Afghanistan should join a list of the "worst of the worst" violators of religious freedom in the wake of the Taliban's return to power, a U.S. advisory body is recommending to the State Department.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, in its annual report, says religious minorities have "faced harassment, detention and even death due to their faith or beliefs" since the Taliban re-imposed its harsh interpretation of Sunni Islam on Afghanistan. It also cited attacks on religious minorities by an Islamic State affiliate that is an enemy of the Taliban.

France on Tuesday condemned the life sentence handed by a Turkish court to leading civil society activist Osman Kavala, saying his detention violated Turkey's international obligations.

"France strongly condemns the life sentence," the foreign ministry said in a statement, calling for Kavala's "immediate release" and the dropping of all charges against him. He had been detained for more than four-and a-half years "in violation of Turkey's international obligations," the French ministry added.

The longtime leader of Human Rights Watch announced Tuesday he will step down this summer as executive director after nearly three decades at the helm of one of the world's leading advocacy organizations.

Kenneth Roth ran the New York-based group as it shared a Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for its efforts to ban anti-personnel land mines. The group also pushed to establish the International Criminal Court for prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Authorities used bulldozers to raze a number of Muslim-owned shops in New Delhi before India's Supreme Court halted the demolitions Wednesday, days after communal violence shook the capital and saw dozens arrested.

Shop owners searched through the rubble of their shops afterward to collect their belongings. But for nearly an hour after the Supreme Court order, officials continued to demolish structures, including the outer entrance and stairs leading into a mosque. They stopped the bulldozers just outside the entrance of a Hindu temple, about 50 meters (160 feet) from the mosque, and began to retreat, spurring outrage from Muslim residents who said they were being targeted.

Churches in Jerusalem are up in arms against Jewish "radicals" who are settling in the Christian Quarter and threatening a fragile religious balance in the ancient Holy City.

"We have a major problem here," said Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilus III in Jerusalem's Old City, which is split into historic Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian quarters.

President Michel Aoun expressed Wednesday his support for Palestinians and Jerusalemites, after a weekend of violence in Jerusalem.

"The systematic attacks of the Israeli occupation forces on al-Aqsa Mosque will not change the identity of the Holy City," Aoun said.

Indonesia's Parliament approved a far-reaching law on Tuesday that sets punishments for sexual violence after being spurred into action by a recent case in which an Islamic boarding school principal raped and impregnated several students.

The legislation had languished for years amid arguments that it contravenes religious and cultural values in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation.

A leading Egyptian pro-democracy activist who has been imprisoned for more than 3 1/2 years has obtained a British passport, his family said. The move is likely meant to pressure Egyptian authorities to release him.

Alaa Abdel-Fattah, an outspoken dissident, rose to prominence with the 2011 pro-democracy uprisings that swept the Middle East and in Egypt toppled long-time President Hosni Mubarak. The 40-year old activist spent most of the past decade behind bars and his detention has become a symbol of Egypt's return to autocratic rule.

Camila Cabello says she found joy in her roots while working on "Familia," her new studio album. The pop singer and songwriter, born in Havana to a Cuban mother and a Mexican father, immersed herself in the music she listened to while growing up and even ventured to write for the first time a couple of songs fully in Spanish.

"I was curious what the process would be, because my process in English is very like me on a mic, and I just sing whatever kind of comes to my head, including lyrics. So I was like, 'I wonder what's gonna come out in Spanish,'" she said in a recent interview via Zoom from Los Angeles.

U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea has participated in the inauguration of the Hinterland Archaeological Heritage Project in Jabal Moussa, funded by the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, the U.S. Embassy said on Monday.