World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

[Mr Lick]

[Mr Lick]

Midwest floods



Homes are surrounded by floodwaters near Blair, Neb., on Wednesday, June 29. Missouri River floodwaters lapped at a nuclear power plant north of Omaha and cracked more defenses downstream after weeks of sustained pressure on levees running hundreds of miles

[Mr Lick]

A figure of a worker, part of the Monument to Labor statue by Matthew Placzek, juts out of the rising waters of the Missouri River at Omaha's Lewis & Clark Landing in Omaha, Neb., on June 26. The Missouri River, swollen by heavy rains and melting snow, has been flooding areas from Montana through Missouri.

[Mr Lick]

[Mr Lick]

People wait on chairs in a flooded street after heavy rainfall on June 28 in Changsha, China.

[Mr Lick]

[Mr Lick]

Conflict in Libya,



A rebel fighter sitting in a truck captured from Gadhafi's forces is greeted by comrades occupying high ground overlooking the town of Bir Ghanam, 62 miles south of Tripoli, on June 30.






New recruits by Libyan rebel forces are trained on conducting street arrests and rounding up suspected loyalists of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi as part of their three-week course for new fighters in Benghazi, Wednesday, June 29.

[Mr Lick]

A Dangerous Path
A U.S. Marine holds a makeshift tool to drag suspicious objects during a patrol in southern Afghanistan on Thursday.



Catherine in Canada
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge arrives in Ottawa on Thursday at the start of the royal couple's 9-day tour of Canada. She and Prince William will end their first trip abroad as a husband and wife in California.

[Mr Lick]

Just Short
Gaetane Thiney of France scores a goal against Canada during their Group A soccer match at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany on Thursday. France won 4-0.



Burning With Anger
On Thursday, members of the Solidarity trade union look on as plastic chairs, representing parliamentary seats, burn during a demonstration calling for the resignation of Poland's government in Warsaw.

[Mr Lick]

Idol Worship
An Indian worker uses grass and wooden sticks to construct a base for clay Ganesh idols at a workshop on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Thursday. They're being constructed for an upcoming Hindu festival.



You're Coming With Us!
Police officers in London on Thursday make an arrest during a protest march in which hundreds of thousands of public sector workers rallied against proposed cuts to government pensions.

[Mr Lick]

Sri Lanka cricket board sacked amid corruption claims



The Sri Lankan government has dissolved the country's cricket board amid claims of corruption and mismanagement.

A government spokesman said a new board would be announced later on Friday.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) has been run by political appointees on a temporary basis for the past seven years.

The cricket board has debts of more than $15m after co-hosting this year's World Cup with India and Bangladesh. Last month it sought financial help from the government and state bank.

In April former national captain Hashan Tillekaratne claimed that match fixing had been a widespread practice in Sri Lankan cricket since 1992.

[Mr Lick]

Body 'unseen in Massachusetts swimming pool for days'



Authorities in the US state of Massachusetts are trying to find out how a body lay unnoticed in a swimming pool for more than two days as the public continued to use the facility.

Marie Joseph, 36, had used a slide at the Veterans Memorial Pool in Fall River on Sunday but failed to return to the surface.

A boy reportedly told staff but the body was only found when teenagers broke in for a clandestine night swim.

The pool was described as "cloudy".

Massachusetts has closed dozens of state-run swimming pools while investigations continue.

Two pool inspectors have been placed on administrative leave.

An autopsy on Ms Joseph's body has been completed but the results have not yet been published.

[Mr Lick]

Grandmother's corpse Wirral benefits fraud woman jailed



A woman who left the corpse of her mother at their Wirral home unburied for up to six months has been jailed.

The body of Olive Maddock, 95, was left rotting in a bedroom by her daughter Hazel Maddock, who claimed her benefits.

Hazel Maddock pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to unlawful prevention of burial and benefit fraud. She was given an 11-month jail term.

Jasmine Maddock, 35, her daughter, received a suspended sentence.

Brookside extra
Olive Maddock's remains were found at the home she formerly shared with the pair on Saltburn Road in Wallasey.

Honour thy father and mother all the days they live, says the Book of Exodus” - Judge Gerald Clifton

Jasmine Maddock, an artist, who admitted leaving a corpse unburied, was given a 26-week prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid community service.

Hazel Maddock worked as a television extra and has appeared on Channel 4 dramas Brookside and Hollyoaks.

The court was told that she fraudulently obtained one payment of her dead mother's state pension of £176.92 and a single payment of pension credit of £34.44.

