World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

[Mr Lick]

Rolex 24 at Daytona

Sébastien Bourdais, João Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi, in the Action Express Racing Corvette No5, won one of America's blue riband events, the first race of the unified United SportsCar Championship

[Mr Lick]

Lucas Luhr wrestles the Pickett Racing Oreca-Nissan around the track



The wreckage Memo Gidley's Corvette is towed away. The driver was hospitalised – he is now recovering after surgery











A hard day and night at the office – the winning No5 Action Express Racing Corvette.









Victors Christian Fittipaldi, Sebastien Buordais and Joao Barbosa enjoy the adulation of a huge crowd in Victory Lane

[Mr Lick]

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon paid a visit to a barber shop in Havana, Cuba, ahead of a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).



Hong Kong began culling 20,000 birds after the H7N9 bird flu virus was found in poultry imported from mainland China. The virus has been responsible for the deaths of dozens of people in China since last year.

[Mr Lick]

Locals dress as Vikings in the streets of Lerwick, Shetland Islands, during the traditional festival of fire is known as Up Helly Aa.

[Mr Lick]

A cat owner has gone the extra mile to keep his cats happy by making his feline friends a playground that is more fitting for a safari park than his front room. Stefan Hofmann, a carpenter from Germany, said that when he decided to buy a cat, it was becoming restless with the standard scratch posts and toys on the market. But, the problem only got worse when he extended his feline family, and so in a bid to keep his beloved cats content, he decided to build them an obstacle course to die for. With the now playground taking over his living room, Stefan says his mission to provide them with a stimulating environment was entirely worth it



The St Pancras 'Kissing Couple' statue has been dressed in the new Eurostar Uniforms as the rail company enters Its 20th Year while Eurostar couple Simon and Adele Gent recreate the amorous embrace at the statue's feet. The couple, who recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary, met and fell in love over 10 years ago working together on the international high-speed train service

[Mr Lick]

A former sailor has painstakingly handcrafted a fleet of ships - from more than 5 million matches. David Reynolds, seen here with his model of the SS Titanic, spends at least two hours a night making intricate replica models of famous vessels as he listens to the radio or watches TV. The married father-of-one has built 30 ships since taking up the hobby 25 years ago, including Lord Nelson's HMS Victory and Henry VIII's Mary Rose



Shaolin martial arts students rehearse for a Nuit de Chine (Night of China) event at the Grand Palais in Paris, France. This event commemorates the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and China

[Mr Lick]

Google is now offering the choice of prescription lenses and clip-on sunglasses for Google Glass. The new Google Glass Classic sunglass frames in charcoal colour are displayed in New York, USA



Fireworks are seen over New York city from New Jersey as part of a kick off event for the NFL Super Bowl XLVIII football game. The Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos are scheduled to play on Sunday, February 2

[Mr Lick]

Avalanche debris is pictured on the Richardson Highway in Alaska. Road traffic to Valdez, Alaska, was cut off from the rest of the state after avalanches over the weekend blocked the only road into the coastal community



Ray Middlesworth, Railway Maintenance Engineer and train driver drives the Royal Mail 'Mail Rail' train, seen next the platform, underground at The Royal Mail Archive at Mount Pleasant in central London. The Mail Rail opened in 1927 and delivered mail around London using underground tracks, until its closure in 2003. The Royal Mail Archive is currently campaigning to raise £2million by March 2014 in order to open the Mail Rail as a ride for the public, with an attached Royal Mail museum

[Mr Lick]

A soldier looks on during a parade marking the 70th anniversary of the battle that lifted the Siege of Leningrad in St.Petersburg, Russia. The Nazi German and Finnish siege and blockade of Leningrad, now known as St. Petersburg, was broken on Jan. 18, 1943 but finally lifted Jan. 27, 1944. More than 1 million people died mainly from starvation during the 900-day siege



Local councillor Julian Taylor sits besides a pump outlet following a visit by the Environment Secretary Owen Paterson at the Northmoor Pumping Station in Moorland on near Bridgwater. During his visit to the flood hit Somerset Levels, he admitted the Government could have done more to help residents - and that dredging of some rivers in the county should have happened

[Mr Lick]

Team Ferrari poses in Jerez de la Frontera in Spain in support of German Formula One driver Michael Schumacher, who remains in a coma following a serious skiing accident last month. The 45-year-old has been in a medically-induced coma since suffering the accident when skiing off-piste in the French ski resort of Meribel on December 29



The first picture has been released of new Dr Who star Peter Capaldi in his costume, a dark blue Crombie coat with red lining, dark blue trousers, a white shirt as well as black Dr Marten shoes. The look was created by Doctor Who costume designer Howard Burden



Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the 10th National Automobile Dealers Association Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana. According to reports, Clinton said during a question and answer session at the convention that her biggest regret was the attack on Americans in Benghazi

[Mr Lick]

Maules Creek coalmine blockade

More than 120 people on Tuesday morning blockaded entries to Whitehaven Coal's $767m Maules Creek project, near Boggabri, and attached themselves to bulldozers






A protester is locked on to an excavator

[Mr Lick]

An anti-government protester uses a laptop at barricades. Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov offered his resignation on Tuesday, as parliament repeals anti-protest laws



The 'True Love Tester' is a high-tech bra by Japanese lingerie maker Ravijour equipped with a special mechanical hook and an app on a mobile device to control it. The sensors analyse the pattern and speed of the user's heartbeat



True love en masse: 138 Couples tie their knot in mass marriages organised by Sant Nirankari Mission, in Mumbai, India.



