A narrow path winds through Kashmir's Valley of Pearls towards 13 tin-roofed shops hidden in a rickety row, a women-only market that doubles as a space for those seeking help against the violence of Pakistan's patriarchy.

Two teenage girls allegedly caught kissing on a roof appeared in court in Morocco's Marrakesh on Friday charged with homosexual acts, one of their lawyers said.

A papal commission on the role of female deacons met for the first time Friday in a move reformers hope could open the door to women eventually entering the Catholic clergy.

Jihadists from the Islamic State group have destroyed ancient sites and museum pieces in Syria and Iraq in the last two years but that is just the latest example of extremists attacking religious buildings or art.

An Egyptian appeals court on Thursday reduced and suspended the prison sentence of author Fatima Naoot who was convicted on charges of insulting religion, a judicial official said.

Death threats left at a liberal synagogue in Israel appear to have been the work of people opposed to mixed prayers at one of Judaism's holiest sites, police said Thursday.

Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient Egyptian city and graveyard dating back to around 5300 BC, the antiquities ministry said on Wednesday.

An Istanbul court on Wednesday ordered prominent Turkish novelist Asli Erdogan and linguist Necmiye Alpay to remain in jail on controversial terror charges, disappointing supporters after earlier reports they were to be released.

A Turkish parliamentary committee on Wednesday threw out a bill that could have pardoned men convicted of child-sex assault, sealing the end of a controversy that led to a huge public outcry and protests.

A Pakistani anti-terror court sentenced five people to death Wednesday over the killing of a Christian couple who were lynched and burned in a kiln after being falsely accused of blasphemy.