It was a battle of the flags on British classical music's biggest night Saturday as the Union Jacks usually brandished by the audience were joined by EU standards handed out by Brexit opponents.

Saudi Arabia's top cleric will not be delivering this year's prestigious hajj sermon on Sunday for the first time in more than three decades.

Al-Riyadh newspaper reported Saturday that Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, who has delivered the sermon since 1981, will be replaced by Sheikh Saleh bin Hamid.

From Asia, Africa and points in between, nearly 1.5 million Muslims begin the annual hajj in western Saudi Arabia Saturday, undeterred by a stampede which last year killed around 2,300.

Saudi Arabia has begun issuing hajj pilgrims with identification bracelets one year after a stampede killed around 2,300 people.

The bracelets are a reassurance to some pilgrims, though their distribution has been far from systematic ahead of the formal start of the hajj on Saturday.

Close to 1.5 million Muslims from around the world had descended Thursday on Saudi Arabia for the annual hajj pilgrimage, undeterred by last year's stampede disaster but with Iranians absent.

A hairdresser went on trial in Norway Thursday for refusing a Muslim client wearing a hijab, in the first case in the country to go to court over the Islamic head covering.

Nepal is not doing enough to end child marriage, with more than one in three girls married before they reach the age of 18, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

Child marriage is illegal in Nepal, but the law is rarely enforced and a government pledge to end the practice by 2020 was recently delayed to 2030.

A Turkish court acquitted world-renowned pianist Fazil Say of blasphemy on Wednesday, four years after he first went on trial on charges of insulting Islam in a case that raised alarm about freedom of expression in Turkey.

Pokemon Go is blasphemous and should be banned, an Indian court was told Wednesday, because it rewards religious vegetarians with eggs.

Muslims from across the world have gathered in Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the annual hajj pilgrimage to take part in the following rituals: