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Taliban Replace Ministry for Women with 'Virtue' Authorities

Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers set up a ministry for the "propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice" in the building that once housed the Women's Affairs Ministry, escorting out World Bank staffers on Saturday as part of the forced move.

It was the latest troubling sign that the Taliban are restricting women's rights as they settle into government, just a month since they overran the capital of Kabul. During their previous rule of Afghanistan in the 1990s, the Taliban had denied girls and women the right to education and barred them from public life.

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'New' Van Gogh Drawing to Go On Display in Amsterdam Museum

A drawing newly attributed to Vincent van Gogh that has never been displayed publicly before is going on show at the Amsterdam museum that bears the Dutch master's name.

The "new" Van Gogh, "Study for 'Worn Out,'" from November 1882, is part of a Dutch private collection and was known to only a handful of people, including a few from the Van Gogh Museum.

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Paris' Arc de Triomphe Is Being Wrapped in Fabric

The city of Paris is unveiling a monumental artwork built around an actual monument: the Arc the Triomphe completely wrapped in silver and blue fabric.

The installation by late artist couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who conceived of the project in 1961, will open on Thursday. Visits will take place for nearly almost three weeks. At weekends, the Arc de Triomphe's traffic-heavy roundabout will be entirely pedestrianized.

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Pope: No Place for Politics in Biden Communion Flap

Pope Francis said Wednesday that Catholic bishops must minister with "compassion and tenderness," not condemnation, to politicians who support abortion rights and warned that clerics shouldn't let politics enter into questions about receiving Communion.

Francis was asked en route home from Slovakia about the debate in the U.S. church about whether President Joe Biden and other politicians should be denied Communion because of their stances on abortion. U.S. bishops have agreed to draft a "teaching document" that many of them hope will rebuke Catholic politicians, including Biden, for receiving Communion despite their support for abortion rights.

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Brazil's Top Court Suspends Vote on Indigenous Land Rights

A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Wednesday requested additional time to review a controversial ruling that could loosen protections of Indigenous lands, which may in effect leave the decision to Congress.

The top court is evaluating a ruling that invalidated a claim by some Indigenous people in Santa Catarina state to what they say is their ancestral territory. It has prompted thousands of Indigenous people to travel and stage protests in capital Brasilia, worried about the precedent upholding the lower court's ruling would set.

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Sri Lanka Conservationists Fight Elephant Smuggling in Court

Environmentalists in Sri Lanka are challenging a court order issued earlier this month that would allow the return of 14 illegally captured wild elephants to people accused of buying them from traffickers.

Rights groups and lawyers say the Sept. 6 court order is based on a government decree that violates Sri Lankan environmental laws. They fear the order could encourage a resurgence of trafficking of wild elephants, putting them at risk.

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Taliban: Women Can Study in Gender-Segregated Universities

Women in Afghanistan can continue to study in universities, including at post-graduate levels, but classrooms will be gender-segregated and Islamic dress is compulsory, the Taliban government's new higher education minister said Sunday.

The announcement came as a Taliban official said Qatar's foreign minister arrived in the Afghan capital of Kabul — the highest level visitor since the Taliban announced their interim Cabinet. There was no immediate confirmation of the visit by Qatari officials.

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Energized Pope Cracks Jokes, Greets Fans in Slovakia

Pope Francis cracked jokes Monday and took an ambling walk to greet well-wishers as he opened his first full day in Slovakia in good health and spirits ahead of a solemn encounter with the country's Jewish community.

Francis arrived at the presidential palace, and later at the capital's St. Martin cathedral, looking rested and energized on the second day of his four-day pilgrimage to Hungary and Slovakia, which marks his first international outing since undergoing intestinal surgery in July.

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Mexico Takes Major Step toward De-penalizing Abortion

Susana Dueñas could hardly believe the news: Mexico's Supreme Court had decided that abortion could not be considered a crime. The 38-year-old woman from central Mexico had spent six and a half years in prison on just that charge.

The court ruled unanimously Tuesday that parts of a law in the northern border state of Coahuila criminalizing abortion were unconstitutional. The decision immediately compels judges across the nation to consider cases with that ruling in mind. And there are thousands of open cases in Mexico against women accused of illegal abortions.

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Ground Zero Rebuilding Still Unfinished, 20 Years Later

Two decades after its destruction in the Sept. 11 attacks, the work to rebuild the World Trade Center complex remains incomplete.

Two planned skyscrapers, a performing arts center and a church are still unfinished at the site, which plays host Saturday to the annual ceremony honoring nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks.

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