Thousands of people marched in Bangladesh's capital on Thursday to demand the governments of Bangladesh and India officially condemn comments by two Indian governing party officials deemed derogatory to Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The march began at the country's main Baitul Mukarram Mosque but was blocked by police as it headed toward India's Embassy, a few kilometers (miles) away.

Russia said Wednesday it was "deeply concerned" after Israel's top court ruled that a Jewish settler group legally purchased an east Jerusalem property from the Greek Orthodox Church.

Avraham B. Yehoshua, one of Israel's most revered and prolific novelists and a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights, has died aged 85, Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital said Tuesday.

Explorers and historians are telling the world about the discovery of the wreck of a royal warship that sank in 1682 while carrying a future king of England, Ireland and Scotland.

The HMS Gloucester, traveling from southern England to Scotland, ran aground while navigating sandbanks off the town of Great Yarmouth on the eastern English coast. It sank within an hour, killing an estimated 130 to 250 crew and passengers.

Thousands of people marched in Bangladesh's capital and in parts of India on Friday to urge Muslim-majority nations to cut ties with India and boycott its products unless it punishes two governing party officials for comments deemed derogatory to Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The protesters in Dhaka also criticized their country's government for not publicly condemning the comments made last week by the two officials in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's governing Bharatiya Janata Party.

Pope Francis canceled a planned July trip to Africa on doctors' orders because of ongoing knee problems, the Vatican said Friday, raising further questions about the health and mobility problems of the 85-year-old pontiff.

The Vatican said the July 2-7 trip to Congo and South Sudan would be rescheduled "to a later date to be determined."

Tens of thousands of people attended this year's Pride Parade in Tel Aviv on Friday, celebrating the LGBTQ community and calling for equality in the largest annual gathering of its kind in the Middle East.

The sprawling event in Israel's seaside metropolis, which resembles a festive block party, returned last year after pandemic restrictions were mostly lifted. This year it is being held after Israel reopened to foreign tourists.

In a 500-year-old stone theatre in the Egyptian capital, two young dervishes spin ceaselessly. Slowly, then all at once, they are consumed in a flurry of vivid fabrics.

Born into a lineage of whirling dervishes, Mohamed Adel, 20, takes great pride in the uniquely Egyptian interpretation of the centuries-old ritual known colloquially as "tanoura", or skirt in Arabic.

Academy Award–winning actor Matthew McConaughey has made an appearance at the White House to call on Congress to "reach a higher ground" and pass gun control legislation in honor of the children and teachers killed in last month's shooting rampage at an elementary school in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas.

In a highly personal 22-minute speech, McConaughey exhorted a gridlocked Congress to pass gun reforms that can save lives without infringing on Second Amendment rights.

Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles and dozens of other women who say they were sexually assaulted by Larry Nassar are seeking more than $1 billion from the FBI for failing to stop the now convicted sports doctor when the agency first received allegations against him, lawyers said Wednesday.

There's no dispute that FBI agents in 2015 knew that Nassar was accused of assaulting gymnasts, but they failed to act, leaving him free to continue to target young women and girls for more than a year.