,.jpg)
Supporters hold posters of Wiranto, chairman of the People's Conscience Party (HANURA), during his campaign rally in Serang in Indonesia's Banten province March 21, 2009. Southeast Asia's biggest democracy holds parliamentary elections on April 9. The polls will also determine which parties can field candidates for presidential elections on July 8.
Sayaka Hirano from Japan returns a ball during her quarterfinal match against Wang Yue Gu from Singapore at the Table Tennis German Open 2009 in Bremen, Germany, Saturday, March 21, 2009. Hirano won 4-1.
A poster of Japan's fashion brand Ms. REIKO dwarfs a pedestrian at Tokyo's shopping district of Ginza Saturday, March 21, 2009.
Hot air balloons float over Putrajaya during International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2009 March 21, 2009. The four-day show ends on Sunday with participants from Belgium, New Zealand, Netherlands, France, United States, Philippines, Switzerland, Japan and Malaysia.
+and+his+wife+Camilla+(L),+Duchess+of+Cornwall,+walk+with+Galapagos+National+Park.jpg)
Britain's Prince Charles (R) and his wife Camilla (L), Duchess of Cornwall, walk with Galapagos National Park guides during their visit to Seymour Island March 17, 2009. Prince Charles and Camilla are in Ecuador on an official visit.
+meets+with+Bahrain%27s+Foreign+Minister+Sheikh+Khaled+bin+Ahmed+al-Khalifa.jpg)
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) meets with Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa at the State Department in Washington March 18, 2009.
In this Dec. 7, 2005 file photo, a Sumatran Tiger drinks water in an enclosure at National Zoo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Conservationists have slammed plans to create a tiger park on Malaysia's resort island of Penang, warning Saturday, March 21, 2009, that the project would be too expensive to maintain and could lead to illegal wildlife trade.
Britain's Prince William, right, shakes hands with David Pickering, left, of the Welsh RFU as he arrives at the Millennium stadium in Cardiff, Saturday, March 21, 2009. Prince William will watch the final and deciding match of rugby union's Six Nations championship between Ireland and Wales.
President Barack Obama, left, and first lady Michelle Obama, right, walk across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, before their departure on Marine One helicopter, Saturday, March 21, 2009.
Jordanian honor guard take place upon the arrival of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on March 20, 2009 in Amman, Jordan.
Michal Novotny, of the Czech Republic, second from right, competes on his way to win a men's snowboard cross event, followed by Canada's Robert Fagan, left, and Germany's David Speiser, right, at the Snowboard World Cup Finals in Chiesa Valmalenco, Italy, Friday, March 20, 2009.
A line of job applicants snakes through a line to attend the CUNY Big Apple Job Fair Friday, March 20, 2009 in New York. The fair attracts several thousand college-educated applicants. New jobless claims fell more than expected last week, but continuing claims set a new record for the eighth straight week and few economists expect the labor market to improve anytime soon.
Electoral poster of Imer Selmani, presidential candidate of the ethnic Albanian New Democracy, saying "New spring for Macedonia" is seen between umbrellas during the final rally in Macedonia's capital Skopje, on Friday, March 20, 2009, two days before the presidential and local elections in this Balkan's country.
First lady Michelle Obama takes part in the groundbreaking of the White House Kitchen Garden on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Friday, March 20, 2009, with students from Washington's Bancroft Elementary School.
President Barack Obama makes remarks to representatives of the National Conference of State Legislatures, Friday, March 20, 2009, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington.
First lady Michelle Obama spoke to students, including Tiara Chance, at Anacostia High School in Washington. Twenty-one women at the top of their fields joined Ms. Obama in visiting local schools to talk to students about their career goals.
A woman showed her faith outside a stadium in Yaounde, Cameroon's capital, where Pope Benedict XVI celebrated an open-air Mass on Thursday. It was the third day of his six-day visit to Africa. In his homily, Benedict expressed compassion for African children being kidnapped and forced to fight by rebel groups trying to carve up parts of Africa. "God loves you, he has not forgotten you," he said in a message to the children.
