World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

Great pics BoBo and a very large thank you for keeping the thread going in my absence, please keep them coming. I'm back online so a big smile from me to AOL for only taking 5 days to connect me instead of their quoted 10-14 days.

[Mr Lick]

The Masters - Final Day






Lee Westwood hits 3 birdies in the first 8 holes but his challenge is thwarted with a double bogey on the 12th



Tiger Woods returns to past glory when he hits 5 under par for the front 9



Leader Mcilroy hitting the front of the bunker with his 2nd shot on the second hole but still manages to save par



Charles Schwartzel scores an incredible eagle on the 3rd hole



Tiger moves to 10 under for the tournament



My hero Cabrera moves to within one shot of his playing partner, Mcilroy



Mcilroy implodes on the 10th with a triple bogey



Things are starting to hurt for the youngster as he 4 putts from 20 feet on the 12th



Tiger misses a putt on the 15th to take the outright lead



Luke Donald strikes the pin with his approach shot to the 18th and the ball ends up off the green. He then chips in for a birdie to great applause and finishes 10 under



Jason Day birdies the final 2 holes to join compatriot Scott on 12 under



South Africa's Charles Schwartel quite incredibly birdies the final 4 holes to finish 14 under and is the new Masters Champion



Last years champion Phil Mickelson does the honours with the coveted Green Jacket. It's 50 years since S. African Gary Player became the first non american to win at Augusta. A great final day in Georgia

[Mr Lick]

Ishinomaki, Japan: Tsunami survivors draw the word Ganbaro or 'hang in there' on a billboard lit up with car headlights



Ajdabiya, Libya: A rebel fighter, seen through a hole in a destroyed vehicle, looks at the skyline



Malaga, Spain: People watch on a screen as Spanish actor and director Antonio Banderas delivers a traditional speech



Matosinhos, Portugal: Socialist activists vote during the XVII Congress of the Socialist Party at Porto International Fair



Rome: A man raises a baby during Pope Benedict XVI's Sunday Angelus blessing in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican



Brighton: A man enjoys a lie down in the sunshine. Beautiful weather in the Uk since i arrived on Tuesday night and long may it last



Hong Kong: Yoga followers take part in an 8-hour 'yogathon'. Ok, i know what you guys are thinking



El Alto, Bolivia: The indigenous women's soccer teams of the highland towns Batallas and Achacachi compete at the Cosmos 78 Stadium



Abidjan, Ivory Coast: Men detained by soldiers loyal to president-elect Alassane Ouattara are brought to a military operating base



Rikuzentakata, Japan: A Japanese Buddhist monk prays at an area devastated by last month's earthquake and tsunami



London: A protester lies on Chinese artist Ai Wewei's sunflower seeds installation at the Tate Modern

[Mr Lick]

Manila, Philippines: Filipino residents try to control a blaze as smoke rises from burning shanties during a fire which destroyed at least 500 shanties and left more than 1,200 families homeless



Brega, Libya: A wounded prisoner from Gaddafi's forces is transported in the back of a pickup truck by rebels to hospital for treatment



Lampedusa, Italy: A woman receives assistance after arriving at the island; more than 20,000 Tunisians have sailed on often rickety boats to Italy's southernmost point after the overthrow of the Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January



Liverpool, England: People strolling at Aintree racecourse at the end of Ladies Day



Oaxaca, Mexico: Central American migrants get off a train during their journey toward the US-Mexico border



Baghdad, Iraq: Followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr burn US flags during a rally marking the eighth anniversary of the fall of the Iraqi capital to American troops



Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Friends of Igor Moraes da Silva, one of the victims of Thursday's shooting at Tasso da Silveira school, attend the mass before the funeral in the Jardim da Saudade cemetery



Lampedusa, Italy: Some of the 600 migrants who arrived in the port of the Italian island in the past day sit in a military boat waiting to be transferred to a reception centre inland

[Mr Lick]

Bogota, Colombia: A student protests against a government law to increase private investment in public universities



Ishinomaki, Japan: A man rides a motorcycle through floodwater in the tsunami and quake-affected city