Between a rock and a hard place: the Rock Pagoda on Ngwe Saung beach, Burma

[Mr Lick]

A mother holds her child while attempting to take cover as repeated gun shots are heard during continuing sectarian violence in Bangui, Central African Republic



A mother pitches a temporary shelter in the middle of the road at the sprawling community of informal settlers in Quezon city, Philippines. The demolition of their shanty town was carried out by the city government to pave the way for the commercial development of the area



A Femen activist protests against the visit of Russia's President Vladimir Putin to Brussels, in front of the European Council building. Putin is visiting the EU leaders to discuss the future of their common relationship

[Mr Lick]

A truck goes off the road into the median while trying to avoid another wrecked truck as snow begins to accumulate on I-65 on Tuesday, Jan. 28. in Clanton, Ala. A rare storm that left a slippery layer of ice and snow across a region unaccustomed to dealing with the wintry threat



Italian police have revealed the crime scene where thieves stole a vial of the late Pope John Paul II's blood.

A reliquary containing the blood had been kept behind glass in the tiny church of San Pietro della Ienca, located in the mountainous Abruzzo region. The glass was smashed and one of the church's windows was also broken in Saturday's raid, which police said might have been commissioned in order to use the blood for satanic rites.

Dozens of police with sniffer dogs have scoured the remote area for clues, Reuters reported

[Mr Lick]

Clashes in Ukraine




A medic of the anti-government protest camp (L) poses for a portrait with his security guard at the barricades near the site of clashes with riot police in Kiev, January 28, 2014. Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov resigned while deputies loyal to President Viktor Yanukovich, acting to calm violent street protests, back-tracked and overturned anti-protest laws they rammed through parliament 12 days ago.

[Mr Lick]

UK weather in pictures: Heavy rain, floods and snow falls on higher ground

[Rainfall]

Where's this place, in the UK?

[Mr Lick]

^ Water pours over the High Force waterfall in Middleton-in-Teesdale in the North Pennines




Water overflows from Wet Sleddale Reservoir in Cumbria down the 21 metre high dam wall, creating a wall of water following heavy rain resulting in a dramatic scene that can be seen for miles around

[Mr Lick]

A bolt of lightning lights up the night's sky near the mouth of the Catatumbo River in Zulia, Venezuela



Eagle-eyed goal line technology: The Crystal Palace eagle perches on the crossbar prior to the Premier League match between Crystal Palace and Hull City at Selhurst Park in London



Madonna and Miley Cyrus performed onstage during Miley Cyrus: MTV Unplugged at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood, California. Miley Cyrus: MTV Unplugged premieres on January 29, 2014 on MTV at 9/8 PM.

[Mr Lick]

Danielle Wyatt of England runs out Alex Blackwell of Australia during game one of the International Twenty20 series between Australia and England at Blundstone Arena in Hobart, Australia



The modern-day Vikings of Lerwick in Shetland celebrated Up Helly Aa, a fire festival held on the last Tuesday of January...whatever the weather



James Grant (C), 24, shows his bandaged leg to his friends at Cosy Nook Beach in this still image taken from a video. James Grant has re-defined the term 'tough guy' by fighting off a shark with a knife, stitching up his own wounds, and then heading off to the pub for a beer. Grant, a 24-year-old doctor, was spear fishing with friends at Cosy Nook off New Zealand's South Island when the shark attacked

[Mr Lick]

Huge waves crash on the San Esteban de Pravia seafront in the northern Spanish region of Asturias



Pope Francis appears on the February 13, 2014 edition of the Rolling Stone magazine

[Mr Lick]

Ice forms along the shore of Lake Michigan as temperatures hovered around -10 degrees in Chicago, Illinois. The city has had 18 days at or below zero so far this winter, two shy of the 20-day record



Traffic inches along the connector of Interstate's 75 and 85 as snow blankets Metro Atlanta. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal is preparing to declare a state of emergency as a winter storm coats the region with snow and ice. State transportation officials said a mass of commuters leaving downtown Atlanta at once created traffic jams on interstates and surface streets



A car sits in dried and cracked earth of what was the bottom of the Almaden Reservoir in San Jose, California. Now in its third straight year of drought conditions, California is experiencing its driest year on record, dating back 119 years, and reservoirs throughout the state have low water levels. Santa Clara County reservoirs are at 3 percent of capacity or lower. California Gov. Jerry Brown officially declared a drought emergency to speed up assistance to local governments, streamline water transfers and potentially ease environmental protection requirements for dam releases

[Mr Lick]

Lerwick's Guizer Jarl, Ivor Cluness, and his squad march through the streets of the Shetland capital during the traditional festival of fire known as Up Helly Aa.

[Mr Lick]

Ballet dancers join Amnesty International activists outside the Russian embassy in London. The dancers performed parts of Swan Lake before handing in a petition asking that President Vladimir Putin 'end his assault on freedom of expression and gay rights in Russia'



Masked men lead a donkey through the streets of Zubieta, Spain, as part of a carnival ritual to ward off evil spirits and awaken the coming spring



Anti-government protestors gather in Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine. The country's parliament is holding a special session called over continuing unrest



Frazer Capie, co-ordinator for the Govan Stones Project, takes a closer look at carved stones that date from the 9th to 11th century. The British Museum is to feature one of the mysterious hogback Govan Stones in an exhibition - Vikings Life and Legend – which begins in March