Around 30,000 spectators watch the mixed 2x6 km and 2x7.5 km relay competition at the biathlon World Championships in Ruhpolding, Germany. (AP)
A member of the Croatian honor guards jumps over the red carpet before the arrival ceremony for Austria's President Heinz Fischer, in Zagreb. (AP)
A South Sudanese woman waits to return home by a train organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Khartoum. Up to 700,000 ethnic Southerners are estimated to still be in Sudan ahead of an April 8 deadline for them to either go South, or normalise their status with the Khartoum authorities. (AFP)
Queen Elizabeth II, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of Cambridge, looking at their hampers after being presented with gifts in Fortnum and Mason store in central London. (AP)
Participants listen to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's speech during the 93th anniversary ceremony of Independence Movement Day against Japan in Seoul, South Korea. (AP)
Passengers of the Costa Allegra cruise ship look for their baggage upon their arrival at Victoria's harbor, Seychelles Island. A disabled cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 people docked in the island nation of the Seychelles after three days at sea without power since a fire broke out in the generator room on Monday. (AP)
People play in the snow after a heavy snowstorm in Amman, Jordan. (Reuters)
St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Ridgway, Illinois, is left in ruins after a pre-dawn twister flattened entire blocks of homes Wednesday. (AP)
Tenor singer Florian Simson poses after make-up artists transformed his head into a carp during a press conference for the "make-up artist design show 2012" trade fair in Duesseldorf, western Germany. (AFP)
An Iranian woman holds her identification card as people queue to vote at a polling station at the Massoumeh shrine in the holy city of Qom, 130 kms south of Tehran. (AFP)
People line up to buy potatoes at a University campus in Thessaloniki in northern Greece. Staff and students of Thessaloniki's University ordered potatoes directly from a group of producers and arranged to be sold directly to consumers at the campus. (Reuters)
Students, with their faces smeared in colored powder, celebrate Holi, also known as the festival of colors, at a college in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh. The traditional event heralds the beginning of spring and will be celebrated all over India on March 8. (Reuters)
Honor guards march during the changing of the guards ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin wall in central Moscow, Russia. (Reuters)
A fire burns a tree in a forest reserve in northern Brasilia, Brazil. Officials said the fire may have been a criminal act and burned an area equivalent to five hectares. (Reuters)
An aircraft pulls a vapor trail over clouds above Krakow, Poland. (AP)
A man removes snow covering his car after a heavy snowstorm in the Aley area, eastern Lebanon. (Reuters)
A man removes a piece of metal from a recently burned-out house covered with icicles, in the town of Ostashkov, some 350 km (217 miles) west of Moscow, Russia. (Reuters)
French journalist Edith Bouvier (2nd R) is carried on a stretcher after her arrival aboard a government plane at Villacoublay military airport near Paris. Freelance reporter's femur was shattered during heavy shelling of Homs's Baba Amro district in Syria. (Reuters)
US country pop singer Taylor Swift performs on stage at the Burswood Dome during the opening night of her 'Speak Now' Australian tour in Perth. (AP)
Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic serves the ball to Andy Murray of Britain during their ATP Dubai Open semi-final tennis match in UAE. Murray won the match 6-2, 7-5. (AFP)
Russian riot police officers block opposition activists during a protest against alleged vote rigging in St. Petersburg, Russia. Demonstrators contested the outcome of the election Monday. (AP)
A person walks in front of a graffiti depicting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Caracas. Chavez has admitted publicly for the first time that his cancer has returned, says he faces a new round of radiotherapy treatment. (AFP)
Snow covers a demolished house in Marysville, Indiana on Monday, after a tornado ripped through the town on Friday, March 2. (AP)
Hassana Abu Firasl, a Syrian woman who fled from the Syrian town of Qusair near Homs, is seen with her family at the Lebanese-Syrian border village of Qaa, eastern Lebanon. (AP)
People apply colored powder to a woman's face as they celebrate Holi, also known as the festival of colors, in Ahmedabad, India. The traditional event heralds the beginning of spring and will be celebrated all over India on March 8. (Reuters)
Hostesses jump for photographers outside Beijing's Great Hall of the People where the opening session of the annual National People's Congress is held in China. (AP)
A man displays a two-headed turtle 'Testudo horsfieldi' at National Museum of Natural History in Kiev, Ukraine. Besides the two heads the reptile has six legs. (AP)
Swimmers warm up before the evening session at the British Gas Swimming Championships 2012 at the Olympic Aquatics Center in London. (Reuters)
Supporters of the United States wait for the start of their Algarve Cup Group B, third round, women's soccer match with Japan at the Algarve stadium outside Faro, southern Portugal. (AP)
An Indian woman carries marigold flowers on her head on the outskirts of Jammu, India. Marigolds are widely used as strings of garland and for Hindu religious rituals. (AP)
A man jumps into the Mediterranean Sea after a week of snow and heavy rainstorms in Lebanon, at the American University beach in Beirut. (Reuters)
