AFP
AFP Features

Pilgrims hold candles during the evening vigil for World Youth Day prayer ceremony with Pope Benedict XVI in Sydney. The World Youth Day celebrations are the world's biggest Christian festival as well as the largest religious gathering ever held in Australia headed by Pope Benedict XVI.(AFP/Anoek de Groot)

Pilgrims create sea of candles for papal vigil in Australia

Sat Jul 19, 2:55 PM ET

SYDNEY (AFP) - Conga lines of teenagers grooved to pop music and nuns in black habits skipped between ranks of pilgrims in sleeping bags Saturday as a candlelight vigil with Pope Benedict XVI began in Sydney.

  • People walking in Seville in 2005. The southern Spanish city of Seville is to change 40 street names and withdraw a distinction awarded to a nationalist general in a break with the era of the Franco dictatorship, press reports said Saturday.(AFP/File/Cristina Quicler)
    Seville to change 40 street names in break with Franco era: reports Sat Jul 19, 2:39 PM ET

    MADRID (AFP) - The southern Spanish city of Seville is to change 40 street names and withdraw a distinction awarded to a nationalist general in a break with the era of the Franco dictatorship, press reports said Saturday.

  • Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawas (left), accompanied by Japanese Waseda University Professor Sakuji Yoshimura in Cairo. Egypt revealed a unique way of viewing a wooden boat entombed 4,500 years ago next to Giza's Great Pyramid where exposure to the atmosphere had threatened its destruction.(AFP/Cris Bouroncle)
    New camera dispels darkness around pharaoh's 'solar' boat Sat Jul 19, 2:42 PM ET

    CAIRO (AFP) - Egypt on Saturday revealed a unique way of viewing a wooden boat entombed 4,500 years ago next to Giza's Great Pyramid where exposure to the atmosphere had threatened its destruction.

  • Guards move a map of the subway system as one of three new rail lines is unveiled in Beijing on July 19. The Chinese capital has opened three new rail lines in a bid to reduce traffic gridlock on the city's streets and improve air quality ahead of next month's Olympic Games(AFP/File/Peter Parks)
    China opens new subway lines for Olympics Sat Jul 19, 2:46 PM ET

    BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing opened three new rail lines on Saturday in a bid to reduce traffic gridlock on the city's streets and improve air quality ahead of next month's Olympic Games.

  • Former Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) welcomes the Chairman of the Muftis Council of Russia Ravil Gainutdin in the Kremlin in Moscow, in 2004. Russia's highest Muslim council on Saturday issued a protest against a ban on some Islamic publications considered by the authorities to be "extremist."(AFP/ITAR-TASS/File/Vladimir Radionov)
    Russian Muslims protest radical literature ban Sat Jul 19, 2:48 PM ET

    MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia's highest Muslim council on Saturday issued a protest against a ban on some Islamic publications considered by the authorities to be "extremist."

  • File photo shows a man walking past the gate with the writing "Work makes Free" as he enters the memorial site of the former Nazi concentration camp in Dachau. Francesco Lotoro's quest since 1991 has been to collect music written in the Nazi internment camps before and during World War II.(DDP/AFP/Timm Schamberger)
    Bringing music from Nazi death camps to life Fri Jul 18, 2:15 AM ET

    BARLETTA, Italy (AFP) - The idea of collecting music written in internment camps before and during World War II may not occur to everyone.

  • Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), the instigator of the modern Olympic Games. True Olympic spirit is often found away from gold medallists with their agents and sponsorship deals -- it is found in its purest sense in those that come last(AFP/File)
    True Olympic spirit found in those who come last Thu Jul 17, 10:26 PM ET

    PARIS (AFP) - True Olympic spirit is often found away from gold medallists with their agents and sponsorship deals -- it is found in its purest sense in those that come last.

  • A view of Paris's first new youth hostel to open in 15 years on the Quai de Seine looking onto the bassin de la Villette in the French capital's 19th district. The hostel has 275 beds priced from 17 to 30 euros (27-47 dollars) per person.(AFP/Francois Guillot)
    New youth hostel opens in Paris Thu Jul 17, 2:37 PM ET

    PARIS (AFP) - Young tourists passing through Paris have a new place to stay following the opening of the first youth hostel in the city for more than 15 years.

