Cairo, Egypt - Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly ordered 16 tourism companies stripped of their licences and referred their managers to the public prosecutor Saturday over illegal pilgrimages to Mecca, the cabinet said. The order came after countries whose citizens performed this year's hajj reported more than 1,100 deaths, many attributed...

"All of them (the Egyptians) died because of heat" except for one who sustained fatal injuries during a minor crowd crush, one of the diplomats said, adding the total figure came from the hospital morgue in the Al-Muaisem neighbourhood of Mecca.

Villagers and environmental activists have been locked in clashes with the police in the southwestern Mugla province since their plant began cutting down trees and olive groves in search for more coal last month.

During the meeting on Thursday with the Danish charge d'affaires, foreign ministry officials delivered a protest note urging an end to "these disgraceful acts, which violate all religious teachings (and) international laws and norms" and can "fuel hatred between religions", the official Saudi Press Agency said. Saudi Arabia and Iraq...

On Friday, two days after the last major ritual, tens of thousands of people packed roads and boarded buses out of Islam's holiest sites in Mecca, bringing the hajj to a close, the AFP correspondent said. They departed after performing a farewell "tawaf" - circling seven times around the Kaaba,...

MECCA, SAUDI ARABIA- If a landmark reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran has eased tensions in the Gulf, clouds have also lifted at the hajj pilgrimage, where Iranian visitors finally feel welcome again. Seven years of enmity between the Sunni and Shiite powers had made for a cool reception for Iranian...

After performing the ritual circumambulation of the Kaaba, the giant black cube at Mecca's Grand Mosque that Muslims pray towards each day, worshippers set off for Mina, about seven kilometers (more than four miles) away, in suffocating heat.

Luxury accommodations and air-conditioned shopping malls have not replaced the deeply ingrained culture of hospitality in Islam's holiest city.

Mecca, Saudi Arabia - The annual hajj pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam, will start on Sunday with more than two million Muslims from around the world expected to take part this year. It will be the largest pilgrimage since the coronavirus pandemic forced Saudi authorities to dramatically...

Friday's nine-nation talks in Jeddah, the Red Sea gateway to Mecca, come after Syria's foreign minister arrived on a previously unannounced visit - the first since the outbreak of the country's civil war in 2011.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia--A bus ferrying pilgrims to the holy city of Mecca burst into flames after a collision on a bridge on Monday, killing 20 people and injuring more than two dozen others, Saudi state media reported. The incident in the southern province of Asir highlights persistent challenges to safely transporting...

The Gulf kingdom is pursuing ambitious aviation goals as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's wide-ranging "Vision 2030" reform agenda, including more than tripling annual traffic to 330 million passengers by the end of the decade. It also wants to move up to five million tons of cargo each...

The biggest hajj pilgrimage since the coronavirus pandemic began kicks off Wednesday, with hundreds of thousands of mostly mask less worshippers expected to circle Islam's holiest site in Saudi Arabia's Mecca.

Two years of drastic restrictions on the number of pilgrims emptied shops and hotels across the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have vowed to reset relations, to end a conflict between the two regional heavyweights. The pair "reviewed the Saudi-Turkish relations and ways to develop them in all fields", SPA reported.

The meeting was attended by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Sawaha, as well as the heads of universities in the region.

The decision includes suspending ‘social distancing measures in all open and closed places’ including mosques.

The new initiatives are expected to support environmental and water sustainability in accordance with the Saudi Vision 2030.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday reimposed social distancing measures at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, after recording the highest number of infections in months. Workers have returned floor markings removed on October 17 to guide people to social distance in and around the Grand Mosque -- which is built around the...

Saudi Arabia has cancelled the maximum age limit of 50 years for all foreign pilgrims, as per local sources.

They have a capacity of 23.8 liters of sterilizers with a consumption rate of 2 liters per hour to eliminate bacteria over 600 square meters