World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

Personnel from the Health Department check the condition of ice cream that spilled on Interstate 69, Dec. 23, 2011, in Fort Wayne, Ind. Police said 40,000 pounds of ice cream spilled from a semitrailer closing two lanes of I-69 at the start of the holiday weekend.

[Mr Lick]

People on foot and in cars come to look at Christmas lights displays on Dec. 23 in the suburb of Bothasig in Cape Town, South Africa . Residents of some Cape Town neighborhoods are competing to have the most attractive Christmas lighting displays.



Christmas lights decorate a neighborhood park in northern Bogota, Colombia, late on Dec. 22.



In this photo made using a long exposure and zooming the lens, hundreds of lights illuminate the home of Norm and Michele Rados in Olmsted Township, Ohio on Dec. 23. Rados said it takes four to five weekends of work to finish his annual holiday display leading up to the Sunday after Thanksgiving.



A police officer takes a picture of his partner as snow covers Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Dec. 23. Snow and sub zero temperatures are a rarity in this area.

[Mr Lick]

Mountaineering club members wear Santa Claus costumes as they reach the summit of Dobong mountain near Seoul, South Korea on Dec. 23.



Window cleaners dressed as Santa Claus and a reindeer clean a window during an event to celebrate the upcoming Christmas holiday season at a shopping mall in Tokyo, Japan on Dec 23.

[Mr Lick]

Cpl. Burness Britt reacts after seeing pictures of his evacuation laid out on his bed in the Hunter Holmes Medical Center in Richmond, Va., Dec. 13. Britt is facing a long recovery after a large piece of shrapnel from an IED in Afghanistan in June 2011 cut a major artery on his neck. During his first operation in Afghanistan he suffered a stroke and became partially paralyzed.



United States Marine Cpl. Burness Britt reacts after being lifted onto a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off," Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment, June 4, 2011. Britt was wounded in an IED strike near Sangin, in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan.



He was leading a group of 10 Marines through a wheat field when there was an explosion. He doesn't know how far away, maybe a few yards. He was thrown into the air, and landed with a thump in the field, a searing hot pain raging in his neck. He had been hit by a huge piece of shrapnel from a bomb and a major artery was cut.

[Mr Lick]

Thousands of Egyptian protesters gather in Cairo's Tahrir Square during a mass rally against the country's military rulers on Dec. 23. Egypt has been divided by the clashes between anti-military protesters and soldiers that have left at least 60 people dead over the past two months and overshadowed the first elections since Mubarak's downfall.

[Mr Lick]

British singer George Michael leaves his house in north London, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. George Michael, short of breath and appearing weak, said Friday he has recovered from a life-threatening bout with pneumonia that kept him in a Vienna hospital for a month.

[Mr Lick]

The Comet Lovejoy is visible near Earth's horizon in this nighttime image photographed by NASA astronaut Dan Burbank, Expedition 30 commander, onboard the International Space Station on Dec. 21, 2011.

[Mr Lick]

Left to right, Lech Walesa, Poland's president from 1990-1995, former U.S. chief diplomat Madeleine Albright and former U.S. president Bill Clinton, attend the funeral service for former Czech president Vaclav Havel at the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, on December 23, 2011. Havel, a dissident and playwright who was the hero of the 1989 Velvet Revolution against communist rule and became his country's first post-independence president, died on December 18, 2011 aged 75. World leaders joined Czech dignitaries to pay homage to Havel at his state funeral in the historic Prague cathedral.






Britain's former prime minister John Major and current prime minister David Cameron arrive for the funeral service for former Czech president Vaclav Havel in Prague, on December 23, 2011.

