At least eight bodies have been pulled from a well in northern Mexico, near the site where 20 people went missing late last week, including 16 members of a Colombian-style band, a state forensic official said today.

THOUSANDS of Muslim pilgrims massed in a valley near the Saudi holy city of Mina yesterday for the stoning of Satan, the last and most dangerous rite of the annual hajj.

Muslim pilgrims circled the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest site, for a final time today, bringing to a close what may have been the largest ever Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, passing without the deadly stampedes that have marred the event in the past.

Nearly three million Muslims from around the world will spend today in prayer on Mount Arafat, in the first major ritual of their annual hajj pilgrimage.

Nearly three million Muslims from around the world, chanting “I am here, Lord” and raising their hands to heaven, marched through a desert valley outside Mecca in Saudi Arabia today on the first day of the annual hajj pilgrimage.

A stampede after an Islamic religious seminar killed at least 29 women and children and injured more than 70 others in Karachi today.

Saudi officials today raised the death toll in a stampede by Muslim pilgrims to 363, and the Saudi Interior Ministry defended its response, saying security forces were alerted to the problem immediately.

Hundreds of worried pilgrims crowded around a photo display at a medical centre in Mina, Saudi Arabia, today, scanning anxiously for pictures of loved ones who may have been among the 362 people killed the day before in a deadly stampede.

Thousands of Muslim pilgrims rushing to complete a symbolic stoning ritual during the hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, tripped over baggage today, causing a crush in which at least 345 people were killed and hundreds injured, despite Saudi attempts to prevent stampedes that have plagued the annual event.

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.

SOME 2.5 million Muslims took part in the Stoning of Satan ritual, as the Islamic world marked the Eid al-Adha feast of sacrifice following the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

Pilgrims began returning home after circling the cubic stone Kaaba in the Saudi holy city of Mecca, bringing to a close the annual hajj which was marred by the death of 251 people in a stampede.

NEARLY two million Muslims jostled to "stone Satan" yesterday, a day after 251 pilgrims died here carrying out the same ancient ritual, provoking orders from King Fahd to modernise the holy sites of Mecca and Medina where tragedy strikes with terrible regularity.

The death toll from a stampede during the stoning ritual at the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca rose to 251 today.

Waves of pilgrims today jostled or shoved their way through crowds for devil-stoning rituals, a day after 244 people were crushed to death during the same rites at the annual Muslim pilgrimage in Mina, Saudi Arabia.

NEARLY 250 Muslim worshipers died in a hajj stampede yesterday during the annual stoning of Satan ritual in one of the deadliest tragedies at the notoriously perilous ceremony.

A stampede during a stoning ritual at the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca killed 244 worshippers, a Saudi Hajj Ministry official said today.

FOURTEEN pilgrims were trampled to death yesterday during a ritual in the annual Muslim pilgrimage in which crowds of people throw pebbles at three stone pillars representing the devil’s temptations.

Fourteen Islamic pilgrims have been trampled to death during a ritual in the annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Almost two million Muslim pilgrims converged on Mount Arafat today for a solemn prayer ritual that is the highlight of the hajj, a centuries-old pilgrimage to the birthplace of Islam.

More than 1.5 million Muslims were today gathering for the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, where Saudi Arabian authorities had boosted security measures amid concerns of demonstrations against a possible war in Iraq.