The Week in Pictures

Forward Gao Lin of China, center, takes an overhead shot against Hong Kong during a match in the East Asian Football Championship at Tokyo’s National Stadium.  (Kazuhiro Nogi / AFP / Getty Images)

Holly Beck rides a wave at Haggerty’s in Malaga Cove, Rancho Palos Verdes, during high surf conditions.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

A float depicting the king of the Nice Carnival makes its way past spectators at the festival in southern France.  (Lionel Cironneau / Associated Press)

Worshipers light incense at the Lama Temple in Beijing on the first day of the Chinese New Year.  (Vincent Thian / Associated Press)

America’s BMW Oracle BOR 90, left, and the Swiss boat Alinghi 5 sail during Race 2 of the 33rd America’s Cup off Valencia, Spain.  (Daniel Ochoa de Olza / Associated Press)

BMW Oracle Racing owner Larry Ellison drinks champagne after winning the 33rd America’s Cup against the Swiss boat Alinghi 5 in Valencia, Spain.  (Alberto Saiz / Associated Press)

A paraglider hovers above a field at sunrise on the last day of the four-day Philippine Hot Air Balloon festival in Angeles city, Pampanga province, north of Manila. Crepuscular rays stream down from the clouds in the background.  (Bullit Marquez / Associated Press)

U.S. soldiers stand near an armored vehicle in the Badula Qulp area of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. The Army unit is operating in support of a U.S. Marine offensive against the Taliban in nearby Marja.  (Pier Paolo Cito / Associated Press)

Vera Zvonareva of Russia eyes the ball as she plays against Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan during the semifinal round of the WTA Pattaya Open tennis tournament. Zvonareva beat Shvedova, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.  (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul / AFP / Getty Images)

A Belarus conscript is kissed for good luck at an oath-taking ceremony outside Minsk. More than 6,500 conscripts were sworn in to the Belarus army.  (Viktor Drachev / AFP / Getty Images)

Chris Bertish of South Africa rides a giant wave during the fourth heat of the Mavericks Surf Contest. Bertish won the tournament.  (Ben Margot / Associated Press)

Drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr (88) and Greg Biffle (27) crash during the NASCAR DRIVE4COPD 300 Nationwide series race at Daytona International Speedway.  (Mark Young / Associated Press)

Nebraska’s Yvonne Turner falls on top of Missouri’s Jessra Johnson as they scramble for a loose ball during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game. Nebraska won, 82-78.  (L.G. Patterson / Associated Press)

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger carries the Olympic flame through Stanley Park.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

A physically challenged man cycles through a downpour. Heavy rain accompanied by lightning and thunder lashed India’s capital.  (Mustafa Quraishi / AP Photo)

A German musher competes with his dogs on the course at the European Championship sled dog sprint in central Slovakia’s resort Donovaly.  (Joe Klamar / AFP / Getty Images)

Abraham Lincoln, portrayed by Fritz Klein, gives children a lesson on the importance of reading during a 201st birthday celebration for the former president at the Old State Capitol.  (Seth Perlman / Associated Press)

Parker McLachlin plays a shot on the ninth hole during Round 2 of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach Golf Links on Friday.  (Stuart Franklin / Getty Images)

Masked revelers pose on a flooded Piazza San Marco during the Venice carnival. The high water stems from a convergence of high tides and strong winds.  (Marco Sabadin / AFP/Getty Images)

Men perform the weekly Friday prayer at Tehran University.  (AFP/Getty Images)

A demonstrator dressed as a character from “Avatar” shouts slogans against Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank. Israel says the barrier is needed for security, but Palestinians consider it a land grab.  (Bernat Armangue / Associated Press)

Men perform a traditional dance after President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Shiite Muslim rebels announced a cease-fire in the five-year conflict in the north of the country.  (Yahya Arhab / EPA)

The Colosseum is partly obscured by falling snow as a cold spell hits the Italian capital.  (Alessandro Di Meo / EPA)

A Hindu holy man smiles as he attends the Maha Shivaratri festival at Pashupati Temple. The event celebrates the birthday of Shiva, the god of creation and destruction, and is marked by special prayers and fasting.  (Narendra Shrestha / EPA)

Earthquake survivors pray at a camp set up for people left homeless by the devastation.  (Roberto Schmidt / AFP/Getty Images)

A pedestrian reads a notice from Alexander McQueen’s family in the window of the British fashion designer’s store. McQueen was found dead in his London apartment the previous day.  (Andy Rain / EPA)

A villager climbs to collect green coconuts.  (Biswaranjan Rout / Associated Press)

A United Nations helicopter takes off after picking up peacekeepers near a camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for residents displaced by the Jan. 12 earthquake.  (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press)