Sentencing them, Judge Gerald Clifton said the pair had entered into a "conspiracy of silence".

[Mr Lick]

Stephen Lawrence murder charge: Pair plead not guilty



Two men charged with the murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993 have pleaded not guilty.

Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 34, both of south London, are on remand at Belmarsh prison and appeared at the Old Bailey via a videolink.

They were remanded in custody and the trial will start on 14 November.

Mr Lawrence, an 18-year-old black A-level student, was stabbed to death at a bus stop in Eltham, south-east London, on 22 April 1993.

Mr Lawrence's mother Doreen, 58, was in court to see the proceedings.

The judge, Mr Justice Treacy, also appeared via a videolink, from Birmingham Crown Court.

Another pre-trial hearing will take place on 29 September.

Mr Dobson stood trial over the murder following a private prosecution in 1996 and was cleared. In May, the Court of Appeal overturned the acquittal because it said substantial new evidence had emerged

[Mr Lick]

Duncan Smith urges firms to hire unemployed Britons



Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has urged UK businesses to "give a chance" to unemployed young Britons, rather than relying on foreign workers.

In a speech in Spain he said a "realistic promise" of work formed part of the government's "contract" with the British people.

Business groups said firms needed the "best people" and migrants often had a better work ethic and skills.

And Labour said what was needed was "proper action" rather than talk.

Under European Union labour laws, most citizens of the EU's 27 member states can work in the UK without restriction.

The government has introduced a cap on the number of skilled workers from outside the EU allowed into the UK in an effort to reduce net migration from current levels of about 200,000 a year to the "tens of thousands".

In a speech to the Spanish Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies in Madrid, Mr Duncan Smith said that more than half of newly filled jobs in the last year were taken by foreign nationals.

[Mr Lick]

A supporter of Yingluck Shinawatra prepares for the pre-election rally in Bangkok

[Mr Lick]

Valentino Rossi is wheeled back into the pits ahead of this weekends Italian Moto GP

[Mr Lick]

David Hayes fans offer their support at the weigh in in Hamburg ahead of his world title fight against Wladimir Klitschko

[Mr Lick]

A red-fronted parrot is rescued from illegal traffikers in Nicaragua

[Mr Lick]

A member of a Thai bomb squad inspects a car in Narathiwat province, south of Bangkok July 1. A bomb by suspected insurgents wounded a member of a Thai bomb squad in Thailand's deep south on Friday, police said.



A car bomb explodes as a member of a Thai bomb squad was inspecting it in Narathiwat province, south of Bangkok on July 1. The bomb squad member was wounded when the device exploded, police said.







Police Col. Nitinai Langyanay said the first bomb in Narathiwat province killed two irrigation workers Friday and wounded five others, while a second one about 1 kilometer (one-half mile) away wounded a soldier.
Bomb removal officers then tried to defuse a third bomb only three meters (yards) away from the second one but it exploded, wounding seven policemen. It is a standard practice of the insurgents to plant a second bomb to go off when security officials arrive to investigate an explosion.

[Mr Lick]

A picture presented during a press conference by police shows Gaetano Riina, the 79-year-old mafia boss of Corleone - the Sicilian hilltop town made famous by "The Godfather" trilogy - after he was arrested the same day in Mazara del Vallo during a press conference in Palermo, Sicily, on July 1. Gaetano Riina is the brother of former Cosa Nostra kingpin Toto Riina, who is serving multiple life sentences for sanctioning scores of killings.

[Mr Lick]

President Bashar al-Assad (center-right) and First Lady Asma al-Assad (center-left) arrive at Al-Jalaa Stadium in Damascus, Syria on June 30 to meet with regime supporters who had made a very large Syrian flag as a deadly crackdown continued on democracy protests across the country. The photo was made available on July 1.

[Mr Lick]

In this photo released by the state-controlled Cubadebate website, Fidel Castro, left, and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez look at the June 28 edition of the Granma state newspaper in an unknown location in Havana. Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on June 10.

[Mr Lick]

A Moroccan woman casts her vote in a polling station on July 1 in Sale, near Rabat, in a referendum on curbing the near absolute powers of King Mohammed VI, who has offered reforms in the wake of protests inspired by pro-democracy uprisings around the Arab world. Faced with demonstrations modelled on the Arab Spring protests, Mohammed VI announced the referendum last month to devolve some of his powers to the prime minister and parliament of the north African country