[Mr Lick]

Havel's widow, Dagmar Havlova, at the service









The French actor Alain Delon arrives for the funeral ceremony












Leaders of foreign governments attend the funeral of Vaclav Havel. From right to left, Montenegro's president Filip Vujanovic, Romanian president Traian Băsescu, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Austrian president Heinz Fischer and Slovakian president Ivan Gašparovič


















Vaclav Havel's widow Dagmar Havlova attends a private funeral for Havel in Prague's Strasnice crematorium









































Václav Havel

1st President of the Czech Republic.

In office
2 February 1993 – 2 February 2003

Václav Havel (5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician.

A Nobel Peace Prize nominee, he was the ninth and last president of Czechoslovakia (1989–1992) and the firstPresident of the Czech Republic (1993–2003). He wrote over 20 plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally.

Havel was a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, that proposed the establishment of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism. He also received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the Order of Canada, the freedom medal of the Four Freedoms Award, the Ambassador of Conscience Award and several other distinctions.

Havel was voted 4th in Prospect magazine's 2005 global poll of the world's top 100 intellectuals.

At the time of his death he was Chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation. Equally, he was the founder of VIZE97 foundation, and the Forum 2000 annual global conference.

Beginning in the 1960s, his work focussed on the politics of Czechoslovakia. After the Prague Spring, he became increasingly active. In 1977, he co-authored the Human Rights charter called Charter 77, which brought him international recognition as the leader of the opposition in Czechoslovakia.

Consequently, this led to his persecution by the communist regime, and his repeated imprisonment.

The 1989 Velvet Revolution launched Havel into the presidency. In this role, he led Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic in its transition to multiparty democracy. His thirteen years in office saw radical change in his nation, including its split with Slovakia, which Havel opposed, its accession into NATO and the start of the negotiations for membership in the European Union, which was attained in 2004.

[Mr Lick]

New Delhi, India: A homeless elderly man sits in a dry fountain after waking up on a cold morning. Though India is famous for its brutally hot summers, temperatures fall sharply for a few weeks in December and January



Cagayan de Oro, Philippines: Typhoon Washi has killed more than 1,000 people and has left tens of thousands homeless

[Mr Lick]

Cairo, Egypt: A protester sits in front of a cement barricade bearing the writing 'Free', during a demonstration against the country's military rulers in Tahrir Square



Panmunjom, South Korea: North Korean soldiers look at South Korea across the Korean Demilitarised Zone

[Mr Lick]

Sana'a, Yemen: A woman shows a message reading 'Our demand is the trial' written on her hands during a demonstration to demand the trial of Yemen's outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh



Bethlehem: Christian pilgrims wait to go inside the Grotto of the Church of Nativity ahead of Christmas

[Mr Lick]

Damascus bomb attacks leave scores dead

Two explosions in the Syrian capital have killed more than 40 people, with more than 150 inured, the government says. A General Security Directorate base and another security agency were targeted






General Rustom Ghazaleh speaks to the press as he inspects the Syrian security base






Members of Syrian security chant slogans and raise their weapons at the site of the bombing



The deputy secretary general of the Arab League, Samir Seif al-Yazal (wearing sunglasses), inspects the site of a suicide attack



A wounded man rests at a hospital in Damascus

[Mr Lick]

[Mr Lick]

A defected army soldier backing anti-government protesters jumps off a container as he secures a street where protesters marched to demand the trial of Yemen's outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa December 22, 2011.



A demonstrator dressed as Santa Claus is arrested by riot policemen during clashes with students protesting against the government to demand changes in the public state education system in Santiago, December 22, 2011. Chilean students have been protesting against what they say is the profiteering in the state education system.



Tamara Llagas (L) reacts next to first runner-up Raquel Bonilla after winning the Miss Sevilla pageant in the Andalusian capital of Seville December 22, 2011. The winner of the pageant will go on to compete in the Miss Spain beauty contest in 2012.



Britain's Prince William dances with Vanessa Boateng (C) as his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (R) looks on during a reception at Centrepoint's Camberwell Foyer in London December 21, 2011. The national charity, Centrepoint, provides housing and support to improve the lives of homeless young people aged 16 to 25.



