World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

When squirrels attack! A squirrel clings to the back of daytripper Brian Genest at the John Chestnut Park near Tampa, Florida. Genest, 17, of Auburn, Maine, said the flash and noises from his camera phone scared the animal, which climbed under the his shirt and clung onto his back. 'He was just in that spot where my arm can't reach him,' Genest said. 'I threw myself on the ground and that scared him off.'



Women react during a protest outside Nigeria's parliament in Abuja demanding security forces to search harder for the 234 schoolgirls abducted by terrorists over two weeks ago

[Mr Lick]

Pro-Russian activists clash with riot police as unrest continues in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk



A southern three-banded armadillo baby is shown off at the Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida. The tiny creature currently weighs about as much as an average mobile phone

[Mr Lick]

An improvised explosive device (IED) sits on display in the explosive reference library of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Centre (TEDAC) in Quantico, Virginia



A police officer stands guard next to graffiti depicting Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos as a gangster during a May Day protest in Bogota, Colombia



Zoltan Veres of Hungary performs with his MXS airplane during the Red Bull air show in Budapest



Veres then went on to fly under the 'Lanchid' (Chain Bridge) - the oldest bridge in Hungary

[Mr Lick]

A crowd surfer gestures during the Strawberry Music Festival in Beijing



Indonesian labour activists representing underpaid and downtrodden workers perform during a Labour Day protest in Jakarta, Indonesia



The planet Uranus is seen as a blue orb beyond Saturn's rings in this image captured by Nasa's Cassini spacecraft

[Mr Lick]

A pure gold statue of Kumamon, the popular black bear mascot of Japan's southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto, at the jewellers in Tokyo's Ginza district



People compete during the third edition of the Spartacus survival run at de Schorre in Boom, Belgium

[Mr Lick]

Paratroopers in camouflage from the U.S. Army's 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat squad smile after participating in training exercises in Oleszno, Poland



Araceli Jaime dances in a traditional Aztec costume during Seattle's 14th annual May Day march



This newly-released Nasa image shows the fifth brightest galaxy, Centaurus A. The active galaxy sits about 12 million light years from Earth

[Mr Lick]

Friends, family and members of a soccer club gathered Wednesday in Hamburg, Germany, for a farewell match to honor a local teenager who was killed Sunday in Missoula, Montana.

Seventeen-year-old exchange student Diren Dede was allegedly trespassing inside a garage when Missoula homeowner Markus Kaarma fired four times from a shotgun, killing the teen.





Kaarma faces a charge of deliberate homicide. He claims Montana’s self-defense law allowed him to shoot Dede, his lawyer Paul Ryan told the Associated Press.
The boy’s father said he never imagined his son could be shot for entering someone's property

[Mr Lick]

MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine had extinguished the "final hope" of a U.S.-backed peace deal after its forces launched an offensive on pro-Russia separatists Friday.

The Ukrainian military began its raid on the occupied city of Slovyansk at dawn in what was its most committed attempt to dislodge separatists occupying government buildings across its Russian-speaking, industrial east.

[Mr Lick]

A man wearing devil make-up looks out of train window as he travels through the Harz mountains in Germany to celebrate the Walpurgisnacht pagan festival



A car rests precariously on the edge of a road after a retaining wall collapsed beneath a row of vehicles in Baltimore, USA



Protesters take cover behind rubbish bins as riot police fire tear gas to disperse a May Day rally near Taksim Square in Istanbul

[Mr Lick]

The Greenpeace ship Esperanza, paragliders and Greenpeace inflatables protest against the first shipment of arctic oil in Rotterdam harbour



A woman puts a yellow ribbon with others at a memorial for victims of the Sewol ferry disaster in Seoul, South Korea



A macro close-up of an ant as it takes a sip from a water droplet on the edge of a flower in Obihiro, Japan

[Mr Lick]

A mass gathering of guitarists attempt to beat the Guinness record for ensemble guitar playing in Wroclaw, Poland. According to media reports 7,344 musicians gathered in Wroclaw Market Square to play Jimi Hendrix's hit Hey Joe



Syrian rescue workers carry a woman injured during a reported air strikes by Assad's government forces in the Halak neighbourhood in northeastern Aleppo. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 33 civilians were killed in the attack



Pro-government and anarchist demonstrators clashed during May Day demonstration in Santiago

[Mr Lick]

Confrontation in eastern Ukraine







Fighting broke out as soldiers moved in to destroy checkpoints around the city of Sloviansk, a pro-Russian rebel stronghold.







