World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

US storm misery



The eastern US is recovering from a series of storms

[Mr Lick]

The prince's frog




A newly discovered tree frog has been named after Prince Charles in recognition of his charity work to protect their rainforest homes.

Hyloscirtus princecharlesi, or the Prince Charles stream tree frog, was first discovered by Dr. Luis A. Coloma in 2008 amongst specimens collected for a museum. A subsequent expedition in the Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park, Ecuador, found limited numbers of the frogs after areas of the forest were cleared for agriculture.

Two juvenile frogs are now being raised in captivity as part of the Amphibian Ark project in the hope they will breed and eventually boost populations in the wild.

[Mr Lick]

US singer Lana del Rey performs in the Miles Davis Hall during the 46th Montreux Jazz festival



A woman runs from tear gas during clashes after a march against violence in Lima

[Mr Lick]

Armed police stand next to passengers of a coach stopped in the West Midlands, England, amid suspicions about the behaviour of one of those aboard

[Mr Lick]

Bank of England pumps £50bn more into economy



The Bank of England has announced it will pump a further £50bn into the UK economy over the next four months through its quantitative easing (QE) programme to try to help the economy.

QE aims to boost the economy by buying bonds. The latest increase will take the total stimulus to £375bn.

The Bank also said it would leave UK interest rates unchanged at a record low of 0.5%.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank cut its interest rate to 0.75% from 1%.

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has held rates at 0.5% for more than three years.

The Bank said that the UK economy, which is back in recession, had "barely grown for a year and a half".

It added that growth in export markets had also slowed. The eurozone debt crisis was "weighing on confidence here", it said.

Without an increase in QE, the Bank said there was a danger that inflation would fall below its target rate of 2%.

[Mr Lick]

Anastaza Pack, 17, looks in the mirror as she puts on make-up at the Angel Faces retreat in Corona, Calif. Angel Faces is an annual retreat for young girls with severe burns or facial disfigurement that focuses on psychological healing through group counseling, role-playing, art therapy and workshops that teach coping skills.



Bethany Essary, 16, smiles while watching her friends get ready for a closing ceremony at the Angel Faces retreat in Corona, Calif., on June 22.



The room rings out with the cruel nicknames that have haunted the teenagers for years: Crusty crab. Burnt toast. Snake skin. Freddy Krueger's daughter. Mutant. Scarface.

For the first time, it's the burn victims themselves who are shouting them.

The exercise is emotionally excruciating but also empowering for these girls, who come from all over the world to attend Angel Faces, an annual retreat east of Los Angeles. Some were injured as infants; others arrive just months after a devastating accident.

Several girls lost a parent or a sibling in the disaster that maimed them.

[Mr Lick]

An image grab taken from AFP TV shows a Syrian boy holding a Kalashnikov as he is comforted by a rebel during fighting with government forces at the Crac des Chevaliers near the village of Azzara on the outskirts of the flashpoint city of Homs on June 28, 2012. Protected by the night, Syrian rebels climb on board motorcycles, lights off, on their way to the Crac des Chevaliers, a crusader castle which they are fiercely defending against government forces who continue to attack the area with tanks and artillery.

[Mr Lick]

Activist No Su-hui, center, shouts "Long Live Reunification" in front of North Korean officials and soldiers, foreground, before crossing the demarcation line between North and South Korea where South Korean officials, at rear, were waiting for him, at the Demilitarized Zone at Panmunjom on July 5, 2012.






No Su-hui, center, is detained by South Korean officials as North Korean officials, foreground, look on, immediately after No crossed the demarcation line on July 5, 2012. South Korean police arrested the activist for making an extended trip to Pyongyang without South Korean government approval as required by law.



Ro Su-hui is led away tied up and cuffed by South Korean security officials towards a police station in the border city of Paju on July 5, 2012

Ro Su-hui, who is a leader of a South Korean group that has maintained friendly ties with North Korean groups, had spent more than three months in Pyongyang attending national events that glorified its two dead leaders and criticized Seoul.

"While in the North I have felt that the North where the leader and the people form a harmonious whole will surely build a thriving nation thanks to political stability and strong economic potential," Ro was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the North's official KCNA news agency

[Mr Lick]

Photographer Tou Chih-kang calms a puppy as he tries to make a portrait before it is put down by lethal injection at a shelter in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan. All photos taken in April 2012 and made available to msnbc.com on July 5, 2012.



Tou Chih-kang hangs his portraits of the final moments in the lives of shelter dogs for a public exhibition in Taoyuan.

