World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

Relatives and fellow fighters mourn as they carry the coffin of one of eight Libyan rebel fighters killed the day before during the battle for the control of the oil rich town of Brega at the main cemetery in the Libyan rebels stronghold city of Benghazi on Wednesday.



Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is handed a bill to sign that will eliminate the state's $5 billion budget deficit and reopen state government and services that have been shut down for three weeks, in St. Paul, on Wednesday.

[Mr Lick]

A woman strolls through a lavender field at Saika no sato, a flower park in Nakafurano town, on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Wednesday, July 20.



Camels wait for their turn to drink water from a tank near Harfo, northwest of Somalia's capital Mogadishu, July 20, 2011. The United Nations on Wednesday declared famine in two regions of southern Somalia, and warned that this could spread further within two months in the war-ravaged Horn of Africa country unless donors step in.

[Mr Lick]

Tour de France 2011: stage 17

The best images from the 179km cross-border stage, starting in Gap, France, and finishing in Pinerolo, Italy

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The riders pass through a tunnel

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Fans cheer and Boasson Hagen celebrates as he crosses the finish line

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Can't Escape the Headlines
News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, here holding a copy of The Times in London on Wednesday, told his staff in an email the company is taking steps to ensure something like the current phone-hacking scandal never happens again



Remembering Their Comrades
In Benghazi on Wednesday, Libyan rebels shoot in the air and shout religious slogans at a funeral for seven comrades who were killed the previous day during a battle with loyalist forces for control of Brega, an oil-rich town.

[Mr Lick]

It's a European Thing
German Chancellor Angela Merkel greets French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Berlin ahead of a pivotal Brussels summit on a second Greek bailout.

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Namaste, Mrs. Secretary
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with a bindi, or "third eye," painted on her forehead, poses for photos with traditional Indian dancers as she arrives at her hotel in Chennai, India, Wednesday.



For the Ones Left Behind
Queen Elizabeth II lays a wreath at the Armed Forces Memorial, where the names of fallen British soldiers from 2010 are inscribed, after a service thanking those who returned home from a five-month tour in Afghanistan.

[Mr Lick]

Tiger Woods parts company with caddie Steve Williams



Former world number one Tiger Woods has parted company with Steve Williams, who had been his caddie since 1999.

Woods, who missed last week's Open because of a leg injury, made the announcement on his official website.

Woods said: "I want to express my deepest gratitude to Stevie, but I think it's time for a change.

"Stevie is an outstanding caddie and a friend and has been instrumental in many of my accomplishments. I wish him great success in the future."

Williams has been working with Australian Adam Scott at the last two majors, and Woods has made no announcement yet about who will replace him when the 14-time major champion returns to action after his injury.

Williams was Woods' caddy for 13 of those 14 major wins, and was at one stage thought to be New Zealand's highest earning sporting figure.

Speaking to his official website, Williams confirmed the end of his relationship with Woods and revealed he would team up with Scott on a permanent basis.

He said: "After years of loyal service needless to say this came as a shock.

"Given the circumstances of the past 18 months working through Tiger's scandal, a new coach and with it a major swing change and Tiger battling through injuries, I am very disappointed to end our very successful partnership at this time.

"I have had the opportunity to work of late for Australian Adam Scott and will now caddie for him on a permanent basis.

"Having started my caddying career with Australian great Peter Thompson and working for Greg Norman in the 80s I am excited about the future working for another Australian. "

The only caddies Woods has used in his 14-year career on the PGA Tour are Mike Cowan and Williams.

His childhood friend, Byron Bell, caddied for him when he won the Buick Invitational in 1999 and 2000, and Billy Foster caddied for Woods at the Presidents Cup in 2005 when Williams was home for the birth of his son.

Foster now works for Lee Westwood

[Mr Lick]

Lindsay Hawker's killer Tatsuya Ichihashi jailed for life



A Japanese man has been sentenced to life in jail for the rape and murder of a British teacher found dead in a sand-filled bathtub in 2007.

Tatsuya Ichihashi, 32, had admitted killing, but denied murdering, Lindsay Hawker, 22, from Brandon, near Coventry, at his home close to Tokyo.

He also admitted raping the English teacher, but said he tried to revive her after accidentally suffocating her.

Miss Hawker's parents said they felt they have got justice.

Her father, Bill, told journalists: "We waited four-and-a-half years to get justice for Lindsay. We have achieved that today."

"Lindsay loved Japan, and you have not let her down," he added, referring to Japanese authorities.

Mr Hawker, his wife Julia, and the victim's sisters, Lisa and Louise, flew into Tokyo on Wednesday, to see the judge at Chiba District Court pass sentence on Ichihashi.

