Anne Kristoff / For the News-Miner Jan 20, 2013 Jan 20, 2013 Updated Oct 22, 2021 FAIRBANKS — Looking at Jodi Blakely, you’d never guess that she was a sharpshooter and an expert hostage negotiator.

(RNS) — The black, gold-embroidered cloth that shrouds Islam’s holiest site in Saudi Arabia is a revered artifact that ...

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Billboards line the Umm Al Qura highway leading to the Grand Mosque in Mecca, displaying manicured public spaces, glass-fronted stores and sleek towers. It’s part of a $26 ...

MECCA, Saudi Arabia - As a child, Osama al-Bar would walk from his home past Islam's holiest site, the Kaaba, to the market of spice and fabric merchants where his father owned a store. At that time, ...

Security forces in Mecca are cracking down on people trying to make a pilgrimage without a permit, as the Islamic holy city prepares to host hundreds of thousands of Muslim worshippers. Ahead of the ...

MECCA, Saudi Arabia — More than 2 million Muslims began the annual hajj pilgrimage at first light Sunday in Saudi Arabia, circling the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca that Islam's faithful face five times ...

The annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, called Hajj, concludes on Wednesday. Dramatic aerial photos show more than 2 million Muslims taking part in the pilgrimage from the air. Visit INSIDER's homepage ...

In “Open Mecca, Crown Prince Mohammed” (Houses of Worship, Aug. 5), Daniel Pipes mentions only “three cases of non-Muslims surreptitiously” entering Mecca. There was a fourth case, but it was with the ...