World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

In this image taken from video members of the UN investigation team take samples from the ground in the Damascus countryside of Zamalka, Syria. United Nations experts are investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria as the United States and its allies prepare for the possibility of a punitive strike against President Bashar Assad's regime



A man walks past an empty shop, which has been covered with artwork to make it look more appealing, in the village of Bushmills, Northern Ireland. One of the homes of Irish whiskey has started the scheme of erecting fake shop fronts where derelict buildings lie in a bid to woo tourists.



Turkish army tanks and aircraft take part in a parade marking the 91st anniversary of Victory Day in Ankara.



And here soldiers salute during the ceremony

[Mr Lick]

Four caracal cubs sit in a basket as they are shown to media for the first time at the Animal Park zoo in Berlin. The caracals, also known as desert lynxes, were born in the zoo on July 21



Wonder where your old television goes? It's here to a recycling centre in Zhuzhou, China



Hitchhiker: A terrapin catches a ride on the back of an alligator at Sea World in San Antonio, Texas

[Mr Lick]

Aged people are trapped by floods in a nursing home in Chiayi County, southeast China's Taiwan. The south-central region of Taiwan was hit by heavy rainfalls brought by tropical storm Kong-Rey on Thursday.



A man tries to help extinguish a wildfire near Caramulo, north Portugal. Officials said a female firefighter died in a forest blaze, becoming the fifth fatality among emergency crews in a month as summer wildfires scorch large areas of parched countryside

[Mr Lick]

A man pushes his bicycle through floodwaters in Allahabad, India as many areas in the state are inundated from prolonged monsoon rains



Riot police cover themselves with their shields as protesters throw stones during a protest against agricultural and trade policies in Bogota, Colombia

[Mr Lick]

Catherine, the Duchess Of Cambridge, makes her first public appearance since the birth of her baby, Prince George. She is accompanying Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, as he acts as official starter at three day 131-mile ultra marathon, around the coast of Anglesey



Looks like hard work

[Mr Lick]

Syrians search under rubble in Idlib to rescue people from houses that were destroyed by a Syrian government warplane



Hot air balloons fly over the Loire in France



Artist Clet Abraham has struck again, this time in Chelsea, London. He is known for altering street signs across Europe, changing their meaning

[Mr Lick]

A player from Tiffany team fights for the ball with a player from Mercedes-Benz Thailand team at the annual King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in Hua Hin, Thailand



Two practical jokers turned heads in Sunbury, West London when it appeared Jaws was following their boat

[Mr Lick]

Local activists and Syrian-American supporters of Syrian President al-Assad hold up his image during anti-war rally in Times Square, New York, USA



The Burning Man festival in Nevada is set in in the remote Black Rock Desert, cut off from much of the outside world



The federal government issued a permit for 68,000 people from all over the world to gather at the Burning Man festival, which is celebrating its 27th year, to experience art, music and the unique community that develops in the insular environment

[Mr Lick]

Calligrapher Zhang Kesi dips his brush with ink as he works on a giant calligraphy in Shenyang, China

[Mr Lick]

Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders perform before the preseason game against the Houston Texans at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, USA



Three Russian Federation Air Force SU-27s intercepting a passenger plane that was hijacked during a simulation to test the response of NORAD and Russian Federation forces. The exercise among Canadian and U.S. forces from NORAD, along with the Russian Federation, saw the Canadians successfully hand over the hijacked plane to Russian fighters above the Bering Strait

[Mr Lick]

Newly qualified National Civil Police members participate in a graduation ceremony at the National Civil Police Academy in Guatemala City



Riot police guard a public office in Bogota, Colombia. Protests have been going on for more than 10 days for an assortment of demands that include reduced gasoline prices, increased subsidies and the cancellation of free trade agreements



Air India's inaugural flight from New Delhi to Sydney receives a water salute after landing in Sydney, Australia

[Mr Lick]

As expected, the Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt wins the 100m IAAF Diamond League final race Weltklasse Zürich in Zürich's Letzigrund stadium with a time of 9.90s



An Ariane-5 rocket, carrying two telecommunication satellites Eutelsat 25B/ Eshail1 (France/Qatar) and GSAT-7 (India) blasts off from the European space centre at Kourou, French Guiana



Israeli soldiers take part in a drill in the Golan Heights, near the border between the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights and Syria

[Mr Lick]

Six people tattoo one women simultaneously at the Manado CityFest, Indonesia



1200 people take part in a Silent Scream, against the British Museum lit up blood red, prior to the screening of 'The Night of the Demon'



Fans vie for an autograph from Rafael Nadal after he defeated Rogerio Dutra Silva at the US Open in New York

[Mr Lick]

Students take part at a parade rehearsal for Malaysia's 56th Independence Day at Dataran Merdeka Square in Kuala Lumpur



Man from the Blessoue Djehou generation, dressed as a warrior, performs a combat dance during the Generation Festival in Anoumabo, Ivory Coast

[Mr Lick]

Derek Medina appears in court for his arraignment with attorney Mauricio Padilla (L) in Miami, Florida August 29, 2013. Medina was arrested on a murder charge August 8, 2013 after confessing to shooting his wife and posting pictures of her body on Facebook.



