World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

The Golden Poo, a Japanese good luck charm (playing on the similarity between the words for 'luck' and 'poo' in Japanese) was an eye-catching exhibit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine last month in an exhibition drawing attention to sanitation, a major killer of children in developing countries



An Indian boy defecates in a poor neighborhood of New Delhi. Nearly half of India's 1.2 billion people have no toilet at home. More people own a mobile phone, according to the country's 2011 census. Jairam Ramesh, until recently India's rural development minister, urged women not to get married into families that do not have toilets in their homes. Globally, poor sanitation kills more people than HIV and Aids, malaria and measles combined, according to the charity Wherever the Need



A makeshift toilet by the side of a stream in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir. According to Water.org, 780 million people lack access to clean drinking water, often as a result of sewage leaking directly into rivers and lakes



Local loo: a woman outside her new latrine. Burma now has three 'open defecation free' villages, following a community-led sanitation effort by Unicef and the health ministry. Using hands-on visual training and demonstrations, the villages in western Bago Division have stamped out the practice, but 8% of Burma's population still defecate outdoors



An abandoned toilet on the banks of the Mekong river in Laos. The degradation of the water, vital as an economic lifeline for 60 million people, is a great concern for the six Asian nations it flows through



A communal latrine in Kroo Bay in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Cholera is a severe problem in Sierra Leone and elsewhere in west Africa because of open defecation and improper disposal of sewage



There is little privacy in these public latrines in Kroo Bay. There is also a security issue, especially for women needing to go to the toilet at night



How do you provide sanitation in water-scarce, sewage-light areas? Michael Hoffman, of the California Institute of Technology, explains his winning design in the Reinvent the Toilet challenge

[Mr Lick]

Stranded buses are photographed at a bus terminal during one-day strike called by Jammu and Kashmir drivers in the northern Indian city of Jammu, the winter capital of Kashmir, India. Around 100,000 commercial vehicles, including mini buses, taxis, load carriers and local transport are off the road



Makeshift shelters made of plastic tarpaulins one day after a devastating fire that gutted some 500 shanty houses at the Bou Bazar slum in Hazaribagh, Dhaka, Bangladesh. At least 11 people died including six woman and one child



Mathare slum residents escape from a cloud of tear gas thrown by the police during the second day of skirmishes in the Eastleigh neighbourhood of Kenya's capital Nairob

[Mr Lick]

Xolile Mngeni, the man accused of killing Swedish honeymooner Anni Dewani, walks with a zimmer frame into Cape Town's high court to hear the judgment. He was found guilty



A Palestinian woman protects her child while leaving a building damaged after an Israeli air raid in Gaza City



Two Royal Australian Air Force C-130H Hercules aircraft fly past the sails of the Sydney Opera House. The fly-past commemorated the C-130H's retirement from the RAAF after 34 years of service



Kesha performs onstage during the 40th American Music Awards held at Nokia Theatre Los Angeles, California, last night

[Mr Lick]

Barack Obama visits south-east Asia

Obama is on a three-day tour of the region, taking in Thailand, Burma and Cambodia. He is the first serving US president to visit Burma, where he met the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and President Thein Sein



Obama waves at Don Mueang International airport in Bangkok. He arrived in the Thai capital on Sunday 18 November to start a three-nation tour of south-east Asia

[Mr Lick]

Monks hold a placard to welcome Obama at Rangoon International airport. He is the first serving US president to visit Burma



Rangoon






Saucy!



Obama allegedly meets his Burmese counterpart, Thein Sein, at the Rangoon parliament building

[Mr Lick]

Sixth day of Israel-Gaza violence



Gaza















Israeli PM Netanyahu has spoken of pushing on despite calls of retraint.

[Mr Lick]

MPs' expenses: Minister Helen Grant defends claim

Helen Grant was promoted to a frontbench role in September's reshuffle

Equalities Minister Helen Grant has defended claiming the maximum expenses for a second home in London despite living 19 miles from the Commons.

