World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

Rescuers examine an endangered female fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) stranded on the beach at Carlyon Bay on Aug. 13, 2012 in St. Austell, England.

The stranded whale was spotted by holidaymakers just after 5 p.m. Rescuers hoped to re-float the 60-foot fin whale, the second largest animal on the planet, however, the mammal died on the beach.

[Mr Lick]

The injured captain of a Somalia-bound Ugandan attack helicopter lies next to the crash site at Mount Kenya, on Aug. 13. Uganda said on Monday the pilot and four crew of the helicopter that made an emergency landing in Kenya had been rescued but two other gunships and ten crew members were still missing in the same area.



Uganda said on Monday the pilot and four crew of a Somalia-bound Ugandan attack helicopter that made an emergency landing in Kenya had been rescued but two other gunships and ten crew members were still missing in the same area.

Poor weather early on Monday hampered a search and rescue operation for the three Russian-built Mi-24 helicopter gunships that went down in the Mount Kenya region on Sunday while en route to reinforcing AU forces in Somalia.

Felix Kulayigye, a spokesman for the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), said one pilot managed to send out a distress signal after making an emergency landing.

[Mr Lick]

Lornitas Calub hugs her grandson at a crowded evacuation shelter on Aug. 13, in Manila, Philippines. The weather is slated to deteriorate as another low pressure system makes its way to the region. According to the Office of Civil Defense, the floods left at least 96 people dead and affected up to 2.68 million people in Manila and surrounding provinces, with more than 440,000 fleeing to evacuation centers.



A man gives himself a bath at a crowded evacuation shelter on Aug. 13, in Manila, Philippines

[Mr Lick]

Members of the Spanish Army Emergency work on the fire in Torre de les Macanes near Alicante, on Aug. 13. Emergency teams battled through the night to quell the flames in the pine forests around Torre de les Macanes north of Alicante, which claimed their first victim, a member of the firefighting team, on Sunday.



General view of the fire in Torre de les Macanes near Alicante, on Aug. 13.

[Mr Lick]

Some 3,000 participants called 'pirates' sailing handmade boats from San Sebastian harbor towards La Concha Beach take part in the Big Week (Semana Grande) festivities in San Sebastian, Spain, on Aug. 13. The Pirate Attack is one of the main activities during the Semana Grande.



Some 3,000 participants called 'pirates' sailing handmade boats from San Sebastian harbor towards La Concha Beach take part in the Big Week (Semana Grande) festivities in San Sebastian, Spain, on Aug. 13.

[Mr Lick]

Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev waves out of the window of a bus after he was detained with his supporters by policemen in New Delhi, India, on Aug. 13. Waving Indian flags and shouting slogans, the protesters climbed into a row of police buses parked around the sprawling New Delhi fairground that Ramdev and his supporters had occupied for the past four days.



A popular yoga guru and thousands of his supporters were detained by police Monday as they tried to march to India's Parliament to intensify an anti-corruption protest and press for a change of government.

As he was led away by police, Baba Ramdev shouted slogans urging his supporters to fight to end India's endemic corruption and seek the repatriation of billions of dollars in illegal money he says Indians have stashed in foreign banks.

[Mr Lick]

Syrian rebels fire towards an army sniper in the Salaheddin district of Aleppo on Aug.13.




The head of the United Nations monitors in Syria said on Monday violence was intensifying across the country, blaming both President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebel fighters for ignoring the plight of civilians.

"It is clear that violence is increasing in many parts of Syria," General Babacar Gaye, head of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria, told journalists in Damascus.

Assad's forces are battling to regain control of the biggest city, Aleppo, from rebel fighters who went on the offensive last month, seizing districts of the capital and the northern commercial hub, as well as several border crossings










Parents cry over the body of their son on Sunday, Aug. 12, after he was shot by a sniper in the Salaheddine district of Aleppo, Syria, where fighting has raged for almost two weeks.

[Mr Lick]

Quakes hit Iran - more pics

[Mr Lick]

[Mr Lick]

Olympic homecomings



In Kabul, taekwondo Bronze medallist Rohullah Nikpai arrives to join a parade at the national stadium



Guatemala won their first ever medal at the games. Silver in the men's 20kms walk

[Mr Lick]

Qatar's Bronze medallist shows off his win in the Skeet



The 17 year old american arrives in Michigan to show off USA's only gold medal in boxing

[Mr Lick]

In Budapest, the pommel horse king displays his gold medal



Brazil's volleyball players, won beat the USA to win gold parade through Sao Paulo

[Mr Lick]

Thousands welcome home the Dutch Olympic team in Den Bosch



The French parade celebrate their 7th place position



In India, bronze medallist boxer Mary Kom, a mother of two, was awarded 1m Rupees (11,500 pounds)



Trinidad and Tobago javelin thrower Keshorn Walcott, celebrates with the crowd his gold medal win, the country's first since Hasley Crawford 100m win in 1976.

[Mr Lick]

Rory McIlroy holds up the Wanamaker Trophy after winning the 94th USPGA Championship



Police in India have arrested anti-corruption campaigner Baba Remdev who was staging a protest with his supporters.

[Mr Lick]

2 people were killed and 3 injured when an archway collapsed in Wushan Square, Hangzhou, China on Sunday morning

[Mr Lick]

Euromillions: Suffolk couple in 40s win £148m





A couple from Suffolk who won £148m on the Euromillions lottery are in their 40s with two young children, it has been revealed.

Adrian Bayford, 41, and his 40-year-old wife Gillian, of Haverhill, won the UK's second biggest ever lottery prize in Friday's lottery draw, Camelot said.

Speaking at a media briefing, Mrs Bayford said she thought her husband was joking when he said they had won.

They have a six-year-old daughter and a son, aged four.