Over the past two years, Taiwanese photographer Tou Chih-kang has recorded the last moments of some 400 dogs, most of which were abandoned by their owners, at the Taoyuan animal shelter.



Tou Chih-kang greets a dog scheduled to be euthanized later in the day at a government-run shelter in Taoyuan.






Tou Chih-kang and his assistant steady a scared dog for a portrait in the final moments of its life.



Tou's aim is to raise awareness of animal rights in a country where an estimated 80,000 stray dogs will be euthanized this year. In an artist's statement posted alongside a web gallery of his photographs, he says:

In viewing these specific images, one looks directly into the eyes of the dog and the dog looks back. These images reflect the last opportunity to look. This is a final and decisive moment. Death is eminent [sic] and all that is asked of the viewer is to engage, to recognize the common bonds and to honor the resemblances between our lives.

[Mr Lick]

Fans of Brazil's Corinthians cheer at the end of the Copa Libertadores final soccer match against Argentina's Boca Juniors in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on July 5, 2012. Corinthians won 3-1 on aggregate.

Brazilian club Corinthians finally won its first Copa Libertadores title on Wednesday, beating six-time champion Boca Juniors 2-0 to win the final 3-1 on aggregate.

Corinthians won the title unbeaten over 14 matches of Latin America's main club competition

[Mr Lick]

An employee sprays a farm under quarantine following a bird flu outbreak in Tepatitlan, Jalisco State, Mexico on Wednesday. Mexican government declared a national animal health emergency on Monday in the face of an aggressive bird flu epidemic that has infected nearly 1.7 million poultry. The emergency declaration included provisions for quarantine, slaughter, vaccination, and the destruction of infected products.







Reuters reports that an outbreak of avian flu has killed at least 870,000 poultry birds in Mexico:

"The virus has never been out of control. It is localized in two places in Jalisco and up until now there is no evidence that it is anywhere else," the official said, asking not be named.

As a cautionary measure, authorities declared a national animal health emergency on Monday to help prevent the disease's spread to other parts of Mexico or farther. The ministry has ordered vaccinations from Asia and is also developing their own drugs domestically to combat the flu.

[Mr Lick]

Andy Murray is surrounded by security staff as well as plenty of expectation as he leaves practice ahead of tomorrow's semi-final match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Wimbledon



The name's Bond, James Bond. A woman takes a photograph of a Sean Connery waxwork at the Fifty Years of Bond Style exhibition at the Barbican, London

[Mr Lick]

Time's running out for Greece. Poul Thomsen, the International Monetary Fund mission chief in Greece (right), and Klaus Masuch of the European Central Bank check their watches as they leave a meeting with the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras. Debt inspectors from the ECB, IMF and the European commission, known as the troika, were meeting the new government, whose coalition partners want some of the strict terms of its bailout eased



In Ukraine, the protesters are sending in the big guns now, in the form of opposition supporters dressed in traditional Cossack clothes, to confront riot police during protests about the new Russian language bill passed by the parliament in Kiev



The Olympic flame goes off-piste as it gets abseiled down the side of Norwich castle on day 48 of the torch relay



And now here it is on a boat for a trip down the river Wensum



Another slightly cringeworthy photocall from Boris Johnson, as he joins Arlene Phillips and rush-hour commuters on the platform of St Pancras International station to launch Big Dance 2012

[Mr Lick]

Jeff Sheehan and his daughter Sydney survey their Mountain Shadows neighbourhood, which was devastated by the Waldo Canyon fire in Colorado Springs. Residents have begun returning to charred areas after the most destructive wildfire in Colorado's history forced tens of thousands of people from their homes



Schoolchildren from an orphanage await the arrival of Aung San Suu Kyi in Kawhmu township, Burma, where she won a parliamentary seat in a byelection

[Mr Lick]

A clown pretends to stop traffic during an international clown festival in San Salvador July 4, 2012. Every year clowns from Mexico, Colombia and the U.S. meet in San Salvador to exchange make-up tips and the latest tricks and jokes.



Francisco of the Spanish company El Cobrador del Frac (The Debt Collector in Top Hat and Tails) rings the doorbell of a house in Pozuelo de Alarcon, outside Madrid July 4, 2012. The company specialises in sending men dressed in tailcoats to make debtors pay up.



Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France celebrates after defeating Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in their men's quarter-final match at the Wimbledon championships in London July 4, 2012



A beached humpback whale lies on the shore near Puerto Eten, 23 km (14 miles) south of Chiclayo, Peru, July 3, 2012. Government specialists collected samples from the 7-metre (23 feet), 3-ton cetacean yesterday to determine the cause that led it to be stranded on the shore, according to local media.