A newborn giraffe tries to walk at a zoo in Aalborg, Denmark.  (Henning Bagger / AFP/Getty Images)

Women in costume celebrate the start of a street carnival in Duesseldorf, Germany.  (Frank Augstein / Associated Press)

A Hindu devotee takes a ritualistic dip in the Ganges River in Haridwar, India.  (Manish Swarup / Associated Press)

Chinese actress Yu Nan poses as she arrives for a film premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.  (Sebastian Willnow / AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese passengers gather at a railway station in Beijing to catch trains that will take them home for the Lunar New Year. Millions of Chinese crowded into airports, train terminals and bus stations as the annual Lunar New Year holiday travel season kicked into high gear ahead of colorful weekend festivities.  (AFP/Getty Images)

A Swedish police officer shoots pepper spray at protesters, trying to control a demonstration outside the Iranian Embassy in Stockholm on the 31st anniversary of the Iranian revolution.  (Henrik Montgomery / AFP/Getty Images)

Jamaica’s Adrian Reid heads the ball Wednesday as Argentina’s Franco Jara arrives on the scene during a friendly match in international soccer. Argentina won, 2-1, thanks to goals from Martin Palermo and Ignacio Canuto.  (Daniel Garcia / AFP / Getty Images)

A lynx strolls Wednesday past gates being used during practice for the men’s Olympic downhill skiing event at Whistler, a venue for the Vancouver-based Winter Games that will begin Friday.  (Gero Breloer / Associated Press)

A man walks past snow-covered cars in a parking lot. Blizzards and icy winds shut down the federal government for a third day and spread the Washington area’s misery north to New York and Boston.  (Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images)

A snowball fight on Dupont Circle in the capital drew about 100 people. Forecasters predicted the current storm would bring 10 to 20 inches to the area.  (Michael Reynolds / EPA)

Melbourne Zoo’s new Asian elephant -- named Baby for the time being -- meets the public for the first time. Baby is only the second elephant born in Australia. She arrived Jan. 16, 2010.  (William West / AFP/Getty Images)

Koko the cat looks out a window to a Washington street blanketed in snow.  (Eva Hambach / AFP/Getty Images)

A bull eats straw put out for him during the storm.  (Carolyn Kaster / AP Photo)

Vanderson Lima, a visitor from Sao Paulo, Brazil, crosses himself in front of a mosaic inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Archaeologists said they have found a 1,500-year-old Jerusalem road that was once a bustling throughfare used by throngs of Christian pilgrims and that is depicted on a famed mosaic map of the Holy Land.  (David Silverman / Getty Images)

Members of the Afghan army remove snow from an overturned bus during a search-and-rescue operation in the wake of a series of avalanches that have killed at least 166 people.  (Musadeq Sadeq / Associated Press)

A “Robin Wood” activist climbs a tree, one of several occupied since December. The activists want to prevent the removal of several hundred trees to make way for a heating pipeline.  (Lukas Barth / EPA)

A firefighter looks a helicopter after it crashed in the Jockey Club horse racing complex. The Record TV helicopter crashed near a busy highway, killing the pilot and seriously injuring the cameraman onboard who was covering morning traffic and the police response to a bank robbery.  (Nelson Antoine / Associated Press)

A Hindu woman looks on after taking a ritualistic dip in the Ganges River during the Kumbh Mela, touted as the largest religious gathering in the world. It is celebrated every three years, rotating among four Indian cities.  (Rajesh Kumar Singh / Associated Press)

Priyanka Sharma, 5, passes a stack of used plastic containers, scavenged from a political rally, to her sister, Priya, left. Their family scavenges plastic for recycling, earning less than $1 a day.  (Gurinder Osan / Associated Press)

Icicles hang from the front porch of a home as a new snowstorm hits the Washington, D.C., area.  (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)

An Amish couple rides in a horse-drawn open buggy through a blizzard. The St. Mary’s area is being hit with a second snowstorm after getting 2 feet of snow earlier in the week.  (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

A fisherman braves wintry weather in the quest for trout.  (Owen Humphreys / Associated Press)

An Australian white tree frog that will soon be up for adoption is held by exotic animal specialist James Ditmore at a Petco store. The store will have more than 2,000 animals up for adoption that were rescued from an international pet wholesaler based in Arlington, Texas.  (Tim Sharp / Associated Press)

A U.S. Marine bites into a scorpion while participating in a jungle survival program as part of an annual military exercise. About 14,000 military personnel from South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, the U.S., Singapore and Japan are involved in the U.S.-led war games in the Pacific.  (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul / AFP/Getty Images)

Pedestrians make their way in the city, which was among those hit by an epic weekend blizzard. The Northeast, including the nation’s capital, is bracing for a second storm set to dump record snow.  (Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images)

