World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

China executes Pakistani man on drugs charges



China has executed a Pakistani man, Zahid Husain Shah, despite last-ditch appeals for clemency, his family says.

Mr Shah, 35, was arrested in 2008 and was convicted last year of drug smuggling.

He was put to death by lethal injection in Shanghai on Wednesday morning.

Human rights groups had called on Beijing to stop the execution and urged Islamabad to take up appeals on his behalf. There was no comment from either government.

Relatives were allowed one last meeting with Mr Husain at Shanghai Detention Centre on Wednesday morning.

His cousin, Tasneem Fatima, told the BBC the family expects to travel back to Pakistan later this week, once his body has been returned to them.

The last thing he told her was that he was innocent, she said.

Four other Pakistanis arrested with Mr Shah were sentenced to life imprisonment.

[Mr Lick]

A giant puppet of a nun is paraded near Berlin's Brandenburg Gate during protests to Pope Benedict XVI visit



Bin collectors in the Belgium capital of Brussels burn uniforms during protests over possible job losses and pay cuts

[Mr Lick]

These two lizards were found abandoned in a Glasgow park



About 1,500 masked women working in South Korea's sex industry call for the abolution of a law to curb prostitution

[Mr Lick]

Greeks strike over new austerity - more pics

[Mr Lick]

Poisoned school lunch kills Peru children




Three children have died and more than 50 others are seriously ill in Peru after eating a school meal contaminated with pesticide, officials say.

The children were being fed by a government nutrition programme for the poor, at a remote mountain village in the north of the country.

It is thought the meal of rice and fish was prepared in a container which may have previously held rat poison.

At least three adults have also been taken ill.

The mass poisoning happened in the village of Redondo in the Cajamarca region, about 750km (470 miles) north of the capital, Lima.

The three dead were between six and 10 years old.

The food had been donated by the National Food Assistance Programme, which gives food to schools in the poorest parts of the country.

[Mr Lick]

Pakistan 'backed Haqqani attack on Kabul' - Mike Mullen




The most senior US military officer has accused Pakistan's spy agency of supporting the Haqqani group in last week's attack on the US Kabul embassy.

"The Haqqani network... acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency," Adm Mike Mullen told a Senate panel.

Some 25 people died in last Tuesday's 20-hour attack on Kabul's US embassy and other official buildings.

Pakistan's interior minister earlier denied links with the Haqqani group.

Rehman Malik told the BBC Pakistan was determined to fight all militants based on its border with Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials have consistently denied links with militant groups.

US-Pakistan ties deteriorated sharply after the killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden on Pakistani soil by US commandos in May.

[Mr Lick]

Ex-Libya PM al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi 'held in Tunisia'




Libya's former prime minister, Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, has been arrested in Tunisia, reports say.

A Tunisian official confirmed to Reuters news agency that Mr Mahmoudi was arrested on Wednesday evening.

Mr Mahmoudi served as prime minister until Col Muammar Gaddafi was deposed last month.

Col Gaddafi's whereabouts remain unknown as loyalists hold out in a few strongholds surrounded by troops loyal to the new interim leadership.

A report on a TV station run by Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) said Mr Mahmoudi had been detained near Tunisia's border with Algeria.

He had been trying to cross the border, but gave himself up without resistance, the report said.

It also claimed that he was carrying fake documents

[Mr Lick]

Mexican cooks make a 50-metre-long "Taco" (Mexican typical food) at Garibaldi square in Mexico City, on Sept. 22 in the framework of the 2nd Taco Festival, in an attempt to break a record of the most long "Taco" of the world.

[Mr Lick]

A general view of the La Monumental bullring on September 22 in Barcelona, Spain. The Catalonian parliament voted to ban fullfighting on July 28, 2010 and Sunday September 25 will be the last bullfight in Catalonia. )







A worker puts up a poster by Balearic artist Miquel Barcelo, painted for his bullfighter friend Jose Tomas to mark the last bullfight in Catalonia, in Barcelona September 22.

[Mr Lick]

George Ealer, 71, of Warner Robbins, Ga.; Will Smith, 74, of Carrollton, Ga.; and Doug Allen, 71, pf South Carolina, run the 100 meters during the Georgia Golden Olympics in Warner Robbins on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011. Smith won the gold medal. More than 300 men and women from age 50 to 90 from Georgia, South Carolina and Florida are participating in track & field, tennis, swimming, bowling, horse shoe tossing, shuffle board and many other events through Saturday.



Elsie Franklin, 80, of Stone Mountain, Ga., throws the shot during the Georgia Golden Olympics in Warner Robbins, Ga., on Thursday, Sept 22. She won the gold medal for her age.

[Mr Lick]

Nazia, a one-year-old girl, lies in a hammock while taking refuge with her family at a camp for flood victims in Pakistan on Sept. 22, 2011. The latest floods, triggered by monsoon rains, have killed hundreds, destroyed or damaged over a million houses and caused extensive flooding since late last month. Aid groups have warned of a growing risk of fatal diseases.

