A French soldier peers into the barrel of a tank at a Malian air base in Bamako. France hit Islamist rebels in Mali with fresh air strikes and deployed armored cars, stepping up its intervention in the West African state as regional allies struggled to accelerate their plans to send in troops. (Reuters)

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (L), accompanied by Portugal’s Defence Minister Jose Pedro Aguiar-Branco, attends to a news conference at Sao Juliao fortress, on the outskirts of Lisbon. (Reuters)

Snow covers the historic windmills at Kinderdijk, the Netherlands. In 1997 the windmills were put on the UNESCO World Heritage list. (AFP)

Bull tamers try to control a bull during the bull-taming sport called Jallikattu, in Palamedu, about 575 kilometers (359 miles) south of Chennai, India. (AP)

A local train derails and crashes into a residential building in Saltsjobaden outside Stockholm, Sweden. (Reuters)

Kuwait’s goalkeeper Nawaf Al Khaldi (L) attempts to save the ball against UAE’s Ali Ahmed al-Hajri (R) during their Gulf Cup Tournament semi-final soccer match in Isa Town, Bahrain. (Reuters)

Waves hit the road along the sea near Cayenne in France Guiana. The coast of Guiana switched to ‘red alert’ as several houses of Rémire-Montjoly (10 kms from Cayenne) have been ‘damaged’ due to high tides. (AFP)