World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

Angelina Jolie is seen in the Oval Office during a meeting with President Obama before he departs for a day trip to Chicago, from the South Lawn of the White House, January 11, 2012.



A resident carries his belongings as he is evacuated from his home in a landslide prone neighborhood of Saupcaia, northeast of Rio de Janeiro January 11, 2012.



Construction workers are seen installing steel structures for a joint wind energy project between Germany and Costa Rica, during a visit by Germany's Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Dirk Niebel, in Salitral de Santa Ana, west of San Jose, January 11, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley sits in a conservation tank after a steel truss that had surrounded it was removed on Thursday







"No one alive has ever seen the Hunley complete. We're going to see it today," engineer John King said as a crane at a Charleston conservation laboratory slowly lifted a massive steel truss covering the top of the submarine.

About 20 engineers and scientists applauded as they caught the first glimpse of the intact 42-foot-long (13-meter-long) narrow iron cylinder, which was raised from the ocean floor near Charleston more than a decade ago. The public will see the same view, but in a water tank to keep it from rusting.

[Mr Lick]

Clad in tiny replica of Japanese police outfit, female toy poodles, one-year-old Karin, left, and two-year-old Fuga, are presented to the media on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012 at the Tottori Prefectural Police headquarters in Tottori, Japan.

In an effort to strengthen public relations, the Tottori prefectural police appointed two female toy poodles as honorary dispatch section chiefs on Jan. 10, Dial 110 Day. The number 110 is a hotline to contact the police in case of emergency in Japan.

“The role of police dogs is not limited to searching criminals and missing people,” Miyamoto said. “I hope the participation of Fuga and Karin in the police department will contribute to improved public relations.”

[Mr Lick]

A "white only" sign is pictured on the fence around a Cincinnati swimming pool in this undated handout photo received by Reuters Jan. 12, 2012. A Cincinnati landlord found to have violated state anti-discrimination laws after she hung a "white only" sign outside her swimming pool lost an appeal with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission on Thursday.

A Cincinnati landlord who claimed a black girl's hair products clouded an apartment complex's swimming pool discriminated against the child by posting a poolside "white only" sign, an Ohio civil rights panel said Thursday in upholding a previous finding.

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission voted 4-0 against reconsidering its finding from last fall. There was no discussion.

The group found on Sept. 29 that Jamie Hein, who is white, violated the Ohio Civil Rights Act by posting the sign at a pool at the duplex where the teenage girl was visiting her parents

[Mr Lick]

Daimler AG apologized Thursday for using an image of Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara during a promotional presentation for Mercedes-Benz cars.

The image briefly appeared Tuesday during a presentation by Dieter Zetsche, head of Daimler's Mercedes unit, at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It reproduced afamous Alberto Korda photo of Guevara, the Argentine communist who spearheaded the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power in Cuba. The photo became a symbol of communist revolutionary movements during the 1960s and '70s.

But in place of the star that adorns Guevara's beret in the original, Mercedes affixed its corporate logo.

Activists reacted with horror to the appropriation of Guevara, whom many political conservatives and Cuban-Americans consider a mass murderer who helped subjugate Cuba.

"Mercedes-Benz Uses Communist Madman Che Guevara to Sell Luxury Cars," said the headline on a blog post from the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative political organization in Washington.

"Che Guevara, not to put too fine a point on it, was a psychopath whose sadistic lust for blood was not easily quenched. He killed for pleasure," said the post, written by Heritage Vice President Mike Gonzalez.

[Mr Lick]

A new Hubble Space Telescope image centers on the 100-million-solar-mass black hole at the hub of the neighboring spiral galaxy M31, or the Andromeda Galaxy, one of the few galaxies outside the Milky Way visible to the naked eye and the only other giant galaxy in the Local Group. This is the sharpest visible-light image ever made of the nucleus of an external galaxy.

[Mr Lick]

Chinese people wait outside an Apple store all night before the mainland release of iPhone 4S on Jan. 13, 2012 in Beijing, China. Apple recently announced iPhone 4S will be released in China and 21 other countries on Jan. 13.

[Mr Lick]

Large swaths of the Midwest are in store for their first blast of winter, and parts of the northeast could also see up to a foot of accumulation. Winter storm warnings are out in eastern Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.



St. Louis firefighters assist tow truck operators after an accident on Interstate 44 at Jamieson Avenue on Thursday, Jan. 12. Snow and howling wind were blamed for hundreds of accidents in Missouri on Thursday.



Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation trucks make their way southbound on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago in preparation for the winter storm expected to bring four to eight inches of snow.



A crossing guard stops traffic as children walk to school in cold and snowy weather in in Springfield as Illinois receives its first significant snowfall in nearly 11 months on Thursday, Jan. 12.



A pedestrian walks in Washington Park during a snow storm in Albany, N.Y., on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012. The storm dumped up to 8 inches in the southern Adirondacks while parts of the Mohawk and Hudson Valleys have received 4 to 6 inches, forcing scores of schools to cancel classes or delay their start by two hours

[Mr Lick]

A hut is covered in snow on January 11, at the Fellhorn mountain near Oberstdorf, southern Germany

[Mr Lick]

A Cheetah has been seized at London's Heathrow Airport when officials were unable to locate it's identity chip. Isaac, the Cheetah was on his way from a S. African Safari Park to Russia.