An American Marine patrolled in Farah Province of southwest Afghanistan with an opium poppy flower on his helmet. The Marines based in the remote village of Baqwa are battling a Taliban insurgency financed in large part by the drug trade, which thrives in Afghanistan's south.
South Koreans burned portraits of Osama bin Laden during a rally in front of the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea. They were protesting two attacks in Yemen this week against South Korean citizens. Al Qaeda is suspected in an explosion that killed four tourists on Sunday at a medieval walled city in Yemen. On Wednesday a suicide bomber struck a convoy carrying South Korean officials sent to Yemen to investigate.
A demonstrator with a peace flag protested government policies in Paris on Thursday, where rail service, airports, utilities and the public sector were hit by the second major strike in two months. French unions were mobilizing against what they saw as the government's inadequate response to the global economic crisis.
Workers laid off from the Longbin Distillery in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, staged a sit-in at the offices of the China Resources Holdings Company in Beijing. The workers were demanding insurance and retirement benefits they said were lost when their distillery became a subsidiary of China Resources in 2007.
Millions of Russians have lost their jobs and the ruble has slumped against the dollar, ending a 10-year boom that was an underpinning of support for President Dmitri A. Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin. People lined up in the rain to attend a job fair in St. Petersburg.
President Obama attended a town-hall-style meeting in Costa Mesa, Calif., where he promised that his $3.6 trillion budget and recovery plan would put the country’s economy back on track.
Before Mr. Liddy's testimony, President Obama walked with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, second from left, White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers, right, and Christina D. Romer, the White House's chief economist, on the South Lawn of the White House.
Edward Liddy, the A.I.G. chief executive who took over after the bailout, arrived to testify before the House Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises Subcommittee. He talked about progress in fixing the problems at A.I.G. and controversial retention bonuses that became known to the public this week.
Boyaca Chico`s FC of Colombia Edwin Movil (C) celebrates with Marco Perez (R) after scoring his first goal with against Universidad de Chile during their Copa Libertadores soccer tournament in Tunja March 18, 2009.
A Brazilian Indian boy holds a Brazil flag as he poses for photographers outside the Supreme Court during a court proceeding to examine the action seeking the repeal of the ordinance which defined the limits of continuous reserve at the indigenous reserve of "Raposa Serra do Sol" in the Amazon state of Roraima, in Brasilia March 18, 2009.
Members of the group "Ladies in White" stand outside Havana's Cathedral, during the sixth anniversary of the arrest of 75 activists, March 18, 2009. The mothers and wives of the imprisoned Cuban dissidents demanded the release of the activists and independent journalists in a letter to President Raul Castro on Tuesday, saying their loved ones were guilty only of loving their country. Of the 75, who received sentences from six to 28 years in jail, 21 were released early and 54 remain behind bars.
An unidentified Egyptian woman takes a break from offering trinkets to tourists at the Sphinx outside Cairo, Egypt. Tourism is a large part of Egypt's economy, and many Egyptians, including this woman, speak English.
Chile's Fernando Gonzalez fails to reach a passing shot by Roger Federer of Switzerland at the Indian Wells ATP tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, March 18, 2009.
+arrives+to+meet+President+of+Cameroon+Paul+Biya+and+his+wife+Chantal+(L)+at+Unity+Palace+in+Yaounde+March+18,+2009.jpg)
Pope Benedict XVI (C) arrives to meet President of Cameroon Paul Biya and his wife Chantal (L) at Unity Palace in Yaounde March 18, 2009. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi Wed Mar 18, 11:47 AM
A Palestinian police officer walks past a graffiti of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at a police station in the West Bank city of Hebron following an operation. A Palestinian human rights group on Wednesday accused security services in the West Bank and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip of politically motivated arrests.
Breakdown of bonuses paid by AIG. AIG boss Edward Liddy was hauled over the coals Wednesday by US lawmakers furious about staggering bonuses paid by the bailed-out insurer, but Republicans had a bigger target for attack: President Barack Obama.
Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir addresses a rally by thousands of Sudanese soldiers in the capital Khartoum on March 16. Beshir called on Wednesday for Darfur rebels to lay down their arms, during a visit to the conflict-torn region where he stands accused of war crimes.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband appears with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before their meeting at the State Department in Washington March 18, 2009.
Mr. Ranelli entertained Ms. Hartinger and another hostel guest from Germany, Kathrin Stoppel, 20, at the Ding Dong Lounge on Columbus Avenue."Elmo is the best!" said Ms. Stoppel. "He knows all the places."
Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the archbishop of New York, who has announced his retirement, talked with the 2009 grand marshal Michael J. Gibbons.
Tens of thousands of marchers proceeded up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Tuesday.
This is a Feb. 14, 2009 file photo showing Michelle Wie during the final round of the SBS Open golf tournament at the Turtle Bay Resort in Kahuku, Hawaii. Michelle Wie has a new agent. The 19-year-old from Hawaii has signed a contract with IMG to manage her career.
In this March 19, 2008 file photo, elephants of the Ringling Bros circus walk through the streets of Manhattan on their way to Madison Square Garden in New York. Animal rights activists and the Ringling Bros. circus are getting their final say in a seven-year court battle over treatment of elephants under the big top. Both sides were to offer closing arguments Wednesday March 18, 2009, in a six-week trial over elephant trainers' use of chains and metal-tipped prods called bull hooks.
Japan's government-sponsored research laboratory, AIST, unveiled its new humanoid robot "HRP-4C," which is 62 inches tall and weighs 95 pounds. The demonstration showed the robot's human-like motions at the AIST laboratory in Tsukuba city, a Tokyo suburb.
Canadian soldiers from the NATO-led coalition played indoor hockey in the Forward Operating Base of Zhari district in Kandahar Province, southern Afghanistan. Without an ice arena, the soldiers make due with a rubber ball and running shoes on a concrete floor to get a taste of the sport far from home.
Pope Benedict XVI will meet with representatives of Cameroon's Muslim community during his first trip to Africa, the fastest-growing region for the Roman Catholic church. Students at the Al-Haraiman French-Arabic School talked during a class break, in Yaounde, Cameroon.
Iraqi Kurdish children performed during a ceremony commemorating the 21st anniversary gas attack on Halabja, by Saddam Hussein's government, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad. Some 5,600 people were killed when Mr. Hussein ordered the attack in Halabja in an attempt to crush a Kurdish rebellion in the north.
Greek riot police officers clashed with university students from the northern city of Ioannina, at the headquarters of the National Youth Foundation in Athens. The students were protesting the privatization of their dormitories and cafeterias.
Josef Fritzl hid his face at the start of his trial on charges of incest in the provincial courthouse in Sankt Poelten, Austria. Mr. Fritzl pleaded guilty to incest, rape and sequestration of his daughter in an underground bunker for 24 years, but denied charges of murder and enslavement. The 73-year-old Austrian engineer who set up a house of horror with electrically controlled doors to stop his daughter Elisabeth and her children from escaping, is accused of murder, slavery, rape and other charges which could lead to a life jail sentence.
Supporters of the leftist leader Mauricio Funes, 49, celebrated his victory in the presidential election in El Salvador. Mr. Funes of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and a former television presenter, got 51.27 percent of the vote against 48.73 percent for Rodrigo Avila of the ruling conservative ARENA party, after more than 90 percent of ballots were counted, the electoral authorities said.
Tanks forced their way into the presidential palace in the center of Madagascar's capital, Antananarivo, but the president was not inside. Soldiers followed two tanks into the palace as a leadership crisis in Madagascar continued with the opposition demanding that the president step down.
Pakistani lawyers danced outside Mr. Chaudhry's home after the government relented in a major confrontation with the opposition, agreeing to reinstate him to the position he was removed from two years ago.
Pakistan's government reinstated the country's chief justice in the face of protests by lawyers and the opposition party. The reinstatement prompted the opposition to call off a nationwide rally in the capital, Islamabad, and led to a day of celebration. The judge, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry waved to supporters in front of his home in Islamabad.
