World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

A NASA image shows clumps that were discovered within a huge cosmic cloud of gas and dust. Infrared observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope can aid understanding of how the brightest stars form





A Red Bull X-Fighter rider performs during training for the World Tour in Osaka, Japan





A house painted in Germany's national colours is seen at the Complexo do Alemao slum, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

[Mr Lick]

A fire broke out in the Glasgow School of Art Charles Rennie Mackintosh Building after a projector exploded in the basement of the building



You can't park there...Ferrari's driver Kimi Raikkonen passes the Hotel de Paris in Monaco as practice gets underway for the Monte Carlo Grand Prix.



Students get in there early: voting just after midnight for the European elections, as Dutch go to the polling stations to vote for the European Parliament.

[Mr Lick]

Bodies covered with blankets lie in a field near the village of Blahodatne, after at least 11 Ukrainian troops were killed and 30 others were wounded when Pro-Russians attacked a military checkpoint, the deadliest raid in the weeks of fighting in eastern Ukraine



A hippopotamus has its twice weekly tooth brushing by a keeper in its enclosure in Qingdao Wildlife World in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province



Fired cleaners of the Greek Finance ministry have occupied the ministry entrance and shouting for the implementation of an Athens court ruling ordering their re-hiring, Greece.



A stunning image of lightning striking the top of the Shard building in London during a storm



Thai commuters wait for taxis as they try to beat the curfew imposed following the Thai army chief's announcement that armed forces were seizing power in Bangkok



A protester runs away as Turkish riot police use water cannons to disperse protesters in Istanbul during a demonstration against the recent mine accident in Soma.

[Mr Lick]

Free Syrian Army fighters help a fellow fighter wounded after what they said was clashes with forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, in the town of Morek in Hama province May 22, 2014



Anti-government demonstrators embrace riot police during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas May 22, 2014.

[Mr Lick]

Prisoners spend time in the renovated wing of the Najayo prison in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic,



A wounded man lays unconscious in a pool of blood on the ground during clashes between protesters and riot police in Istanbul, Turkey, May 22, 2014.



Afghan security officers investigate near smoke rising from a residential building, where insurgents were holed up in, after an attack on the Indian consulate in Herat province May 23, 2014.



Inmates gesture from behind bars in Aleppo's main prison in Syria, May 22, 2014

[Mr Lick]

Battle for Aleppo prison





Smoke rises from Handarat camp after forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad claimed to have shelled the area using warplanes, May 21, 2014. Forces loyal to Assad claim to have advanced in Hagop's castle and hill as well as Hilan's hill and village, going towards Aleppo Central prison






Soldiers loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad walk in a line in Aleppo's main prison May 22, 2014. Syrian troops have broken a year-long rebel siege on Aleppo's main prison after heavy fighting with al Qaeda fighters and other Islamist brigades, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Thursday. It said forces loyal to Assad entered the prison compound in military vehicles and gunfire was heard.

[Mr Lick]

Sydney is experiencing its hottest May on record, reaching the hottest week for this time of year in more than 150 years.



Fanny Rodwell, the widow of Herge - creator of comic book hero Tintin - poses next to a sculpture of the character at the Herge Museum in Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium.



Hail covers the Broadcasting Square Shopping centre parking lot in Spring Township, Pennsylvania, after a violent hailstorm hit the area.



German footballer Mario Gotze stands behind a free kick barrier during a training session in St Martin, northern Italy.

[Mr Lick]

Officials say that three months' worth of rain has fallen on the Balkan region in recent days, producing the worst floods since rainfall measurements began 120 years ago. At least 40 people have died with thousands more displaced.



Cambridge United returned to the Football League for the first time in nine years by beating Gateshead in the Conference Premier final at Wembley.



Ashley Wilson (left) and Lindsay Vandermay celebrate after getting their marriage licence at the Philadelphia Marriage Bureau after Pennsylvania's ban on gay marriage was overturned by a federal judge on Tuesday.



Malawians start voting after polling was delayed by several hours at a voting station in Blantyre central district during general elections on Tuesday.

[Mr Lick]

Oldest American celebrates 115th birthday



The oldest living American, one of the few living people born in the 19th Century, has marked her 115th birthday.

Jeralean Talley was born on 23 May 1899 and is the world's second-oldest person, according to a list maintained by the Gerontology Research Group.

