Saudi Arabia said on Saturday that stormy winds knocked over the crane which collapsed onto one of Islam’s holiest shrines in Mecca and killed 107 people on Friday. “Heavy rain and strong winds of unusually high speed led to the uprooting of trees, the fall of panels and the collapse of the crane,” General Suleiman al-Amr, director general of the Civil Defence Authority, told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV on Saturday.
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Two Russian planes carrying 80 tonnes of humanitarian aid arrived at an airport in Syria’s city of Latakia on Saturday, Syrian state media reported. Syria has dismissed a number of reports from media and intelligence sources in recent days that its ally Moscow has been trying to send military support. (Reporting by Mariam Karouny; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
The leftist Syriza party of former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras maintained a wafer-thin pre-election lead over conservative New Democracy in three opinion polls on Saturday, with a fourth putting them level-pegging. The two parties have been hard to separate in the run-up to the Sept. 20 ballot, and Tsipras and his center-right counterpart Vangelis Meimarakis have spent much of their campaigns trying to protect their vote, trading accusations over
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Pope Francis has urged his followers to open their hearts and parishes to refugees seeking shelter in Europe, but predominantly Catholic Poles are struggling to heed that call amid widespread fears that Muslim arrivals will threaten their jobs and security.
MUNICH (AP) — Thomas Mueller scored a last-minute penalty for Bayern Munich to beat Augsburg 2-1 and Borussia Dortmund maintained its perfect Bundesliga start by defeating Hannover 4-2 on Saturday.
BEIRUT (AP) — Russian military cargo planes have taken supplies to Syria to set up a tent camp for more than 1,000 refugees, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday as the main Syrian opposition group blasted Moscow over its military presence in the Arab country.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Authorities in Guyana say they are stepping up oversight of jungle mining areas following the deaths of 25 miners in the past year.
“What? You quit a New York City advertising career? And one that was on Madison Avenue — the Madison Avenue — of all places?” Indeed I did. I chose to leave my first job after college; I wasn’t let go as a roomful of higher-ups spoke of necessary cut-backs, nor was a fired in a drama-infused meeting where I pleaded for reconsideration. I…
A leading critic of Gabon’s President Ali Bongo on Saturday refused a post offered as part of a cabinet reshuffle, undermining the president’s attempt to create a united government ahead of elections due next year. The reshuffle, announced in a presidential decree on Friday, expanded the cabinet to 41 members from a previous 34 and is seen as an attempt to silence critics who say the Bongo family has too
A battle is brewing in Washington as the capital city prepares to regulate personal fitness trainers in a move that could ripple through the country’s booming $24 billion gym industry and its fight against flab. The District of Columbia, whose residents are generally fitter than the rest of the country, is set to adopt the United States’ first regulations on trainers, following a law passed by the city council last
