President Donald Trump on Friday urged U.S. state governors to allow places of worship to reopen immediately, as the country moves gradually towards a lifting of COVID-19 lockdown measures.

"Today I am identifying houses of worship -- churches, synagogues and mosques -- as essential places that provide essential services," Trump told a news conference at the White House.

Muslims worldwide will celebrate one of their biggest holidays under the long shadow of the coronavirus, with millions confined to their homes and others gripped by economic concerns during what is usually a festive time of shopping and celebration.

German car giant Volkswagen apologized Wednesday for an Instagram ad that showed a giant white hand pushing around a black person, after an online backlash slamming the clip as racist.

Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican reopened to visitors on Monday after being closed for over two months under Italy's lockdown orders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Virus-hit Iran will reopen its mosques for three nights over the next week so that worshippers can pray during one of the holiest times of year, a minister said Tuesday.

Woody Allen's controversial autobiography "Apropos of Nothing" will finally be published in French in June after the first U.S. edition was pulled and then pulped.

The halls are eerily quiet at Madrid's Reina Sofia, Spain's most visited museum, as a solitary art restorer looks after its star attraction -- Pablo Picasso's anti-war masterpiece "Guernica".

Like thousands of Saudi women, Rouaa al-Mousa entered the workforce as reforms sweep the ultra-conservative kingdom and is certain that neither grumbling male bosses nor the coronavirus will change that.

Saudi Arabia on Sunday partially eased a 24-hour curfew in place to combat the coronavirus pandemic, except for in hotspots including the Muslim holy city of Mecca.

Saudi Arabia has abolished flogging as a punishment, the supreme court announced, hailing the latest in a series of "human rights advances" made by the king and his powerful son.