Saudi Arabia reopened Saturday the area around the sacred Kaaba in Mecca’s Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest site, reversing one of a series of measures introduced to combat the coronavirus outbreak. Saudi authorities this week suspended the year-round umrah pilgrimage, during which worshippers circle the Kaaba seven times, and also announced the temporary closure of the […]

At least 20 people in Pakistan are dead and dozens more injured after torrential rainstorms collapsed several homes, officials said Saturday. Heavy rains have lashed stretches of the country near the Afghan border since Thursday. Fourteen children and three women were killed in “rain-related incidents” in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local relief official Taimur Ali said. […]

A five-storey hotel being used for coronavirus quarantine collapsed in the southeast Chinese port city of Quanzhou on Saturday trapping about 70 people, state media said. A video stream posted by the government-backed Beijing News site showed rescue workers in orange overalls clambering over the rubble of the Quanzhou Xinjia Hotel and carrying people towards […]

Liberia has suspended all petrol import licenses and will conduct performance reviews following a crippling fuel shortage in which importers were accused of inflating their reserves. The government said it had sacked a deputy managing director of the state-owned company charged with ensuring consistent oil supplies on Friday, as well as suspending import licenses. The […]

An Iranian commander has been shot dead south of the Syrian capital, a war monitor reported Saturday. Farhad Dabirian was killed on Friday in the Sayyida Zeinab neighbourhood outside Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, identifying him as a commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iran’s Fars news agency said that […]