World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

A Free Syrian Army fighter drags a dead man shot in Salaheddine neighborhood in Aleppo out of the line of sniper fire August 13, 2012. Free Syrian Army fighters said the man was shot dead by Syrian Army snipers.



A long exposure shows stars behind a tree during the annual Perseid meteor shower near the southern town of Mitzpe Ramon August 13, 2012



Blood stains an airbag inside a vehicle hit by a bomb blast in Jalalabad province August 13, 2012. At least five civilians were wounded, according to the provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai.



Members of the Malta Command World War II Living History Group fire a gun salute during a commemorative service marking the 70th anniversary of Operation Pedestal in Valletta's Grand Harbour August 13, 2012. Operation Pedestal was the convoy that arrived in Grand Harbour on August 15, 1942 with much needed food and supplies during World War II when the bomb-battered island, a British base at the time, was on the brink of starvation and close to surrendering to the Axis powers.



Four armed rebels and a man described in the video as a captured pilot are seen in this still image taken from amateur video out of Syria on August 13, 2012.

[OhOh]

An Al-EkhbariyaTV crew was kidnapped by the Free Syrian Army when filming the clashes taking place in Al-Tal.

A group of fighters has entrenched itself in this small city which was immediately abandoned by the population. The national army moved in to surround the area, ordering the combatants to lay down their arms.

[Mr Lick]

The Department of Veterans Affairs has been dogged for years by complaints that the claims process is painfully slow. Now, a recent inspection by the VA Office of Inspector General shows exactly how difficult it can be to physically manage the volume of those cases.

At the VA's Winston-Salem Regional Office in North Carolina, an estimated 37,000 claims folders had been stored on top of file cabinets, according to the Inspector General's report released last week. Those piles had been stacked two feet high and two rows deep. The file cabinets were so close to each other that drawers could not be opened completely. More files had been stored in boxes on the floor and stacked along the wall.

[Mr Lick]

Protesters wearing balaclavas take part in an Amnesty International flash mob demonstration in support of the all women Russian punk band, Pussy Riot, in the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland on Tuesday. The demonstration is in support of the members of the group incarcerated in Russia and also to publicise the Amnesty International 'Stand Up For Freedom' comedy night, during this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

[Mr Lick]

A long strip image from the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the Curiosity rover's landing spot in Gale Crater, as well as the terrain leading south toward the mountain known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp. The colors have been stretched to emphasize differences in surface composition. A dune field can be seen in deep shades of blue. Beyond the dunes, mesas and buttes are part of the terrain surrounding the 3-mile-high mountain.

[Mr Lick]

Dozens of houses are submerged in floodwaters after tropical storm Kai-Tak, (locally named Helen) hit Baguio city in northern Philippines on August 15, 2012. Kai-Tak battered northern Philippines after making landfall on Wednesday, killing at least two people, disaster officials said



As another storm threatened to cause more flooding, hundreds of Philippines' weather agency employees protested over their pay Tuesday and warned that forecasting services could deteriorate.

An alarmed President Benigno Aquino III rushed to assure the protesting employees that steps were being taken to resume payment of the cash benefits that had been suspended in March.

"I just reminded that since the weather is bad and we have a weather disturbance, we should not add to the worries of those who were hit by the floods," Aquino told reporters after a hasty meeting with the restive employ

[Mr Lick]

Syrian soldiers investigate the scene after a bomb attached to a fuel truck exploded outside a hotel where U.N. observers are staying in Damascus, Syria, on August 15, 2012. Several people were wounded, Syria's state TV reported. It said the explosion took place near a parking lot used by the army command, which is about 300 meters away.



NBC News wire services report — A bomb exploded in Damascus on Wednesday near a hotel used by United Nations monitors, Syrian state television reported.

The bomb, which was placed in a parking lot near the Dama Rose Hotel, blew up a fuel truck that sent clouds of black smoke into the sky above the capital. At least three people were reportedly injured

[Mr Lick]

Doves are released in prayer of perpetual peace by worshippers at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012. Japan marked the 67th anniversary of its World War II surrender with a somber memorial led by its emperor and other commemorations






A Japanese cabinet member paid homage at a controversial shrine for war dead on Wednesday -- the 67th anniversary of Tokyo's defeat in World War Two -- a move likely to further strain relations with China and South Korea.

