Universities in Kabul were almost empty on the first day of the Afghan school year, as professors and students wrestled with the Taliban's restrictive new rules for the classroom.

The Taliban have promised a softer rule than during their first stint in power from 1996-2001, when women's freedoms in Afghanistan were sharply curtailed and they were banned from higher education.

Pope Francis on Sunday asked for prayers for his visit later this month to "the heart of Europe," a four-day pilgrimage to Hungary and Slovakia, which will be his first travels since surgery earlier this summer.

Francis spoke of his trip that begins in Hungary on Sept. 12, then takes him to Slovakia, before returning to the Vatican on Sept. 15.

In 2018, Tessa Ganserer made history as the first openly transgender woman to serve in a German state assembly.

Rights activists said Monday they had filed a criminal complaint in Germany against five retailers including C&A, Lidl and Hugo Boss, accusing them of benefiting from forced labor among China's Uyghur population.

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) said it had filed the case, which also targeted the two supermarket chains Aldi Nord and Aldi Sued, after carrying out an open source investigation.

Iraq will allow only 40,000 foreigners, 30,000 from Iran, to attend the Arbaeen pilgrimage later this month in the Shiite shrine city of Karbala, authorities said Sunday, due to the pandemic.

Arbaeen marks the end of the 40-day mourning period for the killing of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed, by the forces of the caliph Yazid in 680 AD.

Having started on the 15th of August and running until the 26th of September, an extraordinary musical event featuring 37 soloists, seven orchestras and twelve conductors from all over the world is being held in Dubai, UAE. This distinguished project is led by the European Foundation for Support of Culture (EUFSC) with the collaboration of SAMIT Event Group. InClassica 2021 brings classical music to new audiences, and gives this prestigious art form a new platform in today's cultural landscape.

In addition to this outstanding festival, the EUFSC and SAMIT are also bringing to Dubai two hotly anticipated events: the Classic Piano International Competition, which started on the 15th August and finished on the 3rd of September, and the Middle East Classical Music Academy (MECMA). Classic Piano featured the winners of fourteen preliminary competitions from around the world, who competed in Dubai across four rounds in a display of pianistic excellence. The Middle East Classical Music Academy, taking place in parallel with InClassica from 4th to 23rd September, welcomes some of the most esteemed professors and performers from across the globe, for a series of workshops, lectures and open masterclasses for piano, violin, cello, clarinet and flute.

The new head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro was inaugurated on Sunday, arriving by helicopter under the protection of police who dispersed protesters with tear gas.

A small group of Afghan women protested near the presidential palace in Kabul on Friday, demanding equal rights from the Taliban as Afghanistan's new rulers work on forming a government and seeking international recognition.

The Taliban captured most of the country in a matter of days last month and celebrated the departure of the last U.S. forces after 20 years of war. Now they face the urgent challenge of governing a war-ravaged country that is heavily reliant on international aid.

The Vatican has concluded that allegations of sexual abuse dating back a half century against the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brooklyn do not "have the semblance of truth," but an attorney for the accusers said they would press forward with their civil cases.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, said Wednesday that the Vatican has closed its investigation into allegations made separately by two men, who accused the bishop, Nicholas DiMarzio, of abusing them a half century ago when he was a priest in New Jersey.

The president of the U.N. Security Council says the U.N.'s most powerful body will not take its focus off Afghanistan this month and "the real litmus test" for the new Taliban government will be how it treats women and girls.

Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason of Ireland said Wednesday that the protection and promotion of human rights for women "must be at the very heart of our collective response to the crisis."