Saudis foil attack on Mecca’s Grand Mosque

The Saudi government has lifted social distancing measures, allowing full-capacity attendance at the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Follow DW for the latest.

At least 10 civilians were killed and another 35 injured on Wednesday by an Assad regime attack in Idlib, northwestern Syria, according to medical sources. Artillery of regime forces and Iranian-backed foreign terrorist groups targeted a marketplace in the center of the town of Ariha in rural southern Idlib, an area under opposition control.

The government had said it imposed the measure to fight terrorism, while critics said it granted President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi sweeping powers to crush dissent.

Here are a few reasons to pick up a copy of The Guardian on Thursday. Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Thursday.⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣

The Lebanese ambassador has been asked to leave Saudi territory within 48 hours. The move comes after Lebanon's information minister criticized the Saudi-led war against Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

The Black liberation group MOVE was founded in 1972 in the US city of Philadelphia. It combined a wide array of ideologies, including environmentalism, animal rights and an end to capitalism. The group's activities were closely watched by law enforcement, at times leading to armed confrontation. Tensions peaked on May 13, 1985, when the Philadelphia police bombed the MOVE house, killing 11 Black people. Despite two grand jury investigations and a civil suit, no one was ever criminally charged for the bombing. More than 35 years later, FRANCE 24's correspondents returned to Philadelphia to revisit the day the city bombed its own citizens.

Austrian leaders have taken part in a memorial service to remember the people killed during a shooting spree in central Vienna in 2020. Criticism remains over the government's actions in the run-up to the violence.

Donald Trump tried to keep documents from his presidency hidden from the House committee probing the January 6 attack. The judge said releasing the material was in the public interest.

Saudi Arabia is offering residents and tourists a unique safari experience in the desert of its capital Riyadh, at a site now home to 700 animals native to Africa. Lions and tigers are just a few of the animals that were flown in from outside the kingdom to the 175,000 square metres stretch of land that is now a safari park, where visitors seated in a vehicle can see them, some for the very first time.

Islamic militant group al-Shabab had reportedly been "hunting" Abdiaziz Afrika for a long time. The director of the state-run Radio Mogadishu was reportedly attacked after leaving a restaurant.

Haitian officials had said the gang had asked for $1 million each for the group of 17, which included five children. The gang had threatened to kill the North Americans.

At least eight people were killed in Somalia's capital on Thursday (November 25) when Islamist militants launched a suicide attack on a U.N. security convoy using a vehicle laden with explosives, officials and witnesses said. The Islamist group al Shabaab claimed responsibility for the huge blast which rocked Mogadishu and injured at least 23 people, including school students, sending a column of smoke above the city. Gunfire echoed around the scene, witnesses said. It was not immediately clear if any U.N. personnel were among those killed or injured in the huge blast, which targeted the U.N. convoy as it passed near the site of a school.