Debbie Summers (R) sits at the wheel of her car with all of their possessions inside as her children, Jordain (L), 3, and Jomari, 2, sit in the back seat as they wait for admittance to a homeless shelter at the offices of Faith in Action community housing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, December 21, 2011. In a report issued earlier this month, the National Center on Family Homelessness, based in Needham, Massachusetts, said 1.6 million children were living on the streets of the United States last year or in shelters, motels and doubled-up with other families. That marked a 38 percent jump in child homelessness since 2007 and Ellen Bassuk, the center's president, attributes the increase to fallout from the U.S. recession and a surge in the number of extremely poor households headed by women.



A detained youth listens during a religious class at Sekolah Polisi Negara, a police school in Seulawah, Aceh Besar, Indonesia's Aceh province December 21, 2011. Police detained about 65 youth punks when they attended a rock music show on December 11. The youths are expected to be released on December 23 after completing disciplinary education.



A demonstrator climbs stairs in the former Old Street Magistrates Court after protestors from Occupy London occupied it in London December 20, 2011.

[Mr Lick]

Firefighters watch as a colleague tackles an apartment building fire in San Francisco, California

[Mr Lick]

The Philippines government say that 1079 people remain missing following the death of more than 1000 others.

[Mr Lick]

Afghanistan has kicked off it's first official rugby tournament with organisers hoping that one day it will become as popular as Buzkashi, a kind of polo played with the carcass of a headless goat

[Mr Lick]

South Koreans dress up as Father Christmas for an event organised to deliver gifts for the poor

[Mr Lick]

Damascus, Syria: Mourners bow in prayer at a mass funeral for 44 people killed in twin suicide bombings that targeted intelligence agency compounds in. Mourners carried coffins draped in the red, white and black Syrian flags into the 8th century Omayyad mosque, where they were placed on the ground for prayers



Paju, South Korea: Members of North Korea Peace, an international volunteer group helping North Koreans, fly balloons with boxes containing pairs of socks towards North Korea near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. The volunteer group sent 1,000 pairs of socks stapled with messages of hope and love to North Korea via inflated balloons

[Mr Lick]

Tegucigalpa, Honduras: Two of 134 Honduran migrants deported from the US queue at the migration office of Toncontin airport. The 134 migrants are part of the 40,000 Hondurans that have been deported from the US this year



Srinagar, India: Wildlife officials carry a tranquilised leopard at the Dachigam national park. The five-year-old female was caught roaming in a residential area in the city on Saturday

[Mr Lick]

Sri Racha, Thailand: Tiger cubs dressed as Santa Claus suckle from a sow at the Sriracha tiger zoo



Moscow, Russia: Demonstrators gather holding placards and balloons during a protest against recent parliamentary election results. The placard makes a reference to Vladimir Putin's remarks that he mistook white ribbons worn by protesters for condoms

[Mr Lick]

Georgia, USA: A carport roof sits in front of a house where repairs were being made after storm damage in. A possible tornado caused the damage and caused minor injuries to seven people after storms rolled through the area



Rome, Italy: The general secretary of the CGIL union, Susanna Camusso, delivers a speech flanked by fellow trade unionists during a demostration in front of the Italian parliament. Trade unions called Italians to protest in front for all those who will not be able to properly celebrate Christmas due to the new austerity measures

[Mr Lick]

Cambridge, UK: A well wisher speaks to a television crew at the gates of Papworth hospital. Queen Elizabeth II visited her husband, The Duke of Edinburgh, as he recuperates following treatment for a blocked coronary artery



London, UK: George Michael speaks to the media outside his home about his battle with pneumonia that saw him hospitalised in Vienna for three weeks

[Mr Lick]

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson (89) flips over Arizona Cardinals linebacker Daryl Washington (58) for a touchdown in the first half of an NFL football game, Dec. 24, in Cincinnati, Ohio.