Image of Category 2 Hurricane Irene taken by the NOAA GOES-East satellite. Irene is still tracking northward along the US eastern coastline with 110 mph sustained winds. (NOAA)

A surfer hits the break of an eight foot wave at Folly Beach in Charleston, South Carolina as Hurricane Irene causes larger than normal swells along the South Carolina coast. (AP)

Vehicles drive in lines of traffic headed north on the Garden State Parkway across the Great Egg Harbor Bay Inlet Bridge, near Ocean City, New Jersey as much of the Jersey shore evacuates inland ahead of Hurricane Irene. (AP)

A shopper passes empty shelves at a supermarket in Long Beach on Long Island, New York. As North Carolina braced for a direct hit from Hurricane Irene, cities along the East Coast were on alert and millions of beach goers cut short vacations to escape the powerful storm. (AP)

The dedication ceremony for the new Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington, DC has been postponed by Hurricane Irene. (Reuters)

Children and Catholic nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, the global order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa, pray beside her tomb on the occasion of her 101st birth anniversary in Kolkata, India. (Reuters)

US Army soldiers with Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry (the Wolfhounds), Task Force NO FEAR, take positions upon arrival from Forward Operating Base Bostick to Observation Post Mace in eastern Afghanistan's Naray district, Kunar province near the border of Pakistan. (Reuters)

An injured man is carried from a United Nation's office after a car bomb in Abuja, Nigeria. The car, laden with explosives, rammed through two gates and blew up at the UN offices in Nigeria's capital, killing at least seven people and shattering part of the concrete structure. (AP)

A passenger plane destroyed by over-night shelling at Tripoli International Airport outside Tripoli, LIbya. (AP)

The crew wave from the rigging as Colombia's naval sailing ship ARC Gloria passes though Tower Bridge at the end of a three day visit to London. (Reuters)

Melted gold flows out of a smelter at the Austrian Gold and Silver Separating Plant 'Oegussa' in Vienna. Oegussa processes some 100 tons of various precious metals and generates a turnover of 300 million euros a year. (Reuters)

Swiss acrobat Freddy Nock balances upon a rope at the Jungfraujoch (3454 meters) in Bernese Oberland, Switzerland. (Reuters)

Ciuchcia, a four-month-old dog, chases a cat in a courtyard after being helped onto a specially made wheelchair at Schronisko, a shelter for homeless animals, near Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland. Ciuchcia's rear legs were paralyzed after it was physically abused and abandoned with its two siblings on a train track. (Reuters)

Workers position the center arch span to the Lake Champlain Bridge before it is lifted into place, in Crown Point, New York, US. (AP)

A Hawksbill turtle and reef sharks are seen twenty-five meters under water off the coast of Provo Island in the Caribbean. (VOA Photo - Zulima Palacio)