A firefighter crawls under a fence while fighting a forest fire in the Sintra village area, on the outskirts of Lisbon August 29, 2013



Detroit Tigers catcher Brayan Pena (C) pours a bucket of water over a television sports broadcaster during an interview with Torii Hunter (R) after Hunter hit a walk-off three-run home run to beat the Oakland Athletics during the bottom of the ninth inning of their MLB American League baseball game in Detroit, Michigan August 29, 2013.

[Mr Lick]

A youth stands at the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad, a day after the bombing, August 29, 2013. A series of car bombings and other attacks across Baghdad on Wednesday killed 86 people and wounded 263, police and medical sources said, extending the worst wave of sectarian bloodshed in Iraq for at least five years.



North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un gestures (front, 2nd R) while watching the finals of the Torch Cup soccer match between the April 25 Team of the Korean People's Army and Sonbong Team of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards at Kim Il Sung Stadium in Pyongyang, in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on August 29, 2013.



Australia's David Warner loses grip of his bat as he is caught for one run during the first T20 international against England at the Rose Bowl cricket ground, Southampton August 29, 2013.

[Mr Lick]

A demonstrator confronts riot police officers during clashes which erupted in Bogota on Aug. 29.



Thousands of Colombian farmers and state workers marched through Bogota on Thursday, banging pots and pans as they converged on the capital after 11 days of increasingly violent protests against agricultural and trade policies they say have left them impoverished.

Students wearing balaclavas pelted shop windows with rocks near the capital's main square and clashed with riot police who fired tear gas to disperse them. Bogota imposed a curfew in three of the more populated areas of the city after violence continued into the night.

"Long live the farmers' strike! Food sovereignty," protesters chanted as they waved anti-government banners.



















Protesters throw stones at a police vehicle in Ubate on Aug. 26. Hundreds of protesters clashed with police in support of farmers who had being blockading highways for a week for an assortment of demands that include reduced gasoline prices, increased subsidies and the cancellation of free trade agreements

[Mr Lick]

Portugal ravaged by wildfires

It has been a summer of wildfires in Portugal. They are still burning in the central and northern areas of the country, including Sintra, near the capital Lisbon

[Mr Lick]

Trying to avoid inhaling the smoke near Caramulo

[Mr Lick]

An aerial view from a helicopter shows the flooded area of the far eastern Jewish Autonomous Region. Thousands of people were evacuated from the flooded areas in Russia's far east



King's Troops during a performance at The Chatsworth Country Fair, Chatsworth, UK.



Friday's baby panda picture is giant panda mum Hua Zui Ba holding her new born cub at the Zoo in Madrid. Hua Zui Ba which is already a mother of twins gave birth again today welcoming the tiny new arrival with licksand also said it could not rule out the possibility of a second cub in the coming hours

[Mr Lick]

Locals watch a water-dropping aircraft while fighting against the wildfires in Caramulo, northern Portugal. Portugal has asked other European countries to send two more water-dropping aircraft as wildfires continue to scorch large areas of forest



A Yemeni Shiite man holds a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a protest against the possible military action against Syria, in the Yemeni capital Sana'a



Labour leader Ed Miliband in his office in Westminster, the day after the defeat of the Government's plans to take part in military action against Syria

[Mr Lick]

Don't panic, the anti-zombie task force is here. A costumed character wanders the downtown streets of Atlanta, Georgia during the Dragon Con science fiction and fantasy convention



Lady Gaga meets her fans in London during her visit to the UK



Secretary of State John Kerry makes a statement about the Syrian conflict at the State Department in Washington. Kerry said the American administration knows, based on intelligence, that the Syrian regime carefully prepared for days to launch the chemical weapons attack in August

[Mr Lick]

Chile's President Sebastian Pinera stumbles on debris at a demolition site aduring an official visit to speak about the demolition of the impoverished neighbourhood

[Mr Lick]

Bahraini women take part in an anti-government rally in the village of Jidd Hafs, west of Manama. Thousands of opposition supporters demonstrated in the Shiite Muslim village a day after a car bomb wounded four policemen in Bahrain



Nicolas Cage meets his fans on the red carpet when he arrived for the screening of Joe at the Venice Film Festival.



All together now...ahhh. Young lion cubs sleep as temperatures hit the high 90s at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska.



Actor Michael Douglas attends the screening of his celebrated film, Behind the Candelabra, the biopic of Liberace, at the opening ceremony of the 39th annual Deauville American Film Festival, in Deauville, France

[Mr Lick]

A beautiful sunset over the rooftops in Madrid, Spain. Along with Istanbul and Tokyo, Madrid is one of the candidate cities bidding to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee is due to elect the host city during the 125th IOC Session on September 7, 2013 in Buenos Aires, Argentina



A full house to watch Andy Murray during his singles second round match against Leonardo Mayer of Argentina at the US Open in Flushing Meadow



Russia's Yana Kudryavtseva competes during the ribbon program of the individual all-around final of 32nd Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championship in Kiev