'We are all Germany', President tells Muslim rally

German President Joachim Gauck told the country's Muslim community Tuesday that "we are all Germany" at a rally to condemn the Paris Islamist attacks and take a stand against rising Islamophobia.

About 10,000 citizens, religious leaders and politicians, among them Chancellor Angela Merkel, joined the event, which started with a wreath-laying ceremony at the French embassy and an imam reciting Quranic verses condemning the taking of life.

Mr Gauck used his speech to send a message of reassurance to Germany's four-million-strong Muslim community, a day after a record 25,000 people joined a protest march by a populist anti-Islamic movement. "We are all Germany," he said.

Read more here

Jewish victims of Paris attacks buried in Jerusalem

Four French Jews killed in the attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris were buried in Jerusalem on Tuesday before thousands of French and Israeli mourners, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying they had been returned to their "true home".

In an emotional ceremony at a hillside cemetery amid tight security, Mr Netanyahu denounced the "terrorism of extremist Islam" behind Jan 9's assault on the grocery and the deadly shootings on Jan 7 at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo weekly.

Mr Netanyahu, who joined world leaders for a rally of over a million people in Paris on Sunday, said Jews around the world were always welcome to migrate to Israel.

Read more here

Wife in China chops cheating husband's penis off - twice

A wife in China is facing jail after chopping off her cheating husband's penis twice - the second time, throwing it out of a window.

Feng Lung, 30, chopped off the father-of-five's manhood with a pair of scissors after finding out he was having an affair.

Then she snipped it off again after surgeons had reattached it - resulting in her naked and bloody husband attacking her in the street (above left).

Read more here

Climbers clear razor-sharp hurdle in bid to 'free climb' sheer 900m El Capitan cliff

Two Americans trying to become the first to scale a sheer 900m face of the El Capitan rock formation in California's Yosemite National Park without bolts or other climbing tools have both cleared a key stretch and believe they will make it to the top by Wednesday.

Slowly but surely, Mr Tommy Caldwell and Mr Kevin Jorgeson have been working their way up 32 "pitches", varying lengths of rock, until eventually they have climbed the whole wall.

They use the safety ropes only in case of falls, and ropes and other tools to move back and forth from their campsite perched high on the rock. Otherwise it is all hands, feet, fingers and toes.

Read more here

Ice cream, frozen fruit keep Rio zoo animals cool in heatwave

Ice cream, fruit and copious helpings of frozen meat helped keep the sweltering inhabitants of Rio's zoo cool Tuesday as temperatures soared.

Zoo staff handed out the treats as the thermometer touched 40 deg C.

The zoo has spent weeks preparing stocks of frozen food for the hot and sticky weather which assails Rio this time of year, high summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

Read more here