Middle-East Arab News and Opinion - Asharq Al-Awsat is the world’s premier pan-Arab daily newspaper, printed simultaneously each day on four continents in 14 cities
MECCA, Saudi Arabia Hundreds of thousands of Hajj pilgrims began streaming out of Mecca Thursday ahead of the highlight of the annual rites, which have attracted huge crowds despite the continuing pandemic and unforgiving heat.Many worshippers made the journey on foot to Mina, seven kilometres from Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, where they circled the imposing