Pope Francis marked the second anniversary of the Beirut port explosion by insisting Wednesday that truth and justice "can never be hidden," in an apparent reference to the stalled investigation into the disaster.

Francis made the comments at the end of his weekly general audience, the first after his month-long summer break.

Marking the World Day against Trafficking in Persons (TiP) 2022, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) together with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Lebanon organized awareness raising sessions on trafficking in persons for more than 150 migrants from various communities.

The sessions were organized in collaboration with Caritas Lebanon and Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), L'Union Pour La Protection de L'Enfance Au Liban (UPEL) and KAFA (enough) Violence & Exploitation.

Somalia has appointed the former deputy leader and spokesman for the Al-Shabaab Islamist group as religion minister, Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said Tuesday. 

The British Embassy Beirut has announced that applications for the UK Government’s flagship Chevening Scholarships program opened on August 2.

Applicants should apply online via www.chevening.org/apply by 1 Nov 2022.

In the basement of the National Library of Tunis, conservator Hasna Gabsi combs through shelves of newspapers dating back to the mid-19th century to select the latest to digitize.

She picks out a yellowed copy of an Arabic-language newspaper printed in the 1880s, then walks to the sections containing French, Italian, Maltese and Spanish-language newspapers published in Tunisia.

Khaled Bahlawan hammers nails into a traditional wooden boat he built by hand, toiling under the scorching sun on Syria's Mediterranean coast to preserve a disappearing ancient skill.

"We are the last family that makes wooden ships and boats in Syria," said the 39-year-old on the shores of Arwad island, near the city of Tartus.

The Mona Lisa may maintain her famously enigmatic smile because she benefits from one of Paris' best-kept secrets: An underground cooling system that's helped the Louvre cope with the sweltering heat that has broken temperature records across Europe.

The little-known "urban cold" network snakes unsuspecting beneath Parisians' feet at a depth of up to 30 meters (98 feet), pumping out icy water through 89 kilometers (55 miles) of labyrinthine pipes, which is used to chill the air in over 700 sites. The system, which uses electricity generated by renewable sources, is the largest in Europe — and chugs on around the clock with a deafening noise totally inaudible above ground.

The Vatican confirmed Monday that Pope Francis will travel next month to Kazakhstan, where he could meet with Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has justified Moscow's war in Ukraine.

Francis, 85, will attend an interfaith conference in the Kazakh capital, Nur-Sultan, from Sept. 13-15, the Vatican said.

Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood as communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original "Star Trek" television series, has died at the age of 89.

Her son Kyle Johnson said Nichols died Saturday in Silver City, New Mexico.

Pope Francis said Saturday he needed to slow down, telling reporters after a six-day Canada trip he could no longer maintain his hectic international travel schedule -- while acknowledging he could also retire.