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Hajj pilgrimage starts in Saudi Arabia, with 2 million expected after lifting of COVID measures

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

MINA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Some 2 million Muslim pilgrims officially began the annual Hajj pilgrimage on Monday, making their way out of Mecca after circling Islam’s holiest site, the Kaaba, and converging on a vast tent camp in the nearby desert for a day and night of prayer. One of the largest religious gatherings in the world has returned to full capacity this year for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago. The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam, and all Muslims are required to make the five-day Hajj at least once in their lives if they are physically and financially able to do it. For pilgrims, it is a deeply moving spiritual experience that absolves sins, brings them closer to God and unites the world’s more than 1.8 billion Muslims. Some spend years saving up money and waiting for a permit to embark on the journey.Maintaining the holy sites and hosting the annual Hajj is a major source of pride and legitimacy for the ...

No sign of threat from the hazardous train that plunged into Yellowstone River, regulators say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

COLUMBUS, Mont. (AP) — Preliminary testing of water and air quality along a stretch of the Yellowstone River where train cars carrying hazardous materials fell into the waterway following a bridge collapse did not indicate any threat to the public, state and federal officials said Sunday. The seven mangled cars that carried hot asphalt and molten sulfur remained in the rushing river a day after the bridge gave way near the town of Columbus, about 40 miles (about 64 kilometers) west of Billings, Montana. The area is in a sparsely populated section of the Yellowstone River Valley, surrounded by ranch and farmland. Preliminary results of water quality sampling did not show petroleum hydrocarbons, which would have come from the asphalt, or sulfur, Kevin Stone, a spokesperson for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, said. Both do not dissolve when they enter water, he explained.“Water quality testing will continue until the cleanup is complete and at this time there are no kn...

The Supreme Court’s biggest decisions are coming. Here’s what they could say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is getting ready to decide some of its biggest cases of the term. The high court has 10 opinions left to release over the next week before the justices begin their summer break. As is typical, the last opinions to be released cover some of the most contentious issues the court has wrestled with this term including affirmative action, student loans and gay rights. Here’s a look at some of the cases the court has left to decide from the term that began back in October:AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONThe survival of affirmative action in higher education is the subject of two related cases, one involving Harvard and the other the University of North Carolina. The Supreme Court has previously approved of the use of affirmative action in higher education in decisions reaching back to 1978. But the justices’ decision to take the cases suggested a willingness to revisit those rulings. And when the high court heard arguments in the cases in late October, al...

Pro-reform Mitsotakis wins second term in Greek election that sees surge by small far-right parties

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s center-right leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis is to be sworn in as prime minister on Monday, hours after easily winning a second term with a record-high margin over the leftwing opposition in an election that also ushered new far-right parties into Parliament.With 99.67% of the vote counted, Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party had 40.55% of the vote — more than twice the main opposition Syriza’s 17.84%. It was the largest margin of victory in half a century, and slightly expanded ND’s 20-percentage-point lead in previous election five weeks before.Held under a new electoral law that boosts the first party, Sunday’s vote gives ND a comfortable majority of 158 seats in the 300-member Parliament, with Syriza getting 48. Center-left PASOK elected 32 lawmakers and the Stalinist-rooted Communist Party 20.The remaining 42 seats will be shared between three far-right parties — including one endorsed by a jailed former leader of the defunct,...

Essentials for the Hajj: From sun hats to shoe bags, a guide to gear Muslims bring to the pilgrimage

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Straw hats, cross-body bags, and collapsible chairs: These are just some of the essentials Muslims bring to the Hajj pilgrimage.Spiritually, the five-day Hajj is awe-inspiring for the faithful, an experience they say brings them closer to God and to the entire Muslim world.Physically, it’s grueling. Pilgrims walk outdoors for hours in broiling heat around holy sites in Mecca and the surrounding desert. They are caught in unimaginable and overwhelming crowds, all trying to get to the same place. Barriers directing the traffic mean that if you miss your turn, you might walk hours more to get where you want to be.So the more than 2 million pilgrims don’t just learn the complicated rules of how to properly perform the rituals, which began Monday. They also pick up helpful hints and tricks of the trade to get by, learned from other hajjis — as those who have completed the pilgrimage are known.Here’s a look at what they say is essential gear.WHAT TO WEARDress fo...

