World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

BB King plays at the Pyramid Stage

[Mr Lick]

[Mr Lick]

[Mr Lick]

[Mr Lick]

On the Hunt in Afghanistan
U.S. soldiers on a foot patrol search for a weapons cache in Khost province on Friday. President Obama recently announced that thousands of American "surge" troops in Afghanistan would be coming home over the next year



Glastonbury again

[Mr Lick]

12 Die in Syrian Protests, Activists Say
At least 12 people -- including two children -- were killed when Syrian forces fired on anti-government protesters around the country, according to activists. Here: A girl holds up a Syrian flag after Friday prayers in Istanbul



Ominous Clouds
People watch waves roll into the beach near Toucheng, Taiwan, as Tropical Storm Meari approaches the island nation on Friday.

[Mr Lick]

Yoda reaches out for her victory trophy after winning the 2011 World's Ugliest Dog Contest on Friday, June 24, 2011, in Petaluma, Calif. A a 14-year-old Chinese Crested and Chihuahua mix, Yoda took home $1000 and a plethora of pet perks during the event at the Sonoma-Marin Fair.

[Mr Lick]

Supporters of same sex marriage celebrate after Senate members voted and approved same-sex marriage at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., Friday, June 24. New York lawmakers narrowly voted to legalize same-sex marriage Friday, handing activists a breakthrough victory in the state where the gay rights movement was born. New York will become the sixth state where gay couples can wed and the biggest by far.















New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo hands pens to legislators after signing into law a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., on Friday, June 24.

[Mr Lick]

Afghanistan: Attack on Logar hospital kills dozens



At least 25 people have been killed and dozens injured in a car bomb attack at a hospital in Afghanistan's Logar province, local officials say.

The hospital building was destroyed and people buried under rubble. Casualties included women, children and elderly.

The Afghan health ministry said the attack was unprecedented and inhumane.
Officials blamed the Taliban, but a Taliban spokesman said the movement did not target civilians and the blast was caused by "someone with an agenda".

However, the BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says the Taliban is always careful to distance itself from major attacks with large numbers of civilian casualties.
Earlier the health ministry said 60 people had died in the attack.

An intelligence official said the vehicle had been detonated close to the hospital after police had tried to stop it, and that it was not clear what the actual target was.

Provincial official Din Mohammad Darwaish said the death toll could well increase as there were still people buried.

Soldiers have been dispatched to the scene to try to pull out those that are trapped.

The attack follows a UN report earlier this month indicating a recent rise in civilian casualties.

It said May was the deadliest month for civilians in Afghanistan since records began in 2007, with 368 killed.

It added that 2,777 civilians died in 2010, making it the worst year, with three-quarters of the deaths blamed on insurgents.

[Mr Lick]

Dozens named in Greece football 'scandal'



Nearly 70 people have been named in Greece in connection with an alleged football match-fixing scandal.

They include two Super League club presidents, club owners, players, referees and a chief of police.

They are charged with a variety of offences including illegal gambling, fraud, extortion and money laundering.

The culture minister, Giorgos Nikitiadis, described the alleged scandal as "the darkest page in the history of Greek football".

He promised the investigation to clean up the sport would go "as deep and as high as necessary".

Ten suspects were arrested and detained earlier in the week.

The investigation began after European football's governing body Uefa published a list of 41 match results from 2009-10 which they believe to be suspicious.

Top defender Avraam Papadopoulos denies any involvement in match-fixing

Among the 68 suspects named by judicial authorities on Friday were Vangelis Marinakis, Greece's top football league official and chairman of champion club Olympiakos Piraeus, and Avraam Papadopoulos, national team and Olympiakos defender.

Both men deny involvement.

Late on Friday, a court order banned all 68 from leaving the country.

[Mr Lick]

Breast cancer prostate drug hope



Drugs used to treat prostate cancer in men may also be useful for difficult-to-treat breast cancers in some women, a Cancer Research UK study suggests.

Hormone treatments like tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors are ineffective
against up to 30% of breast cancers.

But laboratory research in Cambridge, reported in The EMBO Journal, suggests some of these tumours may respond to drugs for male cancers.

Cancer Research UK said the findings were a "great surprise".

Hormones can switch on genes which lead to cells dividing uncontrollably and developing into tumours.

In women, breast cancers can be driven by the female sex hormone oestrogen. In men, prostate cancer can be driven by male sex hormones - androgens.

Breakthroughs have been made in treatments for breast cancer by developing drugs which interfere with the oestrogen's action, halting the tumour's progress.

However, tumours which are not driven by the hormone have been harder to
treat.

[Mr Lick]

Jewish bodies found in medieval well in Norwich



There is evidence the children were thrown down the well after the adults


The remains of 17 bodies found at the bottom of a medieval well in England could have been victims of persecution, new evidence has suggested.

The most likely explanation is that those down the well were Jewish and were probably murdered or forced to commit suicide, according to scientists who used a combination of DNA analysis, carbon dating and bone chemical studies in their investigation.

The skeletons date back to the 12th or 13th Centuries at a time when Jewish people were facing persecution throughout Europe.

They were discovered in 2004 during an excavation of a site in the centre of Norwich, ahead of construction of the Chapelfield Shopping Centre. The remains were put into storage and have only recently been the subject of investigation.

Seven skeletons were successfully tested and five of them had a DNA sequence suggesting they were likely to be members of a single Jewish family.

DNA expert Dr Ian Barnes, who carried out the tests, said: "This is a really unusual situation for us. This is a unique set of data that we have been able to get for these individuals.

