World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

Sydney Harbour Bridge turns 80

[Mr Lick]

King of Tonga dies in Hong Kong


King George Tupou V of Tonga, who introduced democracy to the South Pacific archipelago after riots following his ascension in 2006, died in a Hong Kong hospital on Sunday, the Tongan government said on Monday.













King George Tupou V of Tonga arrives at Westminster Abbey for the wedding of Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton last year. The king has died in Hong Kong at the age of 63, a report says

[Mr Lick]

Italy's Giovanbattista Venditti (C) dives in to score against Scotland during their Rugby Union Six Nations match at Rome's Olympic stadium. Italy won 13-6



Matthew Macklin, of the United Kingdom, gets up after being knocked down during the 11th round of a World Middleweight Championship boxing match against Sergio Martinez, of Argentina, Saturday, March 17, 2012, in New York. Martinez won when the fight was stopped after the 11th round

[Mr Lick]

World Cup Biathlon overall winner Magdalena Neuner of Germany leaves her first shooting range during the women's 12.5 km mass start at the IBU World Cup Biathlon at Khanty-Mansiysk, 2759 km northeast of Moscow, Russia, Sunday, March 18, 2012



Roger Federer of Switzerland returns a shot against John Isner of the U.S. on his way to winning the men's final match at the Indian Wells ATP tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, March 18, 2012

[Mr Lick]

Chelsea's Gary Cahill nets against Leicester City in their FA Cup win on Sunday



St Patrick's Day celebrations get out of hand in London, Ontario. Police made 11 arrests

[Mr Lick]

London 2012: Stuntman Eddie Kidd to carry Olympic torch

Mr Kidd was injured in a crash at a motorcycle rally

"Anything is possible" is the motto of former daredevil stuntman Eddie Kidd, who last year completed the London Marathon and this summer will be one of the Olympic torchbearers.

Mr Kidd, who lives in Peacehaven, East Sussex, suffered serious brain injuries following a crash at a motorcycle rally in 1996, leaving him with severely restricted co-ordination and speech.

Over the past eight years he has fought to regain some of the mobility he lost and following his achievement last year, in which he raised almost £100,000 for charity, he has been nominated and chosen to carry the Olympic flame on its leg through his home county.

[Mr Lick]

Five suspects killed in Bali anti-terror raids




Indonesian anti-terror police have shot dead five men suspected of planning robberies to fund terror attacks on the island of Bali, officials say.

Police found weapons and ammunition on the men, and believe they had already chosen their targets.

The men wanted to use the cash raised by robberies to buy explosives for terror attacks, said police.

They believe at least one of the men was linked to bank robberies in Medan, pinned on a militant group.

The bank robberies in Medan were blamed on Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT).

Indonesian police told the BBC the five men had been under police surveillance for a month. They had been planning to rob money changers and gold stores around Bali.

"It's clear that what they're doing is raising funds for jihad - they don't have explosives, so they need to obtain money first in order to obtain explosives," a police spokesman said.

But police could not yet confirm whether the men had links with JAT, although they are convinced one of them was involved with the Medan robberies.

[Mr Lick]

Deadly shooting at Toulouse Jewish school - more pics

[Mr Lick]

Syria unrest: Fierce firefight erupts in Damascus



A firefight has erupted in Damascus, in one of the fiercest clashes in the Syrian capital since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule began.

Witnesses say machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades were heard from the heavily guarded district of al-Mezze, which hosts several security buildings.

Syrian TV said three "terrorists" and a security force member had been killed.

The UN estimates more than 8,000 people have died in the year-long uprising.

Al-Mezze has previously been the scene of large anti-government protests.

One resident told Reuters news agency there was "fighting near Hamada supermarket and the sound of explosions there and elsewhere in the neighbourhood".

[Mr Lick]

Janoudia, Syria: a family rests around a fire as they wait to be helped by rebels of the Free Syrian Army to cross the border with Turkey



Beijing, China: a woman dressed as a Kung Fu Panda looks at a piano as she promotes a business event in the lobby of a hotel



Paris, France: mourners pay tribute to the Oscar-winning French filmmaker, novelist and war correspondent Pierre Schoendoerffer after his funeral at Les Invalides

[Mr Lick]

Mexico City, Mexico: a woman takes part in a carnival parade



Olkerin Manyatta, Kenya: young Maasai men, with their legs traditionally decorated, participate in a traditional coming-of-age ceremony



Makassar, Indonesia: student protesters demonstrate during a rally against the government's plan to raise fuel prices

[OhOh]

An armed terrorist group on Sunday detonated with explosive devices a railway bridge on Damascus-Daraa highway near Kherbet Ghazaleh village.

A source in Daraa province told SANA correspondent that 30 m in length and 32 m in width were destroyed in the explosion, with the damage covering 900 m2 of the bridge's total area.

According to explosives experts, the amount of explosives detonated was estimated at 700 to 1000 kg.

[OhOh]

The chairman of the Turkish Republican People's Party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, strongly criticized the stances of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan against Syria, announcing the Turkish opposition's determination to confront these serious policies.

Kilicdaroglu stressed the Turks' rejection of interfering in Syria's affairs, adding that the West avoids interfering in Syria and pushes Turkey into this dangerous adventure.

He added that the Republican People's Party which prevented the deployment of the US troops in Turkey after the war on Iraq in March 2003, will confront any Turkish interference in Syria.

[OhOh]

Russia firmly condemns the terrorist attack in Aleppo yesterday which resulted in the martyrdom of three persons and the injury of 25 others, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The statement added that after the two terrorist attacks which carried out by two booby-trapped cars in Damascus, a similar terrorist attack hit Aleppo, the second city in Syria.

