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.

The sound of men punching holes into colourful rubber sheets reverberates across a tiny studio in India's largest slum -- an unlikely birthplace for luxury handbags made by a marginalised community seeking to reclaim its identity.

Britain's royal family was under pressure on Tuesday to respond to Prince Harry and his wife Meghan's claims of racism, triggering a crisis for the institution not seen since the time of his late mother, Diana.

Half a year after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain established diplomatic relations with Israel, discreet Jewish communities in the Gulf Arab states that once lived in the shadow of the Arab-Israeli conflict are adopting a more public profile.

Kosher food is now available. Jewish holidays are celebrated openly. There is even a fledgling religious court to sort out issues such as marriages and divorces.