A voter looks over her ballot to place her vote at a polling station in Steubenville, Ohio, USA. Republicans are holding their "Super Tuesday" presidential primary in 10 states. (Reuters)
Women standing on the doorstep of their houses look at the level of water in Steenwerck, northern France, following floods due to rain and snow in this northern area which affected train traffic between Paris and northern European countries. (AFP)
Brothers sit outside the ruin of their family home, destroyed in deadly explosions from a nearby munitions depot, in the Ouenze neighborhood of Brazzaville, Republic of Congo. (AP)
Spiders are seen in their webs spun round dry sticks on a bush, next to flood waters in Wagga Wagga, Australia. (Reuters)
A giant Russian national flag is on display near the Kremlin in central Moscow. Russia's opposition said they feared Vladimir Putin had decided to use force to smother their protests after riot police detained hundreds of demonstrators challenging his presidential election victory. (Reuters)
Britain's Prince Harry and Olympic champion Usain Bolt start a race during a visit to the track named after Bolt at the University of the West Indies in Kingston. The prince is visiting Jamaica as part of a Diamond Jubilee tour that also includes Belize, the Bahamas and Brazil, as a representative of Queen Elizabeth. (Reuters)
The Maasai Warriors cricket team warm up before exercises on the beach in Mombasa, South East Kenya. (AFP)
Models wear creations by German Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld as part of the Chanel presentation for Women's Fall-Winter, ready-to-wear 2013 fashion collection, during Paris Fashion week, France. (AP)
An impressive solar flare is heading toward the Earth and could disrupt power grids, GPS and airplane flights. Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center said the sun erupted Tuesday evening and the effects should start smacking the Earth late Wednesday night, close to midnight EST. They say it is the biggest in five years and growing. (AP/NASA)
Indonesian men try to catch offerings thrown into the sea by Hindu worshipers during the ritual of Melasti on a beach in Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta. The ritual which is performed ahead of Balinese Hindu's Day of Silence, is held to purify the universe from bad influences, bad deeds and bad thoughts. (AP)
Hindu devotees pray and face a deity as colored powder is thrown on them while celebrating "Holi," the festival of color, at the Banke Bihari temple in Vrindavan, about 140 kilometers (87 miles) from New Delhi, India. (AP)
Syrian boys sit on empty gallons as they wait in a long queue to fill gasoline near a gas station in Damascus. (AP)
Art installation "Key Frames" by Groupe LAPS of France lights up during a media preview of the i Light Marina Bay sustainable light art festival in Singapore. Key Frame is comprised of 20 stick-like figures that come to life in display of light and sound. (Reuters)
Visitors react to the rotor wash of the Marine One helicopter as US President Barack Obama takes off from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington as he travels to North Carolina. (AP)
Britain's Queen Elizabeth attends a service for the Order of the British Empire, at St Paul's Cathedral in London. (Reuters)
Floodwaters inundate North Wagga, about 380km (236 miles) southwest of Sydney, Australia. (Reuters)
Buddhist devotees hold candles as they walk around a Buddha image during a ceremony at the Dhammakaya Temple in Bangkok on the occasion of Makha Bucha day, which is observed in Thailand on the full moon of the third lunar month . (AFP)
A novice monk looks at a Buddhist monk during a ceremony to pray for Tibet's exiled Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to have a long life, in the northern hill town of Dharamsala, India. (Reuters)
A employee of Hublot Swiss watch maker with the company''s last creation - a $5-million watch set with 1,282 diamonds - during a preview day at the Baselworld fair in Basel, Switzerland. (AFP)
Afghan women surf the net in the Sahar Gul net cafe, the first internet cafe for women, opened in Kabul. (AP)
Female workers load bricks on a donkey driven cart in a brick factory in the town of Nahrawan east of Baghdad, Iraq. (Reuters)
Vehicles move among fishing vessels that were carried from Kesennuma port by the March 11 tsunami, at the Kesennuma city, Miyagi prefecture. Japan is readying to mark the first anniversary of the huge earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeast coast last year, sparking a nuclear crisis at Fukushima. (AFP)
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird (2nd L) meets Burma's President Thein Sein (R) at the presidential palace in Naypyitaw, Burma. (Reuters)
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, right, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin chat during their meeting in the mountain resort of Krasnaya Polyana near the Black Sea resort of Sochi, southern Russia. (AP)
The sun rises over Mount Hood in Portland, Oregon, USA. The largest solar storm in five years has engulfed the Earth. Scientists say that could change as the storm spends the day shaking the planet's magnetic field. It could disrupt technology but also spread colorful Northern Lights. (AP)
Ice floes in a Norwegian Fjord near Svalbard (AFP)
Italian Greyhounds arrive on the first day of the Crufts dog show in Birmingham, in central England. (AFP)
Meerkats relax under a heating light during cold temperatures in the Erfurt zoo, central Germany. (AP)
A full moon over the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Reuters)
A man looks for his photographs at a collection center for items which were found in the rubble of an area devastated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Sendai, Miyagi prefecture, Japan. (Reuters)
