HOLY CITY: Hundreds of thousands gather for the Friday noon prayer at Mecca's Grand Mosque today. Some 2.5 million Muslims from more than 160 countries converge annually on the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina in western Saudi Arabia for the haj pilgrimage. - AFP Pix

LIVING IN FEAR: Rahmah Wateh, 76, together with some children watch in despair as Sungai Jenalik slowly erodes the land near her house at Kampung Siput, Mukim Siong in Baling - NST Pix by Safuri Kamarudin

Visitors view vehicles suspended in mid-air at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum today. The museum features an exhibition of works by contemporary artist Cai Guo-qiang, entitled 'Hanging Out in the Museum'. - AFP Pix

OUTER SPACE: The magnificent galaxy NGC 4710 is tilted nearly edge-on to our view from Earth in this Hubble Space Telescope image released by Nasa yesterday. What's striking in the image is a ghostly "X" pattern of stars. This is due to the inclined orbits of the stars in the galaxy's central bar-like structure. Located 65 million light-years away, NGC 4710 is a member of the giant Virgo Cluster of galaxies. - AFP Pix

Tourists take a ride in an open pedal power taxi through the streets of Sydney during hot and humid conditions today. Hundred-year records tumbled this week as the south-east of Australia sweltered through an unprecedented heatwave which dried out vast tracts of bush and farmland already in the grips of a decade-long drought. - AFP Pix

OVERJOYED: Pupil of Sekolah Kebangsaan Sg Pusu in Gombak are clearly excited that their year-end school holidays have begun. - Picture by ABDULLAH YUSOF

SUPERSTAR BOXER: Philippine boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao arrives to attend mass with his wife Jinkee in the Quiapo district of Manila today after claiming his seventh career boxing title. The Philippines rolled out the red carpet in a rock-star reception for the pound-for-pound king and newly crowned World Boxing Organisation welterweight champion Pacquiao. Earlier this week, Pacquiao brushed off rumours his marriage was in trouble amid reports he flew a starlet to Las Vegas to watch him win. - AFP PHOTO/TED ALJIBE

FEE PROTEST: A student protester is tazered by a police officer as college staff members (centre) are escorted to their cars during a protest against an increase in student fees at the UCLA campus in Los Angeles on November 19, 2009. The University of California Board of Regents had approved a 32 per cent tuition increase. - AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON

CHEERS, WE ARE THE A-TEAM!: An elated Melati Enida Pahiman (left), of SK Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, showing her Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah result slip to an equally excited Nur Adani Bakhtiar, who could not resist taking a photograph of it with her camera-phone, and Durra Qistina Shaiful Bahari (right). Melati and Durra scored 5As while Nur Adani had 4As and a B. They were among 506,620 pupils who received their UPSR results yesterday. There was a slight improvement in overall results, with rural schools doing better than last year. However, an aptitude test to gauge thinking skills, introduced this year, showed disappointing results. — NST picture by Sairien Nafis

A model displays an unmounted pear-shaped D colour, flawless clarity diamond weighing 62.3 carats during an auction preview on this picture taken on November 13 in Geneva. The diamond, one of the highlight at the Christie's Autumn sale was sold to Aleks Paul Essex Global Trading NY for a price of US$8,050,000 on November 17 in Geneva. - AFP