World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

Buddhist monks and devotees stand around a pyre during a high priest's cremation ceremony at the Heain-sa temple in Hapcheon, South Korea, on Jan. 6, 2012. The ceremony, called Dabisik, was held for Ji-Kwan, a former head of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism.






Monks collect the cremated ashes of Ji-Kwan on Jan. 7, 2012, after the cremation

[Mr Lick]

Security forces inspect the site of a blast after a bomb ripped through a group of workers in Sadr City in Baghdad, Iraq, on Jan. 24, 2012. A series of car bombs exploded in Shiite areas of Baghdad.

[Mr Lick]

Beijing, China: A cleaner sweeps up before crowds arrive for the temple fair at Ditan Park



Monte Carlo, Monaco: Lion tamer Vladislav Goncharov performs with a lion during the official award gala evening of the 36th International Circus Festival of Monte Carlo



New Delhi, India: An Indian military band performs in front of the Presidential Palace



London, UK: A woman dressed as the Star Wars character Princess Leia drives a radio controlled R2D2 at the 2012 London Toy Fair at Olympia Exhibition Centre



Texas, USA: Gravestones at the Fort Sam Houston national cemetery in Houston



Kampala, Uganda: Ugandan riot police gather as supporters of opposition leader Kizza Besigye protest against rising living costs

[Mr Lick]

Protests return to Bahrain



A woman watches a police patrol in the Ras Roman neighborhood of central Manama, Bahrain January 25, 2012.



Members of the opposition party al-Wefaq march during the start of their demonstration in the Ras Roman neighborhood of central Manama January 25, 2012.









Mourners run from tear gas fired by riot police after the funeral of Yousif Mowali in Muharraq, north of Manama, January 21, 2012. Thousands of mourners attended the funeral of Mowali, whom Bahraini authorities said drowned while the opposition claim he was in police custody and that his body showed burn marks and bruises as a result of police torture.

[Mr Lick]

Funeral for Paterno



Former Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno's casket is loaded into a vehicle after his funeral service in State College, Pennsylvania January 25, 2012. Thousands lined the frigid streets while family and friends of Paterno gathered inside a private funeral hall to mourn a man whose towering image was shaken by his inaction in a child sex abuse scandal. Paterno's son Scott (bottom R) is seen with his hand on his father's casket.









Mourners line up for the second day of the public viewing of former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno's casket in State College, Pennsylvania January 25, 2012.








Football players Terrell Golden (R), class of 2007, and John Duckett, class of 2014, pray at Penn State football coach Joe Paterno's public viewing at Penn State University January 24, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

Members of counternarcotics police destroy a cocaine production laboratory in Puerto Concordia, Meta, Colombia, 25 January 2012, during an operation against FARC drug trafficking infrastructures, in which 17 laboratories were destroyed in southeastern jungles. Two planes, 22 boats, 692 kilograms of coca paste and 13 tons of substances used to produce the drug were seized and 10 people were arrested during the operation.






Members of counter-narcotics police secure a cocaine production laboratory in Puerto Concordia, Meta, Colombia

[Mr Lick]

A visitors looks at "Woman and Child" by Sam Jinks during the opening night of the India Art Fair in New Delhi, India. Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. The fair consists of work by more than one thousand artists from India and around the world and runs from January 26-29.

[Mr Lick]

Anti-Syrian regime protesters shout slogans during a demonstration against Syrian President Bashar Assad, at Bayada area in Homs province, central Syria, on Wednesday Jan. 25, 2012. Government forces clashed with army defectors and stormed rebellious districts in central Syria on Wednesday, firing mortars and deploying snipers in violence that killed at least seven people, including a mother and her 5-year-old child, activists said.






Anti-Syrian regime protesters dance and shout slogans during a demonstration against Syrian President Bashar Assad, at Bayada area in Homs province on Wednesday.

[Mr Lick]

Ed Jones, Ashley Farmer and June Jones watch 10-month-old Rhylan Kendrick play in a box in what remains of Ed and June's Center Point Ala. home on Jan. 25. The home was damaged by the tornado that devastated towns in Alabama.

[Mr Lick]

Alabama storms

[Mr Lick]

At least 10 people have died and 33 injured in 2 seperate car bomb incidents in Baghdad, Iraq

[Mr Lick]

A protester yells at members of a police patrol in the Ras Roman neighborhood of central Manama, Bahrain, January 25, 2012.



