Egyptian protesters try to tear down a cement wall built to prevent them from reaching parliament and the Cabinet building near Tahrir Square in Cairo. (AP)

A man watches the religious service during the funeral of Romanian engineer TIberiu Costache, who was killed during the hostage crisis in Algeria, in the village of Tatarani, Romania. (AP)

Nearly 200,000 light-years from Earth, the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, floats in space, in a long and slow dance around our galaxy. Vast clouds of gas within it slowly collapse to form new stars. In turn, these light up the gas clouds in a riot of colors. (ESA/NASA/Hubble)

Sloane Stephens of U.S. hits a forehand return to Victoria Azarenka of Belarus during their semifinal match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia. (AP)

Iranians take photos with their mobile phones of authorities carrying out the court-ordered amputation of the fingers of a convicted thief, 29, not pictured, in a public square in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz. The man was convicted for being part of a 10-member gang that carried out burglaries in the city. He was sentenced to the amputation of three fingers, the confiscation of his property and three years in prison. (AP)

A woman rides along a street on a hazy day in Haozhou, Anhui province, China. A fresh cold front will hit northern China next week and it is expected to disperse the fog that has shrouded the country in recent days, meteorological authorities said. (Reuters)

French military personnel and their vehicles are seen aboard a U.S. Air Force transport aircraft before departing for Mali from Istres airbase, near Marseille, southern France. (AP)

Young monks are on the way to have their meal in the Changlie monastery in Aba prefecture, Sichuan province, China. (Tongqi Huang/China/VOA reader)

Followers of the Shi’ite sect chew qat, a mild stimulant, as they attend a rally to mark the birth anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad in Sana’a, Yemen. (Reuters)

Ghana fans cheer their team during their African Nations Cup Group B soccer match against Mali at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. (Reuters)