BET Awards show honors Busta Rhymes, hip-hop’s 50 years and pays tribute to Takeoff and Tina Turner

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 2023 BET Awards celebrated 50 years of hip-hop with tributes to the genre’s earliest voices, late legends, and new talent during a show packed with spectacular performances that consistently felt like a party.Sunday’s biggest surprise came when Quavo and Offset, the surviving members of Migos, performed “Bad and Boujee” in front of an image of Takeoff, who died in a shooting last December.“BET, do it for Take,” the duo shouted near the beginning of their set, as their backdrop switched from the image of a space shuttle to one of Takeoff pointing in the air.Throughout the show, whether it was Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., Biz Markie or Pop Smoke, performers and emcee Kid Capri paid homage to late hip-hop stars, often by quickly highlighting a taste of their best-known hits. In a show where few awards were given, Capri and BET kept the emphasis on the music.Busta Rhymes took home the night’s biggest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award, handed to him by ...

Greeks vote in repeat election, likely to return conservatives to office

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

Greeks went to the polls on Sunday (25 June) for the second time in little over a month to elect a new parliament, with voters expected to give former Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' conservatives a second term in office.Sunday's election is being held in the shadow of a migrant shipwreck on 14 June in which hundreds of people are feared to have perished off southern Greece. One of the worst such disasters in years, it has shown the parties' divisions over migration.Mitsotakis' New Democracy party won an election on 21 May, 20 points clear of the leftist Syriza party that ruled Greece from 2015 to 2019.But it fell just short of the outright majority needed to rule without forming a coalition, prompting the second vote under different rules that make it easier for the winning party to secure a majority in the 300-seat parliament.Opinion polls in recent days have shown New Democracy with more than 40% percent of the vote, with Syriza headed by Alexis Tsipras trailing at about 20%....

Single family residence sells in Pleasanton for $1.9 million

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

4896 Drywood Street – Google Street ViewA 2,460-square-foot house built in 1968 has changed hands. The spacious property located in the 4800 block of Drywood Street in Pleasanton was sold on May 23, 2023. The $1,900,000 purchase price works out to $772 per square foot. The property features four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a garage, and two parking spaces. There’s also a pool in the backyard. The unit sits on a 7,150-square-foot lot.Additional houses that have recently changed hands close by include:In September 2022, a 2,426-square-foot home on Flagstone Drive in Pleasanton sold for $1,500,000, a price per square foot of $618. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.On Lynbrook Court, Pleasanton, in March 2023, a 2,555-square-foot home was sold for $1,920,000, a price per square foot of $751. The home has 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.A 1,761-square-foot home on the 7600 block of Hillsdale Court in Pleasanton sold in February 2023, for $1,492,000, a price per square foot of $847. The h...

Russia is ‘cracking’ after Wagner rebellion, EU’s top diplomat says

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

LUXEMBOURG — Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group mutiny, which briefly put Russia on the brink of civil war on Saturday, exposed the weaknesses of President Vladimir Putin’s system, the EU’s chief diplomat said Monday.“What has happened during this weekend shows that the war against Ukraine is cracking Russian power and affecting its political system,” Josep Borrell said at a meeting of the bloc’s foreign affairs ministers in Luxembourg.“The monster that Putin created with Wagner is biting him now, the monster is acting against its creator,” Borrell added.Troops from Prigozhin’s Wagner paramilitary group on Saturday rose up against the Russian military establishment, seizing Rostov-on-Don, a major city near the Ukrainian border that is also home to Russia’s Ukraine invasion headquarters.The insurrection ended Saturday evening after a deal was reached between the Kremlin, Minsk and Wagner under which Prigozhin would leave for B...

‘The people are silent’: The main reason the Wagner mutiny bodes ill for Putin

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:55 GMT

WASHINGTON — With a deal reportedly worked out by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, the Wagner mutiny appears to be over. The commander and owner of the “private military company,” Yevgeny Prigozhin, promised to turn the troops back to the Ukrainian border, while he himself was reportedly going into exile in Belarus.What Prigozhin called the March for Justice is likely to be remembered not so much for the actual military operation as for what it revealed about Russia. Like a powerful searchlight, the 48-hour rebellion illuminated the murky innards of the Putin regime including the military’s divided allegiances, the seeming hollowness of the people’s support for the regime and, by extension, the regime’s shaky legitimacy. The images — of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a famous night owl, addressing the nation in a dark suit and tie early on a Saturday morning; of mangled Russian helicopters felled by Wagner forces; and of residents of Rostov-on-Don jeering local police a...