A girl sits on a weighing scale at a wood saw mill in Lahore, Pakistan. (Reuters)
A convoy of joint US-Afghan military conducts a "Route Clearing Patrol", finding and removing roadside bombs on roads, in Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan. (Reuters)
A protester attends an anti-corruption demonstration in Bratislava, Slovakia. Hundreds of Slovaks are protesting in the capital to demand that top politicians accused of corruption step down. (AP)
An investor reacts as she looks at the stock price monitor at a private securities company in Shanghai, China. Asian stock markets climbed as China's inflation eased and Greece moved closer to inking a deal with private creditors to restructure its debt and avoid a massive default. (AP)
An employee works inside a cotton processing unit at Kadi town, about 56 km (35 miles) north of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. (Reuters)
Colombian riot police arrest a student protesting against the high price and bad service offered by the Transmilenio public transport system in Bogota. (AFP)
Chocolate bars are displayed at a stand as part of the "Salon du Chocolat" (chocolate fair) in Lille, France. (AFP)
US athlete Chaunte Lowe (R) commiserates with US athlete Inika McPherson (L) after she failed a jump during the women's high jump qualifications at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships at the Atakoy Athletics Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. (AFP)
The Northern Lights in the skies near Faskusfjordur on the east coast of Iceland, March 8, 2012. A solar storm shook the Earth's magnetic field, but scientists said they had no reports of any problems with electrical systems. (AP)
Boats are anchored to block traffic on the banks of the River Buriganga in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Police stepped up security in the capital after the main Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its key Islamist ally Jammat-e-Islami called for an anti-government protest demanding an independent caretaker government oversee elections. (AP)
Former Taliban militants line up with their weapons to attend a joining ceremony with the Afghan government in Mehterlam, Laghman province, east of Kabul. About 200 former Taliban militants from the province handed over weapons as part of a peace-reconciliation program. (AP)
Palestinian refugees sign "The Key of Return", which will be exhibited at the seventh Berlin Biennale, at the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem. The Key is considered a national symbol for Palestinians who lost their homes in 1948 when the Jewish state of Israel was created. (AFP)
A Pakistani health worker gives polio drops to an infant in Lahore. Pakistani officials vow to eradicate polio by the end of 2012. Polio remains endemic in four countries: Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan. (AP)
A Tibetan woman beats a portrait of Chinese President Hu Jintao during a protest to commemorate Tibetan Women's Uprising Day, in New Delhi, India. On March 12, 1959, thousands of women gathered in Lhasa to protest against the Chinese government but the protest was put down. (AP)
A student walks along a wooden plank at a construction site in Ayutthaya, Thailand, where workers are raising the school cabins by about 4 meters above ground to avoid potential floods. (Reuters)
People follow the casket of Franco Lamolinara prior to his funeral in the northern Italian town of Gattinara. Lamolinara, an engineer who was working in Nigeria when he was kidnapped along with a British colleague in May, was slain during a botched British-Nigerian rescue attempt. (AP)
Women are seen at Addahi village in the western Yemeni province of Houdieda. (Reuters)
A Volkswagen New Beetle, left, and a Up!, right, car are lifted inside a delivery tower after the company's annual press conference in Wolfsburg, Germany. (AP)
Italian gymnast Vanessa Ferrari attends a training session in Brescia to prepare for the Olympics. (Reuters)
A baby giraffe named Kimarie, only a few days old, stands next to her mother in an enclosure at the "ZOOM" Zoo in Gelsenkirchen, western Germany. The 170-cm-tall baby giraffe was born 3 days ago. (AFP)
A cleaner sweeps the carpet in front of the honor guard before the official welcoming ceremony of Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Reuters)
Palestinians take cover as a gunman fires a weapon in the air during the funeral of Islamic Jihad militant Mohammed Daher in Gaza City. (Reuters)
A single voter contemplates her choices at this voting precinct in Madison, Mississippi, USA. Mississippi and Alabama hold primaries and their results could clarify the GOP presidential nomination race. (AP)
Bank security guards on strike march demanding better wages in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AFP)
Bangladeshis ride past the site of a ferry accident, on the Meghna River in Munshiganj district, about 32 kilometers (20 miles) south of Dhaka. A ferry packed with about 200 people capsized in the river, killing more than 30 people and leaving dozens more missing, authorities said. (AP)
A South Korean activist wearing mask depicting a cluster munition near the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, during a campaign to ban land mine and cluster munitions in Cambodia. (AP)
Syrian refugees in the Hacipasa Refugee Camp in Antakya, near the Turkish-Syrian border. (AFP)
A burned sandal in Rida mosque which has been set on fire in Anderlecht commune in the west of Brussels, Belgium. A man threw a petrol bomb through the window of the mosque, killing the imam and injuring a second person, Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure reported. (Reuters)
French Socialist Party candidate for the 2012 presidential elections Francois Hollande delivers a speech as he campaigns in Valence, southern France. (AP)
Nissan's new Deltawing race car after it was unveiled in London. The experimental race car to be powered by Nissan 1.6-litre DIG-T engine will be a non-competitive participant in this year's Le Mans 24 hour race. (Reuters)
US President Barack Obama welcomes British Prime Minister David Cameron during an official arrival ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. (AP)
A Chinese military band conductor rehearses before the closing session of the annual National People's Congress held in Beijing's Great Hall of the People. (AP)
A Yemeni woman holds a flower during a demonstration demanding the trial of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sana'a. (AP)
Thousands of ultra Orthodox Jews from the Vizhnitz Hasidic dynasty attend the funeral of their rabbi Moshe Yhoshua Hager, 95, at a cemetery in the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak. (AFP)
Noori, a cloned pashmina goat, stands inside a sheep breeding center at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology in Alastang, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Srinagar, India. Scientists at the university successfully cloned the world's first pashmina goat, prized for its fine wool, according to news reports. (AP)
A Somali soldier patrols near the scene of a suicide bombing at a small tea shop inside the Presidential Palace in southern Mogadishu. A suicide bomber killed at least four people inside the presidential palace compound in the Somali capital Mogadishu, according to the police, the African Union and al-Shabaab insurgents. (Reuters)
Occupy Wall Street demonstrators wearing masks of Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney protest outside the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York where Romney was holding a fundraiser. (Reuters)
Britain's Camilla (C), Duchess of Cornwall, and Zara Phillips (R) during The Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival horse racing meet in Gloucestershire, western England. (Reuters)
A pair of Caribbean flamingos extend their necks during courtship at the Saitama Children's Zoo in Higashimatsuyama, Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo, Japan. (AFP)
Chilean artist Fernando Casasempere's installation entitled "Out of Sync", which consists of 10,000 individually handcrafted clay flowers, in the courtyard of Somerset House in London. (AP)
Ethnic Hungarians wearing Hussar outfits take part in a parade on Hungarian's National Day in Targu Secuiesc, north of Bucharest, to mark the 1848 Hungarian Revolution. (AFP)
Al Ahli soccer fans take part in a protest against the ruling military council and interior ministry in front of the general prosecutor's office in Cairo, Egypt. The fans were demanding quick investigations into the deaths of soccer fans at a stadium in Port Said in early February. (Reuters)
Swiss nationals Olivier David Och (L) and Daniela Widmer wave to the media at a military base in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad. The couple kidnapped by the Pakistani Taliban last July say they escaped, a Pakistani army spokesman said, after the two showed up at a military checkpoint on a main road in the northwest of the country. (Reuters)
A girl places flowers in front of the 't Stekske school in Lommel, as she pays her respects to victims of the bus crash in Sierre, Switzerland. A bus carrying a Belgian school group home from a ski trip crashed into the wall of a Swiss tunnel, killing 22 children and six others on Wednesday. (Reuters)
A group of Syrians fleeing violence in their country, walk towards the Turkish border, near Reyhanli. (AP)
Australia's Stephanie Rice swims during the women's 400m Individual Medley final at the 2012 Australian Swimming Championships to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics, in Adelaide. (Reuters)
A worker carries sacks of rice at a warehouse owned by Indonesia's state procurement agency Bulog in Makassar of South Sulawesi province. (Reuters)
Vaduz Castle in Liechtenstein's capital Vaduz. Liechtenstein is located in the Alps between Switzerland and Austria. (Reuters)
A man dressed as Darth Vader, a character from the Star Wars movies, arrives for a promotional event for "Star Wars: Episode 1- The Phantom Menace 3D" in Tokyo, Japan. (AP)
A craftsman puts the finishing touches on a figure ahead of the "Fallas" festival in Valencia, Spain. The festival welcomes spring and honors Saint Joseph's Day with the burning of giant elaborate sculptures and effigies of wood and plastic in the early hours of March 20, 2012. (Reuters)
Actor George Clooney, center, Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va, back, and Clooney's father, Nick Clooney, right, are arrested during a protest at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington. The demonstrators are protesting the escalating humanitarian emergency in Sudan that threatens the lives of 500,000 people. (AP)
The coffins of victims of the Sierre bus crash are placed in a hangar at Melsbroek military airport in Belgium after returning from Switzerland. Belgian military aircraft began returning home the bodies of 22 children and six adults killed in a bus crash in Switzerland as the country prepared to observe a minute's silence to remember the victims. (Reuters)
El Atazar reservoir near El Berrueco in Madrid's region. Spanish farmers are already on drought alert after the country's driest winter in 70 years. (AFP)
A man raises Apple's new iPad after purchasing it at the 5th Avenue Apple Store in New York. The new iPad went on sale in 10 countries, including the United States, Canada, Singapore, France and Britain. (Reuters)
