Prince William on Thursday defended the British royal family after his younger brother Harry and wife Meghan accused them of racism in a bombshell interview watched around the world.

The sound of men punching holes into colourful rubber sheets reverberates across a tiny studio in India's largest slum -- an unlikely birthplace for luxury handbags made by a marginalised community seeking to reclaim its identity.

Britain's royal family was under pressure on Tuesday to respond to Prince Harry and his wife Meghan's claims of racism, triggering a crisis for the institution not seen since the time of his late mother, Diana.

Half a year after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain established diplomatic relations with Israel, discreet Jewish communities in the Gulf Arab states that once lived in the shadow of the Arab-Israeli conflict are adopting a more public profile.

Kosher food is now available. Jewish holidays are celebrated openly. There is even a fledgling religious court to sort out issues such as marriages and divorces.

From videos of deadly air strikes to jihadist takeovers, Al-Mutez Billah's YouTube page served as a digital archive of the Syrian war until automated takedown software in 2017 erased it permanently.

Swiss voters on Sunday narrowly backed banning full face coverings, a decision hailed by supporters as a move against radical Islam but branded sexist and racist by opponents.

Pope Francis vowed Sunday to keep Iraq in his heart, as he concluded the largest mass and final public event of a historic trip meant to encourage the country's dwindling Christian community and deepen interfaith dialogue.

The Iraq meeting of Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, one of Shiite Islam's top clerics, was front-page news in Iran Sunday, with some media declaring it a chance for peace in the neighboring country.

Pope Francis prayed Sunday for "victims of war" in northern Iraq, where the Islamic State group ravaged one of the world's oldest Christian communities until the jihadists' defeat three years ago.

The United Nations said on Friday it was yet to see evidence from the United Arab Emirates government that Dubai's Sheikha Latifa was still alive.