When Erdina Laca goes grocery shopping in Eichsfeld these days, she pulls out a special payment card that's for asylum-seekers only.

She no longer pays in cash for her apples, eggs and fish — like most of the Germans standing in line with her at the register.

The birthday of the historical Buddha or Shakyamuni Buddha, known as Vesak in several countries, celebrates the birth of the child who became Prince Siddhartha around the end of the 4th century B.C. This is a holy occasion for all Buddhists, but is celebrated on different dates depending on the school of Buddhism or country to which one belongs. In several Asian countries, it is observed on the eighth day of the fourth month of the lunisolar calendar, which this year falls on May 15. In several South and Southeast Asian countries, it is celebrated on the first full moon of May, which falls on May 23.

BUDDHA'S BIRTH AND LIFE

Lebanon's Muslim religious authorities have filed complaints against a stand-up comedian and LGBTQ rights activist, after a sketch of hers about Friday prayers sparked controversy online.

Pope Francis pressed his campaign Friday to urge Italians to have children, calling for long-term policies to help families and warning that the country's demographic crisis was threatening the future.

"The number of births is the first indicator of the hope of a people," Francis told an annual gathering of pro-family groups. "Without children and young people, a country loses its desire for the future."

Torchbearers carried the Olympic flame through the streets of France's southern port city of Marseille on Thursday, a day after it arrived on a majestic three-mast ship for a welcoming ceremony.

The torch begins its 11-week journey across the country with about 10,000 bearers passing through more than 450 towns until the Games' opening ceremony in Paris on July 26.

The Vatican crosses a key milestone Thursday in the runup to its 2025 Jubilee with the promulgation of the official decree establishing the Holy Year. It's a once-every-quarter-century event that is expected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to Rome and has already brought months of headaches to Romans.

Pope Francis will preside over a ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica for the formal reading of the papal bull, or official edict, that lays out the spiritual theme of hope for the year. The event also kicks off the final seven-month dash of preparations and public works projects to be completed by Dec. 24, when Francis opens the basilica's Holy Door and formally inaugurates the Jubilee.

The Olympic torch will finally enter France when it reaches the southern seaport of Marseille on Wednesday. And it's already been quite a journey.

After being lit by the sun's rays on April 16 in Ancient Olympia, the torch was carried around Greece before leaving Athens aboard a three-mast ship named Belem, headed for Marseille.

By Graham Liddell, Hope College

Words fail as 2,000-pound bombs shred lives and limbs.

If a woman wins Mexico's presidency on June 2, would she rule with gender in mind?

The question has been raised by academics, humans rights organizations and activists ahead of the voting that will likely elect Mexico's first female president for the term 2024-2030.

Venice has always been a place of contrasts, of breathtaking beauty and devastating fragility, where history, religion, art and nature have collided over the centuries to produce an otherworldly gem of a city. But even for a place that prides itself on its culture of unusual encounters, Pope Francis' visit Sunday stood out.

Francis traveled to the lagoon city to visit the Holy See's pavilion at the Biennale contemporary art show and meet with the people who created it. But because the Vatican decided to mount its exhibit in Venice's women's prison, and invited inmates to collaborate with the artists, the whole project assumed a far more complex meaning, touching on Francis' belief in the power of art to uplift and unite, and of the need to give hope and solidarity to society's most marginalized.