Nabila works 10 hours or more a day, doing the heavy, dirty labor of packing mud into molds and hauling wheelbarrows full of bricks. At 12 years old, she's been working in brick factories half her life now, and she's probably the oldest of all her co-workers.

Already high, the number of children put to work in Afghanistan is growing, fueled by the collapse of the economy after the Taliban took over the country and the world cut off financial aid just over a year ago.

Young people across Lebanon are creatively giving voice to complex situations by decrying government failures through art.

Lebanese fine arts student Ali Merhi is finishing his degree as his country endures its worst-ever economic crisis, with unemployment around 30 percent, the local currency in free fall, and faltering electricity and water supplies.

In a war-scarred Beirut heritage house turned museum, archives of Lebanon's troubled past fuse with artistic depictions of its grim present to portray a country seemingly in perpetual turmoil.

Newspaper clippings, film negatives and diary entries from the years before Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war tell a story of government corruption, public sector strikes and student protests.

Fresh protests broke out Monday at several universities in Iran's capital, local media reported, over the death of a young woman who had been arrested by the "morality police" that enforces a strict dress code.

Iranian police have fired tear gas to disperse a protest rally in the country's west following the funeral ceremony for a young woman who died while in police custody in Tehran earlier this week, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

The police have said that 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained on Tuesday after Iran's so-called "morality police" found fault with her headscarf, or hijab, had died of a heart attack. The police have also released closed circuit footage from the police station, which they say shows the moment Amini collapsed. A relative has said she had no history of heart disease.

Pope Francis is studying a possible visit to Bahrain in November and said he is looking to reschedule his trip to South Sudan and Congo for February.

Francis told reporters en route home from Kazakhstan that his strained knee ligaments still hadn't healed and that travelling was "difficult." But the 85-year-old pontiff said he would undertake a next trip — a reference to a three-day visit to Bahrain in early November that is currently under study by the Vatican, spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

Against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Pope Francis told the Russian Orthodox hierarchy and other faith leaders Wednesday that religion must never be used to justify the "evil" of war and that God must never "be held hostage to the human thirst for power."

Francis opened an interfaith conference in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan by challenging delegations to unite in condemning war and religious justifications for it. He cited a Kazakh poet in warning that "he who permits evil and does not oppose it cannot be regarded as a true believer. At best he is a half-hearted believer."

American authorities have returned a rare, 2,000-year-old Jewish coin to Israel nearly two decades after it was looted, smuggled and put up for auction in the United States, Israel's antiquities authority announced Tuesday.

The quarter shekel silver coin, made in the year 69, is one of just two confirmed to exist. The other has been in the British Museum's collection for a century.

Saudi police arrested a Yemeni man this week after he advertised on social media his pilgrimage to Mecca, where he paid tribute to the memory of Queen Elizabeth II.

The pilgrim, who was not identified by name, had posted footage earlier this week that showed him holding a banner honoring the late queen from inside the courtyard of Mecca's Grand Mosque.

Egypt's media regulator demanded Wednesday that Netflix and other steaming services adhere to this majority Muslim county's "societal values" - a veiled reference to programs featuring members of the LGBTQ community.

The statement came a day after Gulf Arab countries asked Netflix to remove "offensive content" on the streaming service, apparently targeting programs that show gays and lesbians.