World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

A pro-Russia woman ties a Crimean ribbon on her friend's arm in Sevastopol, Ukraine. Pro-Russian gunmen have today seized a government building in Crimea



Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah shakes hands with his supporters during an election campaign in Kabul ahead of presidential elections on 5 April



An unusual photograph for the wedding album as newlyweds pose in their wedding outfits and gas masks during heavy smog in Beijing, China. Severe pollution has hit much of northern China for the past week, with some readings well over 10 times the internationally accepted safety limit

[Mr Lick]

Agbogbloshie: the world's largest e-waste dump

Discarders of electronic goods expect them to be recycled properly. But almost all such devices contain toxic chemicals which, even if they are recyclable, make it expensive to do so. As a result, illegal dumping has become a lucrative business.


Photographer Kevin McElvaney documents Agbogbloshie, a former wetland in Accra, Ghana, which is home to the world’s largest e-waste dumping site. Boys and young men smash devices to get to the metals, especially copper. Injuries, such as burns, untreated wounds, eye damage, lung and back problems, go hand in hand with chronic nausea, anorexia, debilitating headaches and respiratory problems. Most workers die from cancer in their 20s



Adam Nasara, 25, uses Styropor, an insulating material from refrigerators, to light a fire



Old monitors are used to build bridges



Ibrahim Abdulai, 23, is a ‘chief’. Although no one works for him, he is able to decide who is allowed to burn goods in this particular area of the site



Cows with open wounds graze on the site









Kwabena Labobe, 10, plays on the site. His parents are not able to send him to school and forbid him to burn e-waste

[Mr Lick]

Ukrainian men help pull one another out of a stampede as a flag of Crimea is seen during clashes at rallies held by ethnic Russians and Crimean Tatars near the Crimean parliament building in Simferopol, Ukraine February 26, 2014



Riot police use tear gas to disperse demonstrators as they try to march to the Turkish Parliament during a protest against Turkey's ruling Ak Party (AKP) government in Ankara February 26, 2014.

[Mr Lick]

A supporter of the English Defence League with an tattoo on his head stands by a replica hangman's noose and gallows during a protest outside the Old Bailey courthouse in London February 26, 2014



Portraits of protesters who were killed during recent violence are on display at a makeshift memorial inside the Parliament building in Kiev, Ukraine February 26, 2014



Actor, writer and director Ben Affleck testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington February 26, 2014

[Mr Lick]

A sculpture is seen in front of an apartment block in Beijing January 16, 2014. Chinese policymakers must ensure the property market, which has started to show signs of cooling, does not become a source of social and financial instability, the official China Daily said



A police officer sorts rolling papers, plastic guns and cell phone chips outside the maximum security prison in Tamara on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, Honduras February 25, 2014



Former Ming Pao chief editor Kevin Lau Chun-to is wheeled into the operation theater at a hospital in Hong Kong February 26, 2014. Lau, the former chief editor of a major Hong Kong newspaper known for its critical reporting, was stabbed and seriously wounded in an attack likely to fuel concern among journalists about what many see as an erosion of media freedoms



Relatives of Jimmy Vargas, a student who died during a protest, stand next to his coffin during his funeral in San Cristobal, about 410 miles (660 km) southwest of Caracas, February 26, 2014.

[Mr Lick]

Last Post: Queen's Baton sails for final time to remote Saint Helena

The RMS St. Helena is one of the last working Royal Mail ships in the world - a lifeline for the people living on its namesake island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Earlier this month the Queen's Baton Relay, the Commonwealth Games' version of the Olympic torch, travelled on a special voyage. The transport of the baton highlighted the ship's vital role to the lives of the 4000 people who live on the British Overseas Territory, located between Africa and South America and famous for being the island of exile for Napoleon Bonaparte



Built in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1989 to specifically supply the island, the ship has provided everything for the islanders. However, all is about to change for the people of Saint Helena

An airport is due to open on the island in 2016. When it becomes operational, the RMS St. Helena will be retired to the annals of maritime history



After visiting the 18 Commonwealth countries on the African continent in January and February, the baton left Cape Town in the shadow of Table Mountain. The baton for Glasgow 2014 is the third time the ship has transported the Queen's message for the Games






As well as being an operational cargo ship, the RMS St. Helena hosts tourists who are drawn to its unique journey. Shuffleboard is a popular pastime



