time since she moved from Britain to France 18 years ago, Frances Bucquet is seriously considering taking French citizenship -- and she blames British Prime Minister David Cameron.

English teacher Bucquet is angry at the premier's announcement his government would hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union if it wins the next elections.

Just like the centuries-old coffee tradition, the nargileh, or water pipe, is a mainstay of Turkish culture but authorities are clamping down on this ancient social ritual that health experts say is as harmful to health as smoking regular cigarettes.

Fans of the water pipe, also known as a hookah or shisha, can no longer get their fix in cafes, bars, and restaurants after a law banning smoking from closed public spaces came into force in January.