Pro-Russian gunmen say they are still in control of some of the checkpoints around Sloviansk but, in a video appeal, the city's self-declared mayor told residents they were under siege.



Moscow said Kiev's actions have "killed the last hope" for a deal agreed in Geneva last month aimed at defusing the crisis.



Sloviansk is only one of a number of cities in eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian activists have seized key government buildings and other sites.

[Mr Lick]

Riot police in Turkey used tear gas and water cannon to prevent demonstrators defying a ban on protests on Istanbul's central Taksim Square. Turkish media had said about 40,000 police would be deployed in the city.



Fighters from Denmark compete at the Medieval Combat World Championship tournament in the Castle of Belmonte, Spain.



Women gesture with their ink-stained fingers after casting their vote in Baghdad in Iraq's first parliamentary poll since US troops withdrew in 2011. Dozens of attacks on election day left 14 people dead, according to officials.

[Mr Lick]

A home in Louisville, Mississippi, following deadly tornadoes that battered some US states this week.



Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivers a speech at Guildhall in London during his visit to the country. He called for free trade negotiations between Japan and the European Union to be concluded by the end of next year.

[Mr Lick]

Police yell at crowds to get back during an anti-capitalist demonstration in Seattle, Washington, on 1 May.



Ukrainian soldiers stand guard at a checkpoint near the eastern town of Slaviansk which is under the control of pro-Russian militants.

[Mr Lick]

Salah Bin Eidan of Kuwait and co-driver Alex Gelsomino of the US drive their Ford Fiesta R5 during the gravel super special stage of the Jordan Rally, the third round of the Middle East Rally Championship, in Amman.



Ronnie O'Sullivan plays a shot against Barry Hawkins during their semi-final of the World Snooker Championships at The Crucible, Sheffield.



Groundsmen remove a cover from the field during a rain delay between the first and second baseball games of a double header between the Baltimore Orioles and the Pittsburgh Pirates in Baltimore.

[Mr Lick]

US flooding and storms



A weather system that brought tornadoes to the Midwest caused flooding in Florida - about 21in (53cm) of rain fell in one day in Pensacola























Sixty-five tornadoes struck from Oklahoma to Mississippi in the past week, killing more than two dozen

[Mr Lick]

njured children cry after, according to activists, two barrel bombs were thrown by forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad in Hullok neighborhood of Aleppo May 1, 2014. At least 33 people were killed when Syrian government warplanes attacked a busy market in a rebel-controlled district of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said



Charles Davidson helps his neighbor Santonio Coleman, 11, from his flooded home in the Kelly Ave. Basin area of Pensacola, Florida, April 30, 2014.



Britain's Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, with her husband Prince Charles, cries as she attends the funeral of her brother Mark Shand, at Holy Trinity Church in Stourpaine, southern England May 1, 2014

[Mr Lick]

An injured man waits for medical attention after, according to activists, two barrel bombs were thrown by forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad in Hullok neighborhood of Aleppo May 1, 2014. At least 33 people were killed when Syrian government warplanes attacked a busy market in a rebel-controlled district of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.



Paramilitary policemen stand guard near the exit of the South Railway Station, where three people were killed and 79 wounded in a bomb and knife attack, in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous region, May 1, 2014. A bombing in western China has raised concerns about the apparent sophistication and daring of the attack, possibly timed to coincide with a visit to the heavily Muslim region by President Xi Jinping. "Knife-wielding mobs" slashed at people at an exit of the South Railway Station of Urumqi and set off explosives, Xinhua news agency said, quoting police. Security is normally very tight at the entrances of railway stations, but exits are often unguarded and crowded.