Commonwealth Games Federation Honorary Secretary General Louise Martin CBE (centre), who competed for Scotland at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in the swimming finals and was central in Glasgow's successful bid to host this year's event, holds the Queen's Baton with the crew of RMS St. Helena



The baton's final journey on the RMS St. Helena ended here, in sight of the popular tourist destination of Jacob's Ladder. Saint Helena is around 1,948 miles (3,135km) west of Cape Town and around 2,380 miles (3,830km) east from Fortaleza on the Brazilian coast. By the time the next Queen's Baton Relay travels around the world in the months before the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, the ship will have been replaced by an airport

[Mr Lick]

Fresh Ukraine tensions



Crimea is a Russian-majority province and there have been demonstrations in support of closer ties with Russia, including one on Thursday



It took place after gunmen stormed the government building in the regional capital Simferopol (pictured here on the right) and raised the Russian flag over it



The parliament building was also barricaded, with government employees unable to enter



The crisis has brought attention to Russia's military presence in the Crimea - namely the Black Sea Fleet in the port of Sebastopol

[Mr Lick]

Meanwhile anti-Yanukovych protesters turned out again in central Kiev as parliament nominated opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk as new prime minister



"Crimea is Ukraine", insists this Kiev protester's sign, amid news that the Crimean parliament had called a referendum on greater self-rule



The protesters in Kiev's Maidan square - some, like the man in red with a crutch, bearing the scars of battle - are not leaving yet. They remain vigilant as the crisis they triggered with their protests three months ago reaches its climax

[Mr Lick]

Angela Merkel's visit to the UK




German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is on a one-day visit to the UK, has given a historic address to both Houses of Parliament and taken part in a rather more informal meeting in Prime Minister David Cameron's Downing Street flat


















That looks very much like a tongue in the ear job.



It was! She has nasty infection now by the look of things






Angela leaving Buck House following her friends and family visit.

[Mr Lick]

An injured Ukrainian man is helped by medical staff from a special military airplane in Prague, Czech Republic. The Czech government has approved a plan to transport two dozen Ukrainians wounded in the recent street demonstrations, for treatment in the country



An ingenious use for recycled plastic bottles. Children enjoyed an afternoon of surfing on paddle boards made with plastic bottles on a beach in Lima



Keep the coal fires burning? Well not if you are in Simpson, Pennsylvania where a burning anthracite coal refuse dump has been on fire for the last few months. Local fire crews are pouring approximately 1.6 million gallons of water on the fire every day as they try to prevent the fire from spreading to two coal seams near the burning mound

[Mr Lick]

A man dressed as a demon performs with a bone during a religious procession at the Mahashivratri festival in the northern Indian city of Allahabad



Winnie the three-week-old pygmy hippo makes her debut at Bristol Zoo Gardens, south west England



A participant in the competition for the longest ash is dizzied by the smoke of his cigar during the XVI Cuba Cigar festival, in Havana, Cuba. Cigar enthusiasts from around the world come to the Caribbean island for the annual Cigar Festival to visit tobacco farms and factories and savor new cigar brands

[Mr Lick]

Expedition 38 crew members pose for a quirky in-flight crew portrait in the Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station. Pictured on the bottom row are Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov (centre), commander; NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins (left) and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy, both flight engineers. Pictured on the top row (from the left) are Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, all flight engineers, too



A boy and two 'penguins' watch a participant in the daily penguin parade at Edinburgh Zoo



A Mexican marine lifts a bathtub that leads to a tunnel and exits in the city's drainage system at one of the houses of Joaquin 'Chapo' Guzman in Culiacan. Guzman, who rose from humble origins to become one of the most powerful drug barons in history, was captured on Saturday in a raid in the beachside resort and fishing center of Mazatlan, 125 miles southeast of Culiacan, just days after escaping from the clutches of Mexican troops through the tunnel and sewers

[Mr Lick]

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama dances with an aubergine from the Super Sprowtz group at a La Petite Academy chid care centre in Bowie, Maryland



The HAV 304 Hybrid Aircraft (airship) in the giant hangers at the former RAF Cardington near Bedford



Volunteers use a pontoon to move a car that has been cut off by flood waters at Burrowbridge on the Somerset Levels

[Mr Lick]

