World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

Militiaman from the Ansar Dine Islamic group ride on an armed vehicle between Gao and Kidal in northeastern Mali, June 12, 2012.



The leader of the Ansar Dine Islamic group in northern Mali, Iyad Ag Ghali, has rejected any form of independence of the northern half of the country and has vowed to pursue plans to impose sharia law throughout the West African nation. Ghali's stance could further deepen the rift between his group and the separatist Tuareg rebels of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) as both vie for the control of the desert region.

Mali, once regarded as a good example of African democracy, collapsed into chaos after soldiers toppled the president in March, leaving a power vacuum that enabled Tuareg rebels in the north to take control of nearly two-thirds of the country.

The uprising also involved a mix of local and foreign Islamists, and Western diplomats talk of the risk the region could turn into a "West African Afghanistan

[Mr Lick]

Farmers herd a flock of ducks along a street towards a pond as residents drive next to them in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, China, on June 17, 2012. There were about 5,000 ducks, according to local media reports.

[Mr Lick]

A Roma boy sits on a couch after several houses were torn down by local authorities in Craica, a shantytown on the outskirts of Baia Mare, Romania. Rights groups accused the local authorities of 'violating legislation and trampling the dignity of Roma inhabitants'

[Mr Lick]

Just one more picture, please! The Hungarian national water polo coach Denes Kemeny poses with his team underwater after a training session in Budapest. Four members of the squad, plus Kemeny, are preparing for their fourth Olympics. They have won the men's team gold medal in the last three Games and not lost a match in an Olympic pool since Sydney



'Citihenge', a recreation of Stonehenge made of cars, is unveiled on London's Southbank by Skoda to launch their Citigo model. The giant sculpture provides Londoners with a meeting point to celebrate the summer solstice. Amazingly they might not need umbrellas, as it's not raining today in London



Aung San Suu Kyi attends a discussion at the London School of Economics in central London. She has returned to Europe for the first time since 1988, when she left her family life in Britain

[Mr Lick]

Manila, Philippines: A man evacuates his livestock from a flooded neighbourhood



Monterrey, Mexico: Relatives gather at a crime scene where two men were gunned down in a drive-by shooting

[Mr Lick]

Porn movie actor Luka Rocco Magnotta, 29, accused of killing a Chinese student, Jun Lin, and sending his feet and hands in the mail to the offices of two Canadian political parties and two Vancouver schools, is escorted off a plane from Germany by Montreal police in Mirabel, June 18, 2012 in this handout photo. Magnotta, who is accused of first-degree murder, was arrested in a cyber cafe in Berlin two weeks ago.

[Mr Lick]

Rohingyas from Myanmar cry after being arrested by Border Guards of Bangladesh (BGB) while trying to get into Bangladesh, in Teknaf June 18, 2012. An unknown number of people fleeing sectarian violence in Myanmar's Rakhine region are adrift in boats on the Naf River and some have been turned back by Bangladeshi border authorities, according to the United Nations refugee agency.



Lebanese soldiers stand by as refugees set items on fire during clashes at the Ain al Hilweh refugee camp near the port-city of Sidon in south Lebanon June 18, 2012. The clashes were in reaction to the death of a refugee at the Nahr al-Bared camp. A Palestinian was killed and several people, including three soldiers, were wounded on Monday in clashes at a refugee camp in northern Lebanon. The violence broke out at the Nahr al-Bared camp near the coastal city of Tripoli following the funeral of a refugee who had been killed by the military on Friday, according to a security official.



A Jewish settler family walk past youths gathering tyres in preparation for protests ahead of Israel's planned evacuation in the Ulpana neighbourhood of the Beit El settlement near the West Bank city of Ramallah June 18, 2012. Israel's government plans to move 30 families in Ulpana, where the Supreme Court found that five apartment houses had been built illegally on private Palestinian land, to alternative housing in a nearby military zone.



A man looks at a post office destroyed during fighting between the army and al Qaeda-linked militants in the southern Yemeni city of Zinjibar June 18, 2012. The Yemeni military last week said it had driven Islamist fighters from territory they had held for over a year, including Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, and another city, Jaar.