An old man drags sacks of cotton to be used for quilts to earn his living in Peshawar, Pakistan. (AP)
Thousands of Libyans pray over the coffins of five individuals, who are suspected of being killed in 1984 under the former Moammar Ghadafi regime, during their funeral in Tripoli's Martyrs' Square. The five identified bodies were found amongst other unknown corpses stored in refrigerators at Tripoli Central Hospital. (AFP)
Trash clogs up a polluted canal at the edge of Beijing. China said that two-thirds of its cities currently fail to meet new air-quality standards introduced this week that are based on the pollutants most harmful to health. (AFP)
An Ethiopian migrant waits to be repatriated at a transit center in the western Yemeni town of Haradh, on the border with Saudi Arabia. Some 12,000 migrants, mostly from the Horn of Africa, are stranded in Haradh, which they use as a stepping stone to reach Saudi Arabia, according to the International Organization for Migration. (Reuters)
Joerg Grossmann drives his motorcycle combination with a Kawasaki VN 1500 and a self-developed side car on a road near Usingen, Germany. (AP)
Tourists ride a double decker bus passing by a movie advertisement billboard for "The Lorax" on Times Square, in New York. (AFP)
People attend the hearing of former Khmer Rouge S-21 prison chief Kaing Guek Eav alias Duch (not pictured), as he testifies at the court room of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. (Reuters)
Egyptian Christians gather as they wait to pay their respects and view the body of Pope Shenouda III, the head of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church, outside the Abassiya Cathedral in Cairo. (Reuters)
A teenager is comforted as he reacts after the shooting at the "Ozar Hatorah" Jewish school in Toulouse, southwestern France, where four people (three of them children), were killed and two seriously wounded when a gunman opened fire. (AFP)
In Colombo Sri Lankan Buddhist monks protest a U.S.-led move to censure Sri Lanka at the U.N. Human Rights Council session in Geneva over its alleged war crimes while crushing Tamil rebels in 2009. (AFP)
An Afghan family walks during a wind storm in Kabul. (AFP)
Chinese tourists pose for photos outside the Forbidden City in Beijing. (AFP)
A worker uses a jackhammer on a house renovation in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (AP)
Children look at mangas, Japanese cartoon books, displayed during the 32nd Paris Book Fair. The fair hosts 2,000 authors and 1,200 publishers from 40 countries, with Japan and Moscow as guests of honor. (AFP)
Blooming cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin frame the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. (AP)
A girl shows a certificate, a bag of dog treats, and her dog after its vaccination at a basketball court in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Vaccination stations have been set up around the city in order to raise public awareness and educate owners on proper care and treatment of their animals. (Reuters)
A woman sits facing the Mediterranean Sea on the Promenade des Anglais, in Nice southern France. (AP)
Two Ruddy Ducks with their chicks stand on the edge of a lake in Regents Park, London, on a bright Spring day. (AP)
An Afghan musician plays an instrument called a dombura at a celebration of the Persian New Year Nowruz in Kabul. Nowruz, the Farsi-language word for "new year," is an ancient Persian festival, celebrated on the first day of spring in countries including Afghanistan and Iran.(AP)
Vietnamese Navy unit of the honor guards arrive at the official welcome ceremony for Burmese President Thein Sein to visit Hanoi, Vietnam. (AP)
A woman collects wood from a damaged Chinar tree during a wind storm inside Nishat Garden on the outskirts of Srinagar, India. The storm caused heavy destruction to civilian properties and uprooted many trees and electric poles, authorities said. But there were no reports of any injuries so far, authorities added. (Reuters)
People make their way along the streets of the town of Monemvasia in the Peloponnese area of Greece. (Reuters)
Kyrgyz riders play the traditional Central Asian sport Buzkashi also known as Kok-boru or Oglak Tartis in Bishkek. Mounted players compete for points by throwing a stuffed sheepskin into a well. (AFP)
An anti-government protester returns tear gas fired by riot police during clashes in Manama, Bahrain. (Reuters)
A boy collects recyclable materials at a garbage dump in the outskirts of Jammu, India. (AP)
Floris, 8, inspects a mirror cube at the "Extavium" museum in Potsdam, eastern Germany. The new interactive museum, formerly known as "Exploratorium Potsdam", re-opened with much more space for its 130 exhibits and interactive offers for children and their parents. (AFP)
A reception area in Kensington Palace which reopened Tuesday after a 12 million pound Sterling ($19 million) renovation in central London (Reuters)
On the first day of Spring in Germany a bumble bee collects pollen from a blooming crocus in the sun at a traffic island in Gelsenkirchen. (AP)
A model present a creation by Malaysian designer Winnie Loo during the Mercedes-Benz Stylo Fashion Grand Prix in downtown Kuala Lumpur. (AFP)
Members of a family sleep outside their home in fear that aftershocks from Tuesday's magnitude-7.4 quake could cause their home to collapse in Pinotepa Nacional, Mexican state of Oaxaca, near the border with Guerrero. (AP)
Smoke from burning tires blankets a student protester during a demonstration against the government's plan to raise fuel prices in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. (AP)