Bitter memories of Japanese militarism run deep in China and South Korea and, despite close economic ties, relations with Beijing and Seoul have become increasingly fraught recently.

Bickering over rival territorial claims to rocky, uninhabited islands are the latest sign of how the region has yet to resolve differences over its past.



Protesters hold a Chinese national flag and banners reading "Japan get out of Diaoyu islands" and "declare war against Japan" during an anti-Japan protest to mark the 67th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War Two, outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing August 15, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

A helicopter drops water taken from the adjacent Yakima River onto a wildfire by Highway 10 near Cle Elum, Wash. on Aug. 14, 2012. The fast-moving wildfire has burned 60 homes across nearly 40 square miles of central Washington grassland, timber and sagebrush. No injuries have been reported but more than 400 people have been forced to flee.



Neighbors try to hold back flames from a house at left near Cle Elum, Wash. on Aug. 14. Moments later a sudden wind sent flames racing toward the volunteers and about a dozen people safely scrambled out of the way. The house was saved when a water truck was able to quickly save the home.









A woman sits on the remains of a home that was destroyed in a wildfire the night before in Bettas Road near Cle Elum, Wash. on Aug. 14.

[Mr Lick]

Cle Elum, US: People watch as fast-moving wildfire fire roars across ranch land in Washington state

[Mr Lick]

Houses in Valle Gran Rey are surrounded by burned areas after a wild fire devastated the area on the Spanish Canary Island of La Gomera August 14, 2012.


Children play in a mud bank while watching a festival inaugurating the Amazon River as one of the seven natural wonders of the world at the mouth of Itaya River in Iquitos, August 13, 2012.



Mine workers who are on strike attend a gathering outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 100 km (62 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, August 14, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

A Free Syrian Army fighter reacts after hearing news that his commander had been killed by tank shell in Aleppo August 14, 2012.



United States Geological Survey (USGS) researchers recapture a 17-foot, 7-inch (5.36 m) long Burmese python in Everglades National Park near Homestead, Florida in this handout photo taken on April 23, 2012. The record-breaking python weighed 164 pounds and carried 87 eggs in its oviducts, according to researchers.



A man walks near containers at a port in Lisbon August 14, 2012. Portuguese port workers started a midnight strike against the revision of the legal framework for dock work



Police guard the body of Zhou Kehua (2nd R), the fugitive serial killer and armed robber, after he was shot dead in Chongqing Municipality, August 14, 2012. Chinese police in the southwestern city of Chongqing shot dead Zhou on Tuesday after a massive manhunt aimed at reassuring people the government would continue a crime crackdown begun by sacked party boss Bo Xilai.



Gardeners work on a giant carpet made of flowers to form a floral decoration at Brussels' Grand Place August 14, 2012. The design requires about 700,000 flowers to create, according to event organisers.



Ethnic Catalan protesters, also known as "Indignados", shout slogans during a protest against austerity measures in Boqueria market on Las Ramblas, in Barcelona August 14, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

Italy memorial to Fascist hero Graziani sparks row



Graziani (left) is seen here with German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring in October 1944


A political row has erupted in Italy after a memorial was opened to fascist commander Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani, a convicted war criminal.

Graziani was honoured with a mausoleum and memorial park, built at taxpayers' expense, in a village south of Rome.

He was notorious as Benito Mussolini's military commander in colonial wars in Ethiopia and Libya where he carried out massacres and used chemical weapons.

Italy's main leftist party has protested against the commemoration.

"Is it possible to allow, accept or simply tolerate that, in 2012, we dedicate a park and a museum to the fascist general and minister Rodolfo Graziani?" asked Esterino Montino, head of the Democratic Party in the Lazio region.

He pointed to the "crimes against humanity committed by Graziani in Ethiopia in the 1930s", La Repubblica newspaper reports.

Graziani was sentenced to 19 years' imprisonment for war crimes in 1948 but was released from jail after serving only two years, and died in 1955.