A model demonstrates the AeYO fitness vehicle. A curious mix of skates, cycle and scooter, the company claims the machine is the future of exercise



A fire officer walks through flood water from a burst main in Clapham Road in Kennington, south London



A detail of the arm joint on a one-of-a-kind Exosuit, a next-generation atmospheric diving system capable of taking a diver down 1,000 feet (305 metres) at surface pressure, on temporary display at the American Museum of Natural History, New York. The hard-metal suit offers divers protection from the ocean's pressure while maintaining the dexterity and manoueverability to perform delicate tasks, such as sampling and imaging marine biodiversity with high-resolution underwater cameras. It will be tested as a scientific tool this July off the coast of New England on the Stephen J. Barlow Bluewater Expedition, partly sponsored by the museum

[Mr Lick]

A villager searches for a spot to place his roasted pig at the Dalem Temple in Timbrah Village, Bali. Usaba Dalem is an annual ritual held by the people of the village where they cook pigs and carry them to the temple as an offering to God and an expression of gratitude for a successful harvest



Dancers of the state opera ballet perform at the Opera Ball in Vienna



The traditional ball is opened by the Austrian president and features a musical programme with soloists and artists from the Vienna Philharmonic and State Ballet before 144 debutants and debutantes are lead into the festivities with a classic Strauss waltz

[Mr Lick]

As the polar vortex continues its icy grip on parts of North America, a car is seen stuck on top of a mound of snow and ice in Totowa, New Jersey



An anti-government demonstrator lights a Molotov cocktail from a burning tyre during clashes at Altamira square in Caracas, Venezuela



The Japanese H-IIA rocket with the Nasa-Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory onboard, launching from the Tanegashima Space Centre, Japan. The GPM spacecraft will collect information that unifies data from an international network of existing and future satellites to map global rainfall and snowfall every three hours

[Mr Lick]

The northern lights illuminate the UK

The aurora borealis could be seen across skies in Scotland, Northumberland and as far south as Essex on Thursday night

[Mr Lick]

Residents wait to receive food aid distributed by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency at the besieged al-Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, Syria

[Mr Lick]

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's interior minister accused Moscow's military of blockading an airport near a Russian naval base on Friday and armed men took control of another airport in Ukraine's Crimean capital of Simferopol.

In a Facebook post, Arsen Avakov called the seizure of the Belbek international airport in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol a "military invasion and occupation." He added: "It is a breach of all international agreements and norms."

[Mr Lick]

Traffic jams the streets of Xi'an, China, in heavy smog after the traffic lights failed on Feb. 25. Altogether, 1.43 million sq km of China, nearly 15 percent of its total size, have been covered by persistent smog in recent days

[Mr Lick]

Despite the symbols of national unity, Thai anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban (centre) is a polarising figure.



Not your average summer camp: in Gaza, thousands of youngsters aged six to 16 can participate in a camp where they receive military and religious training.



Cologne kicked off a week of street festivals with its colourful "Weiberfastnacht" (Women's Carnival).

[Mr Lick]

Excavating past crimes in Somaliland



Somaliland declared independence after the overthrow of Somalia's long-serving President Siad Barre in 1991. In the last years of his rule tens of thousands of people were killed there and towns were flattened following a rebellion. Now the graves of some of the victims are being excavated.







Six bodies have been found in one of three recently excavated graves. The students have recovered 44 bodies in total and are now beginning to look at a fourth site.

[Mr Lick]

Some of the remains provide clues as to how and where the victim was shot. Here a pelvis is marked with the trajectory path of bullets.

[Mr Lick]

Crimea tension as Ukraine crisis grows



Early on Friday, armed men appeared at the airport in Simferopol, but their patrols did not appear to disrupt normal business.



A short time later, gunmen in military fatigues blocked the road leading to the military airport near Sevastopol, the home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.







Viktor Yanukovych made his first public appearance since he was removed as president last week. He said in a news conference in Russia he would return to Ukraine as soon as his security could be guaranteed.







Pro-Russian demonstrators - including these Cossacks - gathered once again outside the Crimean regional parliament in Simferopol.

[Mr Lick]

Ohio Governor John Kasich introduces Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, who were held in captivity in an Ohio house for many years, during his State of the State address at the Performing Arts Center in Medina, Ohio.



Delegates relax at the Mobile World Congress, the world's biggest mobile technology event, in Barcelona.