Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrived at the Vatican on Thursday for a historic visit to forge closer relations between the Church of England and the Catholic Church, a welcome spiritual respite for the royals from the turmoil at home over the Epstein sex scandal.

Charles, who is the titular head of the Church of England, arrived with Camilla in a St. Peter's Square that had been nearly emptied by security forces. The king and queen had an audience with Pope Leo XIV, their first since his election in May.

The pumpkin is the undisputed star of the show at the Klaistow farm near Berlin.

The Louvre reopened on Wednesday to long lines beneath its landmark Paris glass pyramid, just three days after one of the highest-profile museum thefts of the century stunned the world with its audacity and scale.

The thieves slipped in and out, making off with eight pieces from France's Crown Jewels at the world's most-visited museum — a cultural wound that some compared to the burning of Notre-Dame cathedral in 2019.

Vatican will return dozens of artifacts to Indigenous groups in Canada as gesture of reconciliation

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

The jewels stolen from Paris' Louvre Museum in an extraordinary heist are a window into 19th-century French imperial history.

Millions of Indians celebrated Diwali on Monday as lamps illuminated homes and streets across the country to mark the Hindu festival symbolizing the victory of light over darkness.

Pope Leo XIV on Thursday called on world leaders to show responsibility as he urged the international community to focus on the multitudes across the globe who face hunger, wars and misery.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Lebanon and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) have announced a new partnership to advance gender equality in conflict-affected Lebanon by responding to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) needs for women, youth, and marginalized communities.

"This partnership represents a significant step forward in strengthening gender equality through national policy engagement, social protection initiatives, and outreach services to reach the most vulnerable populations across Lebanon," UNFPA said in a statement.

Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai, whose philosophical, bleakly funny novels often unfold in single sentences, won the Nobel Prize in literature Thursday for his "compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art."

Pope Leo XIV has said his first foreign trip, to Turkey and Lebanon next month, would provide a historic opportunity to promote Christian unity while bringing a message of peace and hope to Lebanon's long-suffering people and the broader Middle East.

Leo outlined the trip, announced by the Vatican Tuesday on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel, during an encounter with reporters as he left the papal country estate south of Rome.