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)

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)

Schoolchildren check their XO laptops at the Municipal Stadium in Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. Around 5,000 of the island's underprivileged children will benefit from the delivery of laptops which have been donated by the Zamora-Teran Foundation. (Reuters)

South Koreans wearing traditional Korean costumes in Cheonan, south of Seoul, carry torches in their hands during a ceremony to celebrate the March First Independence Movement Day, the anniversary of the 1919 uprising against Japanese colonial rule. (AP)

Kuwaiti Islamist-Shi'ite MP Hussein Al Qallaf, left, and liberal-Shi'ite MP Abdulhameed Dashti during a heated debate over the situation in Syria at the National Assembly's session. (AP)

People pray by the coffin of a member of the Free Syrian Army, who was killed by armed civilians loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al Assad, during a funeral near the northern city of Idlib. (Reuters)

A woman walks past a building decorated with a pair of eyes in the Crimean city of Sevastopol, Ukraine. (Reuters)

Windows are blown out of a Hilton hotel in downtown Branson, Missouri, USA. A powerful storm system lashed the Midwest, roughing up the country music resort city of Branson and laying waste to a small town in Kansas. (AP)

A foot of Sujon, 9, is seen as he works in a vehicle spare parts store in Dholaikhal, Dhaka, Bangladesh. According to locals, about 10,000 people, one third of them children, work in the city's Dholaikhal area. (Reuters)

Demonstrators are seen in the middle of a road blocked by garbage containers burning during clashes in Barcelona, Spain. Spanish students clashed with police during nationwide protests against education spending cuts. (AP)

A green sea turtle dives in a basin at the SeaLife aquarium in Oberhausen, western Germany. (AFP)

A model wears a creation of designer Guy Laroche as part of the Fall-Winter, ready-to-wear 2013 fashion collection, during Paris Fashion week, France. (AP)

Feliciano Lopez of Spain reacts after he lost a point against Roger Federer of Switzerland during the Emirates Dubai ATP Tennis Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP)

A man pushes his bicycle through a garden containing more than 1,200 Buddhist statues in a monastery in the city of Myitkyina, in Burma's northern Kachin state. (Reuters)

Backdropped by Tower Bridge, giant Olympic Rings float on the River Thames in London during its launch to mark 150 days before the start of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. (AP)

Firefighters work on the roof of the Palace of the Beloselsky-Belozersky Princes, which is on fire, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Palace of the Beloselsky-Belozersky Princes, which is one of the remarkable places of interest of the city, was built in 1846-1848 in the baroque style. (Reuters)

A couple during a heavy snowfall on the mountain of Penteli in northern Athens, Greece. Ferry services have been canceled at three main ports, as high winds and a bout of winter weather dumped snow around the country. (AP)

An electrician fixes a bulb as an Indian woman voter casts her vote in a polling station in Muradnagar, in Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. (AP)

Tony Stewart (14), Ricky Stenhouse Jr (6), and David Gilliland (38) wreck as Joey Logano (20) and Mark Martin (55) drive past during the NASCAR Daytona 500 Sprint Cup series auto race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA. (AP)

A model wears a creation of designer Fatima Lopes as part of the Fall-Winter, ready-to-wear 2013 fashion collection, during Paris Fashion week, France. (AP)

A farmer loads cut sugarcane onto a truck during harvest season in Thanh Hoa province, 200 km (124 miles) south of Hanoi. (Reuters)

Afghan policemen form a line during an anti-US demonstration in Kabul. (AP)

A video journalist films an Israeli soldier firing tear gas towards Palestinian protesters demanding the reopening of a key street in the West Bank city of Hebron. (AFP)

Albanian soldiers carry the coffin of Albanian Captain Feti Vogli, 31, at the Palace of Congress in Tirana. Afghan gunmen clad in police uniforms opened fire on NATO troops on February 20, 2012, in southern Afghanistan, killing Vogli and injuring two other foreign soldiers, according to Albania's Defense Ministry. (Reuters)

A man writes a love message on a board as he takes part in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the longest love letter in Bucharest during Dragobete, the traditional Romanian lovers' day. (Reuters)

Two spectators walk past the scoreboard during the second round of the HSBC Women's Champions golf tournament at Tanah Merah Country Club in Singapore. (Reuters)

Iceland's Steinthor Freyr Thorsteinsson takes a flip throw during a throw-in at the friendly football match against Japan at Nagai Stadium in Osaka. (AFP)

This multiple exposure image shows a model displaying a creation of Moschino Fall-winter 2012-2013 collection during the Women's fashion week in Milan. (AFP)