[Mr Lick]

Hundreds of thousands of dead fish washed ashore on Jamaica Beach, Texas on Sunday



Hundreds of families who had illegally occupied vacant land in Guatemala City were evicted

[Mr Lick]

A British couple who won 148m pounds on the Euromillions lottery said that they would carry on running their music shop and give their children a normal upbringing



A Syrian rebel fighter fires a rifle in Aleppo

[Mr Lick]

Fabrice Muamba announces his retirement from football


Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba has announced his retirement from football.

Muamba, 24, collapsed and suffered a cardiac arrest on 17 March during Bolton's FA Cup quarter-final tie with Tottenham Hotspur.

"While the news is devastating, I have much to be thankful for," Muamba told the club website.

"I thank God that I am alive and I pay tribute once again to the members of the medical team who never gave up on me."

Muamba had travelled to Belgium earlier in the week to have minor heart surgery, which was said to have been routine and had no bearing on whether the player would return to action.




Ian Dennis: "The medical response was extremely swift"


But Muamba says he received advice during his time there, prompting his retirement.

"Since suffering my heart attack and being discharged from hospital, I have remained utterly positive in the belief I could one day resume my playing career and play for Bolton Wanderers once again," said Muamba in a statement.

[Mr Lick]

Prince Philip taken to hospital



The Duke of Edinburgh has been taken to hospital as a "precautionary measure", Buckingham Palace has said.

Prince Philip, who is 91 years old, was admitted to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary while staying at Balmoral with the Queen, a palace spokeswoman said.

He is not thought to be in a critical condition, the BBC's Peter Hunt says.

It comes two months after he was taken to hospital with a bladder infection shortly before the Diamond Jubilee concert on 4 June.

The Duke was last seen at public engagements in Cowes earlier this week.

Further details about his condition have not been given.


Prince Philip's health

• June 2012 - taken to King Edward VII Hospital, London, with bladder infection
• December 2011 - taken to Papworth Hospital, Cambs, with chest pains - coronary stent fitted
• October 2011 - pulled out of trip to Italy due to a cold
• June 2010 - had surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome as a day patient at an undisclosed hospital
• January 2009 - pulled out of engagements due to back injury while carriage driving on his Norfolk estate

He is now being cared for in an NHS hospital, but he will also have been seen by his own private doctor.

Prince Philip also spent four days in hospital over Christmas, following an operation to clear a blocked heart artery.

In March, Prince Harry said the operation - which was successful - had given his grandfather a "new spurt of life".

Later in June, after braving the elements during the Jubilee boat pageant - marking the Queen's 60-year reign - Prince Philip was forced to miss several days of festivities after being admitted to hospital.

Since then he has apparently been in good health, joining the Queen at the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics on 27 July, and touring the Olympic Park.

He was also by the Queen's side at engagements in Scotland earlier this month, including hosting a tea party at Balmoral to mark the end of the Jubilee celebrations.

[Mr Lick]

American band Baroness in viaduct coach crash



Two people on a tour bus used by the American band Baroness were injured when the vehicle they were in fell 30ft (10m) from a viaduct near Bath.

Emergency services were called to Brassknocker Hill, in Monkton Combe, on the B3108 at its junction with the A36 Warminster Road at 11:30 BST.

Agents for the band, which were due to appear in Southampton later, have confirmed the accident.

The group played at The Fleece in Bristol on Tuesday evening.

Baroness's tour promoter said: "It is with great regret that we have to inform you that Baroness were involved in a very serious road accident earlier today and will not be able to perform at Talking Heads tonight.

"Our thoughts are with the band at this time and we wish them and their crew a speedy recovery."

The band were formed in 2003 in Savannah, Georgia, and has toured throughout Europe and the United States.

They have also played at a variety of festivals, including Coachella and Bonnaroo in the United States.

[Mr Lick]

A boat, center, is surrounded by Japan Cost Guard's patrol boats after some activists descended from the boat on Uotsuri Island, one of the islands of Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, in East China Sea Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012.



Japan is considering deporting 14 Chinese activists arrested over their landing on a disputed island as soon as Friday in a move that could defuse a worsening feud between Tokyo and Beijing, Japanese media reported on Thursday.


