Lebanon's culture minister said he has asked authorities to ban hit movie "Barbie" for purportedly "promoting homosexuality," as anti-LGBTQ rhetoric soars in one of the Arab world's more liberal countries.

"It was decided... to send a request to Lebanon's General Security agency... to take all necessary measures to ban showing this movie in Lebanon," caretaker Culture Minister Mohammed Mortada said in a statement.

London-based sex worker Marin Scarlett and right-wing populist Nigel Farage might initially appear unlikely campaigning allies, but when it comes to the pitfalls of banking in Britain they share a common cause.

"It's ridiculous that financial institutions can act like moral arbiters," Scarlett told AFP, echoing Farage's exact same criticism last month after a scandal erupted around his treatment by British banks.

The diminutive woman with a white feather headdress stood on the stage of the majestic colonial theater in Brazil's Amazon on Monday and addressed the crowd.

The woman, Minister of Indigenous People Sonia Guajajara, declared the day "the milestone of Indigenous participation," then cited the national statistics institute's freshly released census data that revealed the full scope of the nation's Indigenous population: 1,693,535 people.

Artemisia Gentileschi's painting skills quickly surpass her father's, but society dictates that as a woman, she must stay home and protect her virtue. Art — with its unsavory types and naked models — isn't exactly fit for a good Roman Catholic girl. And when her painting tutor attacks her, it sets off a cascade of seemingly insurmountable problems and impossible choices.

Author Elizabeth Fremantle deftly paints Artemisia's painful but inspiring story in her latest biographical fiction, "Disobedient." Having already established herself as a writer who champions powerful female leads, Fremantle fleshes out the 17th-century artist who defied the limits placed upon her and became one of the best painters of the Baroque period.

An Indian court on Thursday ruled that officials can conduct a scientific survey to determine if a 17th-century mosque in the country's north was built over a Hindu temple.

The Gyanvapi mosque in the holy Hindu city of Varanasi, an area Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents in India's parliament, is one of several mosques in northern Uttar Pradesh state that some Hindus believe was built on top of demolished Hindu temples.

From a university campus to a seaside town, Pope Francis challenged young people on Thursday to make the world a more just and inclusive place, as he focused the second day of his Portugal trip on inspiring students to use their privilege to combat global warming and economic inequalities.

Francis received a warm welcome first at the Catholic University in Lisbon, one of Portugal's top institutions of higher learning. He then had a more intimate, informal encounter with young people in the former fishing village of Cascais, where he was serenaded with a mournful performance of the traditional Portuguese fado, meaning fate or destiny.

From a university campus to a seaside town, Pope Francis challenged young people on Thursday to make the world a more just and inclusive place, as he focused the second day of his Portugal trip on inspiring students to use their privilege to combat global warming and economic inequalities.

Francis received a warm welcome first at the Catholic University in Lisbon, one of Portugal's top institutions of higher learning. He then had a more intimate, informal encounter with young people in the former fishing village of Cascais, where he was serenaded with a mournful performance of the traditional Portuguese fado, meaning fate or destiny.

Russian shelling on Thursday damaged a landmark church in the southern city of Kherson that once held the remains of a renowned 18th-century Russian commander.

Ukraine's emergency service said four of its workers were wounded in a second round of shelling as they fought the fire at St. Catherine's Cathedral. Four other people were wounded in the first shelling attack, which also hit a trolleybus, the prosecutor general's office said.

Author Sebastian Barry, who has received four previous nominations for the Booker Prize and twice been shortlisted for it, was one of four Irish writers to make the long list of semifinalists for the prestigious award.

Barry is up this year for his novel "Old God's Time," about a retired police detective who gets dragged back into a cold case investigation of a murdered priest suspected of sexually abusing children.

Pope Francis challenged Europe to retake its role as a peacemaker and bridgebuilder as he arrived Wednesday in Portugal to open World Youth Day, hoping to inspire the next generation of Catholics to work together to combat conflicts, climate change and other problems facing the world.

Francis was spending five days in Lisbon, blending a state visit and pilgrimage to the Catholic shrine at Fatima with the raucous trappings of World Youth Day, the Catholic jamboree that aims to rally young Catholics in their faith. More than 1 million young people from around the world were expected to attend the gathering, which culminates with a papal Mass on Sunday.