[Mr Lick]

Officials cover their mouths from a dust cloud created by a tunnel boring machine cutting through a solid rock wall, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011 in New York



A construction worker, also known as a sandhog, climbs down from a hole created by a tunnel boring machine on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011 in New York.


Today marked an important milestone for the creation of the Second Avenue subway line in New York City. Atunnel boring machine reached the Lexington-63rd Street station, breaking into the existing tunnel that will connect it to the Q line. This marks the end of the first phase of the project.

[Mr Lick]

Rangers of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) winch up an elephant who had just been shot with tranquilizer darts fired from a helicopter to prevent suffocation near Narok town, some 150 kilometers northwest of the capital Nairobi, before being put in a truck to be transported to the Maasai Mara game reserve, about 100 kilometers south from Narok, 22 September 2011. The KWS aims to relocate some 200 elephants from Narok area to the Maasai Mara game reserve in a bid to protect animals from from escalating conflict with humans and ease the human-wildlife conflicts caused by increased farming and human settelement, and subsequent loss of elephant habitat. Out of the 9,299 human wildlife conflict cases reported in the last 10 years, 5,052 (54 per cent) are attributed to elephants, the KWS said in a statement. The 10-day operation to relocate elephants would cost 31 million shillings (230,000 EUR), the KWS Director Julius Kipng'etich said.

[Mr Lick]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (L) jokes with comedian Andy Sandberg during a keynote address during the Facebook f8 conference on September 22, 2011 in San Francisco, California. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the conference introducing a Timeline feature to the popular social network.

[Mr Lick]

UBS equities trader Kweku Adoboli leaves City of London Magistrates court, in central London, on Thursday, Sept. 22.

The lawyer for Kweku Adoboli, the equities trader accused over a $2.3 billion fraud at Swiss bank UBS, said his client is "sorry and appalled," Thursday as he was remanded in custody. Defense lawyer Patrick Gibbs told the City of London Magistrates' Court "he is sorry beyond words for what has happened."

[Mr Lick]

German President Christian Wulff, right and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, second from right, watch as Pope Benedict XVI is welcomed by local clergy on his arrival at Tegel International airport in Berlin Sept. 22.



The welcoming ceremony with military honors for Pope Benedict XVI at Schloss Bellevue palace on Sept. 22, in Berlin. Pope Benedict, who is German, is in Berlin on the first of a four-day visit to Germany.






Members of the Catholic clergy wait for the arrival of Pope Benedict XVI before a Holy Eucharist at the Olympic stadium in Berlin, Sept. 22, 2011.

[Mr Lick]

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Thursday, Sept. 22, in Washington, D.C. Panetta and Mullen testified before the committee on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen accused Pakistan of "exporting violence" to Afghanistan, putting in jeopardy the delicate U.S.-Pakistani partnership against terrorism and possibly a successful outcome to the war in Afghanistan. The two were testifying at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Maybe Mullen was feeling like he could be a little more honest since he's retiring next week. Or it could be the start of the administration taking a more critical approach to an ally.

[Mr Lick]

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy pose for a photo in front of the Statue of Liberty before taking part in a ceremony in anticipation of the 125th anniversary of the monument on Liberty Island on Thursday, Sept. 22

[Mr Lick]

Snow leopard twins, Kiran and Kalmali, born at the ABQ BioPark Zoo explore their new home with their mother, Kachina, on Wednesday, Sept. 21

[Mr Lick]

Pakistan's flooding woes







Kamani, 70, who has been displaced by floods, prepares food outside her tent after escaping from a flooded village in the Badin district of Pakistan's Sindh province September 20, 2011

[Mr Lick]

That's a wee bit gay, guys

[Mr Lick]

Naked rugby players from the Nude Blacks perform the Haka during their match against Spanish team Las Conquistadoras (The Conquerors), before the Rugby World Cup match between England and Argentina, in Dunedin



A Tuvan shaman participates in a ritual called "Kamlanie" outside the Kyzyl town, the administrative centre of Russia's Tuva region, some 800 km (497 miles) south of Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, September 13, 2011. Eight shamans, members of "The Spirit of Bear" society, took part in the traditional ritual.

[Mr Lick]

A model presents a creation from the Jeremy Scott Spring/Summer 2012 collection during New York Fashion Week



Visitors look at a sculpture entitled "Drift" by Australian sculptor Ron Mueck at the San Ildefonso Museum in Mexico City September 20, 2011

[Mr Lick]

Dow Plunges Nearly 400 Points on Recession Fears
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday. Concerns over another recession in the U.S. -- and possibly around the world -- sent the Dow Jones industrial average plummeting almost 400 points



In UN Speech, Iranian Leader Blasts the West
In what has become a kind of ritual at the annual U.N. General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ripped the West Thursday in a fiery speech, blaming the U.S. and others for things like poverty and homelessness

[Mr Lick]

Taking It to the Streets
Students and teachers march during a protest in central Athens on Thursday. Strikes swept through Greece amid new austerity measures aimed at averting a potentially disastrous default.



Eyes of Defiance
In Meaux, France, on Thursday, 32-year-old Hind Ahmas leaves court after being convicted as the first woman wearing a niqab after the country's nationwide ban on the wearing of face veils.