China today strongly condemned the twin terrorist blasts that hit Damascus on Saturday, rejecting all forms of terror and acts of killing.

Xinhua News Agency quoted Spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Hong Li as saying at a press conference that China rejects any form of terror and acts of killing that target the civilians.

[OhOh]

India granted tax exemption to rupee payments for oil imports from Iran in a move to maintain trade with Tehran if the current financial mechanism through Turkey faces new hurdles. India's finance bill, part of the annual budget, said the exemption is in the "national interest" and would be implemented from April 1, Reuters reported.

[Mr Lick]

Fabrice Muamba support messages



Cristiano Ronaldo comes out on the field wearing a shirt in support of Fabrice Muamba before their match against Málaga. The entire Real Madrid squad wore shirts with get well messages






At games around England, there was a minute's applause for the former Under-21 international















A Bolton Wanderers supporter lays a message outside the Reebok Stadium

[Mr Lick]

The Grand Canyon Skywalk



Visitors have a view of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River flowing below from a skywalk extending out over the Grand Canyon and its incomplete building, on the Hualapai Indian Reservation, Arizona, February 28, 2012

[Mr Lick]

Smoke rises from Mount Etna as it spews lava on the southern Italian island of Sicily March 18, 2012. Mount Etna is Europe's tallest and most active volcano.



A man stands on the bonnet of his car as he argues with Egyptian Christians blocking his vehicle as they gather to mourn the death of Pope Shenouda III, the head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, outside the Abbasiya Cathedral in Cairo March 18, 2012. Christians gathered on Sunday to pay final respects to Pope Shenouda III, who sought to soothe sectarian tension in his four decades atop Egypt's Orthodox Church but saw increasing flareups in the majority Muslim nation in the last months of his life.

[Mr Lick]

A woman stands behind open graves after unclaimed bodies were taken out during a Thai Chinese ceremony at the Mang Teung Sua Jung Cemetery in Chonburi province southeast of Bangkok March 18, 2012. Every 10 years, hundreds of people wearing white, a customary colour for funerals and visiting temples, gather at this cemetery to exhume and cremate corpses as they believe they are helping the dead who have no friends or relatives. The ashes of the unclaimed bodies are spread on the sea to make room at the burial ground for more unclaimed bodies in the coming years. The tradition originated 90 years ago after diseases like malaria killed many Thais of Chinese descent living in Chonburi.



The car of an American teacher who was shot dead by gunmen linked to al Qaeda is being towed after the attack in the southern Yemeni city of Taiz March 18, 2012. A police source in the city of Taiz said a gunman riding on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice shot the U.S. English language teacher, who was also deputy director of a language school, the Swedish Institute. Officials from the institute in Taiz identified the victim as Joel Shrun

[Mr Lick]

Members of a forensic team inspect the site of a shooting in a rented villa in Sanur on the Indonesian island of Bali March 18, 2012. Indonesian police shot dead five suspected militants in Bali overnight who had identified and surveyed targets they were planning to attack, the national counter terrorism agency said on Monday, and were linked to the banned Jemaah Islamiah group. Picture taken March 18, 2012.



Matthew Macklin, from Ireland, lands on the ropes after he was knocked down by a punch from Sergio Martinez, from Argentina, in the 11th round of their Middleweight World Championship fight at Madison Square Garden in New York March 17, 2012. Martinez won the fight when it was stopped after the 11th round

[Mr Lick]

Riot police clash with pro-Kurdish demonstrators during a protest in Istanbul March 18, 2012.



A model presents a creation by Ukrainian designer Oleksiy Zalevskiy during Ukrainian Fashion Week in Kiev March 18, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus celebrates winning a game against Maria Sharapova of Russia on her way to winning their women's final match at the Indian Wells WTA tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, March 18, 2012.



A mother mourns her sons Hamdo and Kheiro, both members of the Free Syrian Army killed during clashes with President Bashar al-Assad's forces near Idlib province March 15, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

Anti-government protesters run down from the fly-over of the main highway as riot police fires teargas to disperse them during clashes after the funeral procession of Jafar Jassim Razi in Budaiya, west of Manama, March 18, 2012. Hundreds of anti-government protesters took to main highway and protested against the regime. Riot police fired teargas and sound grenades to disperse the protesters. Razi died late Saturday due to inhalation of teargas, the opposition party Al Wafaq said.



Joachim Gauck receives applause after he was elected German president at Germany's Federal Assembly in Berlin, March 18, 2012. German lawmakers elected Joachim Gauck, a former Lutheran pastor and human rights activist from communist East Germany, as president of the European Union's largest country on Sunday by a large majority in a first round of voting

[Mr Lick]

SF sheriff sentenced for false imprisonment

A contrite and emotional San Francisco sheriff Ross Mirkarimi apologized March 19 for a domestic violence incident with his wife after a judge sentenced him to one day in jail and three years of probation, and ordered him to attend an anti-domestic violence program.







San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi leaves court after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of false imprisonment on Monday, March 12, 2012, in San Francisco. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped a domestic violence charge and two other misdemeanor counts stemming from a New Year's Eve incident involving Mirkarimi and his wife Eliana Lopez



Wife of San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, Eliana Lopez, exits the courtroom for the arraignment of her husband's domestic violence case at the San Francisco County Court House in San Francisco, California, January 19, 2012

[Mr Lick]

'Mini-tornado' hits Australian city

A devastating "mini-tornado" tore through the city of Townsville on Mar. 20, ripping roofs off houses, snapping trees in half and injuring 13 people as wild weather pounded northern Australia.