Elton John celebrates 70th birthday

FRANCE 24 spoke to this year's joint Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, co-founder of the digital media company Rappler and an outspoken critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Asked whether journalism is becoming more dangerous around the world, she told FRANCE 24: "It is more dangerous, it requires more sacrifices, just to do what journalists have always done."

A Texas couple recently realised this when they found that their pet chihuahua had stowed away in one of their suitcases. Kristi and Jared Owens were checking in their bags at the Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport late last month when they were told their luggage was overweight.

His funny, delicate and dark illustrations are familiar to readers of British newspapers and adored for their philosophical take on daily life. When Steven Appleby introduced a new character to his comic strips, "Dragman", few of his readers were aware that the author and illustrator also wore a wig and women's clothes.

On Thursday, artist Lili Bernard filed a lawsuit against the 84-year-old comedian for an alleged hotel room encounter in 1990 after she met the actor while filming The Cosby Show.

While tourists have long been able to mingle freely unofficially at parties in and around Jeddah, known as Saudi Arabia's most open-minded city, Saudis were confined to single-sex beaches. But now, four years into a reform drive aimed at improving the country's image and creating new opportunities for its oil-reliant economy, they are enjoying more freedoms.

The tiny US town of Green Bank is home to the over six-decade-old Green Bank Observatory, which requires radio silence to be able to peer deep into space to observe stars and black holes. Cell phone service is effectively barred, but the West Virginia town is changing: not everyone agrees about what comes next for this seeming digital age refuge.

A resolution is imminent in the dispute over more than 1,000 bronzes stolen from the former Kingdom of Benin. Germany wants to return all the objects to Nigeria.

Drone powerhouse Israel is translating the knowhow of air force veterans to the delivery of sushi and ice-cream, as companies tap their expertise to avoid collisions in increasingly crowded skies.

The Saudi government has lifted social distancing measures, allowing full-capacity attendance at the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Follow DW for the latest.

Hundreds of drug users shelter in squalid conditions under a bridge in western Kabul synonymous with hard drugs and violent crime - and since the Taliban came to power, raids on areas where addicts gather have become more frequent. With poppies cheap and easy to grow, Afghanistan provides around 90 percent of the world's production of heroin, but since retaking power the Taliban have pledged to ban narcotics production.

A couple in India's southern state of Kerala use a large cooking pot borrowed from a temple to get through floodwaters and reach their wedding venue. The southern state has been hit by days of heavy rain, triggering landslides and floods that have claimed at least 27 lives.

Queen Elizabeth has politely declined the Oldie of the Year Award as she told organisers you're "as old as you feel".