Mrs Grant lives in a £1.8m house near her Maidstone constituency and has a taxpayer-funded flat in London.

As a non-London MP, she is entitled to a second-home allowance.

But if she represented the area where she lives, Reigate, Surrey, she would not be able to claim the allowance, a Channel 4 documentary will say later.

Crispin Blunt, the MP for Reigate, is not entitled to claim a second-home allowance.

[Mr Lick]

Horden shootings: IPCC highlights Durham Police failings

(Left to right) Susan McGoldrick, 47, Alison Turnbull, 44 and Tanya Turnbull, 24, were killed

An inquiry has found "unacceptable" and "inexcusable" failings in how Durham Police dealt with a man who shot dead three family members and then himself.

Michael Atherton, 44, shot his partner Susan McGoldrick; Alison Turnbull, her daughter Tanya then himself after a row at his Horden home on New Year's Day.

Atherton legally owned six weapons, including three shotguns.

But the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said his violent past had not been properly investigated.

While the IPCC said it found no evidence to warrant criminal or disciplinary action against any member of Durham Police, it said the force knew of "a number of incidents" which "should have cast doubt" on Atherton's suitability to hold firearms.



Atherton had a history of domestic and drink-related violence

[Mr Lick]

Obama in Burma































Whispers between girls

[Mr Lick]

Ex-canon of Carlisle Cathedral Ronald Johns jailed

Ronald Johns arriving at court

A former canon of Carlisle Cathedral, convicted of a series of child sex offences dating back almost 30 years, has been jailed for four years.

Ronald Johns, who was also a vicar in Caldbeck, Cumbria, was found guilty of sexual offences committed against three boys between 1983 and 1991.

He admitted 10 counts of indecent assault and gross indecency.

The 75-year-old, of Kings Road, Coltishall, Norwich, was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court on Monday.

The court heard that between 1983 and 1991 and while serving as a vicar in Caldbeck and then as a Canon at Carlisle Cathedral, Johns had used "classic grooming techniques" to abuse three boys aged between 14 and 17.

In each case the victims described Johns as a "trusted family friend" - one saying he was a "father figure".

In all cases they said they had struggled to come to terms with the abuse. Two of them told police they considered suicide.

[Mr Lick]

Brazil's Bruno Fernandes tried for ex-lover's murder

Ms Samudio went missing in June 2010

Brazilian football star Bruno Fernandes has gone on trial, accused of ordering the killing of a former lover whose body has never been found.

Fernandes and two other defendants are charged with the murder of Eliza Samudio, who disappeared in June 2010. Police say she was murdered and her body was fed to dogs.

The three all deny any wrongdoing.

At the time, Fernandes was the goalkeeper for Brazil's most popular club, Flamengo.

Ms Samudio had said that the married footballer was the father of her baby.

The trial in the town of Contagem, in the state of Minas Gerais, began on Monday morning and is expected to last two weeks.

It is attracting massive media interest in Brazil where it has been compared to the OJ Simpson trial in the US.

As well as Fernandes, two others are charged with murder: Luiz Henrique Ferreira Romao, known as Macarrao, and former policeman Marcos Aparecido dos Santos, known as Bola.

Two other defendants, Fernandes's ex-wife Dayanne Rodrigues and an ex-lover, Fernanda Gomes de Castro, face charges of abduction and false imprisonment.

[Mr Lick]

Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, President Barack Obama, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen and Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah join hands for a group photo at the 4th ASEAN-US meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Nov. 19. Obama's Southeast Asian trip, less than two weeks after his re-election, is aimed at showing how serious he is about shifting the U.S. strategic focus eastwards as America winds down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Mr Lick]

Somali families carry their belongings as they move out of their homes after they were broken into during the second day of skirmishes in Eastleigh, Nairobi on November 19, 2012.



