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Lager-than-life president: Macron downs a beer to cheers, and criticism

French President Emmanuel Macron has created a brouhaha in France after being filmed downing a bottle of beer with Toulouse's rugby players after they clinched the domestic league title at the weekend.

Video has emerged on French TV channels and on social media showing the president being handed a bottle of Corona in the Toulouse changing room after the end of the game at the Stade de France in Paris on Saturday, which Macron watched from the VIP enclosure.

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Interpol issues notice for Lebanese man suspected of trafficking in looted antiquities

Interpol has issued an international warrant for a Lebanese man suspected of trafficking stolen antiquities, weeks after he was questioned in Lebanon, judicial officials said.

The Red Notice was unsealed 10 months after a criminal court in New York issued an arrest warrant for Georges Lotfi, 82, charging him with criminal possession of stolen property as well as possessing looted artifacts.

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Putin says Zelensky a 'disgrace to Jewish people'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, is a "disgrace" to people of his faith.

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Spiderman pulled from cinemas in Arab world, possibly over transgender flag

The new blockbuster movie "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" was abruptly removed from cinema listings in more than a dozen Muslim-majority countries without explanation, apparently over the inclusion of a blink-and-you-miss-it transgender poster in the background of one frame.

Empire Entertainment, the Middle East distributor for the computer-animated Sony Pictures film, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

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Pope leaves hospital 9 days after operation, surgeon says 'he's better than before'

Pope Francis on Friday was discharged from the Rome hospital where he had abdominal surgery nine days earlier to repair a hernia and remove painful scarring, with his surgeon saying the pontiff is now "better than before" the hospitalization.

Francis, 86, left through Gemelli Polyclinic's main exit in a wheelchair, smiling and waving and saying "thanks" to a crowd of well-wishers, then stood up so he could get into the small Vatican car awaiting him. In the brief distance before he could reach the white Fiat 500, reporters thrust microphones practically at his face, and the pontiff seemed to bat them away, good-naturedly.

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Climate protesters throw paint and glue at Monet painting in Swedish museum

Two women were detained in Stockholm after they threw "some kind of paint" at a painting by French artist Claude Monet and then glued themselves to the frame, Sweden's National Museum said Wednesday.

The painting, "The Artist's Garden at Giverny," was on display as part of an exhibition at the museum. Spokesperson Hanna Tottmar said artwork was encased in glass and "is now being examined by the museum's conservators to see if any damage has occurred."

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Pope, imam call for peace before UN Security Council vote

Pope Francis and a leading Sunni imam have made calls for peace as the U.N. Security Council met to discuss the importance of "human fraternity" and condemn the hatreds that kindle conflicts.

The pope, who is in hospital recovering from abdominal surgery, sent a statement saying that a third world war is being fought "piecemeal" and with the potentially catastrophic effects of nuclear weapons "the time has come to say an emphatic 'no' to war."

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After long waits, new pilgrims prepare for return of Hajj

This year's Hajj is a landmark: the first full pilgrimage after a daunting three-year period when the COVID-19 pandemic sharply reduced the scale of one of Islam's holiest and most beloved rites.

Millions of Muslims from around the world will start converging next week on Mecca in Saudi Arabia to begin the several days of rituals at holy sites in and around the city. For pilgrims, it is the ultimate spiritual moment of their lives, a chance to seek God's forgiveness for their sins and walk in the footsteps of revered prophets like Muhammad and Abraham.

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Pope expected to be released soon from hospital

Pope Francis is expected to be released from the hospital "in the coming days," as he recovers well and without complications from abdominal surgery last week, the Vatican said Wednesday.

In his daily medical update, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Francis again rested well overnight, was at work during the day and had received the Eucharist during a moment of prayer in the chapel of his hospital suite.

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An Amazon rainforest rite of passage in threatened territory

The Indigenous adolescents danced in a circle under the thatched-roof hut from nearly dawn to dusk while parents looked on from the perimeter. Some of the adults smoked tobacco mixed with the wood from a local tree in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.

The seemingly endless loop of the procession, taking place over six long days this month, was leaving some Tembé Tenehara youngsters with swollen and bandaged feet. They were receiving little to eat and spending each night sleeping in hammocks slung in the hut. But in the Alto Rio Guama territory, it is all part of a vital rite of passage known as "Wyra'whaw."

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