More than two million Muslim pilgrims from almost 180 countries raised their hands to heaven and chanted in unison as they hiked through a desert valley yesterday to a tent city on the outskirts of Mecca in preparation for the annual hajj.

The husband of a popular Saudi television presenter was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison and 600 lashes in the brutal battering of his wife, who had used her plight to campaign against wife beating,