A general service policeman corners a man, left, who broke into apartment houses in the Eastleigh neighborhood on November 19, 2012.



Residents look at the wreckage of a mini-bus (matatu) after it was hit by an explosion in the Eastleigh neighborhood of Kenya's capital on November 18, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

Phnom Penh, Cambodia: a protester shouts slogans in front of riot police blocking a road as the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) summit begins



Berlin, Germany: German soldiers line up at a wreath laying ceremony at the monument for German Jewish soldiers who fell in the first world war

[Mr Lick]

Democratic Republic of the Congo: M23 rebels at a small base in the hills of Kanyarucinya on the outskirts of Goma



Jammu, India: stranded passengers rest on top of a parked bus at a bus station during a day-long transport strike. Transport associations called the strike to demand higher fares after the government raised the price of petrol



Gaza City, Gaza Strip: a Palestinian woman is helped by a paramedic out of her building which was damaged during an Israeli air raid on a nearby sports centre



Havana, Cuba: thousands of people compete in the XXVI Marabana marathon



Seville, Spain: a couple walk along a path on the Metropol Parasol, overseeing the old city and the Giralda Cathedral. The Metropol Parasol by Jürgen Mayer H Architects claims to be the world's largest wooden structure



New Delhi, India: firefighters battle a large fire in the Himalaya House office block in the business district of the city

[Mr Lick]

A Palestinian demonstrator holds a stone during minor clashes with Israeli troops in protest against Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank village of Bir Zeit, near Ramallah



Israeli soldiers lie on the ground as an Iron Dome missile is launched near the city of Ashdod, Israel



Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a blaze after an Israeli air strike on a building that also houses international media offices in Gaza City



A man bleeds heavily after he was attacked with machetes during inter-ethnic clashes in Nairobi's Eastleigh suburb. Fighting broke out a day after a bomb exploded in a minibus, blamed on sympathisers of Somalia's al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab insurgents, killing seven people and leaving several wounded



Palestinians evacuate a wounded man after an Israeli air strike on a building that also houses media offices in Gaza City



Palestinians carry bodies of members of the Dalou family during their funeral in Gaza City.



Palestinians pray over the bodies of farmers Amin Bashir, 40, and Tamer Bashir, 30, during their funeral in Deir Al Balah, central Gaza



A woman makes her way through flooded streets in Baghdad, Iraq. Heavy rain flooded the streets of Baghdad causing traffic jams



The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and labour minister Ursula von der Leyen look inside their handbags at the beginning of a meeting with the leadership of their Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party in Berlin

Any spare cash Angela?

[Mr Lick]

A policeman looks on as residents scatter during a rampage near the wreckage of a passenger mini-bus (matatu) after it was hit by an explosion in the Eastleigh neighbourhood of Kenya's capital Nairobi, November 18, 2012.



A Palestinian stone-thrower uses a sling to throw back a tear gas canister fired by Israeli security forces during clashes outside Ofer prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah



Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek dances around the trophy after winning the Davis Cup tennis tournament final match over Spain in Prague, November 18, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

A participant performs during a Gay Pride Parade on Copacabana beach in Rio De Janeiro, November 18, 2012



Supports of the Shiv Sena party crowd around the vehicle carrying the body of right-wing Hindu nationalist politician Bal Thackeray during his funeral procession in Mumbai, November 18, 2012. Thackeray, one of India's most polarising politicians and leader of an influential right-wing Hindu nationalist party that has dominated politics in the country's richest city for two decades, has died aged 86.



Boeung Kak lake residents who face eviction from their homes display banners, flags and a portrait of President Obama to ask for his help in protecting their rights as they protest ahead of Obama's visit in Phnom Penh, November 18, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

Israel, Gaza violence escalates















Palestinians carry the body of a child of the al-Dalo family during a mass funeral in Gaza City on Nov. 19. Nine members of the al-Dalo family, including four children, were killed in an Israeli strike on their house on Sunday, Palestinian medics said

[Mr Lick]

A member of folkloric music group 'Los Brillantes de Matacancha' from Huanuco, Peru, performs during a show inside a bullring at the Yawar Toro center during a festival on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Nov. 18.









