Virtual idols take to the real-life stage in China

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.

In the quiet Texas town of Rockdale, North America's largest bitcoin mine is part of an already bustling US business now boosted by Beijing's intensified crypto crackdown that has pushed the industry west.

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.

A report in the "Financial Times" suggested China had launched a low orbit "missile" that could penetrate current defense systems. The Asian superpower said it was for "peaceful" usage.

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

The US president has voiced his concern over China's missile capabilities as his nominee to be the next ambassador to the country said "we certainly cannot trust the Chinese" over the issue of Taiwan.