Winners of the 2021 Nobel Prizes began receiving their awards on Monday in scaled-down local ceremonies adapted for pandemic times.

For a second year, COVID-19 has scuttled the traditional formal banquet in Stockholm attended by winners of the prizes in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and economics, which were announced in October. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded separately in Oslo, Norway.

Pope Francis returned Sunday to the Greek island of Lesbos to offer comfort to migrants at a refugee camp and blast what he said was the indifference and self-interest shown by Europe "that condemns to death those on the fringes."

"Please, let us stop this shipwreck of civilization!" Francis said at the Mavrovouni camp, a cluster of white U.N. containers on the edge of the sea lined by barbed wire fencing and draped with laundry hanging from lines.

Only a few times a year Ninos Josephides, a Greek Cypriot, is allowed to visit his home village in the Turkish-occupied part of divided Cyprus. But he can't visit his house. It was destroyed long ago.

In the aftermath of a visit by Pope Francis last week, the Vatican-affiliated Maronite was allowed an extra visit to the town he had to flee 47 years ago.

The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon on Saturday inaugurated the Digital Mothers training program in Tripoli at the Al Nahda Mixed School.

The program, which will train 68 mothers of school children on technology and English, was officially launched by U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea.

Pope Francis flew towards Athens on Saturday for the first visit by a pontiff in two decades, with the Greek capital under high security over anti-papal sentiment among Orthodox hardliners.

Pope Francis on Friday condemned "slavery" and "torture" suffered by people fleeing war and poverty, speaking at a prayer service for migrants on a visit to the divided island of Cyprus. 

Pope Francis lamented centuries of hostility and prejudice that have divided Catholics and Orthodox as he met Friday with the leader of Cyprus' Greek Orthodox Church and pointed to works of charity as a means to help heal the rift between Catholic West and Orthodox East.

Archbishop Chrysostomos II hosted Francis for private talks at his residence and then invited the pope to the brand new Orthodox Cathedral of St. Barnabas for an encounter with the Holy Synod, the highest decision-making body of the Greek Orthodox Church.

The United Arab Emirates has eased some of its harsh drug laws, relaxing penalties for travelers who arrive in the country with products containing THC, the main intoxicating chemical in cannabis.

The new law, published in the UAE's official gazette, says people caught carrying food, drinks and other items with cannabis into the country will no longer land in prison if it's their first time. Instead, authorities will confiscate and destroy the products.

Egyptian authorities were unveiling a renovated ancient promenade in the city of Luxor dating back 3,000 years, the latest government project undertaken to highlight the country's archaeological treasures.

Egypt has struggled to revive its tourism industry, battered by years of political turmoil following the 2011 popular uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, and more lately, the coronavirus pandemic.

Israeli authorities have said they would permit 500 members of the Gaza Strip's tiny Christian community to enter Israel and the occupied West Bank to celebrate Christmas.

Israel has in the past allowed Gazans to exit the blockaded territory for Christmas, though the practice was frozen last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.