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Space Shuttle Atlantis lands at Kennedy Space Center on July 21 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, ending the 30 year shuttle program.

Landing came right on time at 5:56 a.m. ET, less than an hour before sunrise at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where NASA's last operating shuttle will make its home in retirement. The weather was perfect for landing — "severe clear," in the words of mission commentator Rob Navias

[Mr Lick]

Thant Zin Oo of Myanmar kicks over the net against Lai-Fu Chen of Chinese Taipei on day one of the ISTAF Sepaktakraw World Cup on July 21 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

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A protester being held by enforcement officers as a group of illegal buildings is demolished in Wuhan, in central China's Hubei province, on July 20. Soaring property prices are a major source of official and consumer concern in China with apartment costs rising out of the reach of many people and threatening to spark social unrest in the country of more than 1.3 billion.

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Yugoslav war criminals

Goran Hadzic, who has been arrested, was one of the leaders of the Serb insurgency in Croatia from 1991 to 1995 and the last remaining fugitive sought by the UN war crimes tribunal



Goran Hadzic was the President of the Republic of Serbian Krajina in Croatia between 1992 and 1993. He played a key role in the siege of Vukovar in 1991 and is alleged to have conspired with Zeljko Raznatovic in the murder of non-Serb civilians under his jurisdiction. He lived openly in Croatia for almost 10 years after the war but fled in 2004 after his indictment became known. He was arrested on 20 July 2011




Slobodan Milosevic Milosevic died of natural causes while standing trial at The Hague tribunal in 2006. The former Yugoslav president who was dubbed the 'butcher of the Balkans' was being tried on 66 counts of crimes against humanity, including genocide

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Radovan Karadzic was co-founder, with Duško Tadić of the Serbian Democratic Party and leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the war. After his 1992 declaration of independence for the part of Bosnia he termed 'Republika Srpska', he masterminded the policy of ethnic cleansing in pursuit of a Greater Serbia. In 2008 he was arrested in Belgrade after 13 years on the run. He is charged with genocide, among 11 counts on his indictment



Gen Ratko Mladic, a former career officer in the Yugoslav National Army, was Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army from 1992 to 1996. When fighting began, he was in charge of the Yugoslav Army's 2nd Military District, which he made into the core of the Bosnian Serb army. He was arrested in 2011 and charged with genocide and war crimes linked to the Srebenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo. His trial began June 2011.

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Ante Gotovina, a former French foreign legionnaire, commanded Croatian forces in the Krajina region in 1995. His arrest in Spain in 2005 smoothed the way for Croatia’s EU accession talks. In 2011, he was convicted of nine counts of war crimes and sentenced to 24 years in jail.



Duško Tadić, the former Serbian Democratic Party leader and police reservist, commanded the Plavi Orlovi paramilitary unit. He was arrested in Munich in 1994 in connection with the running of the Omarska and Trnopolje prison camps in Bosnia and was the ICTY’s first case. In 1997 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison, later reduced to 20 years

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Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, was a bank robber and patisserie shop owner who commanded a notorious Serb paramilitary unit between 1991 and 1995. He was indicted in 1999 on 24 charges of crimes against humanity but was shot dead in Belgrade in 2000 before he could be brought to trial



Radislav Krstic He became the first Bosnian Serb to be convicted of genocide for his part in the 1995 massacre of thousands of men and teenage boys at Srebrenica. Krstic was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment

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Momčilo Krajišnik, the former speaker of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska and former Serb Representative of the Bosnian-Herzogovinian Presidency, worked closely with Radovan Karadžić on the policy and implementation of ethnic cleansing. He was arrested in 2000 and is currently in the UK serving a 20-year prison sentence



Milan Martić Milan Martić was convicted of 16 counts including, murder, torture, deportation, attacks on civilians,and other crimes against humanity. The former Croatian Serb leader who once served as a policeman was sentenced to 35 years in prison

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Space shuttle: History in the making



The shuttle prototype, Enterprise, separates from the 747 shuttle carrier aircraft for approach and landing tests at the Dryden Flight Research Center in southern California in 1977



The space shuttle fleet. From the left: Columbia, Endeavour, Atlantis, Discovery and Challenger



The first space shuttle, Columbia, attached to its external fuel tank in the vehicle assembly building at Kennedy Space Centre. The first orbital test flight took place in March 1981

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Fog envelops Challenger on 30 November 1982 as it moves along the three-and-a-half mile 'crawlerway' to launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Centre for its maiden flight



Columbia is readied on the launchpad for the very first shuttle orbital mission in 1981. To the left of the shuttle are the fixed and rotating service structures

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Atlantis awaits launch at Kennedy Space Centre in May 2009 for the final Hubble servicing mission. In the background, Endeavour is on standby should a major problem arise during the mission