Ethiopian migrants rest near a transit center where they are waiting for repatriation in the western Yemeni town of Haradh, on the border with Saudi Arabia. Some 12,000 migrants, mostly from the Horn of Africa, are stranded in Haradh, which they are using as a stepping stone to reach Saudi Arabia, according to the International Organization for Migration. (Reuters)
Syrian children who fled to Jordan with their families enjoy a day out at an amusement park in Amman. The activity was organized by an aid group to help the children acclimatize to life in their new environment. (Reuters)
The coffins of some of the victims of a bus crash in Switzerland are seen during a ceremony in Lommel, Belgium. A bus carrying a Belgian school party home from a ski trip crashed into the wall of a tunnel in Sierre, Switzerland, killing 28 people, 22 of them children on March 14. (Reuters)
Supporters of Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi wait for her arrival during an election campaign at Seikkan Township in Rangoon. (Reuters)
A visitor looks at jellyfish displayed at an aquarium in Shanghai, China. (AP)
Wearing their traditional costumes Kyrgyz girls dance at Ala-Too Square in Bishkek during the annual celebration of Nowroz (New Year) holiday. Nowroz is an ancient Persian festival marking the first day of spring and is celebrated in Central Asia. (AFP)
People enjoy a meal on the street during the Nowruz celebration in the town of Marneuli, some 40 km south of Tbilisi, Georgia. (Reuters)
An Albanian farmer washes his carrots in the village of Divjake, 30 km from the capital Tirana. The crisis in neighboring Greece has caused many Albanian immigrants to return home to farm their land. (Reuters)
A man gets his face shaved at a roadside barber's shop as scores of protesters attend a rally in New Delhi, India. (AP)
The sunrise as seen in a field of Godewaersvelde, northern France. (AFP)
Wearing their traditional costumes Turkmens celebrate Newroz (New Year) holiday in the capital Ashgabat with a portrait of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in the background. (AFP)
Bottles of water spell the word "One Steak" during a demonstration for the World Water Day near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. The word " One Steak" is made from bottles representing 1,500 liters of water, the equivalent needed to produce a 100-gram steak. (Reuters)
Residents fetch water in small bottles and jerrycans in the Mathare slum, Nairobi, Kenya, where a water shortage continues. (AFP)
Members of the media work during a raid on a five-story building to arrest a suspect in the killings of three children and a rabbi on March 19, 2012, at a Jewish school, in Toulouse, France. (Reuters)
A man cleans fish outside his makeshift shelter in suburban Manila, Philippines. (AP)
The sun sets behind a high voltage tower in Bangkok, Thailand.(AP)
A villager works on agricultural plots that has been newly planted with vegetable seeds near a U.S. military base in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan. (Reuters)
A farmer carries cucumbers from his field to sell in the markets in the northern Indian city of Allahabad. (Reuters)
Huang Sufang reacts as she sees a part of her house being taken down by demolition workers at Yangji village in central Guangzhou city, Guangdong province, China, March 21, 2012. Huang, who is a resident of Yangji village, clashes with demolition workers as they mistakenly take down a part of her home, which is not included in the demolition project, local media reported. (Reuters)
State trumpeters of the Household Cavalry dressed in their summer uniforms at Wellington Barracks show uniforms that will be worn for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, London, March 21, 2012. (Reuters)
Maycol Errani performs on horses during a rehearsal of the new show of Swiss National-Circus Knie in the town of Rapperswil east of Zurich, Switzerland. (Reuters)
Vehicles, at left, line up in front of a gas station in Cairo, Egypt. An acute fuel shortage has disrupted Cairo's already congested traffic, with long lines of vehicles snaking around gas stations, and drivers spending the night in their cars. (AP)
Indian laborers load coal onto trucks at a coal depot on the outskirts of Jammu. India's scandal-plagued government lost around $200 billion over the past 18 months by selling coalfields to companies without competitive bidding, according to a leaked audit report that the auditor itself called misleading. (AP)
Anti-government protesters attend a rally to demand the prosecution of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh during their weekly Friday prayers in Sana'a. (Reuters)
A masked police officer searches for clues at Mohamed Merah's apartment building in Toulouse, France. Mohamed Merah, who boasted of killing seven people to strike back at France died on March 22, 2012, after being shot in the head by police as he jumped out of his apartment, authorities said. (AP)
A Balinese man hits another with fire during a ritual ahead of Nyepi day in Ubud Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia. Nyepi is a day of silence to celebrate the Balinese new year, reserved for self-reflection, where people are not allowed to use lights, light fires, work, travel nor enjoy entertainment. (Reuters)
A Somali police officer (R) arrests a suspected rebel member (L) of the al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabaab among beach goers at the Lido beach north of Somalia's capital Mogadishu. (Reuters)
A farmer checks a plastic film that covers an asparagus field at a farm near Kutzleben, central Germany. (AP)
South Africa's Cecil Afrika is tackled in the game against Wales during the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens tournament. (AFP)