The oldest is Misao Okawa in Japan, who is 116, according to the group

[Mr Lick]

Fans take a break during the London ComicCon at the Excel Centre



People dressed as zombies take part in a photocall in Edinburgh for the 2.8 Hours Later cross-city urban chase game which will run through the Scottish capital on 23rd, 24th, 30th and 31st May

[Mr Lick]

Indian stunt men perform on the walls of a 'Well of Death' set up at a fair in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir



Paramilitary policemen ride in armed vehicles during a parade in central Urumqi, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China



Traditional dancers perform while waiting for the arrival Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and his vice presidential running mate Hatta Rajasa to register at the Election Commission for the upcoming July 9 election, in Jakarta

[Mr Lick]

Nigel Farage poses with a couple of fans outside a pub in Basildon, Essex, after Ukip's wins in the local council elections



Sophia Loren sits with photographers and grasps a camera during a photocall for the film 'La voce umana' at Cannes Film Festival

[Mr Lick]

Towering pillars of smoke are rising over south-central Alaska from wildfires that have burned tens of thousands of acres, put residents on alert for evacuation and caused unhealthy air conditions in the state’s largest city

[Mr Lick]

Drive-by shooting spree in California




The vehicle of the alleged shooter is pictured at one of crime scenes after a series of drive-by shootings in the Isla Vista section of Santa Barbara May 24, 2014.






A picture of Elliot Rodger is displayed during a news conference in Santa Barbara, May 24, 2014.



A map of the shooter's movement is displayed during a news conference in Santa Barbara, California May 24, 2014.

[Mr Lick]

A wrecked black BMW sedan is pictured on the street after a series of drive -by shootings that left 6 people dead in the Isla Vista section of Santa Barbara, May 24, 2014









The vehicle of the alleged shooter is pictured at one of the crime scenes after a series of drive-by shootings in the Isla Vista section of Santa Barbara May 24, 2014.

[Mr Lick]

[Mr Lick]

UC Santa Barbara students attend a candlelight vigil in the Isla Vista section of Santa Barbara, May 24, 2014

[Mr Lick]

Real Madrid's captain Iker Casillas and team celebrate with the trophy after defeating Atletico Madrid in their Champions League final

[Mr Lick]

Coup in Thailand

[Mr Lick]

Medics carry a seriously wounded member of a pro-Ukrainian militia after he was shot several times during a gun battle in the rural settlement of Karlovka, west of Donetsk May 23, 2014. Armed pro-Russian separatists clashed with Ukrainian self-defence fighters near the eastern city of Donetsk on Friday, two days before the presidential election, and at least two people were killed, a Reuters witness and militia sources said.



A man waves a machete during a protest against French peacekeeping troops in Bambari May 23, 2014. At least one man was killed on Thursday in clashes that erupted after French peacekeeping troops in the Central African Republic tried to disarm Muslim rebels, witnesses and hospital staff said. A French military official denied troops killed civilians and said they fired warning shots in the air after coming under fire in Bambari, the headquarters of the mostly-Muslim rebel Seleka coalition, which controls the northeast of the country



Twenty-one year old men smoke outside a friend's apartment in Lower Manhattan, New York May 18, 2014. The minimum age to buy cigarettes and tobacco was raised to 21 in New York City on May 18, 2014, six months after the law was signed by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg

[Mr Lick]

Director Quentin Tarantino (R), actress Uma Thurman (C) and actor John Travolta arrive to attend a beach front cinema screening for the film "Pulp Fiction" during the 67th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes May 23, 2014. The film "Pulp Fiction" is presented on Friday during a beach front cinema screening for its 20th anniversary.



Mourners wait for the funeral ceremony of Ugur Kurt in the Okmeydani cemevi, an Alevi place of worship, in Istanbul May 23, 2014. Kurt, a bystander who was attending a relative's funeral, was shot in the head apparently by a stray bullet as the violence flared on Thursday. A second person died on Friday after clashes between Turkish police and protesters in a working-class district of Istanbul, stirring fears of further unrest as the anniversary of last year's anti-government demonstrations approaches.



Activists hold a rally next to the White House in Washington calling for the closure of the U.S. run Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, May 23, 2014. A U.S. judge allowed the military to resume force-feeding a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, saying she was in no position to make the complex medical decisions needed to keep the prisoner alive.

[Mr Lick]

Free Syrian Army fighters prepare an improvised explosive to fire towards forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, in Aghyour area in the city of Aleppo May 22, 2014.



Motorized mannequins hold signs that read "Hire Me" in Toronto May 23, 2014. Canada's economy unexpectedly shed 28,900 jobs in April, mainly due to steep declines in full-time employment and in the private sector, Statistics Canada data indicated earlier this month.



Paramilitary policemen gesture to stop a photographer from taking pictures as they stand guard after an explosives attack hit downtown Urumqi on Thursday, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region May 23, 2014. Five suicide bombers carried out the attack which killed 31 people in the capital of China's troubled Xinjiang region, state media reported a day after the deadliest terrorist attack to date in the region.

[Mr Lick]

Seven dead in California 'mass murder' shootings

More pics

[Mr Lick]

[Mr Lick]

Chelsea Flower Show 2014



The Chelsea Flower Show has began. Held in the grounds of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, the show receives over 161,000 visitors each year.

This picture shows Hugo Bugg, who has become the youngest ever Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winner with an environmentally conscious rain garden called Waterscape. Bugg, 26, runs a garden design company in Exeter, Devon. He was crowned the Royal Horticultural Society's Young Designer of the year in 2010