[Mr Lick]

A protester walks in between buses on Second Avenue during an anti-capitalist demonstration in Seattle, Washington May 1, 2014. Hundreds marched through the streets and demonstrated late into the night on May Day, with intermittent violence and at least seven arrests made.



A victim, who was injured in an explosion that occurred in a passenger train, lies in a hospital in the southern Indian city of Chennai May 1, 2014. Two explosions ripped through a passenger train in Chennai, killing a 22 year-old female passenger, officials said. The blasts occurred in two coaches just as the train was approaching the city's central station. A total of nine people were injured, two of them seriously, in addition to the dead passenger.

[Mr Lick]

Turkish protestors clash with riot police as police use water cannon and tear gas to disperse protestors during a rally for May day in Istanbul, Turkey, May 1, 2014. Police in Istanbul were on May 1 using water cannon and firing tear gas at protesters attempting to reach the city's Taksim Square, local media reported, where the May Day rallies have been banned

[Mr Lick]

Cambodian workers carry placards reading 'Happy International Labor Day May 1, during a gathering in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, May 1, 2014. Workers gathered on the streets in Phnom Penh to mark the International Labor Day.



Debris from an explosion at the Escambia County Jail is scattered at the entrance to the facility, Thursday, May 1, 2014, in Pensacola, Fla. Two inmates were killed and more than 100 others injured in the explosion according to an Escambia County spokeswoman

[Mr Lick]

Cars are submerged from Schuylkill River's flood waters along Main Street, Thursday, May 1, 2014, in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia. During a nine-hour period that ended early Thursday, Chester County got 6.6 inches of rain, Delaware and Montgomery counties got 5'½ inches or more and Philadelphia almost 5 inches, the National Weather Service reported. Emergency officials said flooding was reported along the Schuylkill and Brandywine rivers as well as smaller streams and creeks



Protesters stand as riot police use water cannons and teargas to disperse thousands of people trying to reach the city's main Taksim Square to celebrate May Day in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, May 1, 2014. Clashes erupted between May Day demonstrators and riot police as crowds determined to defy a government ban tried to march to the city's iconic Taksim Square. Security forces pushed back demonstrators with water cannons and tear gas

[Mr Lick]

An injured Pro-Russian activist speaks with an armed protester during clashes with police in front of the regional administration building in Donetsk, Ukraine, Thursday, May 1, 2014. Anti-government demonstrators in Donetsk have stormed the local prosecutor's office. The clash came after a march by several hundred people carrying flags of the Donetsk People's Republic, a movement that seeks either greater autonomy from the central government, or independence and possible annexation by Russia



A sub-Saharan migrant agues with a Spanish Guardia Civil officer holding a baton, as they sit on top of a metallic fence that divides Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla, Thursday, May 1, 2014. Spain says around 700 African migrants have rushed its barbed wire border fences in the North African enclave of Melilla, and although police repelled most, 140 managed to enter Spanish territory. The migrants charged the fences in two waves, with 500 arriving in the early hours and another 200 later Thursday morning. Spain and Morocco stepped up border vigilance in Feb. when 15 migrants drowned trying to enter Spain's other north African coastal enclave, Ceuta.

[Mr Lick]

Protesters from various workers' unions display their hands with mock handcuffs and slogans during a march to mark the May Day in Hong Kong, Thursday, May 1, 2014. The protesters demanded better workers' rights. The slogans, from left, read "Less holiday, Long working hours, No compensation.



On this Wednesday, April, 30, 2014 photo, tourists visit Luxor Temple, a large ancient Tourists visit Luxor Temple, a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex on the east bank of the Nile River in Luxor, Egypt. Egyptian tourism officials, who Wednesday unveiled a replica of the tomb of King Tutankhamun in the desert valley where many of its ancient pharaohs were buried, are hoping the exhibit will help revive a tourism industry that has been heavily battered by the country's unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak



Michael McConville, the son of Jean McConville who was murdered by the IRA, speaks to the media at the Wave Trauma centre in Belfast, Thursday, May, 1, 2014. Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams is still being questioned by police at Antrim police station after being arrested late Wednesday in connection with the murder of Jean McConville