LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani court on Monday granted bail to a Christian man convicted in 2018 while still a teenager of insulting Islam by posting a picture of Islam's holiest site on...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Ahmed Zaki Yamani, a long-serving oil minister in Saudi Arabia who led the kingdom through the 1973 oil crisis that shattered the West and once found himself...

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Tens of thousands of followers of a firebrand cleric joyfully welcomed him at an Indonesian airport on Tuesday as he returned home from a 3-year exile in Saudi Arabia...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A very small, limited number of people on Sunday donned the white terrycloth garment symbolic of the Muslim pilgrimage and circled Islam's holiest site in Mecca, after...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia on Tuesday said Muslims will be allowed to perform the smaller, year-round pilgrimage starting Oct. 4 as the kingdom gradually begins lifting restrictions...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia on Monday released new details on how it plans to gradually allow Muslims back to Islam's holiest site in Mecca to perform the smaller, year-round...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Small groups of people performed one of the final rites of the Islamic hajj on Friday as Muslims worldwide marked the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday amid a...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Masked pilgrims arrived Thursday at Mount Arafat, a desert hill near Islam’s holiest site, to pray and repent on the most important day of the hajj, the annual...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Muslim pilgrims, donning face masks and moving in small groups after days in isolation, began arriving at Islam’s holiest site in Mecca on Wednesday for the...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The vast, white-marble floors surrounding Islam’s holiest site, the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca, would normally be packed with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Muslim pilgrims have started arriving in Mecca for a drastically scaled-down hajj, as Saudi authorities balance the kingdom's oversight of one of Islam's key...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia has issued guidelines for about 1,000 pilgrims who will be allowed to perform the hajj pilgrimage in Mecca later this month, an experience that will...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Tens of thousands of mosques across Saudi Arabia reopened Sunday for the first time in more than two months, with worshipers ordered to follow strict guidelines...

BAGHDAD (AP) — The Islamic State group in an audio message blasted Iraq’s new prime minister, calling him an “American agent,” and criticized the closure of Islam’s holiest shrine in the Saudi...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A senior Saudi official Wednesday urged more than 1 million Muslims intending to perform the hajj to delay making plans this year — comments suggesting the...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is behind the kingdom's boldest and riskiest moves in decades, most recently shutting down Islam's holiest sites...

ROME (AP) — Italy closed all schools and universities and barred fans from all sporting events for the next few weeks, as governments trying to curb the spread of the coronavirus around the world...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The coronavirus outbreak disrupted Islamic worship in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia on Wednesday banned its citizens and other residents of the kingdom from performing the...

More school closures and the suspension of business travel are among the steps being taken around the world to fight the spread of the new coronavirus.

CAIRO (AP) — Saudi Arabia's unprecedented decision to halt the umrah pilgrimage amid the global outbreak of a new virus could prevent millions of Muslims from undertaking a major religious rite...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia on Thursday closed off the holiest sites in Islam to foreign pilgrims over the coronavirus, disrupting travel for thousands of Muslims already...

BEIRUT (AP) — In the Middle East, even virus outbreaks are political.

The coronavirus has killed 26 people in Iran -- the highest toll outside of China where it originated. Many of the over...

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Tel Aviv has taken a major step to cement its status as Israel’s secular mecca, launching public transportation services on the Jewish sabbath and redrawing the lines in...

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, an autocrat who led his small North African country for 23 years before being toppled by nationwide protests that unleashed...

MINA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Around 2.5 million pilgrims took part in a symbolic stoning of the devil on Saturday, marking the final days of the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and the start of the...

Here's your look at highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you...

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — More than 2 million pilgrims were gathered in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia on Friday to perform initial rites of the hajj, an Islamic pilgrimage that takes the...

Over 2 million Muslims from around the world are beginning the five-day hajj pilgrimage on Friday. They will circle Islam's most sacred site, the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca, and take part in a...

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia says more than 1.8 million Muslims from around the world have arrived in the country to take part in the hajj pilgrimage that starts on Friday.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — The scars from the nine bullets the gunman fired into Temel Atacocugu run down his left side like knotty rope. But it's the recurring mental images from that day...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Aya Al-Umari said she feels like her brother will be accompanying her and will constantly be in her prayers when she travels to Mecca next month to take part in the...

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — The Latest on developments in the Persian Gulf (all times local):

4:25 a.m.

The world's largest organization of Islamic nations has completed a summit in...

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Muslim leaders from some 57 nations gathered in Islam's holiest city of Mecca late Friday to discuss a breadth of critical issues ranging from a spike in tensions in the...

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — The Latest on developments related to tensions in the Persian Gulf (all times local):

3:30 p.m.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has sent a message to a...

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia's King Salman opened an emergency summit of Arab leaders in Islam's holiest city of Mecca on Friday with a call for the international community to use all...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip resumed a minor pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, known as the "umrah," on Sunday after nearly five years of an Egyptian...

MOUNT ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Some 2 million Muslim pilgrims gathered on Monday in the valley of Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia for a day of prayer that marks the pinnacle of the annual hajj.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — More than 2 million Muslims began the annual hajj pilgrimage at first light on Sunday in Saudi Arabia, circling the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca that Islam's faithful face five times each day during their prayers.

The five-day hajj pilgrimage represents one of the world's biggest gatherings every year, and is required of all able-bodied Muslims once in their life.

Over 2 million Muslims from around the world are beginning the five-day hajj pilgrimage on Sunday. They will circle Islam's most sacred site, the cube-shaped Kaaba in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, and take part in a series of rituals intended to bring about greater humility and unity among Muslims.

Here's a look at the pilgrimage and what it means for Muslims:

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia is preparing to host the annual hajj pilgrimage beginning Sunday, as over 2 million Muslim faithful are ready to take part in the ultraconservative kingdom.

The pilgrimage represents one of the five pillars of Islam and is required of all able-bodied Muslims once in their life. In recent weeks, the faithful have arrived in Mecca from across the world, all chanting "Labayk Allahuma Labayk," or "Here I am, God, answering your call. Here I am."

Over 2 million Muslims from around the world are beginning the five-day hajj pilgrimage on Sunday. They will circle Islam's most sacred site, the cube-shaped Kaaba in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, and take part in a series of rituals intended to bring about greater humility and unity among Muslims.

Here's a look at the pilgrimage and what it means for Muslims:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia says it will host a meeting among several Gulf Arab countries to offer support to Jordan after it faced mass protests over the kingdom's economic problems and its plans to tax its citizens.

The Saudi Royal Court said the meeting Sunday in Mecca would include Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.