Officials check the area after a Lunar New Year celebration in central Thailand, Suphan Buri province went wrong on January 25, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

A general view of a collapsed building in Rio de Janeiro January 25, 2012.



Men cry near the bodies of their relatives, killed by unidentified gunmen during a shootout, at a morgue in Karachi January 25, 2012. Gunmen on motorcycles killed three lawyers and wounded another, police said. The motive was not immediately clear.



The caravan of Mateus Silva, 25 and unemployed, burns in the Nossa Senhora de Fatima neighborhood, in Lisbon January 25, 2012. Silva and his wife Leonor on Wednesday set the caravan on fire in protest of the eviction conducted by the Lisbon city police. The couple, along with their two daughters, have been living in the caravan for 21 months as they have no money to rent an apartment.

[Mr Lick]

Princess Stephanie (2nd L) and his daughter Pauline Ducruet (L), Prince Albert II of Monaco (2nd R) and Princess Charlene (R) arrive to attend the awards ceremony for the 36th Monte Carlo International Circus Festival in Monaco January 24, 2012. Picture taken January 24, 2012.



Coffins are seen during a ceremony to pay homage to the four slain soldiers killed last week in Afghanistan at the 93rd regiment of Artillery in Varces, French Alps, January 25, 2012.



Nelli Zhiganshina and Alexander Gazsi of Germany perform their ice dance short dance routine at the European Figure Skating Championships at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, northern England January 25, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

Smoke rises in the sky from a suicide car bomb explosion in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, Afghanistan, on Jan. 26, 2012. Four Afghan civilians were killed and 31 people wounded, said Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

[Mr Lick]

Australian prime minister Julia Gillard is escorted by police and bodyguards out of a award ceremony after aboriginal tent embassy protesters tried to get into the building in Canberra, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 26.

[Mr Lick]

Firefighters look for victims amid the rubble of a building that collapsed in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

Nicholas Henry, 12, receives the presentation of the flag by a Navy representative during the burial for Naval Petty Officer 2nd Class Stevenson L. Roy, a recently deceased homeless Vietnam veteran, Jan. 25, at Willamette National Cemetery, in Portland,

[Mr Lick]

Pakistan v England second Test: day two



WICKET! Misbah 84 lbw Broad (Pakistan 257-8) The perfect start for England then. Broad has got the one wicket the really wanted in his very first over. The ball nipped back in and beat the inside edge. That's five men bowled and three out LBW in this innings. The one big difference between England's bowling here and in Dubai? They have been targeting the stumps, rather than bowling short or outside off. You can see the hand of bowling coach David Saker in that. Umar Gul, who knows how to slog the ball, is the new man in. England need to wrap this tale up quick sharp.



WICKET! Ajmal 0 lbw Anderson (Pakistan 257-9) And that's exactly what they are doing. Ajmal goes to the first ball of Anderson's second over, also out lbw to a straighter, fuller ball that slanted back in towards leg stump. A brilliant start this, from England's quick bowlers. Junaid Khan is the new man in. "Only three times before," Nasser tells us, "have all 10 wickets fallen in an innings without a single man being out caught." We're one wicket away from repeating that here. Better yet, as Mike Selvey says: "Only one Test innings where all 10 were no assists ie catches or run outs etc. Australia v India at Adelaide in Jan 1948."



WICKET! Khan 0 c Swann b Anderson (Pakistan 257) Well, forget that. The last man in is the first man to be caught, after just three deliveries. What a ruthless start by England. "There," adds Selve. "That did the trick."



WICKET! Strauss 11 c Shafiq b Hafeez (England 27-1) Smyth arrives in the office and Strauss is promptly caught at short leg. Jonah! It was a soft sort of dismissal, Strauss wasn't forward, and he wasn't back, and he just dangled his bat at the ball like it was the rod of Sunday fisherman who was snoozing on the shore. The ball popping off the inside edge and looped up off the pad for a simple catch.



43rd over: England 109-1 (in reply to Pakistan's 257; Cook 43, Trott 50) A sharp single off Hafeez brings Trott to a very good half-century. He had one big moment of fortune but has played fluently, reaching his fifty from 95 balls. Can anyone remember what life was like before Jonathan Trott? I'm not sure I want to. "I'd join the Semi-colon Club in a heartbeat," says Sara Torvalds. "In fact, I'd have joined it at age 10, or thereabouts, when I was taught how to use a semi-colon; the beginning of one of those life-long love affairs that never quite seem to take off properly ..."