Groomed Shih Tzu dogs wait for the start of a competition during the Asia-Pacific Dog Show in Manila. Philippines. (Reuters)

About 3,000 Baekseok University students create the shape of a drop of blood at a ski resort in Pyeong Chang, South Korea. (AP)

A barber uses a razor to clean the eyelid of his customer as a part of his hair shaving service, at a residential area in Suining, Sichuan province. According to traditional Chinese belief, getting a haircut on the second day of the second Chinese lunar month, which falls on February 23 this year, is likely to bring good luck. (Reuters)

Kashmiri villagers search for their belongings after their huts were buried under snow due to avalanche in Ramwari, some 70 km from the summer capital Srinagar. At least nine Indian soldiers on duty in the mountains of Kashmir were killed in avalanches overnight with several others missing, officials said. (AFP)

A fire engulfs huts in the Um-Piam refugee camp in Thailand's Tak Province, 426 kilometers (265 miles) west of Bangkok. Um-Piam is the second largest refugee camp along the Thai-Myanmar border, which houses more than 15,000 Burmese refugees. More than 200 homes have been destroyed. (Reuters)

People hold a giant Russian national flag during a rally to support presidential candidate and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the Luzhniki stadium on the Defender of the Fatherland Day in Moscow. (Reuters)

Stylists apply make up for a model backstage before the Francesco Scognamiglio's 2012 Autumn/Winter collection during Milan Fashion Week, Italy. (Reuters)

A woman visits the French painter Robert Combas' retrospective exhibition 'Greatest Hits' at the Lyon's contemporary art museum, central France. (AP)

Madeleine Eastoe from the Australian Ballet and dance company 'Chunky Move' rehearses the world premier of 'Infinity', the first triple bill in the Australian Ballet's history to premiere three brand new Australian commissions by choreographers Graeme Murphy, Gideon Obarzanek and Stephen Page in Melbourne. (AFP)

Dancers performs on opening night of the 53rd annual Vina del Mar International Song Festival, in Vina del Mar, Chile, February 22, 2012. (AP)

US Republican presidential hopeful and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is seen through a window as he speaks during a campaign rally at the Tri-City Christian Academy in Chandler, Arizona. (AFP)

Firemen rescue wounded passengers from a commuter train after a collision in Buenos Aires. A packed train slammed into the end of the line in Buenos Aires' busy Once station, injuring over 300 morning commuters, Argentina's transportation secretary said. (AP)

A protester with Yemen's flag painted on his body shouts slogans during a rally in Sana'a demanding the prosecution of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. (AP)

A monk participates in a debate as part of Tibetan New Year celebrations at a temple in Langmusixiang, Sichuan Province. (Reuters)

Protesters run as smoke raises from a burning truck during an anti-US demonstration at a NATO military base in Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP)

Statues of Buddhist monks near a temple in Payathonzu, near the Burmese border with Thailand (Reuters)

Alexis Pinturault of France (L) clears a gate as he skis against Romed Baumann of Austria to win the men's parallel slalom City Event of the Alpine Skiing World Cup in Moscow, Russia. (Reuters)

velers of the Academicos do Grande Rio samba school perform during the second night of Carnival at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AFP)

'Gilles of Binche' dance during a carnival parade in the city centre of Binche, Belgium. The Carnival of Binche dates back to around the 14th Century, with the clown-like Gilles performing their traditional dances to the sound of drums to ward off evil spirits with their sticks. (AP)

Chandra Bahadur Dangi, a 72-year-old Nepali who claims to be the world's shortest man at 56 centimetres (22 inches) in height, walks near his home in Reemkholi village in Dang district, some 540 kilometres southwest of Kathmandu. Dangi will embark to the capital city as Guinness World Records experts are due to arrive in Nepal to measure a 72-year-old claiming to be the world's shortest man. (AFP)

An Afghan demonstrator holds a copy of a half-burnt Quran, allegedly set on fire by US soldiers, at the gate of Bagram airbase during a protest against Koran desecration at Bagram, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Kabul. (AFP)

A Somali herder tends to his camels by the side of the road near the town of Dhobley, currently under control by Kenyan military and Somali government forces, in Somalia. Kenya's military has been fighting inside Somalia in an ongoing offensive against militant group al-Shabab since October. (AP)

Ethnic Tibetan women pray around the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe county, Gansu Province, ahead of the Tibetan New Year which begins on February 22, 2012. (Reuters)

Clothing, lying in heaps at the site of a neighborhood destroyed by the March 11, 2011 tsunami, is piled up by clearing crews in Rikuzentakata, Japan. (AP)

A lone spectator watches an Olympic qualifier field hockey match between Poland and Italy in New Delhi, India. (AP)