Saudi authorities said Monday only people immunized against Covid-19 will be allowed to perform the year-round umrah pilgrimage from the start of Ramadan, the holy fasting month for Muslims.

Millions of Christians around the world celebrated a second Easter under coronavirus restrictions on Sunday with Pope Francis calling for vaccines to be shared among the poorest nations as Covid-19 surges.

Despite vaccine rollouts gathering pace in many richer countries, dramatic spikes in cases have seen deeply unpopular restrictions enforced from Canada to Europe and South America.

The mummified remains of 22 Egyptian pharaohs, including the most powerful ancient queen, are to be paraded through the streets of Cairo Saturday, in a procession to a new resting place.

Christians in the Holy Land are marking Good Friday this year amid signs the coronavirus crisis is winding down, with religious sites open to limited numbers of faithful but none of the mass pilgrimages usually seen in the Holy Week leading up to Easter.

The virus is still raging in the Philippines, France, Brazil and other predominantly Christian countries, where worshippers are marking a second annual Holy Week under various movement restrictions amid outbreaks fanned by more contagious strains.

Human Rights Watch on Monday accused Qatar of restricting the lives of its female population through unclear "guardianship" rules requiring adult women to obtain male approval for everyday activities.

One of the few paintings by Vincent Van Gogh still in private hands sold for more than 13 million euros at auction Thursday, Sotheby's said.

An independent study into child sex abuse in Germany's Roman Catholic Church published Thursday revealed hundreds of alleged cases and led to the resignation of the archbishop of Hamburg.

Siti Rohani remembers the day her teenaged daughter came home in tears after being bullied for not wearing a hair-covering hijab at her Indonesian school.

Echoes from Lebanon, a virtual art exhibition, has been launched to show how people expressed their feelings on the recent events and situations in Lebanon: hope, pain, love and anger.

Prince William on Thursday defended the British royal family after his younger brother Harry and wife Meghan accused them of racism in a bombshell interview watched around the world.