  • An artist of the Romathan theatre enters a local cultural centre in Saca-Kosice. Slovakia, which adopts the euro in six months, is putting its money where its mouth is with a drive to help its long-neglected gypsy minority with the switch to the official EU currency(AFP/Joe Klamar)
    Slovakia preps isolated Roma for switch to euro Thu Jul 17, 12:10 PM ET

    SACA-KOSICE, Slovakia (AFP) - Slovakia, which adopts the euro in six months, is putting its money where its mouth is with a drive to help its long-neglected gypsy minority with the switch to the official EU currency.

  • Women walking in downtown Cairo. Almost half of Egyptian women are sexually harassed on a daily basis with more than half of Egyptian men admitting lewd behaviour, the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights said on Thursday.(AFP/File/Khaled Desouki)
    Almost half of Egyptian women harassed daily: poll Thu Jul 17, 12:22 PM ET

    CAIRO (AFP) - Almost half of Egyptian women are sexually harassed on a daily basis with more than half of Egyptian men admitting lewd behaviour, the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights said on Thursday.

  • A staff from a foreign-owned restaurant remove computer equipment from the premises after they were forced to close due to its proximity to an Olympic venue in Beijing on July 16, 2008. Popular bars and restaurants deemed too close to some of the Olympic venues, such as the Workers' Stadium in downtown Beijing, are having to close down for security reasons.(AFP/Mark Ralston)
    Amid security threat, questions arise about "No-Fun" Olympics Thu Jul 17, 12:04 PM ET

    BEIJING (AFP) - Will the Beijing Olympics become known as the "No-Fun Games"?

  • People wait to buy a Sony Play Station 3 in Rockville, Maryland. Videogame makers are riding the social-networking wave with a flood of soon-to-be-released titles that let friends play online as teams and even create their own characters.(AFP/File/Paul J. Richards)
    Videogames getting more social Thu Jul 17, 8:18 AM ET

    LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Videogame makers are riding the social-networking wave with a flood of soon-to-be-released titles that let friends play online as teams and even create their own characters.

  • Motorcycle enthusiasts Buddy Rosenbaum (left), 71,and Bob Chase, 72. In this age of high petrol prices and youth culture, two big-cylinder-motorcycle-loving septuagenarians threw out caution for a cross-country road trip(AFP)
    Age no barrier as 70-something Americans cross US on motorbikes Wed Jul 16, 11:38 PM ET

    NEW YORK (AFP) - In this age of high petrol prices and youth culture, two big-cylinder-motorcycle-loving septuagenarians threw out caution for a cross-country road trip.

  • Czech-built Soviet T-55T tanks. Every year some 10,000 thrill-seekers from all over the world pass through the so-called "Tank Driving School" in Beerfelde, a tiny town between Berlin and the Polish border(AFP/John Macdougall)
    Germany: all tanked up on adrenalin in Soviet-era toys for boys Wed Jul 16, 11:32 PM ET

    BEERFELDE, Germany (AFP) - Every year some 10,000 thrill-seekers from all over the world pass through the so-called "Tank Driving School" in Beerfelde, a tiny town between Berlin and the Polish border.

  • An Ubisoft employee at work. Hot French videogame maker Ubisoft is launching titles geared for girl athletes in a bet that it's not just boys that love sports both real and virtual.(AFP/File/Bertrand Guay)
    Ubisoft videogame targets girl athletes Wed Jul 16, 7:46 PM ET

    LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Hot French videogame maker Ubisoft is launching titles geared for girl athletes in a bet that it's not just boys that love sports both real and virtual.

  • Comic books on display at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention in 2003. Sony Online Entertainment is letting comic book lovers be first to try an online videogame that lets players invent superheroes that could go on to thrash even Superman.(AFP/Getty Images/File/Amanda Edwards)
    DC Universe players invent their own videogame superheros Wed Jul 16, 5:34 PM ET

    LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Sony Online Entertainment is letting comic book lovers be first to try an online videogame that lets players invent superheroes that could go on to thrash even Superman.

  • A church-goer holds a portrait of Russian Tsar Nicholas II during a religious procession in the Ukrainian city of Kiev in 2007. Russian Orthodox believers on Wednesday flocked to mark the 90th anniversary of the slaying of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, as controversy raged over the supposed remains of two Romanov children.(AFP/File/Sergei Supinsky)
    Russian Orthodox honour last tsar amid dispute on remains Wed Jul 16, 5:09 PM ET

    YEKATERINBURG, Russia (AFP) - Russian Orthodox believers on Thursday flocked to mark the 90th anniversary of the slaying of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, as controversy mounted over the supposed remains of two Romanov children.