Stockholm, Sweden: People walk through leaves blowing in the wind



Jantho, Indonesia: A sharia official whips a woman as punishment for an extramarital affair



Tel Aviv, Israel: A runner rests after crossing the finish line of the Tel Aviv 2011 half marathon



Managua, Nicaragua: A jaguar and her one-week-old cub at the National Zoo



Bangkok, Thailand: A Bengal monitor lizard is tied with rope before being transported to a Thai national park for release



Benghazi, Libya: A young girl as she flashes a victory sign as her mother adjust her headscarf



Plovdiv, Bulgaria: The winner of a Miss Roma contest during celebrations of International Roma Day

[Mr Lick]

During a lull in fighting against troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan rebels pray on Friday in the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiyah.



The International Space Station passes over a low-pressure storm system in the northern Pacific Ocean, as seen from the station's observation cupola -- the largest window ever used in space.



Horrific Multiple Car Crash in Germany

Police and forensic experts examine burned-out cars on a motorway in eastern Germany after more than 80 vehicles crashed during a sandstorm on Friday. Eight people were killed and almost 100 injured.



Attack, Counterattack in the Mideast

Demonstrators rally outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo, Egypt, on Friday, protesting deadly Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip -- strikes sparked by a Palestinian rocket attack on an Israeli school bus on Thursday.



A Buddhist monk chants for earthquake victims during a mass funeral in Yamamoto, Japan. The March 11 disasters killed at least 12,700 people and at least three more died during the quake on April 7.



Two survivors of the mass shooting at Tasso da Silveira School weep. A former student opened fire, killing 12 students and himself. Brazil's president is expected to attend the funerals for the students.



Rebels watch as they fire rockets toward Libyan government troops near frontline positions outside of Brega. Muammar Gaddafi's former energy minister has defected and said other ministers are looking to escape from Libya.



Japanese policemen in protective suits search for missing people near the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Korean schools were shut down after rain fell that was contaminated by radiation from Japan.

[Mr Lick]

A man wades in neck-deep water filled with debris while searching for valuable items after a fire razed some 500 houses along a coastal village in Malabon city, north of Manila April 7, 2011. The fire, believed to be caused by an exploding liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank, started before dawn. No casualties were reported but at least 3,000 residents lost their homes. Fire fighters had a difficult time getting to the scene and putting out the blaze because the houses were close to each other and made of light materials, local media reported.




A medic tries to comfort a wounded rebel fighter at a hospital in Ajdabiyah, April 7, 2011.




A man walks as crude oil spills from a pipeline in Dadabili, Niger state April 2, 2011.



A soldier loyal to Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara lies on a road as fighting flares across the country's main city Abidjan April 4, 2011.



A girl walks with her mother after her first day of school at the Shimizu elementary school in Fukushima, northern Japan April 6, 2011. Over 70 schools began their regular classes on Wednesday in the city of Fukushima, after the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on March 11.



A girl and her younger brother stand in front of a wall outside courtyard houses in central Beijing April 5, 2011. Courtyard houses, known as "Siheyuan" in Chinese, used to be one of Beijing's most distinctive features, with families living in rooms surrounding a central courtyard. Their elaborate entrances lined alleyways, called "hutongs", that criss-crossed the city. With Beijing's fast evolution into a modern metropolis, more and more hutongs are beginning to disappear.



United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie visits Somali refugees at Shousha Camp at Ras Djir, 8 kilometres (5 miles) from the Tunis-Libyan border, April 5, 2011.




A protester shows blood stains from injuries he claims were caused by a policeman at the end of a demonstration in Madrid April 7, 2011. Youth groups gathered in downtown Madrid under the slogan "Youth with no future" to protest against Spain's high youth unemployment rate and government spending cuts.



Relatives of one of the victims of Thursday's shooting at Tasso da Silveira school carry a family member who had fainted while attending the funeral at Realengo cemetery in Rio de Janeiro April 8, 2011. A Brazilian gunman killed 12 children at a Rio de Janeiro school and then himself, police said, shocking the South American nation that has never seen such an incident before.



