World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

Burning With Rage
A poster with the images of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, top center, and current President Bashar al-Assad, bottom center, burns during a protest outside the Syrian embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, on Sunday



Deadly Train Crash in Eastern India
Bystanders watch as rescue workers attend to the scene of a train crash in West Bengal on Monday. At least one person was killed and several were injured in the incident.

[Mr Lick]

He'll Toot His Own Horn, If You Don't Mind
Indian tribesmen play music as they march in a parade during the opening ceremony of the month-long "Saputara Monsoon Festival" in the city of Saputara on Saturday.



Cooling Off in China
People enjoy themselves at the beach on Sunday in Dalian, China. The temperature reached 82 degrees Fahrenheit, with 80 percent relative humidity.

[Mr Lick]

Emotions Running High in Israel
An Israeli demonstrator reacts after she was arrested during a protest against rising housing prices and social inequalities on Saturday in Tel Aviv.



Tragedy in China
On Friday, mourning family members leave sticks of incense at the scene where a deadly high-speed train crash occurred in Shuangyu, China, on July 23.

[Mr Lick]

Keeping the Streets of Afghanistan Safe
American troops and armored vehicles go on patrol in southern Afghanistan's Arghandab district on Friday. The first set of security handovers from NATO to Afghan forces recently took place in seven parts of the war-torn country.

[Mr Lick]

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., appears on the floor of the House of Representatives on Aug. 1 in Washington DC. Giffords was on the floor for the first time since her shooting earlier this year, attending a vote on the debt standoff compromise.

[Mr Lick]

Villagers lie on a railway track and wait for a train to rattle by for electricity therapy in Rawa Buaya, Jakarta, Indonesia, on July 26. People have been participating in the practise believing that the the electricity current from the track could cure various diseases.

[Mr Lick]

A suicide bomber blew up his car outside a small residential hotel frequented by foreigners just after dawn Tuesday, killing four guards, as two other militants stormed the hotel in Kunduz city and engaged the Afghan police in a two-hour gunbattle. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault — the latest in a rising number of attacks in northern Afghanistan.



Police fight suicide attackers who took over a guesthouse in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on August 2. Three suicide bombers raided a guesthouse frequented by foreigners on Tuesday, killing four Afghan security guards employed by a German company, a senior police detective said. One attacker detonated a car bomb at the gates of the guesthouse. The other two stormed the building where they fought Afghan forces for a couple of hours before detonating their explosives, said Kunduz police detective Abdul Rahman.

[Mr Lick]

UK Photomarathon in Cardiff - Entrants were given the task of taking pictures across 12 topics in 12 hours.



Topic- The Great Outdoors



Topic - Double



Topic - This is my secret

[Mr Lick]

Topic - I have a dream



Topic - Movement



Topic - Drama

[Mr Lick]

Topic - Community



Topic - Inside out

[Mr Lick]

Barclays profits fall by a third




Barclays has reported pre-tax profits of £2.6bn for the first six months of the year, down 33% from last year.

The bank also said it aimed to cut at least 1,400 more jobs in 2011, having cut 1,400 posts already this year.

The fall in half-year profits was partly caused by a £1bn provision for settling claims of mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI).

However the bank reported a big drop in bad debts and said it was on course to meet targets for UK business lending.

Charges for bad debts fell 41% on last year to £1.8bn due to better management of its exposure to troubled eurozone economies such as Spain and Portugal.

Most of Barclays' profits come from its investment banking division, Barclays Capital, which includes parts of the former US bank Lehman Brothers.

But adjusted profits at this division fell 9% to £2.3bn due to lower returns from investments in bonds and commodities.

[Mr Lick]

Calls on David Norris to 'withdraw' Aras bid




Barnardos Chief Executive Fergus Finlay has called on Senator David Norris to announce that he is no longer seeking a nomination for the Irish presidency.

Mr Finlay said Mr Norris should withdraw from the race "in a dignified fashion".

He made the comments after it emerged that the senator wrote to an Israeli court pleading for clemency for his former partner.

Mr Norris is expected to clarify his position at a press conference later.

Mr Finlay, who failed to secure a Labour nomination, said: "You simply cannot use public office to try to influence a court in the particular situation that pertained in this case it is simply not acceptable."

He said that for the sake of the contribution Mr Norris can still make to public life, he needs to announce his withdrawal from the presidency campaign.

Last week it emerged Norris wrote to a court pleading for clemency for his former partner Ezra Yizhak who was accused of the statutory rape of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in 1992.

Yizhak was convicted in 1997 over the incident.

The letter said his former partner was a "good and moral person".

A number of people have resigned from Mr Norris' campaign team.

[Mr Lick]

South Africa Gautrain opens Johannesburg-Pretoria route




Africa's fastest train has opened its new route to the capital, Pretoria, from Johannesburg in a bid to speed up travel between two of South Africa's major cities.

The Gautrain takes less than 30 minutes for the 54km (34 mile) journey.

It can take up to two hours to travel this distance by car during rush hour.

The Gautrain's inaugural airport route was opened just in time for the 2010 World Cup, when it was used by thousands of football fans.

But by reaching Pretoria, it is likely to be used by ordinary South African commuters to beat the traffic on one of South Africa's busiest roads.

Hundreds of people turned up at Johannesburg's Rosebank station as early as 05:30 for the train's first trip to Pretoria.

Some minor glitches were reported, including technical issues in one of the carriages but engineers have since attended to the problems, Gautrain officials said.

The government says it aims to make rail transport the backbone of the public transport system, according to Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele.

"Transport infrastructure over the next two years is guaranteed to radically change the way South Africans travel due to a multibillion rand boost by the government," Mr Ndebele said, reports the New Age newspaper.