A performer falls with a bicycle after riding it off the 10-meter platform during a break in competition at the FINA Diving World Series being held at the National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube, in Beijing, Chian. (Reuters)
A poster of Pope Benedict XVI is seen on a street in Havana. The pope arrives in Cuba Monday for a three-day visit that has fueled aspirations for deeper economic and political change, and which the Roman Catholic Church hopes will spark a faith revival. (Reuters)
A Tibetan nun in exile scuffles with police officers during a protest in New Delhi, India. Earlier in the day a Tibetan exile man lit himself on fire, just ahead of a visit by China's president Hu Jintao. (AP)
Protesters against U.S. President Barack Obama's health care law (L) clash with a man who supports it outside the Supreme Court during the first day of legal arguments over the Affordable Care Act in Washington D.C. (Reuters)
A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews from a nearby settlement dance after performing a blessing of the trees prayer as they support fellow residents of Migron. Israel's Supreme Court rejected a deal that would have given the government three years to evacuate Migron, the West Bank's biggest and oldest settlement outpost. The court said it would extend a deadline it set last year from March to August 2012. (AFP)
A former Taliban fighter looks on after joining Afghan government forces during a ceremony in Herat province. Twelve fighters left the Taliban to join government forces in western Afghanistan. (AFP)
A boy tries to pass through sheep and goats in a street of the southern French city of Brignoles during a demonstration of shepherds protesting against the reintroduction of wolves. (AFP)
One World Trade Center towers above the Lower Manhattan skyline and Hudson River in New York City. The tower, now up to 93 floors, will reach 104 floors and is scheduled for completion in 2013. (AP)
A man extracts juice from sugarcane near Sula Pogada in Rangoon, Burma. (AP)
Students take part in a parade celebrating Bangladesh's independence in Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka. Bangladesh celebrated the 41st anniversary of independence from Pakistan Monday. (Reuters)
Swiss watchmaker Hublot CEO Jean-Claude Biver poses for a picture with watches during a ceremony to present the Euro 2012 soccer championship official watch in Kiev, Ukraine. (Reuters)
Musicians perform "Hand Drum" before a fashion show at the China Fashion Week in Beijing. (AP)
Takahiko Kozuka of Japan performs during a training session at the 2012 World Figure Skating Championships in Nice, southern France. (AP)
A tear gas canister fired by Indonesian police explodes in the air during a protest against the government's plan to raise fuel prices in Jakarta. The Indonesian government plans to raise fuel prices by about 33 percent in April to avoid a budget deficit due to expensive fuel subsidies. (AP)
Vehicles destroyed by a tsunami in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, Japan, an area damaged by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. (Reuters)
France's President and candidate for re-election in 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy, greets a local resident as he visits the medieval city of Guerande, western France. (AP)
Colombian judicial police transport the remains of FARC rebels killed during a dawn attack in Meta, at the Military Base Apiay in Villavicencio. (Reuters)
(L to R) Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev, U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, find their places for the group "family photo" at the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit at the COEX Center in Seoul, South Korea. (AFP)
A rainbow appears as a tourist takes pictures of the Hukou Waterfall on the Yellow River in Jixian county, Shanxi province, China. (Reuters)
Burmese soldiers march during the ceremony to mark the 67th anniversary of Armed Forces Day held at the parade ground in Naypyitaw. (AP)
A coffin carrying Tonga's King George Tupou V is carried on a giant black and gold-topped catafalque by 150 pallbearers to the Royal Tombs in Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa. Tonga's King, 63, who ushered in democracy to the South Pacific archipelago, was buried in a ceremony that mixed traditional Polynesian ritual with Christian hymn singing. He died suddenly in Hong Kong on March 18. (Reuters)
U.S. servicemen sit after boarding a transport plane before leaving for Afghanistan at the U.S. transit center at Manas airport near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. (Reuters)
An exterior view shows The Titanic Belfast building in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The six-floor building which opens in April, will tell the story of the Titanic from the ship's construction in Belfast to her sinking in the Atlantic on her maiden voyage one hundred years ago. (Reuters)
A sprinkler sprays water onto flowers at Waddon Pond in south London as Britain continues to enjoy warm weather. (AP)
A girl walks with her dog in a snow clad park in Minsk, Belarus. (AFP)
Rafael Nadal of Spain keeps his eye on the ball as he returns a shot from Kei Nishikori of Japan during the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Florida, USA. (AP)
A model presents a creation by Chinese fashion label Doveral during China Fashion Week in Beijing. (Reuters)
NASA successfully launches five suborbital sounding rockets this morning from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia as part of a study of the upper level jet stream. (NASA/Wallops)
People march along a central street as thousands rallied in a show of support for the recent military coup, in Bamako, Mali. (AP)