48th over: England 122-1 (in reply to Pakistan's 257; Cook 51, Trott 56) Cook works Ajmal to the midwicket boundary to reach a strong-willed half-century from 133 balls. Then Trott survives an LBW appeal after missing a sweep at a ball that probably hit him outside the line. Ajmal's response is a glorious dipping doosra that snakes past the outside edge.



WICKET! Trott 74 b Rehman (England 166-2) That's a wonderful ball from Rehman, a plum plucked from this pudding of a pitch. It drifted a little, landed, then broke of the pitch, spinning past the bat and knocking the bail off the top of off-stump. It may have been a little lazy from Trott, who was hanging back in the crease and rather poking at the ball, but it was beautiful bowling all the same. Trott admits as much by pursing his lips and nodding in acknowledgment as he walks off.



WICKET! Cook 94 lbw Ajmal (England 198-3) I can't quite believe it, but Cook is out six runs short of his century. It was a doosra that did for him. Cook played for the off-break, leaning forward to block it, only for the ball to turn the other way and hit him on the pad in front of middle. As Athers points out, a lot of batsmen would have reviewed that, even though it would have made no difference, and it is a credit to Cook's selflessness that he didn't.





WICKET! Morgan 3 c Hafeez b Ajmal (England 207-5) The penultimate ball of the day brings Ajmal his third wicket. It bit and broke off the pitch, Morgan followed it with his bat and ended up edging straight to slip.

So, four wickets in the final session have altogether changed the complexion of this innings. England still trail by fifty runs, and have five wickets left. The day's play ends as it started - with things feeling fascinatingly poised.

[Mr Lick]

Al-Dirat, West Bank: an injured Palestinian construction worker screams in pain after an Israeli army driver drove a trailer hooked to a tractor over his legs. The Palestinian tried to block him when Israeli forces stopped workers from building a house



Bangalore, India: A Mallakhamb artist performs during Republic Day celebrations



Candelaria, Colombia: a man in his flooded home after the weather phenomenon known as La Niña caused overflowing of the river Cauca

[Mr Lick]

Toy figure protests in Barnaul, Russia

Police in Siberian city ask prosecutors to investigate legality of protest involving display of toy figures holding miniature placards



Lego figurines, Kinder surprises and other toys played the role of 'demonstrators' with placards



A Lego barricade









Participants add more figurines

[Mr Lick]

[Mr Lick]

Australian Open 2012: day eleven



It's a packed house in the Rod Laver Arena for the semi-final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. It's the 27th meeting between these two giants of the modern game, which sees a clash of styles – Federer's classical elegance against Nadal's muscular aggression. Nadal has won 17 of the 26 meetings to date, and since 2008 he has won nine of the last 12 meetings. However Federer can take encouragement from the fact that he prevailed at their last meeting, winning 6-3, 6-0 at the World Tour Finals in London last year



Federer has done a lot of work on his backhand return over the last two years, and it shows – the Swiss driving serves right back onto Nadal's toes at the baseline. He leads the first set 3-1



Nadal comes back and forces the first set into a tie-break



... which Federer wins 7-5, it's an impressive display by the Swiss player, he didn't drop a single service point during the tie-break

[Mr Lick]

Rafael Nadal loses the first game of the second set but bludgeons his way straight back into the match...



... and has Federer running all over the court. Soon the Spaniard is 5-2 up



... but then the official Australia Day firewords are set off in Melbourne, which means a 15 minute break for the players



When play resumes Federer double faults. allowing Nadal to win the game to love and the set 6-2

[Mr Lick]

Nadal also takes the first game in the third set and it seems that the advantage has now swung in his favour. However Federer digs deep and the third goes to a tie-break



Which Nadal wins 7-5, so he now leads the match 6-7, 6-2, 7-6. It doesn't look good for Federer now – in grand slam matches where these two have split the first two sets, the winner of the third set has always gone on to win



While others seem to tire over the course of a five-set match, Nadal just seems to gets stronger – as though the first three sets were merely an elaborate warm-up. His forehand is really firing now - it's not long before he's 5-4 up



Federer attempts to come back but inevitabley Nadal overpowers him to win the match 6-7, 6-2, 7-6, 6-4. He'll play Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray in the final