Men ride a motorcycle through the smoke of tyres being burnt by angry protesters during a traders' strike in Karachi April 5, 2011.




A gardener sleeps on the grass during the last preparations of the yearly German horticultural show 'Bundesgartenschau 2011' in Koblenz April 7, 2011.

[Mr Lick]

A man stands in front of the fully burned Kadonowaki elementary school after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Ishinomaki, northern Japan, April 7, 2011.




A rebel fighter sits in a vehicle in Ajdabiyah April 7, 2011. Libya's civil war is reaching stalemate, a senior U.S. general said on Thursday, and rebels fighting to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi said a NATO air strike killed five of their fighters.



A Colombian student participates in a protest in front of riot policemen in Bogota April 7, 2011. Thousands of students and teachers marched in a nation wide protest against the education government's reform of public universities, student organizations reported.



A construction worker examines the 'Echolot' (sonar), a giant wooden pavilion during the official press preview for the yearly German horticultural show 'Bundesgartenschau 2011' in Koblenz April 7, 2011. The ground plan of the wooden construction is derived from the oscillogram curve of the sonar of a local bat, the so-called 'evening sailor', by architecture students of the western German city at the junction of the river Moselle and Rhine. The garden show opens its gates on April 15 and runs till October 16.



Parents and relatives of school children try to charge through a police line outside the Tasso da Silveira school where a gunman opened fire on children in the Realengo neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro April 7, 2011. A gunman killed 12 people in a shooting spree at the school before killing himself, police said on Thursday, an incident apparently unrelated to the city's ongoing gang violence.



Israeli soldiers run past a bus after a mortar shell hit it in the southern Israeli kibbutz of Sa'ad April 7, 2011. A mortar shell fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel on Thursday hit a bus, seriously wounding a teenage boy and injuring several others, Israeli police said.



Members of the French army assist in the evacuation of French and other foreign citizens in Abidjan April 7, 2011. U.N. peacekeepers have surrounded the "last defenders" of Ivory Coast incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo, France said on Thursday, after a week of heavy fighting to unseat him.



Soldiers stand guard during an anti-government demonstration to demand for the ouster of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in the southern city of Taiz April 7, 2011. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are trying to broker a deal to have Yemen's president step down and hand over power, possibly to an interim council of tribal and political leaders, sources told Reuters on Wednesday.



Peru's presidential candidate and former president Alejandro Toledo gestures during a campaign rally at the port of Callao in Lima April 6, 2011. Peru holds a presidential election on April 10, with a run-off being likely on June 5 since no candidate is expected to win 50 percent of the votes.



Mercedes Formula One driver Michael Schumacher of Germany roller blades down the track in the rain ahead of the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix at the Sepang circuit outside Kuala Lumpur April 7, 2011.



Engineering school students look at the Delf Fly bionic robot during a demonstration at the International Workshop on Bio-Inspired Robots in Nantes April 7, 2011. Some 200 bio-robot technicians from 17 countries participate in the three-day event to show the latest developments in robots inspired from the animal world.



An anti-government protester kisses an army soldier riding an armoured personnel carrier (APC) deployed to block a demonstration demanding the ouster of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the southern city of Taiz April 7, 2011. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are trying to broker a deal to have Yemen's president step down and hand over power, possibly to an interim council of tribal and political leaders, sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

[StrontiumDog]

Some nice pics....

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...-lights-space/


Wisconsin Aurora
Photograph by Brian Larmay

When Wisconsin sky-watcher Brian Larmay was out for a stroll on the night of April 2, he noticed a faint glow near the North Star. Racing for his camera, Larmay captured the ethereal colors of auroras over Pembine (map)—farther south than the northern lights usually appear.

"My adrenaline was in overdrive as I watched the pillars of light pulsate brighter and brighter and then fading as subtly as they arrived," Larmay said in an email to National Geographic News. (Related pictures: "Huge Solar Storm Triggers Unusual Auroras.")

