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A passenger smuggling dozens of venomous vipers was stopped after flying into the financial capital Mumbai from Thailand, Indian customs officials said.The snakes, which included 44 Indonesian pit vipers, were “concealed in checked-in baggage”, Mumbai Customs said in a statement late Sunday.”An Indian national arriving from Thailand was arrested,” it added.The passenger, details of whom …

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More than a million Muslim pilgrims poured into the holy city of Mecca ahead of the annual hajj, with authorities vowing to hold a safer pilgrimage amid searing desert heat and a massive crackdown on illegal visitors.Temperatures were forecast to exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) this week as one of the world’s largest annual religious gatherings officially commences on Wednesday. The hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, must be performed at least once by all Muslims with the means.As of Friday, more than 1.3 million pilgrims had arrived in Saudi Arabia for the multi-day pilgrimage, according to officials. This year, authorities have mobilised more than 40 government agencies and 250,000 officials, doubling their efforts to mitigate heat-related risks following a lethal heatwave in 2024 that left hundreds dead.Shaded areas have been expanded by 50,000 square metres (12 acres), thousands more medics will be on standby, and more than 400 cooling units will be deployed for the duration of the hajj, Saudi Arabia’s hajj minister Tawfiq al-Rabiah told AFP last week. The latest artificial intelligence software will also help monitor the flood of information and footage, including video from a new fleet of drones, from across Mecca to better manage the mammoth crowds.Despite the punishing heat, pilgrims were overjoyed as they arrived in Mecca. – ‘A blessing’ -“This is really a blessing from Allah,” Abdul Majid Ati, a Filipino lawyer and Sharia counsellor, told AFP near the Grand Mosque.”We feel so peaceful and safe in this place.”Abdulhamid from Nigeria, said he was “very happy” to be performing his second pilgrimage in a row at just 27 years old.But the young man said he never walks out without his sunglasses, describing the temperatures in Mecca as “very, very, very hot”.The rites in the holy city and its surroundings fall again this year during the hot month of June.Last year, 1,301 pilgrims, most of them unregistered and lacking access to air-conditioned tents and buses, died as temperatures soared to 51.8 degrees Celsius.”They were caught by surprise because the intensity of the heat was so high that their adaptation measures failed,” said Fahad Saeed of Climate Analytics, a think tank based in Germany.In the run-up to this year’s hajj, Saudi authorities launched a widespread crackdown on unregistered worshippers — relying on frequent raids, drone surveillance and a barrage of text alerts focused on rooting out unauthorised visitors hoping to sneak into Mecca.Hajj permits are allocated to countries on a quota system and distributed to individuals by lottery.- Arrest and deportation -But even for those who can obtain them, the steep costs prompt many to attempt the hajj without a permit — though they risk arrest and deportation if caught.Along with hefty fines, those found illegally entering Mecca during the hajj face a potential 10-year ban from the kingdom. Large crowds at the hajj have proved hazardous in the past, most recently in 2015 when a stampede during the “stoning the devil” ritual in Mina, near Mecca, killed up to 2,300 people in the deadliest hajj disaster.Saudi Arabia, which is home to Islam’s holiest sanctuaries in Mecca and Medina, earns billions of dollars each year from the hajj and from pilgrimages known as Umrah, undertaken at other times of the year.They also enhance the prestige of the Saudi monarch, who is known as the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques of Mecca and Medina.For Mariama, a 52-year-old pilgrim from Senegal, the journey to Mecca for the hajj has fulfilled a life-long dream.”I was dreaming about it, thinking about it every time to come here to do the hajj,” she said.

Six elderly people were injured Sunday when a man used a makeshift flamethrower to attack demonstrators in the US state of Colorado as they demanded the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.The FBI called the assault a “targeted terror attack,” identifying the suspected perpetrator, who has been taken into custody, as 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, but providing no further details about him.The White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, posted on X that the man was a foreign national who “illegally overstayed (his) visa.”Police in the city of Boulder were cautious in presuming a possible motive for the attack, which multiple sources said was committed against Jews during a peaceful gathering.The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish activist group, said on X that the attack occurred at Sunday’s “Boulder Run for Their Lives” event, a weekly gathering of the Jewish community in support of the hostages seized during Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the war in Gaza.”This attack happened at a regularly scheduled weekly peaceful event,” FBI agent Mark Michalek confirmed to reporters.”Witnesses are reporting that the subject used a makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary into the crowd,” he said, adding that “the suspect was heard to yell: “Free Palestine!”- Molotov cocktails -In one video apparently of the attack, a shirtless man holding clear bottles in his hands is seen pacing as the grass in front of him burns.He can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “They are killers!” towards several people in red t-shirts as they tend to a person lying on the ground.Other images showed billowing black smoke.The six people injured were aged between 67 and 88, and had all be transported to local hospitals, Michalek said.Boulder Police Chief Steve Redfearn told reporters that “at least one victim was very seriously injured, probably safe to say critical condition.”The suspected perpetrator had also been injured before being taken into custody, Redfearn said.He hailed the bravery of the responding officers, who “immediately ran into a chaotic situation where a man was throwing Molotov cocktails and using other devices to hurt people.”Asked if it was a terror attack against the protesters, Redfearn insisted it was “way too early to speculate motive” behind the violence, which took place shortly before 1:30 pm (1930 GMT).There had initially been reports of a possible second perpetrator, but Redfearn stressed that “at this point, we do not believe that there is an additional suspect at large.””We’re fairly confident we have the lone suspect in custody.”FBI chief Kash Patel immediately described Sunday’s incident as “a targeted terror attack,” while Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser labeled it “a hate crime.””People may have differing views about world events and the Israeli-Hamas conflict, but violence is never the answer to settling differences. Hate has no place in Colorado,” Weiser said. The White House said President Donald Trump has been briefed on the incident.- ‘Antisemitic attack’ -Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, voiced outrage at the incident.”Terrorism against Jews does not stop at the Gaza border — it is already burning the streets of America,” he said in a statement.”Make no mistake — this is not a political protest, this is terrorism.”US Secretary of State Marco Rubio like Patel described the incident as a “targeted terror attack,” while lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle expressed revulsion at Sunday’s tragedy and said they were praying for the victims’ recovery.”Tonight, a peaceful demonstration was targeted in a vile, antisemitic act of terror,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said in a statement. “Once again, Jews are left reeling from repeated acts of violence and terror.Several organizations also decried the apparent hate-fueled violence.”Our community was targeted in a violent, antisemitic attack,” the Israeli-American Council said in a statement.”This is an attack on all of us — and we will not stay silent.”The Boulder violence comes almost two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, where a 31-year-old suspect who shouted “Free Palestine” was taken into custody by police.