A festival was organized by Peru’s town of Huanuco to celebrate native customs in culinary art, dance and music. People from Peru's Andean highlands, who have emigrated for decades to the capital in search for opportunities, organize fairs on various dates on the outskirts of Lima to honor various patron saints, celebrate anniversaries or to celebrate local customs.

[Mr Lick]

An Indian Hindu devotee prostrates himself as his wife and children walk behind him as part of rituals at sunset near the holy Yamuna River during the Chhath Puja festival in New Delhi, India, on Nov. 19.



Hindu devotees pray while standing in the waters of the Arabian Sea as they worship the sun god during the Hindu religious festival "Chhath Puja" in Mumbai, on Nov. 19. Hindu devotees worship the sun god and fast all day for the betterment of their family and society during the festival.









Indian Hindu devotees offer prayers to the sun god on the occasion of Chhath Puja festival at Yamuna river in New Delhi, India, on Nov. 19. On Chhath, an ancient Hindu festival, rituals are performed to thank the sun god for sustaining life on earth. The banner reads as "Warning, deep water ahead".

[Mr Lick]

Free Syrian Army rebels take up positions along an embankment on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Maaret al-Numan, Syria on Nov. 17






A father comforts his son who has just undergone surgery for a bullet wound in his left shoulder outside a field hospital in the northwestern city of Maaret al-Numan, Syria on Nov. 18.



A Syrian man salvages furniture from his home that was destroyed in bombing by government forces, in the northwestern city of Maraat al-Numan, Syria on Nov. 17.

[Mr Lick]

Israel, Gaza violence



Birzeit University students clash with Israeli soldiers at the Atara checkpoint close to the university as they protest against Israel's military action on the Gaza Strip, on Nov. 19. Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip killed 13 people, raising the Palestinian death toll to 90 as Israel's relentless air campaign entered its sixth day.












An Israeli F-15 jet takes off from the Tel Nof Air Force base in central Israel on Nov. 19. Israel bombed dozens of suspected guerrilla sites Monday in the densely populated Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in its campaign to quell militant rocket fire menacing nearly half of Israel's population.



Palestinian women cry during a funeral for members of the al-Dalou family in Gaza City on Nov. 19. Multiple members of the Dalou family, including four children, died when an Israeli airstrike hit their house in Gaza City on Sunday.

[Mr Lick]

Palestinians carry the body of a child belonging to the al-Dalo family during a mass funeral in Gaza City. Nine members of the Dalo family, including four children, were killed in an Israeli strike on their house on Sunday















An Israeli police officer inspects an unexploded Grad missile in Ashkelon - i'd move a little closer if i were him



Firefighters try to extinguish a fire after an Israeli strike on a building in Gaza City

[Mr Lick]

Flower power: Visitors look at the Arum Titan "Amorphophallus titanum", the largest flower in the world, as it blossoms for a second time at the Botanical Garden in Basel. The flower has a 2.27 meters high yellow pistil and a red-brown petal-shaped funnel



Hot air balloons fly over Metropolitano park during the International Hot-Air Balloon Festival in Leon, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato.



A photographer takes pictures as water pours from river outlet tubes during an experimental high flow release from the Glen Canyon Dam in Page, Arizona



They predict a riot: Prison officials guard the maximum security prison Fraijanes II, 36 km west of Guatemala City, where eight prison guards are being held hostage by the inmates



Genetically modified demonstration: Masked protestors shout slogans against the U.S.-based Monsanto company outside its offices in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The protest was held against copyrighted seeds, the use of soy as a mono-culture and the dominant presence of Monsanto in Argentina



A breach of protocol: Britain's Queen Elizabeth is greeted as she arrives at the Royal Variety Performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London.