The Gautrain cost 24bn rand ($3bn; £2.1bn) to build

The train's top speed is 160 km/h (100 mph) - a long way from the world's fastest trains but still far superior to the locomotives chugging along most of the rest of the continent's tracks, which mostly date from the colonial era, says the BBC's Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg.

The Gautrain is expected to reduce the number of cars on the N1 Ben Schoeman motorway which links Pretoria and South Africa's economic hub Johannesburg by 20%.

This would mean 25,000 to 30,000 fewer cars on that stretch of road each day.

[Mr Lick]

Australia to post YouTube film to curb people-smuggling





The Australian government is to post on YouTube images of so-called boatpeople being turned away and sent to Malaysia, in an effort to deter asylum seekers.

The video will show arrivals at Australia's offshore detention centre on Christmas Island being expelled and boarding aircraft.

Canberra recently signed a deal with Malaysia to accept 800 boatpeople intercepted in Australia.

Asylum seekers remain a politically sensitive issue in Australia.

Australia currently has more than 6,000 asylum seekers in detention, originating from countries including Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

In return for Malaysia accepting the new arrivals by boat, Australia will take 4,000 immigrants who are already registered there over the next four years.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said the move will "smash the business model of people-smugglers".

But human rights groups have criticised Australia over the deal, because Malaysia has not signed the UN Convention on refugees, and the groups say asylum seekers are routinely mistreated there.

[Mr Lick]

Panama police seize more than half a tonne of heroin





Police in Panama have seized more than half a tonne of heroin - one of the biggest ever drug hauls in the country's history, officials say.

Officers found hundreds of plastic packages of the drug in a car in the remote Caribbean coastal town of Jobea.

The packages were ready to be shipped to other countries, the country's anti-drugs prosecutor said.

Gangs are increasingly using Central America to traffick drugs from South America to the US and Europe.

Announcing the heroin seizure on Monday, Javier Caraballo, Panama's anti-drugs prosecutor, said the consignment was put at 639kg.

Three people were arrested in the operation, which took place in the province of Colon at the weekend.

Mr Caraballo said another police operation near the capital, Panama City, had netted an estimated 468kg of cocaine.

So far this year, Panamanian officials have seized 22 tonnes of drugs originating in South America and destined for the US and Europe, Panamanian newspaper La Prensa reports.

The UN's latest World Drug Report says that in 2009, drugs seizures in Panama were the third largest in Latin America and the Caribbean, put at 53 tonnes.

[Mr Lick]

BBC journalist Shaimaa Khalil held in Cairo





A BBC journalist, Shaimaa Khalil, has been detained in Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

The circumstances of her detention on Monday remain unclear, but it came after soldiers, backed by riot police, moved to clear a three-week sit-in.

Witnesses told the AFP news agency that demonstrators were beaten and their mobile phones broken. Anyone taking photographs was targeted, they added.
The BBC has called on the authorities to release Ms Khalil immediately.

"We are very concerned at the detention of Shaimaa Khalil in Cairo. She is a fine journalist, simply doing her job. We are doing all we can to secure her release," it said in a statement.

[Mr Lick]

Murdoch foam attack: 'Jonnie Marbles' jailed




A man who threw a plate of shaving foam at News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch has been jailed for six weeks.

Jonathan May-Bowles, 26, of Edinburgh Gardens, Windsor, Berkshire, admitted attacking the media tycoon during a Commons committee hearing on phone hacking last month.

May-Bowles, who calls himself Jonnie Marbles, admitted assault and causing harassment, alarm or distress.

The stand-up comic was sentenced at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Mr Murdoch and his son James were giving evidence before MPs at the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee on 20 July when May-Bowles rushed forward from the public gallery with a paper plate filled with foam.

The substance hit the 80-year-old's jacket.

After pleading guilty to the offences last week, the part-time comic told reporters, "I would just like to say this has been the most humble day of my life", mimicking Mr Murdoch's statement to the MPs.

[Mr Lick]

A Papuan man in traditional dress takes part in a pro-independance rally in Jayapura, on the island of New Guinea

[Mr Lick]

A worker lays batik cloth out to dry in Solo, Indonesia

[Mr Lick]

French International rugby players in training in Marcoussis

[Mr Lick]

Chinese taxi drivers on strike for a 2nd day in protest of rising fuel prices and congested roads.

[Mr Lick]

A former Russian paratrooper celebrates Paratroopers Day with a bungee jump in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia

[Mr Lick]

A boy swims along a flooded street caused by Typhoon Muifa in Manila

[Mr Lick]

21 people have been reported killed in two separate incidents of political violence in Papua, a province in eastern Indonesia




In a photo taken on August 1 and made available today, villagers survey the damaged home of an election candidate, where a meeting was to be held, after hundreds of supporters of two rival groups clashed at Ilaga in Puncak, West Papua province, Indonesia, on July 31.



A man, with arrows stuck in his body, lies dead as a house belonging to a candidate burns after supporters of two rival groups clashed at Ilaga in Puncak, West Papua, on July 31.

[Mr Lick]

Russian paratroopers throw one of their colleagues in the air while celebrating Paratroopers Day in Saint Petersburg on Tuesday, August 2.






A woman hugs a Russian paratrooper in the far eastern port of Vladivostok on Tuesday. Russians celebrate paratrooper day on Tuesday, a tradition carried over from Soviet times.



A Russian paratrooper carries a Russian Orthodox icon during a ceremony on Moscow's Red Square on Tuesday. Russians celebrated Paratroopers' Day on Tuesday, a tradition to honour the elite troops, carried over from Soviet times.