Hajj

A Turkish reporter for the state-run Turkish Radio and Television Channel (TRT) has proposed to a young woman at Mecca's Kaabah, the holiest mosque in Islam, in Saudi Arabia.

Yusuf Akyön, the son of Turkish press attaché to Jeddah Bahattin Akyön, recorded a video while proposing to a girl at the holy site during an Umrah visit. 

A Turkish reporter for the state-run Turkish Radio and Television Channel (TRT) has proposed to his girlfriend at Mecca's Kaabah, the holiest mosque in Islam.

Yusuf Akyön, the son of Turkish press attaché to Saudi Arabia Bahattin Akyön, recorded a video while proposing to his girlfriend at the holy site during an Umrah visit. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan conducted the Umrah while in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 15, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Erdoğan visited the al-Masjid an-Nabawi, a religious site that includes Prophet Muhammad's grave in Medina. 

Erdoğan subsequently traveled to Mecca, where he visited the Masjid al-Haram late on Feb. 15.  

Iran said Jan. 10, it had finally received an official invitation from Saudi Arabia for its pilgrims to attend this year's hajj, two weeks after Riyadh announced it.

Today is the third day of Eid al-Adha, the "Feast of the Sacrifice." It means that millions of Muslims around the world have taken the knife in their hands, or more commonly paid a butcher, to slaughter animals, most typically sheep, as a sacrifice to God.

A bitter war of words between Iran and Saudi Arabia intensified on Sept. 7 ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage from which Iranians have been excluded for the first time in decades. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasted the "incompetence" of the Saudi royal family as he met with the families of victims of a deadly stampede during last year's hajj.

The Education and Religious Affairs Ministry has announced that the capital's Peace and Friendship Stadium (SEF) in Neo Faliro and the Olympic Stadium (OAKA) in Maroussi will be made available for Muslims wishing to celebrate Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice, next week.

Groups wishing to use the facilities should forward applications in writing to the board of SEF or OAKA.

Employees at the Saudi Binladin Group, a construction giant, have set fire to more than seven company buses in the latest protest by disgruntled staff over not being paid salaries for months and a large round of reported layoffs.

The Bulgarian prosecuting authorities have indicted Canadian citizen Hassan el Hajj Hassan and Australian national Meliad Farah on terrorism charges in connection with the the deadly bombing at Burgas Sarafovo Airport in 2012, 24 Chasa daily reported on Friday.

The crush and stampede that struck the hajj last month in Saudi Arabia killed at least 2,177 pilgrims, a new Associated Press tally showed Oct. 19, after officials in the kingdom met to discuss the tragedy.