Saudi Arabia says more than 700 people are now known to have died in the crush of the annual haji prilgrimage. About 800 others have been injured. The disaster at
Mina, on the outskirts of Mecca, is the worst of the haji in 25 years. The Saudi Health minister Khaled al-Falih has blamed the tradgedy on worshipers' failing to obey
instructions. The accident was a stampede caused by overcrowding and also caused by some of the pilgrims not following the instructions of the security under haji
ministry. Iran, Saudi Arabia's biggest regional rival, has accused Saudi of not providing adequate security. The head of Iran's haji organization Said Ohadi accused
the security services of mismanagement. Unfortunately for unkown reasons, security officers closed off one route. There was limited space for the pilgrims, and due to
the large crowd, many pilgrims from various countries were unfortunately pressed together.
Pope Fransis had become the first head of the Roman Catholic church to address a joint session of US Congress. In a wide ranging speech, punctuated by a regular bursts of applause, Pope Fransis called for greater cooperation to confront fundamentalist attitudes and a world beset by violent conflict. He also spoke of the need to
protect human rights. And then came violence, is required to combat the violence perpetrated in the name of our religion, and an eurology or any economic system while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkell has warned the migrant crisis is far from being resolved. She told German parliament that measures agreed this week by EU leaders was a first step. Mrs Merkell has been meeting the country's regional leaders to discuss how to pay for the care of hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrived in Germany.
Fresh protests have broken out in parts of Southern Nepal over the country's new constitution which was opted on Sunday. Sanjoy Majumder reports from one town on the Indian border. Protestors have blocked a major border crossing into Nepal from India at Birgunj, effectively shutting off the country's main supply line. Hundreds of
riot police have been deployed and have used tear gas to try to break up the protests. Several hundreds of trucks are stuck at the border, many carrying essential
supplies from India into Nepal. The protestors who belonged to ethnic group S in southern plains, say that the new constitution marginalizes them. World news from the
BBC.
The German transport minister says Volks Wagon has admitted that cars it sold in Europe were among those whose polution tests were manipulated. The minister said VW cars with 1.6 and 2.0 liter diesel engines were among those affected. Volks Wagons's head office said they hope to provide detailed information about the affected
models on Friday.
At least 25 people have died in an attack at a mosque at Yemeni capital Sana'a. Witnesses of Medics say an explosion ripped through the Balili mosque which is controlled by Shiah Houthi rebels. Islamic state group which regards Shiah Muslims as heretics says they carried out the bombing.
The campaign group Human Rights Watch says the Ruwanda authorities are arbitrally arresting some of the country's most vulnerable people, and holding them in
unofficial detention center. In a new report, it says street vendors, beggars and sex workers are being held in a former warehouse. At times, up to 4 hundred people
are kept there the report says. The Ruwanda government says the building is a transit center where drug addicts and others have been rehabilitated.
Italian archologists have uncovered fragments of bone which may have belonged to Leonardo De Vinci's model for the Monalisa. Researchers have spent years exsuming and testing remains in the city of Florance, dating back 5 centuries. Here is Jen. Historians believe that the woman depicted by Leonardo De Vinci may have been Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a silk merchant. Gherardini died in Florance in 1542. The scientists said one set remains probably belonged to Lisa Gherardini, but the remains have degraded too far for DNA tests, so all they really have are a few showers of bone, which may or may not have belonged to the woman who may or may not have posed for Leonardo. Five century's honor the Monalisa holds on to her remaining mysteries. BBC news.