Pope Francis says he hasn't even considered issuing norms to regulate future papal resignations and plans to continue for as long as he can as bishop of Rome, despite a wave of attacks by some top-ranking cardinals and bishops.

In his first interview since the Dec. 31 death of retired Pope Benedict XVI, Francis addressed his health, his critics and the next phase of his pontificate, which marks its 10th anniversary in March without Benedict's shadow in the background.

Dedicated to an Indian goddess as a child, Huvakka Bhimappa's years of sexual servitude began when her uncle took her virginity, raping her in exchange for a saree and some jewelry.

Bhimappa was not yet 10 years old when she became a "devadasi" -- girls coerced by their parents into an elaborate wedding ritual with a Hindu deity, many of whom are then forced into illegal prostitution. 

Five years into the #MeToo movement, French society "remains very sexist in all of its spheres," a government-created equality watchdog said in an annual report Monday that also sounded the alarm about double-digit rates of sexual violence reported by women.

The High Council for Equality between Women and Men called for a national "emergency plan" to combat what it described as "the massive, violent and sometimes lethal consequences" of sexism against women.

A Lutheran church ceremony in Jerusalem has ordained the first Palestinian female pastor in the Holy Land.

Sally Azar will head the English-speaking congregation at the Church of the Redeemer, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land said.

Outrage over a Quran-burning protest in Sweden produced a second day of protests in Turkey, reflecting tensions between the two countries.

Some 250 people gathered outside the Swedish Consulate in Istanbul, where a photo of Danish anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan was set on fire. Paludan burned Islam's holy book outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm on Saturday, sparking protests in Istanbul and Ankara that night.

Established in 2013, EDUCITY, the leading fair organizer, has launched SchoolTec, the first national exhibition for Educational Supplies and Solutions, which is taking place for the first time in Lebanon.

The opening ceremony took place on Wednesday January 18, 2023 in the presence of hundreds of educators. And the fair will continue on Thursday January 19, and on Friday January 20 from 3:00 until 9:00 p.m. in Mövenpick Hotel Beirut – Lebanon.

Every Lunar New Year without fail, Kat Lieu's mother would make her steamed nian gao, which is a sweet rice — or mochi — cake. It was a tasty tradition of having dessert for breakfast.

The Seattle-based author of the "Modern Asian Baking at Home" cookbook and founder of the Subtle Asian Baking online group switches things up for her 9-year-old son. He gets mochi waffles made with bright green pandan the first morning of the new year.

A Muslim religious leader's instruction to women to dutifully accept a husband's "invitation to bed" to procreate has sparked outrage among many Turkish Cypriots, who saw the remarks as an imported encroachment of fundamentalist Islam on their secular community.

"We don't live in a theocratic regime. This is neither Afghanistan nor Iran, sir!" said Dogus Derya, a prominent female lawmaker with the left-wing CTP party in ethnically divided Cyprus' breakaway Turkish Cypriot north.

A Detroit museum displaying a 1888 painting by Vincent van Gogh as part of a showing of 80 of his works said it shouldn't be pulled into a dispute over ownership of the multimillion-dollar artwork.

The Detroit Institute of Arts said federal law gives it immunity in a lawsuit by a Brazilian collector who claims to be the owner of the painting, titled "The Novel Reader." The museum responded in court Monday, less than a week before the rare U.S. exhibition ends.

Archeologists in Norway said Tuesday that have found a runestone which they claim is the world's oldest, saying the inscriptions are up to 2,000 years old and date back to the earliest days of the enigmatic history of runic writing.

The flat, square block of brownish sandstone has carved scribbles, which may be the earliest example of words recorded in writing in Scandinavia, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said. It said it was "among the oldest runic inscriptions ever found" and "the oldest datable runestone in the world."