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

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 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 Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 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 Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 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 Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 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 Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 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 Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 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...

Two pro-government ethnic militia units in eastern Myanmar shift loyalty to resistance movement

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Units of an ethnic militia in eastern Myanmar’s Kayah state that is nominally part of the military have switched sides, allying themselves with the country’s pro-democracy movement to carry out attacks in recent weeks on army outposts and a police station, members of the area’s resistance movement say.The two Border Guard Forces units in Kayah are believed to be the first military-affiliated militia units to change sides since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.The takeover was met with peaceful nationwide protests, but after security forces cracked down with lethal force many local armed resistance groups formed and have been loosely organized into what is called the People’s Defense Force. They have allied themselves with some major ethnic guerrilla groups in border regions around the country that have carried out armed struggle for decades, seeking greater autonomy.Kayah, which is the smallest of Myanmar’s s...

5 killed in Kenya as concerns grow over increasing terror attacks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Five people have been killed a Kenyan border village, fueling concerns that such attacks are increasing after a decline. The weekend attack raises the death toll over the last month to more than 30 people — including soldiers, police reservists and civilians.In Saturday’s attack in the coastal Lamu county, four of the victims had their throats slit and one was shot at close range, ((according to local police.))Correct The officials said about 30 attackers also torched houses in the village and stole food.The village borders Witu Forest, where al-Shabab militants have created hideouts and held abductees.Lamu County has been attacked two other times in the last two weeks, with both incidents targeting Kenya Defense Forces running a security operation in the area and leaving four of them dead.In Kenya’s north, Mandera, Wajir and Garissa counties have seen several attacks this month in which more than 10 people – including soldiers, police reservi...

Oil spill from Shell pipeline fouls farms and a river in a long-polluted part of Nigeria

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A new oil spill at a Shell facility in Nigeria has contaminated farmland and a river, upending livelihoods in the fishing and farming communities in part of the Niger Delta, which has long endured environmental pollution caused by the oil industry.The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, or NOSDRA, told The Associated Press that the spill came from the Trans-Niger Pipeline operated by Shell that crosses through communities in the Eleme area of Ogoniland, a region where the London-based energy giant has faced decadeslong local pushback to its oil exploration. The volume of oil spilled has not been determined, but activists have published images of polluted farmland, water surfaces blighted by oil sheens and dead fish mired in sticky crude.While spills are frequent in the region due to vandalism from oil thieves and a lack of maintenance to pipelines, according to the U.N. Environmental Program, activists call this a “major one.”It is “one of the wor...

Stock market today: Asian shares mixed, oil prices gain after armed rebellion quelled in Russia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:30:48 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares fell Monday after a short-lived armed rebellion in Russia added to uncertainties over the war in Ukraine. Benchmarks declined in Tokyo, Sydney Hong Kong and Shanghai, but rose in Seoul.The rebellion by mercenary soldiers who briefly took over a Russian military headquarters on an ominous march toward Moscow was over. But the brief weakened President Vladimir Putin just as his forces were facing a fierce counteroffensive in Ukraine. Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner troops were some of Russia’s most effective fighters in Ukraine. Their aborted takeover of the capital also left their fate uncertain.Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 lost nearly 0.3% to finish at 32,698.81. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.5% to 2,582.20. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.2% to 18,853.18, while the Shanghai Composite, reopening after a holiday, dropped 1.5% to 3,150.62. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.3% to 7,078.70. Wall Street marked its first losing week in the last ...