« Back to article

Print this article

In PHOTOS: Around the word in the last 48 hours

Here are some of the most spectacular images from across the world in the last 48 hours.

People stand on a memorial on the shore of Tyrifjorden lake overlooking Utoeya island on Monday, where anti-Islam extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 68 people in a shooting rampage on July 22. Breivik has confessed to the attacks, as his lawyer said  client wanted to attack Norwegian society in order to change it.

Most of the people killed on the island were teenagers attending a youth summer camp hosted by the ruling Labour Party.
Norwegians believe penalties for serious crimes in their country should be tightened in the wake of the shooting and a bomb attack that killed 77 people, an opinion poll showed on Monday.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

United States. Representative Peter DeFazio holds his notes as he talks to reporters after a Democratic caucus meeting about debt relief legislation with US Vice President Joe Biden at the US Capitol in Washington on Monday.

US President Barack Obama announces a deal on raising the debt ceiling by $2.1 trillion with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders. He urged the Congress to get behind the proposed legislation, but admits it is not the deal he 'would have preferred' but says the compromise allows the US to avoid default and avert crisis.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

Flowers and pictures of victims of street violence are placed on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.

Three thousand flowers, representing the 30,000 victims of violence in Rio de Janeiro from 2007 to present, were placed on the beach in an event staged to raise public awareness and to call for the attention of the authorities, according to the organisers.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

Russian warships fire during a naval parade in the far eastern port of Vladivostok, as the country celebrated Navy Day on Sunday.

In Moscow, some 500 marines marked the day in parks. In Kaliningrad, where based the Baltic Fleet, a warship parade at the sea canal in Baltiysk Sunday theatrically reproduced the battle in which Soviet troops seized the Pillau fortress in the end of April 1945, reported Itar-Tass news agency.

In Russia, the Navy Day is traditionally celebrated on the last Sunday of July. Russia currently maintains five fleets: on the Pacific Ocean in the Far East, on the Arctic Ocean in the north, on the Baltic Sea in the westernmost Kaliningrad region, and in the Black and the Caspian Seas in the south.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

The hand of a volunteer is seen as he splashes water at a Hindu devotee taking part in the "Bol Bom" (or Say Shiva) pilgrimage in Kathmandu on Monday.

The faithful, chanting the name of Lord Shiva, run some 15 km barefooted to Pashupatinath temple seeking good health, wealth and happiness. Water is sprayed to help them cool down after the long distance run.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

Lebanese officer cadets celebrate during their graduation parade at a military academy in Fayadyeh, near Beirut, marking the 66th Army Day on Monday.

President Michel Sleiman urged Lebanese rival leaders to soften their political rhetoric, reiterating his call for the resumption of national dialogue as means to prevent future conflicts.

"Political leaders should work on toning down political rhetoric, which is growing stronger, and use the language of dialogue, which can be used to not only resolve contentious issues but also to prevent future conflicts," Sleiman said during a speech at the Army Day ceremony at Shukri Ghanem Barracks in Fayyadieh, east of Beirut.

Tensions between Lebanon's rival political factions have grown since the fall of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri's government in January after 8 ministers from the Hezbollah-led March 8 alliance resigned.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

A boy sleeps on a mat as his mother, sews at a workshop of a textile factory in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

China's factories struggled with their weakest activity in 28 months in July, a pair of surveys showed on Monday, as manufacturers grappled with credit shortages and softening global demand.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

An Aymara woman makes a beer offering to 'Pachamama' (mother earth) in La Cumbre, some 30 km on the outskirts of La Paz on Monday.

According to Andean culture, the month of August is the time to give offerings to 'Pachamama'. For these rituals, the Aymaras make offerings with coca leaves, candies, animal fat, llama foetuses, some dry fruits, powdered minerals and alcohol. The indigenous give thanks for their farms and their health.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

United States Kosovo Force soldiers are seen as a Kosovo Serb plays soccer on the closed Serbia-Kosovo border crossing of Jarinje on Sunday.

Serbs vowed to press on with roadblocks and stop North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's KFOR peacekeeping force from proceeding until Kosovo agrees not to station its police and customs officers at the sensitive border posts.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

An activist is detained by police during a protest action to defend Article 31 of the Russian constitution in Moscow.

Russian police arrested dozens of protesters across several cities on Sunday as opposition groups took to the streets to demand freedom of assembly.

About a hundred people staged a sit-in in Triumfalnaya square in central Moscow as part of a campaign calling for the implementation of Article 31 of the Russian constitution which guarantees freedom of assembly.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

Army personnel clear away protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Monday. Egypt's army moved into Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square on Monday clearing away a few hundred protesters who remained camped there after the main groups ended their three-week demonstration.

Egyptian forces swinging electrified batons and shouting the battle cry "God is great" swiftly chased off dozens of activists, who had refused to end four weeks of renewed protests at Tahrir Square to pressure the country's transitional military rulers. Some people in the crowd hurled stones at the police.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

Satsuko Yatsuzaka, 84, holds a therapeutic robot named Paro at the Suisyoen retirement home, about 30 km south of the tsunami-crippled nuclear plant in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture.

For some elderly survivors of Japan's March earthquake and tsunami, comfort comes in the form of a small white robotic seal named Paro. The residents of the nursing home came back from a nearly two-month-long evacuation since the nuclear crisis in Fukushima.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

Tourists carry their luggage as they try to reach the airport in Herakleion on Monday.

Taxi drivers blocked major roads across Greece on Monday, stepping up protests against EU/IMF-inspired reforms to their trade and disrupting tourism at the height of the summer season. Others blocked access roads to the Herakleion airport at the resort island of Crete, forcing tourists to walk 500 metres with their luggage to get on buses and other transport.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

Muslim woman attend mass prayer session Tarawih, which marks the beginning of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, at Al Markaz Al Islami mosque in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

Muslims around the world abstain from eating, drinking and conducting sexual relations from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

A devotee covered in motor oil takes a rest in the celebrations honouring the patron saint of Managua, Santo Domingo de Guzman, in Managua on Monday.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

People duck to avoid gunfire in Kazou neighbourhood in Hama in this still image taken from video. Syrian army tanks firing shells and machineguns stormed the city of Hama on Sunday, killing at least 45 civilians in a move to crush demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, residents and activists said.

The government said troops had been sent in to Hama to remove barricades erected by the protesters. US President Barack Obama has said he is appalled by the brutal attacks by Syrian forces on civilian protesters.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

Latif Yahia, who was a body double for Saddam Hussein's son Uday, and whose story is told in the film The Devil's Double, poses for a photograph in a hotel in London on Monday.

The film based on the true story of Latif Yahia, an Iraqi soldier who was forced to become the body double of Uday Hussein, will hit the screens in India on August 12.

Around the word in the last 48 hours

A Palestinian boy cries next to the body of his relative, Ali Khalifa, during his funeral in Qalandiya refugee camp, near the West bank city of Ramallah on Monday.

Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians, one of them Khalifa, in the occupied West Bank on Monday after entering the refugee camp to make arrests, medical officials and the military said.