Aside from dipping into northern U.S. states such as Wisconsin and Minnesota, this early April sky show was unusual because it featured several so-called deep-sky auroras. These light shows are often faint to invisible to the naked eye but come alive in long-exposure pictures, just as astrophotographers need long exposure times to capture details in very distant "deep sky" objects such as galaxies and nebulas. (Find out how to "see" beyond the Milky Way from your backyard this month.)

To create this auroral "sunset," Larmay used a digital camera set for a 30-second exposure time.

—Andrew Fazekas


Auroral Curtains
Photograph by Wayne Barsky
Ghostly green curtains of light hang over the frozen Koyokuk River in Alaska in a picture taken April 2.

Photographer Wayne Barsky drove more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) north of Fairbanks to witness auroras for the first time. Although Barsky saw just a pale green glow with the naked eye, his long-exposure shot brought out fainter blue tones higher in the atmosphere.

Two days before the sky show, a gust of solar wind had blasted off from the sun. The cloud of charged particles collided with Earth's magnetic field, and particles flowing along the field lines toward the Poles interacted with Earth's atmosphere.

Excited atoms in the atmosphere released the added energy as light, creating the streamers of faint auroras seen April 2 and 3 throughout Canada and parts of the northern United States. (Related pictures: "Solar Storms Light Up Arctic Night.")


Aurora's Magenta Majesty
Photograph by Zoltan Kenwell

The aurora borealis—or northern lights—appears as ribbons of purple and pink in a picture taken just north of Edmonton, Canada, on the night of April 2.

When the sun's charged particles reach the atmosphere below about 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) from Earth's surface, they mainly hit nitrogen molecules, which glow in rosy shades. More common green auroras are created by oxygen atoms between 60 and 120 miles (96.5 and 123 kilometers) above the ground.

No matter the colors, "everyone should see the Aurora Borealis at least once with their own eyes to really appreciate its splendor," photographer Zoltan Kenwell said in an email to National Geographic News.


Doused in Green
Photograph by Wayne Barsky

Brilliant auroras dance over snow-capped mountains near the Koyokuk River in Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle, in a long-exposure picture taken April 2

"It was an extremely dark and moonless night, and the frozen river and mountains were illuminated only by the aurora[s], which painted them a pale green," photographer Barsky said.

For high-latitude observers, auroras like this one are fairly common, occurring as many as two or three times a week during the spring and fall. (Also see "Giant 'Space Tornadoes' Spark Auroras on Earth.")


Ghostly Pillars
Photograph by Zoltan Kenwell

Faint pillars of auroral light spread across the sky above northern Alberta, Canada, in a 15-second-exposure picture taken in the predawn hours of April 2.

Auroras are more common in the Northern Hemisphere during spring and autumn. One theory for why this happens has to do with the fact that the magnetic fields of Earth and the sun are constantly pushing against each other.

If the sun's field tilts in just the right way, it can partially cancel out Earth's magnetic field at the point of contact, effectively ripping holes in Earth's protective "force field." (See "Magnetic-Shield Cracks Found; Big Solar Storms Expected.")

The resulting increase in solar particles reaching the atmosphere feeds auroral sky shows—but can also damage satellites in orbit and electrical grids on the ground.

[Mr Lick]

On the Libyan front



Rebel fighters bury dead bodies, killed by what the rebels say was a NATO airstrike, at the western gate of Ajdabiyah, on Monday, April 11.



Left to right, Presidents Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali, Jacob Zuma of South Africa, Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania and African Union president Jean Ping gather outside a tent at Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya residence in Tripoli on Sunday, April 10. The leader from the African Union said that Gadhafi has accepted a deal for a cease-fire with the rebels, who they will meet with on Monday.



Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi waves from a car in the compound of Bab Al Azizia in Tripoli, after a meeting with a delegation of five African leaders seeking to mediate in Libya's conflict, April 10. Gadhafi, making his first appearance in front of the foreign media in weeks, joined a visiting African Union delegation on Sunday.





