BREAKING NEWS: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has died

Just saw this shocking news some seconds ago.
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has died. The health of Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud had previously been a subject of rumors; word emerged earlier this month that he indeed ill.

Abdullah was 90 years old. He ruled Saudi Arabia for nearly 10 years, having assumed the throne after his brother King Fahd died in 2005.

The kingdom’s new ruler is King Salman, according to state TV.

The news has just emerged. We’ll update this post as we learn new details.

“Abdullah was born before Saudi Arabia was even a country,” NPR’s Kelly McEvers reports for our Parallels blog.

But in his lifetime, he saw the country rise to prominence — thanks to the discovery in 1938 of massive oil reserves.

Source: http://www.npr.org

Post by olisir

Bodies found floating in India’s Ganges

MORE than 100 decaying bodies have been found in a tributary of the Ganges river in northern India, officials say.

AUTHORITIES said they believed that the deceased were given water burials, although a police investigation has been ordered.

Water burials are sometimes used when families cannot afford a cremation.
Thirty bodies were recovered from the river in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh state on Tuesday.
By Wednesday, a total of 104 bodies had been found.
Senior district official Saryu Prasad said efforts were under way to DNA test the bodies and identify them.
“The waters in the river have receded, because of which the bodies may have surfaced,” Prasad said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party has vowed to clean up the notoriously polluted river, India’s most sacred waterway.

Green campaigners have been demanding an end to water burials in the Ganges.

Volunteers of the Ganga Bachao Andolan (Save Ganges Movement) on Wednesday began a sit-in protest against the dumping of the dead in the river, the IANS news agency reported

Post by olisir