Musicians play Veena, an ancient Indian classical musical instrument, during a concert in Bangalore. (AP)
A Hungarian girl dressed in traditional garb is soaked by local boys in the main street of the village of Holloko, about 100 kms northeast of Budapest. Holloko, a World Heritage site, will celebrate Easter next weekend with the traditional "watering of girls," a fertility ritual rooted in Hungarian tribes of pre-Christian past, going as far back as the second century AD. (AFP)
Rescue personnel take part in a disaster drill against a printed backdrop simulating the aftermath of a landslide, in Taipei, Taiwan. (Reuters)
A Tibetan activist is detained by Indian police during a protest in New Delhi. (AFP)
Firemen extinguish a fire that engulfed a residential area in Quezon City, east of Manila, Philippines. The fire damaged some 200 houses, according to a local media report. (AFP)
Chicks, that are dyed with artificial colors, are sold at a street market in Beirut, Lebanon, to celebrate the Christian feast of Easter. (AFP)
Flags of Japan and the United States are carried during the opening ceremony of the American League season opening MLB baseball game between the Oakland Athletics and the Seattle Mariners at Tokyo Dome, Japan. (AP)
A worker picks giant tecolote ranunculus flowers by hand at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, California. The fields are a tourist attraction. (Reuters)
Kashmiri schoolgirls stand inside the tulip garden, called Siraj Bagh, after its opening in Srinagar, India. Siraj Bagh houses around two million tulips of 23 different varieties and claims to be Asia's largest tulip garden in Kashmir. (Reuters)
A Syrian refugee waves a Turkish flag as he sits atop a tent at the Reyhanli refugee camp in Hatay province on the Turkish-Syrian border. (Reuters)
Police officers fire tear gas to disperse student protesters during a demonstration outside the parliament building in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Reuters)
Students of the Batasan Hills High School attend their graduation ceremony in Quezon City, east of Manila. March is the month of graduation festivities nationwide in Philippines. (AFP)
Police use tear gas to disperse demonstrators during a protest against a government attempt to railroad a new education bill through parliament in Ankara, Turkey. (AFP)
Thousands of farmers hold up sticks as they make their way to the Plaza de Armas as part of the annual National Farmers Federation march, to demand land reforms from their government in Asuncion, Paraguay. (AP)
A man looks at sculptures made by the Dutch sculptor Nikolaus Gerhaert van Leyden (1420 - 1473) at the Notre-Dame museum in Strasbourg, eastern France, as part of an exhibition dedicated to his work. Gerhaert is considered the most influential northern European sculptor of the 15th century. (AFP)
A employee holds a Belle Epoque diamond and emerald necklace during an auction preview at Christie's in London. It is estimated to fetch between $1.3 million and $1.5 million at its auction in Geneva on May 14. (Reuters)
A flowerhorn fish at the annual fish festival or "Pramong Nomjai Thai Tuala" at a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand. (AFP)
People line up to buy Mega Millions lottery tickets at the Bluebird Liquor store in Hawthorne, California. Lottery ticket lines across the U.S. swelled as players drawn by a record $640 million Mega Millions jackpot took a chance at becoming an overnight millionaire. (AP)
Supporters wave from a car during a campaign of Phyu Phyu Thin, unseen, a well-known HIV activist and a candidate of Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party, in Minglataungnyunt township in Rangoon. (AP)
An Afghan carries a bundle of wood in Nahr-i Sufi near the DHQ (Char Dara District Police Headquarters) in the province of Kunduz. (AFP)
Members of parliament from the ruling AK Party and Republican People's Party scuffle during a debate at the parliament in Ankara. The Turkish parliament is hotly debating a bill overturning a 1997 law, imposed with the backing of the military, which extended compulsory education to eight from five years and stopped under-15s attending religious "imam hatip" schools. (Reuters)
African Union soldiers fire rockets in a front-line position during fighting in the district of Daynile, south of Somalia's capital Mogadishu. Somalia's al Qaeda-linked militants clashed with African Union and Somali government troops. (Reuters)
Young girls wear the traditional black 'mantillas' during a children's procession at Our Lady of the Rosary school in Sevilla, Spain, ahead the Holy Week. (AFP)
Visitors brace themselves from the rotor wash of the Marine One helicopter as President Barack Obama lifts off from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington as he travels to Vermont and Maine for campaign fundraising events. (AP)
A Palestinian youth climbs over a fruit stall as a mounted Israeli policeman disperses hundreds of Palestinian protesters during a demonstration marking Land Day in east Jerusalem. (AFP)
Damaged buildings in the old city of Homs, Syria (Reuters)
Sculptures entitled Blue Men, by Ofra Zimbalista, on the wall of a building on Borough High Street in south London. (Reuters)
Doves are seen inside a dress made of chocolate presented at the first Salon du Chocolat (Zurich Chocolate Show) in Zurich, Switzerland. (Reuters)
Nasser Al-Attiyah, from Qatar, and his co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini, from Italy, drive their Citroen DS3 WRC during the Portugal FIA World Rally Championship's second stage near Sao Bras de Arportel, southern Portugal. (AP)
A butterfly on a flower in a garden in central Baghdad, Iraq (AFP)