[Mr Lick]

LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 18: The Microsoft tablet Surface is unveiled during a news conference at Milk Studios on June 18, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. The new Surface tablet utilizes a 10.6 inch screen with a cover that contains a full multitouch keyboard.



black rhino called Zawadi as he visits Port Lympne Wild Animal Park on June 6, 2012 in Port Lympne, England. Prince William, Duke of Cambridge was visiting the park to meet staff and rhinos involved in a translocation project. The Aspinall Foundation along with the Tusk Trust and the George Adamson Trust are combining forces to stage a rare translocation of three captive born black rhino to Mkomazi National Park in Tanzania in order to rejuvenate numbers of the black rhino in the area. The three animals are being airlifted in a dedicated DHL Boeing 757 from Manston Airport in Kent direct to Kilimanjaro Int Airport in Tanzania. The three black rhino have been donated by Damian Aspinall, Chairman of The Aspinall Foundation, from their breeding group at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent. The reintroduction of endangered species to the wild to assist breeding programmes is a major focus of The Aspinall Foundation. Prince William, Duke of Cambridge as Patron of Tusk Trust and a dedicated campaigner against poaching visited the rhinos at Port Lympne ahead of their translocation and today released a speech via the BBC highlighting his dedication to the fight against the illegal trade of ivory

[Mr Lick]

Victor Spinetti, actor and star of Beatles films, dies



Victor Spinetti, Welsh-born star of stage and screen, has died at the age of 82.

Born to an Italian-Welsh father and Welsh mother in Cwm, Ebbw Vale, he was a regular performer in London's West End as well as with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He appeared in more than 30 films, including the Beatles' movies and Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

He had been diagnosed with cancer.

Spinetti's agent, Barry Burnett, said: "He had cancer for a year, but he was very cheerful to the end. I spoke to him on Friday and he was talking about his plans and everything."

News of his death prompted a stream of tributes from fans and members of the entertainment world on Twitter.

[Mr Lick]

Pakistan Supreme Court bars PM Gilani from office



Mr Gilani refused to resign after being found guilty of contempt

Pakistan's top court has disqualified Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani from holding office, two months after convicting him of contempt of court.

The Supreme Court ruled he had "ceased to be the prime minister of Pakistan".

In April, the Supreme Court convicted Mr Gilani of failing to pursue corruption charges against President Asif Ali Zardari.

The legal case is part of a bitter feud between Pakistan's civilian government and the judiciary.

In April, Mr Gilani was given only a token sentence and spared a jail term.
Tuesday's court ruling disqualified him from office and from parliament.

"Since no appeal was filed [against the 26 April conviction]... therefore Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani stands disqualified as a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora [parliament]," Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry told a packed courtroom.

He added: "He has also ceased to be the prime minister of Pakistan... the office of the prime minister stands vacant."

[Mr Lick]

A fire west of Fort Collins, Colorado has charred 85 square miles of forestry

[S Landreth]

(Miami) Heat lead series against Oklahoma City Thunder 3 games to 1

MIAMI, FL - JUNE 19: LeBron James #6 of the Miami Heat controls the ball against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game Four of the 2012 NBA Finals at American Airlines Arena

[Mr Lick]

Participants take part in a mass yoga class to mark the summer solstice on Times Square in New York, June 20. Yogis gathered on Times Square to celebrate the longest day of the year during the event which features four free mass yoga session at the heart of Manhattan.




Ten-month-old Leo Erichsen is held up by his mother, Tatjana Eres of Denmark, as she joins thousands of yoga enthusiasts for a class in New York's Times Square to mark the summer solstice, Wednesday, June 20. Temperatures are expected to be near 100 degrees (37C) Wednesday.

[Mr Lick]

An electricity pole is engulfed in flames in the forest of Katharonas in Nafplion, Greece, on June 20, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

Fans try to avoid a thrown bat by Seattle Mariners' Brendan Ryan against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the fourth inning of an interleague baseball game, Tuesday, June 19, 2012, in Phoenix.

[Mr Lick]

Catholic priest Fabio Colindres speaks with a member of Mara Salvatrucha gang during a mass at the prison of Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador on Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Huffingtonpost.com reports: For twenty years Mara Salvatrucha-13 and 18th Street brought devastating violence to the poor and war-torn country of El Salvador, helping make it the most violent country in the hemisphere. However, now after 100 days on June 16, 2012, a delicately-balanced peace treaty among the two gangs in El Salvador has resulted in a 58 percent reduction in violence-related cases and the saving of close to 800 lives.