A cameraman films a pro-Gadhafi forces tank as it burns on the outskirts of Ajdabiya, on April 10. Libyan rebels said NATO airstrikes on Sunday helped them drive Gadhafi's forces out of the hard-fought eastern city of Ajdabiya that is the gateway to the opposition's stronghold of Benghazi



Weary rebel fighters rest in the shade of the outside wall of a mosque, which was previously hit, on the outskirts of Ajdabiya, April 10.



A rebel fighter closes the eyes of a comrade in the Ajdabiyah morgue after he was killed during clashes with government troops April 10, 2011 in Ajdabiyah.



Supporters of Gadhafi chant slogans in Tomina, southeast of the city of Misrata, on April 9.



A boat carrying people fleeing the western city of Misrata, arrives at the port in Benghazi, on April 9. The British military said its warplanes hit seven tanks around Ajdabiya and the rebel-held city of Misrata in western Libya on Friday as part of the NATO-led mission



Rebels scatter as mortar rounds fired by Libyan army troops crash down in Ajdabiyah on April 8.



Medics and rebel fighters rush a combatant wounded by a NATO airstrike near Brega into hospital in Ajdabiya on April 7. According to the rebels, a NATO airstrike hit a rebel tank near the eastern town of Brega, killing several



A Libyan rebel fighter mourns over a fallen comrade whose body lies in the back of their fighting vehicle as they arrive at a mortuary in Ajdabiya on April 7.



Libyan rebels drive their vehicle to the font line near Ajdabiyaon on April 6. According to media sources, Libyan rebels trying to retake the northeastern oil port of Brega were pushed back to the city of Ajdabiya early Wednesday by Moammar Gadhafi‘s armed forces. The rebels were coming under heavy shelling some 30 kilometers outside Adjabiya, located between Brega and the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in the east, one source in Benghazi told the German Press Agency dpa



A boy holding Libya's former national flag, now used by rebels fighting forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, looks at a wall bearing pictures of citizens killed or gone missing in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi on April 6.



Libyan rebels run for cover from artillery shells fired by forces loyal to Gadhafi outside the eastern oil town of Brega, the frontline in a war in which neither side has been able to make any significant advances for days, on April 5.



Photographs at a police station in Zawiya on April 5, depicting dead people and scenes of torture. Journalists discovered the photographs and records on an official trip to this devastated city, where Gadhafi forces battled rebels for nearly a week to retake control.



Head of the rebel forces Abdel Fattah Younes holds a news conference in Benghazi on April 5. Libyan rebels fighting Moammar Gadhafi's forces on Tuesday criticized NATO as too slow to act and said they would ask the U.N. Security Council to suspend its mission unless it "did its job properly." Younes said NATO's inaction was allowing Gadhafi's forces to advance and letting them kill the people of the rebel-held city of Misrata "every day".



Libyan rebels fighting forces loyal to Gadhafi load artillery into a helicopter machine gun mounted on a pick-up truck outside of Brega.



Libyan rebels inspect two destroyed military vehicles of pro-Gadhafi forces that rebels claim were targeted by a NATO strike along the front line near Brega on April 5.



New recruits line up to receive food during a break at a rebel forces training camp in Benghazi on Tuesday. Despite being supplemented by captured heavy weapons and backed by Western airstrikes from some of the world's finest air forces, Libya's rebels are still a long way from overpowering the better trained and equipped forces of Gadhafi.

[Mr Lick]

Japanese residents pray for victims at an elementary school in Ishinomaki, northeastern Japan, on Monday, April 11. Exactly one month ago, a massive earthquake and tsunami ravaged Japan's northeastern coastal region.



One for the girls



A policeman directs traffic by hand due to the lack of electricity in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture on April 10



Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan, left, shouts "Come on, Japan" along with Ishinomaki Mayor Hiroshi Kameyama, center, and others as he visits Ishinomaki, a port town devastated by last month's earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, on April 10.



The compound of the Fukushima Dai-ni nuclear power plant is seen the moment before a tsunami hit (top) following the March 11 earthquake, and after (bottom), as water rushes into the compound . The pictures were released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. on April 10.



