More than 1.8m arrive for Hajj festival

More than 1.8m people have arrived in Saudi Arabia from around the globe for the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

Some 1.6 million pilgrims arrived in the kingdom by air, according to the Saudi Passports Department on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia is home to the holy city of Mecca, Islam’s most sacred site, where Muslims go each year to perform the Hajj, which begins on Wednesday.

Devout Muslims are expected to perform the Hajj, one of Islam’s five pillars, at least once in their lifetime, provided they are fit enough and have the financial means to do so.

The pilgrimage has long been entangled in Saudi Arabia’s politics.

This year, the dispute between Qatar and four Arab nations, led by Saudi Arabia, prompted Doha to accuse Riyadh of creating obstacles for Qatari pilgrims after it cut economic and transport links with its smaller neighbour.

Saudi Arabia later opened its border crossing with Qatar, allowing 1300 Qataris to perform the annual ritual.

The pilgrimage has seen several accidents over the years.

In 2015, 769 pilgrims died in a stampede during the symbolic stone-throwing ritual near Mecca, according to Saudi official figures.

A DPA tally and other independent reports, however, indicated that around 2,000 pilgrims died in the incident, making it the worst Hajj tragedy on record.

In 1990, 1426 pilgrims died in a stampede inside a tunnel after its ventilation system broke down.

Source: More than 1.8m arrive for Hajj festival

Same-sex marriage: 90,000 people added to electoral role ahead of postal survey

An extra 90,000 Australians have added their names to the electoral roll since the announcement of the postal survey on legalising same-sex marriage.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has released the data after Thursday evening’s deadline for voters to update their details ahead of the optional ballot.

The AEC received 765,000 requests from eligible voters to either join the electoral roll or update their details to ensure postal ballot papers arrived at the right address.

Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers suggested it was a significant result, because there was a “trend throughout recent electoral cycles for enrolment rates to dip mid-cycle”.

In comparison, the AEC processed over 687,000 enrolment transactions — voters either updating details or joining the electoral roll — with about 132,000 of those enrolling to vote before the 2016 federal election.

Despite its job in managing the electoral roll, the AEC will not be managing the postal survey…

Source: Same-sex marriage: 90,000 people added to electoral role ahead of postal survey – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

West Coast Eagles’ 21-point loss to GWS. Magpies59-70 CATS

West Coast Eagles’ 21-point loss to GWS

MATT Priddis was terrific – but a GWS rival midfielder was even better. Here’s who impressed and who didn’t from the Eagles’ 21-point loss to the Giants.

Josh Kelly is a very good player, a Brownlow Medal contender, and could soon be earning more than $1 million a season. So you think he’d be worth paying close attention to. The Eagles gave Kelly plenty of room to operate and he punished them for it. When the final siren sounded the 22-year-old had picked up 43 disposals. Some players can pick up those numbers without being hugely influential… but Kelly is not one of those players. Put his body on the line, came back on the field after a bone-crunching hit, kicked a late goal. An elite performance…

Source: Studs and duds from West Coast Eagles’ 21-point loss to GWS | Perth Now

Ten injured, highway closed in Kojonup crash; Perth

On-duty NY officer shot and killed in ‘unprovoked attack’

An on-duty New York City police officer was killed on Wednesday after a man walked up to her police vehicle and began to fire shots through the window, authorities said.

Officer Miosotis Familia, a 12-year veteran assigned to the New York Police Department‘s 46th Precinct’s Anti-Crime unit, was taken to a Bronx area hospital where she later died, according to the NYPD. She was 48-years-old.

The department said the officer was struck in the head in an “unprovoked attack” while sitting in a marked police command van – which had been parked in the area since March because of increased gang activity.

The NYPD said the suspect was shot and killed by responding officers and that there were “no outstanding suspects.”

An innocent bystander was also shot and hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, according to the police department. The officer’s partner, who was also in the vehicle, was not injured in the attack, the department said.

The suspect, identified as 34-year-old Alexander Bonds of New York City, pulled a gun on the responding officers and led them on a block-long foot chase before he was killed, police said, noting that a silver revolver was recovered at the scene.

Source: On-duty NY officer shot and killed in ‘unprovoked attack’ – ABC News

Gold Coast’s Jarrod Harbrow to miss a game for driving under influence of alcohol, Jack Martin victim of an assault

GOLD Coast Suns defender Jarrod Harbrow will be unavailable for selection for at least one week after being caught driving under the influence of alcohol.

The Suns announced on Monday night Harbrow had been charged by Queensland Police after recording a blood alcohol reading of 0.108. Harbrow had been drinking at home on Sunday evening before the incident.

“Jarrod has expressed to us that he is extremely embarrassed by his actions and understands his poor judgement has let many people and his club down,” Suns GM of football Marcus Ashcroft said.

“In the next period of time Jarrod will have to work hard to regain the trust and respect of his teammates, peers and the wider Gold Coast community…

MORE: Jarrod Harbrow suspension Gold Coast driving under influence of alcohol, Jack Martin victim of an assault

Clive James: ‘Coogan and Brydon are the funniest couple since Laurel and Hardy’

Clive James: ‘Coogan and Brydon are the funniest couple since Laurel and Hardy’

Anyone who relishes what happens when Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon sit opposite each other in a restaurant will know that the real focus of the entertainment is on the actors at the other tables who are pretending not to laugh. While Coogan and Brydon do uncanny impersonations of 007, the extras have to do uncanny impersonations of corpses, and sometimes they can’t keep it up. They crack a rib. And they are, of course, quite right. Coogan and Brydon are the funniest couple since Laurel and Hardy.

And it’s all done just by evoking stuff we’ve seen already. But there’s no “just” about it. Such accurate mimicry demands deep concentration. The basic shtick of their echolalic duel to the death depends on Coogan being even more fanatical about getting it right than Brydon is. Indeed, Coogan might not entirely be bluffing when he suggests, in a voice nearly his own for once, that mere hilarity might not always be the whole aim. The true intention is to borrow a state of being.

Source: Clive James: ‘Coogan and Brydon are the funniest couple since Laurel and Hardy’ | Life and style | The Guardian

Hot air balloons crash land in bad weather in Turkey

The balloons were carrying mostly European and Chinese tourists for rides over Turkey’s Cappadocia region on Tuesday when the balloons had to make emergency landings.

Forty-nine people, mostly foreign tourists, were hurt when three hot air balloons made emergency landings in strong winds in central Turkey.

Nine of those hurt were being treated for fractured bones while the rest had minor injuries and were quickly released from hospitals, Dogan news agency reported.

Source: Hot air balloons crash land in bad weather in Turkey | Daily Mail Online

I want this $33 credit card-sized dumbphone more than I want the Galaxy S8

I want this credit card-sized dumbphone more than I want the Galaxy S8

The credit card-sized phone is called the Talkase T3 and it’s the latest version of the mini GSM phone that was successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2014.

In the age of big, high resolution do-it-all smartphones, there’s absolutely no reason I should be excited about a dumbphone with a teeny, tiny 0.96-inch (diagonal) OLED display, but since dumbphones are apparently back in style, and Samsung’s Galaxy S8 won’t be announced for another month, I can’t help but be in love. The Talkase T3 is the phone everyone needs when they need to escape from the internet. And at $33, it’s damn cheap.

Source:http://ift.tt/2lR6SAb