Michel Ayoub's holy racket begins each day at 2:00 am, when he steps into the cobbled streets of Acre's old city with tambourine in hand, awakening Muslims for Ramadan.

His role as the city's "mesaharati" is a traditional one during the sacred fasting month, but Ayoub is by no means a traditional holder of the position: He is Christian.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shared a Ramadan dinner with Turkey's best-known transgender celebrity hours after riot police broke up an LGBT rally in Istanbul, pictures distributed by his office on Monday showed.

Within the framework of the partnership between the Tourism Office of Lebanon in Paris and the Arab World Institute, Lebanese Minister of Tourism, Michel Pharaon hosted Mr. Jack Lang, President of the Arab World Institute (Institut du Monde Arabe) and Founder of “La Fête de Musique” (35th edition in France), in Lebanon from June 18 to 20, 2016, to promote arts and culture across Lebanon, meet Lebanese artists and creators and visit different museums and art galleries. The official agenda included the inauguration of the sculpture Museum of Assaf Assaf in Ain Zhalta, followed by a luncheon at Pharaon’s house in Ain Zhalta in the presence of president of the Socialist Party, MP Walid Junblat and French Ambassador to Lebanon, Emanuel Bonn.

The date of this three-day visit was chosen in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Embassy of France in Lebanon to coincide with the “Fete de la Musique” in Beirut. The official delegation took part in a tour of various Lebanese art and culture sites, such as the Sursock Museum, Beit Beirut cultural house, the Aishti Foundation, as well as various Fete de La Musique performances. The purpose of this visit is to underline the position of Lebanon as a cultural beacon of the Arab World, due to its prominence in the cultural realm.

Orthodox church leaders from around the world met in Greece Sunday for the first such gathering in a millennium, but the absence of several branches of the communion threatened to mar the event.

The Taliban are using child sex slaves to mount crippling insider attacks on police in southern Afghanistan, exploiting the pervasive practice of "bacha bazi" -- pedophilia boy play -- to infiltrate security ranks, multiple officials and survivors of such assaults told AFP.

Tens of thousands of Europeans paid tribute in Gay Pride marches on Saturday to the 49 people massacred in a gay nightclub in Orlando last weekend in a defiantly festive atmosphere.

A man's throat was slit by relatives of his wife who disapproved of their marriage in the latest "honor killing" to hit Pakistan, police said Saturday.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull voiced regret Friday after inviting a senior Islamic leader who has condemned homosexuality to a fast-breaking Ramadan dinner.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who this month picked up no less than the 44th honorary doctorate of his political career, likes nothing more than to give one of his trademark political speeches in full academic regalia.

A California Baptist preacher has sparked uproar for praising as "great" the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 49 people dead and scores injured.

"Today, people say like, well aren't you sad that 50 sodomites died?" pastor Roger Jimenez of the Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento told his congregation during his sermon delivered on Sunday, just hours after the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Florida.