A lone vending machine stands intact in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan Saturday, April 9.



In this photo taken on April 7, Japan Self-Defense Force personnel stand near some safes they retrieved from houses destroyed by the tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan. Safes were washing up along the tsunami-battered coast, and police were trying to find their owners, a unique problem in the country where many people, especially the elderly, still stash their cash at home.



An elderly Japanese man stands in front of debris in the tsunami-devastated town of Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, April 9.









A cashier uses a calculator by candlelight on Friday, April 8 at a supermarket during a blackout that began after Thursday night's strong aftershock. The 7.1 aftershock hit northeastern Japan, killing three people and knocking out power to vast areas.



Japanese soldiers descend from a hill carrying recovered items during a search and retrieval of bodies in the coastal town of Otsuchi, Iwate prefecture, April 8.









Kunio Shiga listens to a battery-powered radio in the living room of his home in Minami Soma, Fukushima prefecture, inside the deserted evacuation zone around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex on April 8. The 75-year-old man was stranded alone in his farmhouse ever since Japan's monstrous tsunami struck nearly a month ago.



Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko wave as they arrive at an evacuation center in Kazo, Saitama prefecture, on April 8. The imperial couple visited the shelter to encourage some 1,400 evacuees, mostly from Fukushima prefecture where the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is located.

[Mr Lick]

Regina Mayer jumps her cow, Luna, over a hurdle in Laufen, southern Germany, on March 29. When Regina's parents told her she couldn't get a horse, the resourceful 15-year-old didn't sulk. Instead, she turned to a cow named Luna to make her dream come true. Hours of training and tons of treats, cajoling and caresses later, the results are impressive. Regina and Luna go on long rides together through the picturesque countryside and even do jumps over a homemade hurdle of beer crates and painted logs.



Fallen plastic crates are seen outside a factory compound in an area damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, in Sendai, Japan on April 1.



Kashmiri women comfort the sister of Sajjad Ahmed, a top militant commander of Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, during his funeral in Pinglish, some 35 miles south of Srinagar, India, on April 6. The suspected rebel commander in disputed Indian Kashmir was killed in a gunbattle with government forces. An Indian army soldier and a police officer were also killed, according to the police.



Staff Sgt. Quincy Northern, a U.S. Army medic from "Dustoff" team, C Company, 1-214 Aviation Regiment, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, walks toward his medevac helicopter as it casts a shadow on a hospital wall at Camp Dwyer in Helmand province, Afghanistan

[Mr Lick]

A resident tries to douse houses on fire in an informal settlement in Manila on April 11. Around 200 houses were gutted, with 600 families affected. The World Bank has said that 40 percent of the population of the Philippine capital are informal settlers living in shanty towns.



Volunteers remove mud and sort family photographs recovered by defense force soldiers from tsunami devastated areas, at a shelter in Kesennuma city in Miyagi prefecture, Japan on April 10.



Policemen drag out of his house a man accused of throwing stones at security forces, after Ugandan police stormed the residential area of Kasangatie, a suburb of Kampala, on April 11. Ugandan police arrested opposition leader Kizza Besigye as he tried to stage a protest against rising prices amid a ban on demonstrations. Besigye, who was President Yoweri Museveni's main challenger in February 18 presidential elections he claims were rigged, had called for a "walk-to-work" demonstration against rising fuel and other prices.



A hot air balloon in the shape of a beetle takes off during the Montgolfiade festival, celebrating the lives of hot air balloon pioneering brothers, Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, April 10.

[Mr Lick]

Jason Mauch, center, carries a basket of belonging from his destroyed house in Mapleton, Iowa, Sunday, April 10, after a large tornado flattened a grain elevator and destroyed homes and buildings on its weekend rampage through this small western Iowa town. Authorities reported no serious injuries.



A man and boys walk on a street covered with rose petals spread by wholesale dealers for them to dry and then be supplied to markets, Sunday, April 10, on the outskirts of Lahore, Pakistan.



