Israeli archaeologists on Wednesday unveiled a rare ancient mosque in the country's south that the antiquities officials said sheds light on the region's transition from Christianity to Islam.

The remains of the mosque, believed to be more than 1,200 years old, were discovered during works to build a new neighborhood in the Bedouin city of Rahat, the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement.

Pope Francis on Wednesday blasted the violence that plagues Mexico as he mourned the slayings of two of his "brother" Jesuits who were gunned down in a remote Mexican church by apparent drug gang members.

Francis, an Argentine Jesuit, offered prayers to the Jesuit community at the end of his weekly general audience, saying he was "saddened and dismayed" to learn of the slayings in Mexico's mountainous Chihuahua state.

One, two, three, stop. Five, six, seven, stop: A group of young Syrian men and women step, sway and twirl to the backdrop of salsa music, dancing their worries away.

For an hour a week in a Damascus studio, their instructor Adnan Mohammed, 42, teaches a class the basics of Latin dancing, helping his students forget the troubles of war — if even briefly.

When Syrian refugee Fadel Alkhudr arrived in Germany in 2015, the first thing he saw when he stepped out of the train in Cologne was the city's majestic cathedral.

Alkhudr, 42, became so fascinated by the famous Gothic landmark on the Rhine river with its twin spires and elaborate ornaments that he spent hours looking at it. He took photos of it, drew sketches, and eventually started carving a wooden replica.

After Opal Lee led hundreds in a walk through her Texas hometown to celebrate Juneteenth this weekend, the 95-year-old Black woman who helped successfully push for the holiday to get national recognition said it's important that people learn the history behind it.

"We need to know so people can heal from it and never let it happen again," said Lee, whose 2 1/2-mile (4-kilometer) walk through Fort Worth symbolizes the 2 1/2 years it took after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery in the Southern states for the enslaved people in Texas to be freed.

What's the price of peace?

That question could be partially answered Monday night when Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctions off his Nobel Peace Prize medal. The proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine.

Authorities across much of the Muslim world, including Lebanon, have barred Disney's latest animated film "Lightyear" from being played at cinemas after the inclusion of a brief kiss between a lesbian couple, the company said as the movie premiered.

Lebanon, Palestine and twelve other nations barred the Pixar film that has actor Chris Evans voicing the inspiration for the astronaut hero Buzz Lightyear from the "Toy Story" movies, The Walt Disney Co. said.

While reviewing the photo archives left by Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, one of his granddaughters came across a mysterious plastic box with the word "grandchildren" written on its label.

At first, Emilia García Elizondo was afraid to open the box but curiosity overcame her. Inside were 150 unpublished letters that he received from Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Cuban President Fidel Castro and actor Robert Redford, among others.

Thousands of people marched in Bangladesh's capital on Thursday to demand the governments of Bangladesh and India officially condemn comments by two Indian governing party officials deemed derogatory to Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

The march began at the country's main Baitul Mukarram Mosque but was blocked by police as it headed toward India's Embassy, a few kilometers (miles) away.

Russia said Wednesday it was "deeply concerned" after Israel's top court ruled that a Jewish settler group legally purchased an east Jerusalem property from the Greek Orthodox Church.