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Wreck of 17th-century royal warship found off UK coast

Explorers and historians are telling the world about the discovery of the wreck of a royal warship that sank in 1682 while carrying a future king of England, Ireland and Scotland.

The HMS Gloucester, traveling from southern England to Scotland, ran aground while navigating sandbanks off the town of Great Yarmouth on the eastern English coast. It sank within an hour, killing an estimated 130 to 250 crew and passengers.

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Anger erupts in Bangladesh, India over comments about Islam

Thousands of people marched in Bangladesh's capital and in parts of India on Friday to urge Muslim-majority nations to cut ties with India and boycott its products unless it punishes two governing party officials for comments deemed derogatory to Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The protesters in Dhaka also criticized their country's government for not publicly condemning the comments made last week by the two officials in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's governing Bharatiya Janata Party.

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Pope cancels trip to Congo and South Sudan due to bad knee

Pope Francis canceled a planned July trip to Africa on doctors' orders because of ongoing knee problems, the Vatican said Friday, raising further questions about the health and mobility problems of the 85-year-old pontiff.

The Vatican said the July 2-7 trip to Congo and South Sudan would be rescheduled "to a later date to be determined."

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Pride parade in Tel Aviv draws tens of thousands

Tens of thousands of people attended this year's Pride Parade in Tel Aviv on Friday, celebrating the LGBTQ community and calling for equality in the largest annual gathering of its kind in the Middle East.

The sprawling event in Israel's seaside metropolis, which resembles a festive block party, returned last year after pandemic restrictions were mostly lifted. This year it is being held after Israel reopened to foreign tourists.

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Egypt's tanoura puts kaleidoscopic spin on dervish tradition

In a 500-year-old stone theatre in the Egyptian capital, two young dervishes spin ceaselessly. Slowly, then all at once, they are consumed in a flurry of vivid fabrics.

Born into a lineage of whirling dervishes, Mohamed Adel, 20, takes great pride in the uniquely Egyptian interpretation of the centuries-old ritual known colloquially as "tanoura", or skirt in Arabic.

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Actor McConaughey calls for gun legislation at White House

Academy Award–winning actor Matthew McConaughey has made an appearance at the White House to call on Congress to "reach a higher ground" and pass gun control legislation in honor of the children and teachers killed in last month's shooting rampage at an elementary school in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas.

In a highly personal 22-minute speech, McConaughey exhorted a gridlocked Congress to pass gun reforms that can save lives without infringing on Second Amendment rights.

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Simone Biles, other women seek $1B-plus from FBI over Nassar

Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles and dozens of other women who say they were sexually assaulted by Larry Nassar are seeking more than $1 billion from the FBI for failing to stop the now convicted sports doctor when the agency first received allegations against him, lawyers said Wednesday.

There's no dispute that FBI agents in 2015 knew that Nassar was accused of assaulting gymnasts, but they failed to act, leaving him free to continue to target young women and girls for more than a year.

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Briton jailed 15 years, German freed in Iraq antiquities case

An Iraqi court on Monday sentenced a British retiree to 15 years' prison for trying to smuggle antiquities out of the country, but acquitted his German co-accused.

The maximum penalty for the offence is death by hanging but the court decided on a lesser sentence for James Fitton, 66, "because of the advanced age of the accused," the judge said.

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Kuwait supermarket pulls Indian products as row grows over Prophet remarks

A Kuwaiti supermarket pulled Indian products from its shelves and Iran became the latest Middle Eastern country to summon the Indian ambassador as a row grew on Monday over a ruling party official's remarks about the Prophet Mohammed.

Workers at the Al-Ardiya Co-Operative Society store piled Indian tea and other products into trolleys in a protest against comments denounced as "Islamophobic".

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Jerusalem holds annual Pride Parade despite threats

Thousands of people have attended the annual Jerusalem Pride Parade amid heavy protection by Israeli police, who arrested three people suspected of threatening the event.

Past years have seen religious radicals attack participants. Jerusalem is home to a large ultra-Orthodox Jewish community and other conservative religious groups, and many residents oppose the event.

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