In another development, foreign ministers of the Islamic Co-operation Organisation (OIC) have called for Syria to be suspended from the 57-nation bloc at an emergency two-day summit in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, which starts on Tuesday.

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MECCA, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- One could almost feel the need to do a double-take at seeing the steadily emptying Grand Mosque in Mecca from outside our hotel room window.

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Among its projects: the Mecca-to-Medina high-speed railway in Saudi Arabia, the Marmaray railway linking the European and Asian sides of Istanbul in Turkey and the Ural Polar railway project in Russia.

FORBES: Juan-Miguel Villar Mir

After some arm-twisting from Saudi Arabia, Fatah and Hamas at last formed a unity government at a meeting in Mecca in February.

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Al-Jazirah newspaper quoted a Saudi Justice Ministry official saying King Abdullah issued a royal pardon Monday -- the same day that the Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, begins in Saudi Arabia.

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