Firefighters battle a blaze at Wells Cargo Self Storage after a single-engine plane crashed into one of the storage buildings, Saturday, April 9, in Camarillo, Calif.

[Mr Lick]

President Barack Obama visits the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Saturday, April 9.

[Mr Lick]

A girl holds her cat during the fifteenth annual International Cats Exhibition in Minsk on April 9. More than forty breeds of cats attend an exhibition.

[Mr Lick]

In this photo taken April 1, Julio Cesar Hidalgo takes a break after preparing pizza at his newly opened Baldoquin's Cafeteria, run out of his home, in Havana, Cuba. Hidalgo, a former state employee, and his girlfriend Giselle de la Noval opened Baldoquin's Cafeteria on March 8. It has been six months since President Raul Castro opened this tightly-controlled communist country to free-market capitalism. As Cuba's new business class journeys cautiously forth, some, like the owners of Baldoquin's Cafeteria, are enjoying the first fruits of success. Others say the terrain has been rockier than anticipated. Some have already closed the door on their entrepreneurial dreams.



A firefighter points as smoke billows out of a shopping mall in Xining, capital of northwest China's Qinghai province. A fire broke out at the mall in Xining at around 3 p.m. Saturday, April 9. The cause of the fire was unknown.

[Mr Lick]

The political career of Laurent Dbagbo seems to have come to an abrupt end after he was captured today

[Mr Lick]

A chinese worker at a duck farm takes a nap surrounded by ducklings



Veteran marathon runner Noel Bresland attempts to run a marathon on a treadmill inside a capsule of the London Eye

[Mr Lick]

A filipino protests against US intervention in Libya

[Mr Lick]

Libya: Benghazi rebels reject African Union truce plan



Libya's rebel leadership in Benghazi has rejected a proposal put forward by an African Union delegation to end the eight-week conflict.

The AU said Col Muammar Gaddafi had accepted the plan on Sunday. However, on Monday, his forces attacked the besieged western city of Misrata.

The rebels said they were rejecting the truce because it did not include plans for Col Gaddafi to step down.

The US, the UK and Italy have again said the Libyan leader must leave.

[Mr Lick]

Women in face veils detained as France enforces ban



At least two women have been detained in France while wearing Islamic veils across their faces, after a law banning the garment in public came into force.

Police said they were held not because of their veils but for joining an unauthorised protest against the ban.

France is the first country in Europe to publicly ban a form of dress some Muslims regard as a religious duty.

Anyone caught breaking the law will be liable to a fine of 150 euros (£133; $217) and a citizenship course.

People forcing women to wear the veil face a much larger fine and a prison sentence of up to two years.

[Mr Lick]

Japan: Powerful earthquake hits north-east



A powerful earthquake has hit north-east Japan, exactly one month after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The 7.1-magnitude tremor triggered a brief tsunami warning, and forced workers to evacuate the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

The epicentre of the quake was in Fukushima prefecture, and struck at a depth of just 10km (six miles).

It came as Japan said it was extending the evacuation zone around the nuclear plant because of radiation concerns.

[Mr Lick]

Two killed in Somerset shooting incident



Two men have died in a shooting incident in Somerset.

Police were called after reports a man had been shot in Westbury-sub-Mendip near Cheddar just after 2230 BST on Sunday. He was dead when they arrived.

BBC Correspondent Jon Kay said the man had been named locally as prominent local businessman Ray Masters.

Officers discovered a second body in the grounds of nearby St Lawrence Church shortly afterwards and a shotgun was recovered.

An Avon and Somerset Police spokesman said officers were not looking for anyone else in connection with the shootings.

[Mr Lick]

Bahrain unrest: Torture fears as activists die in jail



Two Bahraini Shia activists who were detained after weeks of anti-government protests have died in police custody.

The interior ministry said Ali Issa Saqer, 31, had died when guards tried to restrain him for "causing chaos".

Another detainee, Zakaraya Rashed Hassan, 40, had died of sickle cell disease, the ministry added. It was the second such death in a week.

Several Shia activists have complained of being tortured while in custody. The government denies the allegations.