Funeral services were held Sunday for Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, a hard-line conservative credited with pushing back al Qaeda.
Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, a hard-ine conservative who is credited with pushing back al Qaeda, has died.
Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, a hard-line conservative who is credited with pushing back al Qaeda, has died, Saudi state TV reported Saturday.
Saudi Arabian comedians are using YouTube and social media to poke fun at social issues.
At first glance, it looks like a standard road sign to Mecca, the Saudi Arabian pilgrimage site for millions of Muslims every year.
From a few thousand people traveling by camel in the 7th century to three million a year today: The story of the Hajj -- the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca -- is an epic journey.
Each year, faithful Muslims make a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. CNN's Nima Elbagir describes their journey.
Each year, more than 3 million Muslims commit to Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that represents the fifth and final "pillar" of Islam and the largest annual human gathering on the planet. Every Muslim who is physically and financially able to do so is expected to make this pilgrimage once in their lifetime.
Millions of Muslims from around the world were in the holy city of Mecca on Saturday for the first day of Hajj, the annual pilgrimage that every able-bodied Muslim is expected to perform at least once in his or her life.
Five suspected al Qaeda militants were killed in clashes Friday night in Yemen's southern Abyan province, a senior Defense Ministry official told CNN.
A Saudi Arabian novelist has become the first woman to win the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, which she shares with a Moroccan writer.
It started with verbal abuse, and then -- perhaps inevitably -- it got physically, terrifyingly violent.
Police in southern Afghanistan have arrested the father-in-law of a woman whose nose and ears were chopped off after she was accused of bringing shame to her family.
The Afghan woman whose husband cut off her ears and nose, travels to the U.S. for help. CNN's Atia Abawi reports.
While the search for inner beauty is this month drawing Muslims to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage, a different kind of search -- this time for beauty of a more obvious kind -- is drawing many from the Middle East to another location.
Saudi Prince Khalid al Faisal acknowledged Thursday that Saudi Arabia alerted U.S. and European authorities to the presence of parcel bombs that were en route from Yemen.
Sound recordings and images captured by a Dutch adventurer 125 years ago show a very different Mecca.
He was an adventurer, a scholar, and possibly a spy -- but as Dutchman Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje proved with his rare 1885 photographs and sound recordings of Mecca, he was also a pioneering multimedia journalist.
About 1.8 million Muslims were in the holy city of Mecca on Monday for the first day of Hajj, the annual pilgrimage that every able-bodied Muslim is expected to perform at least once in his or her lifetime.
CNN's Nima Elbagir reports from Saudi Arabia as millions of pilgrims prepare for the Hajj.
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah offered Saturday to host talks in his kingdom aimed at ending the nearly eight-month political stalemate in Iraq, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The El Asira home page is a discreet design with two simple links for men and women. The only clue to its content are the small blue and pink hearts at the top of the page.
CNN's Atika Shubert meets the man behind what's billed as the world's first online sex shop catering to Muslim couples.
For the last nine decades, Madison Square Garden has earned the label of the Mecca of Boxing. Home to historic fights like Joe Louis-Rocky Marciano, Emile Griffith-Benny Paret and Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier, the Garden has been the destination for fighters and promoters wishing to make a name for themselves in New York City.
Indonesian Muslims have been praying in the wrong direction, the country's highest Islamic authority has said.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was leaving a news conference one afternoon when a tall man with a coppery complexion stepped out of the crowd and blocked his path.
Ready to hobnob with the locals?
A Lebanese man charged with sorcery and sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia is scheduled to be beheaded on Friday, the man's lawyer said Wednesday.
As the NCAA tournament heads toward the regionals, as the NBA bides its time until the playoff push begins -- that is, as basketball rules the day -- it's ironic that New York, the city where the game really gained popularity at Madison Square Garden, has never been more of a basketball laughingstock.
Amnesty International is calling on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to stop the execution of a Lebanese man sentenced to death for "sorcery."
Based on the sheer volume of bodies, Hajj should not work. As the world's largest pilgrimage and one of the Five Pillars of Islam, each year about 3 million people cram themselves into the relatively small holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to offer up this, the holiest of Islamic rites. In late 2008, I accompanied my parents on Hajj and managed to sneak a VBS video camera past state security and capture the trip as we saw it. The scene was insane, beyond what I could have ever imagined.
Vice founder Suroosh Alvi takes you on his journey to the world's largest annual pilgrimage. For more, go to VBS.TV.
Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has expressed an interest in buying London's famed Abbey Road Studios after music company EMI reportedly put the building where the Beatles recorded most of their albums up for sale.
This month on Inside the Middle East -- Zain Verjee hosts from Doha, Qatar.
Hajj is hard. I covered the pilgrimage 2 years ago, but back then, my mind was overwhelmed by the sheer spectacle of it all. In 2007, the sights and sounds had a dizzying effect. It was like being on a roller coaster, rushing along at break-neck speed.
The death toll from the torrential rains and heavy floods that engulfed western Saudi Arabia this week rose to 98 on Saturday, with dozens of people still missing, Information Ministry officials said.
Chanting "Allahu Akbar" -- God is Greater than any -- more than 2 million pilgrims crossed new pedestrian bridges Saturday to perform one of the last rituals of the Hajj season.
The torrential rains and heavy floods that slammed and engulfed western Saudi Arabia on Wednesday killed dozens of people, but it appeared Thursday that none were Hajj pilgrims making the obligatory journey for Muslims across the globe.
For the average pilgrim, going for Hajj poses financial and physical burdens, but a U.S. couple who aspire to attend the Hajj every year has found a way to help with the steep cost.
Muslims take part in the spiritual climax of their Hajj pilgrimage, the Day of Arafat. CNN's Isha Sesay reports.
