Pope Leo XIV is planning to visit Lebanon this year on his first foreign visit, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said, a trip that would give history's first American pope a chance to speak in broad terms about peace in the Middle East and the plight of Christians there.

A visit to Lebanon could be the second leg of a planned visit to Turkey at the end of November to commemorate an important anniversary with the Orthodox Church.

Pope Leo XIV asked people to fast on Friday to pray for peace and justice in the Middle East and Ukraine, issuing a special appeal as he returned to the Vatican from summer vacation.

At the end of his weekly general audience Wednesday, Leo recalled that Friday is a special feast day dedicated to the Virgin Mary. He urged Catholic faithful to spend the day fasting and "praying that the Lord grants peace and justice, and dries the tears of all those who are suffering as a result of the armed conflicts underway."

When Olivier Baroin moved into an apartment in Montmartre about 15 years ago, it felt like he was living in a village in the heart of Paris. Not anymore.

Stores for residents are disappearing, along with the friendly atmosphere, he says. In their place are hordes of people taking selfies, shops selling tourist trinkets, and cafés whose seating spills into the narrow, cobbled streets as overtourism takes its toll.

On opposite sides of ethnically divided Cyprus, even the resting places of the dead haven't been spared the fallout of war.

Shattered granite crosses are strewn about the weed-choked Greek Cypriot cemeteries in the island's northern third that's in Turkish Cypriot hands. In the Greek Cypriot south, Muslim headstones in Turkish Cypriot cemeteries are concealed by overgrowth. Until 2003, no one could cross a United Nations-controlled buffer zone to place flowers at loved ones' graves.

Israel's targeted killing of an Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza over the weekend was noteworthy even for a conflict remarkably blood-soaked for journalists, leaving some experts to marvel that any news at all emerges from the territory.

An Al Jazeera executive said Monday that it won't back down from covering what is going on there and called for news organizations to step up and recruit more journalists. A total of 184 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed by Israel in the Gaza war since its start in October 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. That compares to the 18 journalists and media workers killed so far in the Russia-Ukraine war, CPJ said.

Madonna has urged the pope to travel to Gaza and "bring your light to the children before it's too late."

The superstar posted her appeal to the pontiff on social media Monday, saying her son Rocco's birthday prompted her to make the post. Rocco turned 25 Monday.

Nestled among shops in a bustling market in north Lebanon's Tripoli, Mohammed al-Shaar is at his workshop making traditional tarboosh hats, keeping up a family craft despite dwindling demand.

With a thimble on one finger, Shaar, 38, cuts, sews and carefully assembles the pieces of the conical, flat-topped felt hat also known as a fez, attaching a tassel to the top.

The Center for Women in Business at the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business (OSB) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) hosted a graduation ceremony marking the completion of QUDWA—an initiative supporting women in Lebanon’s informal sector.

The event honored twenty women from across Lebanon who successfully completed the QUDWA program. Over the past five years, these women have launched and grown their own businesses in regions including Tripoli, South Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Baalbeck-Hermel.

Cabinet has decided to rebaptize a thoroughfare named after former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad in favor of late Lebanese musician and playwright Ziad Rahbani, a move many welcomed on Wednesday.

The decision marks the end of an era and a rupture with the authoritarian rule of former Syrian leaders Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar -- close allies of Lebanon's Hezbollah -- who from Damascus held Lebanon in a stranglehold for almost three decades.

The British Embassy in Beirut announced Tuesday that applications for the UK Government’s flagship Chevening Scholarships program are now open. Applicants should apply online via www.chevening.org/apply by 7 October 2025.

Lebanese citizens (and Palestinians residing in Lebanon) are eligible to apply under the Lebanon scheme in any subject area, the embassy said in a statement.