Pope Francis urged his priests Thursday to avoid "clerical hypocrisy" and treat their flocks with mercy as he delivered a lengthy set of marching orders to Rome-based priests at the start of a busy few days leading to Easter.

A strong-looking Francis presided over a Holy Thursday Mass in St. Peter's Basilica during which the oils for church services are blessed. Later in the afternoon, he travels to Rome's main women's prison for the annual Holy Week ritual in which he washes the feet of inmates in a symbol of humility and service.

For the first time in 27 years, the U.S. government is changing how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity, an effort that federal officials believe will more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African heritage.

The revisions to the minimum categories on race and ethnicity, announced Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget, are the latest effort to label and define the people of the United States. This evolving process often reflects changes in social attitudes and immigration, as well as a wish for people in an increasingly diverse society to see themselves in the numbers produced by the federal government.

It was nice while it lasted.

An environmentally themed mural by elusive street artist Banksy that appeared last week on a London street has been encased in plastic and surrounded by fencing after an apparent act of vandalism.

Michelangelo's David has been a towering figure in Italian culture since its completion in 1504. But in the current era of the quick buck, curators worry the marble statue's religious and political significance is being diminished by the thousands of refrigerator magnets and other souvenirs sold around Florence focusing on David's genitalia.

The Galleria dell'Accademia's director, Cecilie Hollberg, has positioned herself as David's defender since her arrival at the museum in 2015, taking swift aim at those profiteering from his image, often in ways she finds "debasing."

French lawmakers are debating a bill Thursday that would ban discrimination over the texture, length, color or style of someone's hair. Its authors hope the groundbreaking measure sends a message of support to Black people and others who have faced hostility in the workplace and beyond because of their hair.

"It's about time," exclaimed Estelle Vallois, a 43-year-old consultant getting her short, coiled hair cut in a Paris salon, where the hairdressers are trained to handle all types of hair — a rarity in France. "Today, we're going even further toward taking down these barriers of discrimination."

An Iraqi man who carried out several Quran burnings in Sweden told a newspaper on Wednesday that he would seek asylum in neighboring Norway in the wake of a deportation order by authorities in Stockholm.

Salwan Momika, 37, has staged several burnings and desecrations of the sacred book of Islam in Sweden over the past few years.

Lawmakers in Thailand's lower house of Parliament overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill on Wednesday that would make the country the first in Southeast Asia to legalize equal rights for marriage partners of any gender.

The bill passed its final reading with the approval of 400 of the 415 members of the House of Representatives in attendance, with 10 voting against it, two abstaining and three not voting.

Istanbul, the city nestled along the Bosphorus strait for more than 2,500 years, takes another small step on its journey through history this week as voters decide who will lead the metropolis for the next five years.

Local elections will be held across Turkey on Sunday but, as always, the focus will be on the battle to win Istanbul, the country's largest city and its beating heart.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, the British Embassy in Beirut launched its ‘Ambassador For A Day’ (AFAD) competition, now jointly with the Embassy of Canada to Lebanon. AFAD winners will get to shadow an Ambassador in Lebanon for one day, to see first-hand how girls can become leaders and advocates for change.

Each winner will be paired with an Ambassador or head of a U.N. Agency in Lebanon to spend a day with them and their team, and be invited as Guests of Honour to a ceremony hosted by the British and Canadian embassies. "This promises to be an unforgettable opportunity to build skills in diplomacy, confidence, and leadership," the British Embassy in Beirut said in a statement.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday led tributes to former culture minister Frederic Mitterrand, who died at the age of 76, and was celebrated for beaming the arts into French homes through accessible television shows.

A nephew of former Socialist president Francois Mitterrand, Frederic Mitterrand nonetheless attracted controversy over a 2005 book seen as a work of autofiction whose narrator boasted of paying for sex with young males in southeast Asia.