CNN's Isha Sesay is in Saudi Arabia and gives us a glimpse inside the Hajj pilgrimage.
Hina Babar had prepared for this day for months. But now, as she landed in Saudi Arabia for the Muslim pilgrimage Hajj, the time seemed to have flown by.
Hajj rain
updated: Wed Nov 25 2009 14:01:00
A rare rainstorm greeted pilgrims in Mina, Saudi Arabia.
The Hajj, an obligatory pilgrimage for Muslims, began this year on Wednesday with two twists: thinner crowds and heavy rain.
The path from the holy city of Mecca to the Mina desert turned a sea of white Wednesday as throngs of Muslims began the annual pilgrimage known as the Hajj.
CNN's Isha Sesay explains why millions of Muslims make a pilgrimage to the Hajj each year.
Forget stampedes, fires and terrorist attacks. The big fear this year concerning the Hajj, the annual millions-strong pilgrimage to Mecca, is swine flu.
CNN's Isha Sesay reports amidst the crowds in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where pilgrims are awaiting the start of the Hajj.
Energetic, infectious and combative, the music of Nigerian musician Femi Kuti has moved audiences around the world. But the man is just as passionate about getting people to change their world as much as move their feet.
On the eastern shore of the Red Sea at Thuwal, about an hour north of Mecca lies the 14 square mile campus of Saudi Arabia's newest university, KAUST.
Bob O'Dell, one of the principal designers of the new King Abdullah University for Science and Technology shows us around the campus.
Swine flu has not reached Gaza yet but with 1.5 million residents squeezed into 360 square kilometers it would appear to be a small miracle.
A Saudi Arabian man was arrested after bragging about his sex life on television, local media reported.
Two pilgrims from Iran have contracted the H1N1 virus, according to reports from the country's official news agency.
There is a shiny addition among the Ottoman mosques and palaces that make up Istanbul's stunning skyline: the metallic, mirrored dome of the new Sakirin Mosque, a Muslim place of worship built with a woman's touch.
CNN's Ivan Watson reports on a woman architect who tackles the challenge of designing the newest msoque in Istanbul.
A Turkish television show is offering contestants what it claims is the "biggest prize ever" -- the chance for atheists to convert to one of the world's major religions.
LAS VEGAS -- With the American economy at a crossroads, a cross-section of America still converges here every summer. It's as if money grows on palm trees in the middle of The Strip, because, even with recessionary dollars harder to come by, bigger crowds keep coming to the World Series of Poker.
CNN's Morgan Neill travels to Tokyo's electronics Mecca, to see how Sony's products measure up in buyers' minds.
Police in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca Wednesday arrested a woman for violating the country's ban on women driving, according to the Saudi English-language daily Arab News.
What could be bigger than the appointment of the first female minister in Saudi Arabia?
Saudi King Abdullah appoints woman to top government post. CNN's Nic Robertson reports.
Two young Iranian parents smiled at me, showing mock desperation as their little boy and girl eagerly dragged them into a shop famous for its pistachio ice cream sandwiches. Around the corner, filling the side of a 15-story building, a government-sponsored propaganda mural showed a perverted American flag, with skulls for stars and falling bombs for stripes.
The 1 to 2 million people expected to pour into downtown Washington for inaugural festivities will pose major challenges for the city, for law enforcement, and for the attendees themselves.
In summer, I flew from Istanbul's Ataturk Airport to Tehran's Khomeini Airport to film a public television show on Iran. For an American, it was eye-opening from the first moment. When the pilot said, "We're taking this plane to Tehran," nobody was alarmed.
The pilgrimage that brings more than 2 million Muslims to Mecca every year tends to make them more religiously observant and also more tolerant, a huge study of Pakistani pilgrims suggests.
CNN's Arwa Damon reports from Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on the annual Muslim pilgrimage.
Israel has dropped 20 names from a list of Palestinian prisoners set for release this week, the Israeli government announced Sunday, bringing the number down to 230.
Since Afghan officials met with former Taliban leaders in Mecca, Saudi Arabia a month ago the drum beat of hammering out a political deal with the Taliban rather than smashing them militarily has been growing steadily.
In a groundbreaking meeting, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia recently hosted talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban militant group, according to a source familiar with the talks.
Needing jobs and housing for its next generation, the desert kingdom has launched an ambitious plan to build five new cities simultaneously
Among the who's-who of American running, jumping, throwing and vaulting that has descended on America's one true track Mecca -- Eugene, Ore. -- for the Olympic Track and Field Trials, one athlete who has been entirely absent from the new polyurethane at Hayward Field has nonetheless been much on the minds of many competing for Beijing berths.
It produced a blast hundreds of times stronger than the Hiroshima bomb, was seen hundreds of miles away and narrowly missed obliterating an entire city -- but 100 years to the week after the mysterious explosion in Siberia, no one is any closer to understanding what caused it.
A new London show, Captivated: The Art of the Interned, is a quietly damning indictment of Britain's treatment of post 9/11 terror suspects
The mass migration of investors to Omaha for Warren Buffett's annual shareholder meeting, which kicks off Saturday morning, is the biggest pilgrimage this side of Mecca. More than 25,000 other people from every state in the Union and dozens of foreign countries go to soak up the wisdom of Buffett and his business partner, Charlie Munger, who sit for hours and answer questions from all comers. Their answers are often so educational and entertaining that any investor can take them to heart and learn from them.
Christians mark Easter with a vigil at St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.
This whole push to remove Christ from the Christmas season has gotten so ridiculous that it's pathetic.
CNN's Isha Sesay joins hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims for the Stoning the Devil ritual at the Hajj.
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