An award-wining Iranian filmmaker said authorities raided the offices and homes of several filmmakers and other industry professionals and arrested some of them.

Mohammad Rasoulof said in a statement signed by dozens of movie industry professionals on his Instagram account late Saturday that security forces made some arrests and confiscated film production equipment during raids conducted in recent days. The statement condemned the actions and called them "illegal."

Hindus in Indian-controlled Kashmir staged protests on Friday a day after assailants shot and killed a government employee from the minority community.

Police blamed anti-India rebels for the killing of Rahul Bhat inside an office complex in Chadoora town on Thursday.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari met Thursday at Dar al-Fatwa in Beirut with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan, the country’s top Sunni Muslim cleric.

During the meeting, Bukhari expressed “the firm solidarity of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries with the Lebanese people, and our permanent keenness on Lebanon’s security, stability, territorial integrity, Arab belonging and independent political decision.”

Andy Warhol's "Shot Sage Blue Marilyn" sold for a cool $195 million on Monday, making the iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe the most expensive work by a U.S. artist ever sold at auction.

The 1964 silkscreen image shows Monroe in vibrant close-up — hair yellow, eyeshadow blue and lips red — on a rich blue background. It's also the most expensive piece from the 20th century ever auctioned, according to Christie's auction house in New York, where the sale took place.

When she was 18, she was handpicked by Mikhail Baryshnikov to dance a high-profile role at American Ballet Theatre, launching a celebrated career as one of the world's top ballerinas. Now, 40 years later, Susan Jaffe has been named to lead the company.

Jaffe takes over in December as artistic director at ABT, succeeding Kevin McKenzie as the first new director in 30 years. Jaffe says her goals include making the overwhelmingly white ballet world more accessible and inclusive.

Joshua Cohen's "The Netanyahus," a comic and rigorous campus novel based on the true story of the father of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeking a job in academia, has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Benzion Netanyahu, who died in 2012, was a medieval historian and ultra-nationalist who taught at several American schools, including the University of Denver and Cornell University. "The Netanyahus" is set around 1959-60 and centers on a Jewish historian at a university loosely based on Cornell who is asked to help decide whether to hire the visiting Israeli scholar. The novel, subtitled "An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family," has been highly praised for its blend of wit and intellectual debate about Zionism and Jewish identity.

On Monday, May 9, 32 students from eight private and public schools across Lebanon participated in a contest celebrating Europe Day, as 2022 marks the European Year of the Youth.

Egypt's public prosecutor ordered Monday that 13 teenage boys arrested over the weekend and accused of harassing two women tourists at the Giza Pyramids near Cairo remain in custody pending an investigation.

The arrests came after a video surfaced on social media showing a crowd of boys swarming around two young women at the famous archeological site, one of Egypt's top tourist attractions.

Arooza was furious and afraid, keeping her eyes open for Taliban on patrol as she and a friend shopped Sunday in Kabul's Macroyan neighborhood.

The math teacher was fearful her large shawl, wrapped tight around her head, and sweeping pale brown coat would not satisfy the latest decree by the country's religiously driven Taliban government. After all, more than just her eyes were showing. Her face was visible.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers on Saturday ordered all Afghan women to wear head-to-toe clothing in public — a sharp, hard-line pivot that confirmed the worst fears of rights activists and was bound to further complicate Taliban dealings with an already distrustful international community.

The decree, which calls for women to only show their eyes and recommends they wear the head-to-toe burqa, evoked similar restrictions on women during the Taliban's previous rule between 1996 and 2001.