Hundreds of thousands of hajj pilgrims began streaming out of Mecca Thursday ahead of the highlight of the annual rites, which have attracted huge crowds despite the continuing pandemic and unforgiving heat.. The crowds, capped at one million including 850,000 from abroad chosen by lottery, are the biggest at the hajj since 2019 after two Covid-hit years when only tens of thousands were allowed to take part.
The United States believes Group of 20 talks in Bali can make progress related to the Ukraine crisis despite the participation of Russia, a senior official said Thursday.. The official acknowledged that joint G20 statements would be impossible on Ukraine due to Russia's participation.
They may be considered international minnows, but women footballers from Haiti hope to finally make their mark on the world stage, helped by their experience playing professionally in Europe.. Playing in Europe had not been easy for Haitians who lack experience, she said.
One year after Haitian president Jovenel Moise was shot to death at his home in Port-au-Prince, no suspected mastermind or motive has yet been identified, with the investigation stalling amid a crumbling political environment.. Moise was assassinated in the early hours of July 7, 2021, when a commando group entered the president's private home and shot him 12 times, killing him.
Filmmaker Park Chan-wook, known for his ultra-violent thrillers that helped catapult South Korean cinema onto the global stage, is back with an altogether different work -- a restrained yet deeply emotional love story. . Critics say his "Oldboy" paved the crucial way for South Korean cinema's global triumph, but Park has been making conscious efforts to also work on non-Korean projects.
In a large fashion store in central Kyiv, a mother and her young daughter flick through T-shirts depicting a cartoon dog in a flak jacket and sunglasses.. "I like little Patron," Tatiana's daughter Valeriya says, as her mother nods.
The United Nations Security Council votes Thursday on extending its authorization of aid transfers across Syria's border without approval from Damascus, with Russia seeking a six-month prolongation while Western nations want a full year.. Russia, a veto-holding Security Council member and ally of Damascus, has hinted in recent months that it would oppose an extension, having already forced a reduction in the number of allowed border crossings on the grounds that it violates Syria's sovereignty.
The trial in the case of the Genoa bridge that collapsed in 2018, killing 43 people, opens Thursday in Italy, involving 59 defendants prosecuted for manslaughter and undermining transport safety.. Most of the defendants summoned by the Genoa court are executives and technicians of the two companies.
The UN Security Council has failed in its response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Thursday, describing Moscow's role as "morally bankrupt.". Russia had used its place on the council to take a "morally bankrupt position in the wake of a morally bankrupt and illegal war", Ardern said.
Singapore hanged two drug traffickers Thursday in what campaigners condemned as a "shameful and inhuman punishment", taking to four the number of executions in the city-state since March.. After a hiatus of over two years, Singapore resumed executions in March with the hanging of a Singaporean drug trafficker, and activists fear more will be conducted in the coming months.