"I am not aware that this has been done before - that we have been able to pin them down to this level of specificity of the ethnic group that they seem to come from."

[Mr Lick]

Egypt drops plans for IMF loan amid popular distrust



Egypt has dropped plans to seek loans from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, Finance Minister Samir Radwan has said.

The move comes after the planned deficit in the 2011-12 budget was revised down from 11% to 8.6% of GDP, Mr Radwan told Reuters news agency.

An adviser told AFP news agency the decision had been partly a response to the "pressure of public opinion".

Many of those who took part in Egypt's uprising denounced the role of the IMF.

It was seen as bolstering the rule of now-deposed President Hosni Mubarak while imposing harsh economic conditions that benefited the rich more than the poor, says the BBC's Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher.

But the uprising led to a haemorrhaging of public finances, he says.

But Mr Radwan turned to the IMF in May, telling the BBC that the situation was "very difficult", and extra funds were needed to finance the demands of the people on the heels of the revolution.

He agreed a $3bn (£1.9bn) 12-month stand-by loan facility - an agreement which came on top of loan deals agreed with the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

[Mr Lick]

Republicans walk out of debt talks with Joe Biden



Republican negotiators have walked out of talks with US Vice-President Joe Biden on how to reduce the country's debt.

The US treasury department has warned the US risks default if Congress does not authorise more borrowing by August.

Mr Biden said it was now up to President Obama and leaders of the Republicans and Democrats in Congress to decide on the way forward.

The Republicans are resisting Democrat proposals for tax rises in any deal.


Clock ticking They say that such tax increases - amounting to as much as $400bn (£249bn) on corporations and the wealthy, according to the Washington Post - will stifle economic recovery.

The Democrats oppose Republican proposals for steep cuts to health and retirement programmes.

The two sides need to reach an agreement that will enable Congress to raise the $14.29tr (£8.7tr) debt ceiling before 2 August, or the US risks defaulting on its debt.

This could send the US back into recession and throw global markets into turmoil.

In a statement after the meeting, Mr Biden said a "balanced approach" was needed with savings made across all areas, from domestic spending to "loopholes in the tax code".

"We all need to make sacrifices, and that includes the most fortunate among us," he said.

[Mr Lick]

Five killed in Peru's anti-mining clashes



At least five people have died and more than 30 were injured in clashes between police and anti-mining demonstrators in southern Peru, hospital officials say.

Violence in the Puno region started when about 1,000 people were prevented from breaching a security fence around the international airport in Juliaca.

The protest was part of a two-day strike over a silver-mining contract given to a Canadian corporation.

The government cancelled the project as the protests were going on.

Demonstrators feared that it would increase pollution, while bringing few benefits to the local population.

[Mr Lick]

Political unrest in Yemen



Anti-government protesters sit atop a billboard during a rally before Friday prayers to demand the ouster of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa on June 24.









Anti-government protesters hold up posters of Abdullah Qairan, police chief of the city of Taiz, during a demonstration to demand the ouster of President Saleh in Taiz on June 18. The posters read, "Wanted dead or alive - the butcher Abdullah Qairan

[Mr Lick]

Do you want fries with that order?



A young supporter of President Saleh sits inside the Al-Saleh mosque in Sanaa on June 17. There have been conflicting reports as to whether Saleh, who is being treated for shrapnel wounds in Saudi Arabia, will return to Yemen.

[Mr Lick]

Beirut, Lebanon: A Syrian man who lives in Lebanon shouts slogans at a demonstration in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime

[Mr Lick]

Kandahar, Afghanistan: Canadian soldier, Cpl. Ben Vandandaigue, plays on a drum kit at his force's base in Sperwan Ghar in Kandahar province



London, England: An employee poses next to a sculpture by the Australian artist Ron Mueck at Christie's auction house. 'Big baby' is due to be sold on 28 June and is expected to fetch between £600,000 and £800,000

[Mr Lick]

None, Pakistan: A jockey is pulled along by his bulls while spectators look on during a bull race in the village situated on the outskirts of Islamabad



San Juan Comalapa, Guatemala: Clowns gather at a fair during Saint John the Baptist celebrations

[Mr Lick]

Manila, Philippines: Children play in flood waters from the Marikina River bank after heavy rains brought by typhoon Meari. Nearly 90,000 people have had to flee their homes



Islamabad, Pakistan: Girls gather by a window as they await a ration of rice, part of a donated food distribution service at the Beri Iman

[Mr Lick]

California, US: Hercules, a blind one-eyed 15-year-old pug, competes in the 2011 World's Ugliest Dog Contest in Petaluma

Been on the whiskey lad?



Bilin, Palestine: A Palestinian protester tries to escape tear-gas fired by Israeli security forces during clashes at the site of a weekly protest against the Israeli barrier in the West Bank

[Mr Lick]

Wimbledon 2011: day six















Tim doing a wee bit of coaching






Nadal eases past Muller into the final 16



Wozniacki also through against Gajdosova of Australia



Woger the wizz beat David Nalbandian in straight sets to progress

[Mr Lick]

U2 Rocks Out
Bono, left, and The Edge of U2 perform during England's Glastonbury music festival on Friday night. The veteran Irish rockers were one of the headline acts at the big annual event, which is now in its fifth decade



Slogging It Out
As floodwaters from the rapidly rising Souris River continue to drench Minot, North Dakota, a truck makes it through a washed-out area in town on Friday. The swollen waterway is expected to crest sometime this weekend

[Mr Lick]

A man attacks a gay rights activist during a gay pride parade, which was unsanctioned by the city authorities, in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 25.