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Turkey fulfils Ghana villager’s Haj dream thanks to social media

Agencies
August 21, 2017

Istanbul, Aug 21: Al-Hassan Abdullah, a poor Ghanaian villager whose story went viral on Turkish social media when he asked a TV crew if "a drone can take him to Mecca" will travel to the Muslim holy land courtesy of the Foreign Ministry and charities.

Abdullah had naively asked a Turkish film crew flying a drone with a camera in his village in Ghana if they had "a bigger one of this that would take him to [Saudi Arabia]" where millions of Muslims go every year for the hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage. As his story went viral on social media, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu intervened and helped arrange a hajj journey for Abdullah, who is impoverished. He arrived in Istanbul from Accra on Friday and was welcomed by a Turkish charity whose work focuses on Ghana.

Abdullah told Anadolu Agency (AA) he was pleased to be in Istanbul and it was God who blessed him with this favor from Turkey. "I am grateful to God and I pray to everyone who helped this dream come true. Turkish state's assistance is valuable for me and I believe this will help improve friendship, brotherhood between Muslims," he said.

Cihad Gökdemir, deputy chairman of the charity who welcomed Abdullah at the airport, said Abdullah's story made the headlines after a TRT World employee tweeted the image. "Then, people started to seek a way to reach out to him, from businesspeople to companies. Finally, a Turkish police officer from Turkish embassy in Ghana contacted him. He is grateful to Turkish people," Gökdemir said.

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Agencies
July 22,2020

Houston, Jul 22: China said on Wednesday that the US has ordered it to close its consulate in Houston in what an official called an outrageous and unjustified move that will sabotage China-US relations.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin condemned the action, which comes as tensions rise between the world's two largest economies. He warned of firm countermeasures if the US does not reverse its decision.

The unilateral closure of China's consulate general in Houston within a short period of time is an unprecedented escalation of its recent actions against China, Wang said at a daily news briefing.

There was no immediate confirmation or explanation from the U.S. side.

Media reports in Houston said that authorities had responded to reports of a fire at the consulate. Witnesses said that people were burning paper in what appeared to be trash cans, the Houston Chronicle reported, citing police.

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News Network
May 18,2020

Washington, May 18: US President Donald Trump on Sunday called his predecessor Barak Obama a ‘grossly incompetent president’.

The Trump’s reaction came after Obama on Saturday criticised the US authorities' response to the coronavirus outbreak.

“He (Obama) was an incompetent president. That’s all I can say. Grossly incompetent,” Trump told reporters at the White House on his arrival from Camp David.

Trump was responding to a question on the virtual commencement address by Obama a day earlier.

In his address to college graduates, Obama had said that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the American leadership.

“More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” Obama said without naming officials.

“A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge,” he added.

There was no immediate response from the office of the former president on the remarks made by Trump.

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News Network
April 23,2020

Geneva, Apr 23: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday (local time) said that the COVID-19 crisis will not end any time soon, with several countries only in the initial stages of the fight against the virus.

"Make no mistake, we have a long way to go. Coronavirus will be with us for a long time. There is no question that stay at home orders and other physical distancing measures have successfully suppressed transmission in many countries," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press conference.

"Most countries are in the early stages of their epidemics. And some, which were affected early in the pandemic, are now starting to see a resurgence in the number of cases," he added.

COVID-19 has infected more than 2.6 million people around the world and a total of 1,83,027 people have died due to coronavirus, according to data from US-based Johns Hopkins University.

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