[Mr Lick]

At least 21 men and eight female illegal immigrants were arrested by federal police on the outskirts of Morelia

[Mr Lick]

Metropolis II sculpture by Chris Burden



The sculpture has been unveiled at Los Angeles County Museum of Art



The sculpture portrays a futuristic city









Chris Burden said ''the noise, the continuous flow of trains and the speeding toy cars produces in the viewer the stress of living in a dynamic, active and bustling 21st century city

[Mr Lick]

Man in Huddersfield 'buried alive' case jailed for 20 years

Judge Peter Collier QC, said this was a 'planned attempt to kill'

A man has been jailed for 20 years for the attempted murder of his fiancee who he buried alive in a cardboard box.

Marcin Kasprzak, 26, attacked Michelina Lewandowska with a stun gun at their home in Penistone Road, Huddersfield on 28 May last year.

Kasprzak was found guilty at Leeds Crown Court last month.

Patryk Borys, 18, of Rashcliffe Hill Road, Huddersfield, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in a young offenders institute for kidnap.

Borys was cleared of attempted murder but had admitted kidnap, as had Kasprzak.

Kasprzak also admitted possessing a prohibited weapon.

[Mr Lick]

China iPhone chaos















Trouble broke out at the store forcing it's closure



Some angry people threw eggs

[Mr Lick]

Titanyen, Haiti: A woman who lost both her arms in the January 2010 earthquake attends a memorial service at a mass grave site



Kabul, Afghanistan: Mohammad Saber Yaqoti Hussaini Khedri, the calligrapher of the world's biggest copy of the Qur'an, turns a page of the book



Arequipa, Peru: A biker competes during the 11th stage of the Dakar rally from Arica to Arequipa

[Mr Lick]

A musher competes with his sledding dogs at the Col des Saisies, in the French Alps during La Grande Odyssee Trophy 2012 , an 11-day race through the Alps, covering 1,000 km (620 miles)



Someone needs to tell the Boston Celtics centre Jermaine O'Neal that basketball is meant to be a non-contact sport as the Dallas Mavericks guard Vince Carter drives towards the basket during Dallas's 90-85 victory



Anglers cast lines through holes into a frozen river during an ice fishing competition at the Hwacheon Sancheoneo (Mountain Trout) Ice Festival in Hwacheon-gun, South Korea. The annual festival attracts millions of visitors annually who gather to try thier luck at ice fishing with traditional lures or with bare hands. The three-week long event features several winter sports and games as well as an ice scultpure competition and takes place in what is considered the first region of Korea that freezes over during winter

[Mr Lick]

Elliot Morales catches a huge wave during the International Bodyboarding Association World Tour event in Portugal



There's a Euro 2012 flavour to this nativity scene in the Ukrainian city of Lviv during orthodox Christmas Eve

[Mr Lick]

A Syrian soldier who defected to join the Free Syrian Army (FSA) carries a rocket-propelled grenade as he poses for a photograph at an FSA base outside the town of Qusair, January 8, 2012.



Anti-government protesters run through tear gas during clashes between protesters and riot police in the village of Diraz, west of Manama, Bahrain, January 12, 2012.



A forensic worker lifts a curtain while standing inside a house where seven dead bodies have been found earlier in Zapopan, on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico, January 11, 2012.



Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shakes hands with former Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Cuba, January 12, 2012.



The European Central Bank President Mario Draghi speaks during the monthly news conference in Frankfurt, January 12, 2012.

[S Landreth]

Costa Concordia laying on her starboard side after running aground off the Italian coast.

[Mr Lick]

^

Three people are confirmed dead after a cruise ship carrying more than 4,000 people ran aground off Italy.

There were scenes of panic as the Costa Concordia hit a sandbar on Friday evening near the island of Giglio and listed about 20 degrees. People reached land by lifeboats but some swam ashore.

Rescue teams have been going from cabin to cabin, searching for survivors.
Italians, Germans, French and British were among the 3,200 passengers. There were also 1,000 crew on board.

Helicopters evacuated the last 50 people on the deck who were in a "worsening" situation.

Three people were confirmed dead, Italian coast guard officials said on Saturday morning - fewer than the six or eight deaths reported by Italian media earlier.

[Mr Lick]

The UN has launched a 'massive emergency operation' to help some 50,000 flood affected people in South Sudan

[Mr Lick]

Taiwan's 3 Presidential candidates are on their final campaign push before the island goes to the polls on Saturday. The US and China are watching the results closely

[Mr Lick]

Burma's most important political dissidents have been freed. Those freed include veterans of the 1988 student protest movement

[Mr Lick]

Plans for a £33bn high speed Britiah rail network received a mixed reaction

[Mr Lick]

Morgan Freeman was named the 2012 Peoples Choice for favourite movie icon in LA, California.