Mr Bayford, who co-owns Suffolk Music Centre in Haverhill, said he convinced his wife that they had both forgotten to buy a ticket when they watched Friday's draw.

He then went and checked the ticket he had bought, with Mrs Bayford describing him as "going a bit pale".

She said: "I checked the numbers on my phone, the TV, the internet - and we just looked at each other and giggled."

Mrs Bayford, a health care assistant at the children's ward at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, said she did not sleep that night and that her first purchase was a car and that she wants to go sky diving.

"I find it hard to take in the actual quantity of it," she added.

"I'm Scottish, we're known for being tight, I'll still be hitting the sales," she said.



Since the announcement of their win they have received several begging letters from the coalition government

[Mr Lick]

Rio de Janeiro builds for the Olympic Games






























The venue for sailing events




The roads will host the cycling and walking events



Copacabana will host the rowing, triathlon and of course the beach volleyball events

[OhOh]

Veteran fighters of last year's civil war in Libya have come to the front-line in Syria, helping to train and organise rebels under conditions far more dire than those in the battle against Muammar Gaddafi, a Libyan-Irish fighter has told Reuters.

Hussam Najjar hails from Dublin, has a Libyan father and Irish mother and goes by the name of Sam. A trained sniper, he was part of the rebel unit that stormed Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli a year ago, led by Mahdi al-Harati, a powerful militia chief from Libya's western mountains.




Note the "non lethal" radio on the side.

[Mr Lick]

French firemen inspect damage inside a leisure centre after overnight clashes where gangs of youths set cars and buildings ablaze in Amiens on Aug 14. About 100 youths burned cars, a leisure centre and a nursery school according to an official from the prefect's office.



PIERREFEU-DU-VAR, France - French President Francois Hollande said his Socialist government would do all that was needed to ensure law and order prevailed after rioting overnight in the northern city of Amiens.

"Interior Minister Manuel Valls will go to Amiens immediately ... to say there once again that the state will mobilize all its resources to combat this violence

[Mr Lick]

Kim Hyeon-woo, front right, gold medalist in the Men's 66Kg Greco-Roman wrestling, sports a black eye as he poses with other athletes upon the South Korean national team's arrival in Incheon, west of Seoul on August 14, 2012.



Japanese women's volleyball captain Erika Araki, left, and her teammates are welcomed by wellwishers upon their return from the London 2012 Olympic Games at Narita airport, outside Tokyo, on August 14, 2012.



Qatar's Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, center, son of the Emir of Qatar (and not an Olympic competitor, despite the medal), welcomes Nasser al-Attiyah, right, bronze medalist in the skeet men's final, and Mutaz Essa Barshim, left, bronze winner in the men's high jump, upon their arrival in Doha, Qatar on August 13, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

Members of the Russian Olympic national team show their medals upon their arrival at Sheremetyevo international airport in Moscow on August 13, 2012.



Brazil's volleyball player Adenizia Silva poses for a photograph with a fan in Sao Paulo, Brazil on August 13, 2012. Brazil's women produced a dazzling comeback to win Olympic volleyball gold on Saturday, prompting a sneak preview of what life might be like in Rio de Janeiro in four years time.



Taoufik Makhloufi, left, who won the gold medal in the men's 1500m final, parades in a car upon his return to Algiers, Algeria, on August 13, 2012. Makhloufi is the only Algerian among the 39 participants in the London Olympics to win a medal.



Rio de Janeiro's city mayor Eduardo Paes, left, and the president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee Carlos Arthur Nuzman, center, wave the Olympic flag upon arrival in Rio de Janeiro on August 13, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

Mitt Romney watches Florida Senator Marco Rubio bowl an orange down the aisle aboard a charter flight from St. Augustine to Miami, Florida, August 13, 2012.

Marco Rubio took notice first, sending the fruit cruising back to the press with exquisite aim. Then Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi gave it a try.
Finally noticing the game that was unfolding, Romney decided to play along, climbing out of his window seat with a smile and giving the fruit a roll down the aisle to the cheers of the press.

After one last return shot from the press, Rubio picked up the orange and sitting backward in the seat pretended to throw the fruit across the plane, to the laughter and cheers of the press






Underarm only you plank!!

[Mr Lick]

A Shiite Muslim reading the Koran before starting an anti-government rally in solidarity with jailed human rights and political activists in the village of Sitra, south of Manama, Bahrain, in the early hours of August 14, 2012. Several activists have been sent to jail since the start of Shiite led pro-democracy protests in the Gulf kingdom February 2011.



Shiite Muslims run for cover from tear gas and bird shots fired by riot police in Sitra on August 14, 2012.



An elderly Shiite Muslim man walks along a street during clashes between protestors and riot police in Sitra on August 14, 2012.



Riot police try to disperse a demonstration in Sitra on August 14, 2012.






Bahrain's Shiites complain they have long been marginalized in political and economic life, which the government denies. But there has been no progress on the main opposition demand for a parliament with full powers to legislate and form governments.

Bahrain's Sunni rulers have rejected opposition calls for an elected government, and protests and clashes with police continue.

[Mr Lick]

A man looks into a car submerged in flood waters caused by heavy rains in Neyagawa city, western Japan, Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012. Torrential rains struck wide areas.

[Mr Lick]

Tel Aviv, Israel: young Jewish immigrants from the US and Canada celebrate with the Israeli flag as they arrive at Ben Gurion airport



Des Moines, US: President Barack Obama gets a hug from Joy Dannelly as he visits Iowa's state fair



New Delhi, India: an old man holds the Indian flag at an anti-corruption protest



Santiago, Chile: mothers of students who are protesting inside a school are detained by riot police



Herzliya, Israel: Agnes Keleti, a 91-year-old former Olympic gymnast, performs a split