A rainbow provides a colorful contrast to the gloomy skies over downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday as the storm prompted more evacuations in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. The region should dry out by Thursday, forecasters said. Full story  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Tom Boonen of Belgium, front left, and other cyclists compete in the third stage of the Tour of Qatar. Boonen, the defending champion, sprinted to victory in the third stage; Wouter Mol of The Netherlands is the overall leader.  (Karim Jaafar / AFP / Getty Images)

Israeli border police officers walk with a handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian in Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem. Palestinians scuffled with Israeli security forces in the Shuafat refugee camp after an arrest operation triggered clashes in the camp the day before.  (Bernat Armangue / Associated Press)

An amphibious bus tests the waters of the River Clyde. The “amfibus” runs like a regular bus on pavement, but it can also float and propel itself through water.  (Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images)

Supporters of Ukrainian opposition leader and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych wave flags of the Party of Regions during a rally.  (Sergei Grits / Associated Press)

Djudi, left, a 36-year-old orangutan, holds her newborn, Duran, at the Dresden Zoo. Djudi is the oldest orangutan mother in Europe.  (Matthias Hiekel / EPA)

A worker adds details to a float that is entered in this year’s Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. The float is dedicated to Spanish writer Miguel Cervantes, author of “Don Quixote.”  (Vanderlei Almeida / AFP / Getty Images)

A Hindu pilgrim participates in a procession during the Kumbh Mela, touted as the world’s largest Hindu gathering.  (Rajesh Kumar Singh / Associated Press)

Lord Alfred Dubs, right, British Labor Party politician and former member of Parliament, and Allegra Stratton, center, of The Guardian newspaper, compete in the annual Parliamentary Pancake Race. The event raises money for the charity Rehab, which aids people with disabilities.  (Stefan Rousseau / Associated Press)

Another snowboarder takes a practice run down Canada’s cloud-shrouded Mount Blackcomb in Whistler, British Columbia, on Monday.  (Anja Niedringhaus / Associated Press)

A snowboarder flies through the air as he goes down Canada’s Mount Blackcomb in Whistler, British Columbia, on Monday. Whistler will host several events of the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Olympics.  (Anja Niedringhaus / Associated Press)

Archbishop Desmond Tutu addresses the opening ceremony of the One Young World World Summit at Old Billingsgate in London. The event will bring together over 600 delegates ages 25 and younger from over 100 countries to discuss important world issues.  (Sang Tan / Associated Press)

Henry Laguna, whose family escaped death by a matter of seconds (but lost their puppy), views the devastation caused by a mudslide that swept down Manistee Drive in La Cañada Flintridge.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

A stray dog is covered in snow in Bucharest. A weekend of heavy snow has disrupted railway and road traffic in southern Romania, and schools were closed for two days.  (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)

Internationally-renowned Australian street performer Chayne Hultgren (aka ‘The Space Cowboy’) re-enacts his 18-sword swallowing attempt for a Guinness World Record in front of the Sydney Opera House. He beat his own world record when he simultaneously swallowed 18 swords, each blade was 0.5 inches wide and 20 inches long. The annual International Sword Swallowing Day is Feb. 28.  (Torsten Blackwood /AFP / Getty Images)

Dr. Conrad Murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of singer Michael Jackson last June.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Latoya Jackson, left, and her father, Joe Jackson, second from right, walk past media and fans as they enter the courthouse for the arraignment of Dr. Conrad Murray in the death of entertainer Michael Jackson. Murray, a cardiologist, was the pop singer’s personal phyisician.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A Siberian tiger yawns on a chilly day at Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. Temperatures dropped to 8 degress on Monday.  (Nati Harnik / Associated Press)

Vera Baranova, 54, supporter of Ukrainian opposition leader and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych, kisses his portrait during a rally. Yanukovich, the former mechanic who just six years ago was shunned as a pro-Moscow stooge, declared victory in Ukraine’s presidential election Sunday.  (Efrem Lukatsky / Associated Press)

A woman entering a mosque passes by graffiti, including swastikas, that had been painted overnight.  (Philippe Merle / AFP / Getty Images)

A worker arranges watermelons at a wholesale fruit market.  (Mahesh Kumar A / Associated Press)

Pupils from Boroughmuir High School come face to face with a Sumatran tiger through the glass during a visit to the Edinburgh Zoo.  (David Cheskin / Associated Press)

Amnesty International campaigners wrapped in aluminum foil protest outside the London headquarters of Vedanta Resources, a mining company, to highlight their claims of human rights abuses linked to Vedanta’s aluminum refinery in Orissa, India.  (Lewis Whyld / Associated Press)

Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.  (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)