[Mr Lick]

A Nicaraguan Ministry of Health employee fumigates a house against mosquitoes, as part of a campaign to prevent the proliferation of dengue fever, in Managua on Tuesday.

[Mr Lick]

Alec Baldwin, left, scuffles with New York Daily News photographer Marcus Santos outside the Marriage License Bureau in New York on Tuesday morning.

Hours later, an apparently still-angry Baldwin tweeted "I suppose if the offending paparazzi was wearing a hoodie and I shot him, it would all blow over..."

The dispute erupted early Tuesday when the actor walked out of the marriage office with his fiancee, Hilaria Thomas, and the two were met by photographers. (See images at the Daily News website.)

"He was looking mad," Daily News photographer Marcus Santos said. "He said, 'Step back, step back.' I said, 'We're moving back."

Baldwin then allegedly grabbed a second photographer, Jefferson Siegel, and Santos told the star not to touch him.

For his part, Baldwin tweeted Tuesday that "a 'photographer' almost hit me in the face with his camera this morning. #allpaparazzishouldbewaterboarded."

He later tweeted that the editor of the Daily News is an "English Queen" and that since his takeover of the paper, "they lie like the Post."

[Mr Lick]

Mist rolls through a deforested section of the Amazon rainforest on June 8, 2012 in Para state, Brazil.

More than one million hectares of wood have disappeared in protected indigenous reserves between 1987 and 2011, according to the Brazilian government. More than 242 square kilometers in the reserve have already been destroyed according to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which tracks rainforest destruction by satellite.






Workers load charcoal, produced from illegally harvested Amazon rainforest wood, into a truck on June 8, 2012 in Rondon do Para, Brazil.

[Mr Lick]

Protestors with a nurses union, dressed as Robin Hood, gather outside the room where Jamie Dimon, chairman of the board, president and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., will testify before a House Financial Services Committee hearing about JP Morgan's massive trading losses in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC, on June 19 2012.

[Mr Lick]

Race-goers sit together at the annual Royal Ascot horse racing event near Windsor, Berkshire on June 19, 2012. The five-day meeting is a highlight of global horse racing and the pinnacle of the English social calendar



A couple celebrate after their horse came in first on the opening day of the Royal Ascot race



Model Anneka Tanaka-Svenska wears a headpiece designed by Louis Mariette and a dress by Hanna Marie Hutchison at the Royal Ascot

[Mr Lick]

A squatter is arrested on the Lange Leidsedwarsstraat in Amsterdam shortly before an evacuation of squats by Dutch riot police, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on June 19 June. Since the introduction of a new law in October 2010, some 330 squats have been evacuated in the city.



Masked squatters are seen in a squatted house on the Lange Leidsedwarsstraat in Amsterdam shortly before an evacuation of squats by Dutch riot police, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on June 19.



Squatters stand behind a banner which translates as "Who evacuates will face resistance, squatting goes on." in the window of a squatted premises in Amsterdam on June 19, ahead of their eviction by riot police.

[Mr Lick]

Madrid, Spain: A BNP Paribas banker reacts as protesters beg him for money during a demonstration against tax breaks



Kiev, Ukraine: A protester from the Ukrainian women's group Femen is carried away by security guards before last night's Euro 2012 match between Ukraine and England



Yad Mordechai, Israel: Israeli security forces survey the scene where a rocket fired from Gaza exploded inside a border police base



Guatemala City, Guatemala: Maura Castellanos touches the feet of her dead daughter Ana Victoria Chacon, who is thought to have been swept away by a river during heavy rain

[Mr Lick]

Fishfaces: giant fish made of recycled plastic bottles and are exhibited at the Botafogo beach, in the shanty town of Dona Marta, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil



A firefighter carries a young child who was rescued from the wreckage of a passenger bus that crashed into a valley in Xiafu, in southern China's Fujian province. Seventeen people were killed and three others severely injured

[Mr Lick]

Ai Weiwei, second from left, is stopped by a plain-clothes policeman while he argues with another policeman, foreground, outside his home in Beijing. Chinese police barred Ai from attending the first hearing of a lawsuit brought by his company against Beijing tax authorities and blocked reporters from filming at the courthouse



So where have they parked their taxis? South Korean taxi drivers participate in a mass rally against the government's oil policy in front of the Seoul City Hall, South Korea today