[Mr Lick]

A man pulls the tail of a bull to stop it as local villagers watch during a bullfighting festival at Tucheng village in Gao'an, Guizhou province, China, July 3, 2012



A coal miner burns a wood barricade in the surrounding of "Pozo Soton" coal mine in El Entrego, near Oviedo, northern Spain, July 4, 2012.

[Mr Lick]

Air France crash 'due to pilot and technical failings'



Technical failure and human error led to the loss of an Air France flight over the Atlantic in June 2009 and the deaths of 228 people, according to the final report into the crash.

The report by France's aviation authority, the BEA, blames the Airbus A330's ergonomics as well as inappropriate action by the pilots.

The jet disappeared in a storm while en route to Paris from Rio de Janeiro.

It took nearly two years for the flight recorders to be found.

The BEA said that the disaster began with the malfunctioning of speed sensors known as Pitots during a period of turbulence.

The captain was taking a rest break and the co-pilots were in control at the time.

The captain returned to the flight deck but was unable to reverse the catastrophic course of events.

One of the mistakes of the crew was to point the nose of the aircraft upwards after it stalled, instead of down.

"The crew was in a state of almost total loss of control of the situation," BEA chief investigator Alain Bouillard told journalists on Thursday at the release of the final report.

They never understood that the plane was in a stall as it descended at 11,000ft (3,352m) per minute, he added

And BEA director Jean-Paul Troadec said: "This accident results from an aeroplane being taken out of its normal operating environment by a crew that had not understood the situation."

[Mr Lick]

An Amazonian indigenous man protests in front of riot policemen during clashes in La Paz, Bolivia on July 5, 2012. The indigenous people from the territory of national park Isiboro Secure, known by its Spanish acronym TIPNIS, remain in La Paz after walking 640 km (397 miles) to defend their territory against the planned construction of a highway through the middle of the park.

[Mr Lick]

Team Saxo Bank rider Jonathan Cantwell of Australia lies on the ground after a fall during the fifth stage of the 99th Tour de France cycling race between Rouen and Saint-Quentin on Thursday.



The pack passes a church in Rouen during the start of the fifth stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 196.5 kilometers (122 miles) with start in Rouen and finish in Saint-Quentin, France, July 5.

[Mr Lick]

Perez Sanchez, 80, retired from his job as cook in the University of Havana for which he receives a state pension of 200 Cuban pesos, or about 8 dollars per month, is one of the many taking advantage of the country's economic reforms that now allow small entrepreneurs such as street vendors to operate for the first time. Perez Sanchez makes an average of 2-3 dollars per day selling the nuts, which after paying a monthly tax of 6 dollars to the government, takes the rest home to his family of seven daughters and 11 grandchildren.



Cuban pensioner, Raul Perez Sanchez, nicknamed the "peanut man."

[Mr Lick]

The Shard, Western Europe's tallest building, was formally inaugurated in London on Thursday by His Excellency Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabor Al Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar and His Royal Highness the Duke of York. The event marks the physical completion of the exterior of the building, which is fast becoming one of the most recognizable London skyline silhouettes







Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf, HMS Belfast and the Swiss RE (known as the Gherkin) building are visible from the 69th floor of the Shard during its inauguration in London.

[Mr Lick]

Serena Williams of the U.S. celebrates after defeating Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in their women's semi-final tennis match at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, on July 5.



Serena Williams had an ace up her sleeve on Centre Court, and she used it a Wimbledon-record 24 times.

The 13-time Grand Slam champion reached her seventh Wimbledon final on Thursday, smacking 24 aces to beat Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 7-6 (6) in the semifinals.

The final point of the match was, fittingly enough, the record-breaking ace.

[Mr Lick]

A horse-drawn shuttle is tested on July 5, in front of the Mont Saint-Michel in France. The horse-drawn shuttles of the Mont Saint-Michel should have been active on April 28, 2012 but, still being tested because of problems of welds.

Visitors will be able to reach the Mont Saint-Michel in the Maringote: a horse-drawn shuttle crossing from the continent to the Rock, as did the pilgrims from days gone by.

[OhOh]

No comment required

[Mr Lick]

Tibetans gather to mark the birthday of their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at a monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, on July 6, 2012.



The Dalai Lama, center, is escorted by Tibetan monks as he leaves Tsuglakhang temple in Dharmsala, India, on July 6, 2012.

Tibetans waved banners and lit incense in celebration of the Dalai Lama's 77th birthday at his headquarters in northern India on Friday.

Thousands of Tibetans also gathered to mark the occasion in Kathmandu, with the Nepalese government saying it would not tolerate anti-China activities on its soil.