The activists, seven of whom landed on Wednesday on the rocky, uninhabited isle in the East China Sea claimed by both nations, have been transferred to Okinawa for questioning by police on Thursday morning, public broadcaster NHK said

[Mr Lick]

Striking miners chant slogans outside a South African mine in Rustenburg on Aug. 15, 2012. Thousands of striking miners armed with machetes and sticks faced off with South African police on Wednesday at Lonmin's Marikana mine after it halted production following the deaths of 10 people in fighting between rival unions.

Lonmin, the world's third-largest platinum producer, has threatened to sack 3,000 rock drill operators if they fail to end a wildcat pay strike that started on Friday at Marikana, its flagship mine.

[Mr Lick]

Horses compete during the General Proof on the eve of the Palio horse race, in Siena on August 15. The Palio medieval race is held twice a year in Siena with jockeys riding bareback around a makeshift race course set up in the city's central square.



The horse of Valdimontone parish is escorted by its groom after training session of the Palio race in Siena August 15. Every year on August 16, almost without fail since the mid-1600s, 10 riders compete bareback around Siena's shell-shaped central square in a bid to win the Palio, a silk banner depicting the Madonna and child.



Italian Carabinieri police arrive during their parade prior to a training session of the Palio race in Siena's main square August 15. Every year on August 16, almost without fail since the mid-1600s, 10 riders compete bareback around Siena's shell-shaped central square in a bid to win the Palio, a silk banner depicting the Madonna and child.



An Italian Carabinieri falls off during a parade on the eve of the Palio horse race, in Siena on August 15, 2012. The Palio medieval race is held twice a year in Siena with jockeys riding bareback around a makeshift race course set up in the city's central square.

[Mr Lick]

Elsy Castillo, 25, cries as she is evicted from the Jacobo Arbenz settlement by military and police personnel in Guatemala City on Aug. 15, 2012. Security forces evicted about 200 families on Monday from vacant lots in the Jacobo Arbenz settlement, which is located in front a military base. On Wednesday, forces returned to the area to remove families that didn't leave



A woman threatens a police officer with a wooden stick as she is evicted from the Jacobo Arbenz housing settlement in Guatemala City on Aug. 15.



People retrieve their belongings during a military operation to evict families camping near the the Jacobo Arbenz settlement in Guatemala City on Aug. 15.

[Mr Lick]

A Syrian man reacts as they look for people trapped under the rubble following an air strike in the town of Azaaz, near the northern restive Syrian city of Aleppo, on August 15. UN investigators said the Syrian regime had committed crimes against humanity, as at least 20 people were reported killed in a major air strike in a rebel bastion in the north.



An arm of a dead Syrian woman peeks from the rubble of her destroyed house after an air strike destroyed at least ten houses in the town of Azaz on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria, on Aug. 15.



A man carries the body of a boy after a Syrian Air force air strike in Azaz, some 47 km (29 miles) north of Aleppo, on Aug. 15.

[Mr Lick]

The casket of Nelida Gregorio, 89, who died of a heart attack gets lifted up into a gravesite in a flooded cemetery next to the swollen Pampanga River August 15, 2012 in Bulacan, Philippines. A tropical storm hit the Northern Luzon bringing days of wet weather to a region still recovering from massive flooding. According to the Office of Civil Defense the floods have left at least 96 people dead with the flooding effecting up to 2.68 million people, including more than 440,000 fleeing to evacuation centers, in Manila and surrounding provinces.

[Mr Lick]

Farmer Justin Waddington, foreground, repairs a combine during a wheat harvest in Washington state's Yakima Valley. Growers in the Pacific Northwest are benefitting from high prices created by the drought affecting the Midwest.

Waddington grows corn, wheat and alfalfa. According to him, as the price of corn spikes, as it's doing now with the drought, wheat and soybeans follow because farmers substitute the other grains in animal feed.



There are other factors affecting farmers' good luck in Washington. A frost that struck the northeast in late April will be "every bit as devastating as the drought" to this fall's apple harvest in Michigan and New York, according to Mark Seetim, director of regulatory and industry affairs at the US Apple Association. Farmers in Washington, the nation's largest producer of apples, face a good crop and a reduced supply from other regions.