U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea has attended the inauguration of American Corner Tripoli in partnership with Safadi Foundation.

"This American Space at the Safadi Foundation Center will empower youth, women, and professionals through capacity building, cultural, and educational programs," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.

The nomad was thirsty, and the journey into the Somali desert would be long and taxing. 

Foreign tourists have been welcomed back to India after pandemic travel bans but intrepid travelers will have to brave the intense pollution season to visit the country's most famous attraction.

The Swedish Academy that chooses the Nobel Laureates in Literature said Monday it was following the case against Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, who is under investigation for allegedly insulting modern Turkey's founder in his latest novel.

In a brief statement, the Swedish Academy said it expects Turkey to respect its international commitments and that it was monitoring the "treatment" that Pamuk — who won the literature prize in 2006 — was receiving in the country.

A Danish artist who is seeking to retrieve his sculpture in Hong Kong commemorating the victims of China's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown said Friday he wants safe passage guaranteed for himself and his employees when they dismantle and remove the artwork called "Pillar of Shame," which is at the center of a controversy.

In an open letter, Jens Galschioet said that his presence in Hong Kong is "necessary" because the 8-meter-tall (26.25 feet), two-ton sculpture is "very difficult to move ... without causing significant and irreparable damage."

Pope Francis renewed his call for Europe to welcome and show solidarity with migrants, saying the diversity they're bringing to the continent is renewing European cities as a "beautiful mosaic, which should not be scarred or corrupted with prejudices or hatred."

Francis didn't mention the latest migration crisis at Poland's eastern border during a meeting with European Catholic missionary groups attending a meeting of the Migrantes foundation of the Italian bishops conference. Hundreds and possibly thousands of asylum-seekers, most from the Middle East, have massed along Belarus' border with Poland as a political standoff between the two countries intensifies.

Hong Kong's swanky new M+ museum — Asia's largest gallery with a billion-dollar collection — is set to open on Friday amid controversy over politics and censorship.

M+ boasts 183,000 square feet (17,000 square meters) of exhibition space, 33 galleries and over 6,400 works in its collection that range from modern and contemporary art to architecture and moving images. Designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, M+ aims to put Asia on the global map for art and was built to rival London's Modern Tate and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The cool 1960s-style lines of the Ariana Cinema's marquee stand out over a traffic-clogged roundabout in downtown Kabul. For decades, the historic cinema has entertained Afghans and borne witness to Afghanistan's wars, hopes and cultural shifts.

Now the marquee is stripped of the posters of Bollywood movies and American action flicks that used to adorn it. The gates are closed.

Omar El Akkad, an Egyptian-Canadian author and journalist, the author of a story of the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child, has won Canada's richest literary award.

El Akkad won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for his book "What Strange Paradise." The former Globe and Mail journalist received the honor at a nationally televised Toronto gala Monday night.

From the front porch of their cinderblock home, Garry and Amanda James gaze over Dubai's soaring skyscrapers and massive malls.

It's a skyline that in their young days had seemed impossibly far off. Outside Amanda's childhood home in the same spot three decades ago were just miles of empty desert.