Amazing Events in Pictures



A Woman answers her mobile phone using a traditional receiver in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China


Ann Widdecombe posed in front of the Houses of Parliament in London to launch a campaign from Action on Hearing Loss which is encouraging the British public to get their hearing tested


Eighteen-year-old Junrey Balawing receives a certificate proclaiming him as the world's shortest man from the Guinness Book of World Records, in the rural southern Philippine township of Sindangan, Zamboanga Del Norte. Balawing, who measured 59.93 centimetres or 23.5 inches, was officially declared the world's shortest man as he celebrates his 18th birthday, stripping Nepal's Khagendra Thapa Magar of the title...


...The previous world shortest living man, Khagendra Thapa Magar, measuring 67.08 centimetres (26.4 inches), shows off his Guinness World Records medals in Pokhara, west of Kathmandu. He is more than 7 centimetres taller than Junrey Balawing.


Zookeeper Sarah Jurgens looks at a pygmy marmoset named Reillo. She nursed Reillo after he was abandoned by his parents shortly after birth on May 7th at the Lincoln Children's Zoo in Nebraska. Reillo was only as long as a human thumb when he was born, and now weighs in at a healthy 60 grams.


Pan Zhiyi, a Chinese builder angry at being made to pay a 33,000 Yuan ($5,281.19) court fine, paid the entire amount using coins and small denomination notes. He packed the money into five large bags and drove them to the courthouse in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, to pay the fine. "We helped both parties to transport the coins into a nearby bank, which said they don't have the time to clear it," said a courthouse worker. He finally paid the compensation in large denomination notes the next day.


Lightning flashes in the ash cloud of the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano eruption, as seen from Entre Lagos, Chile


A visitor passes by a work by artist Maurizio Cattelan during the preview day of the Art 42 Basel fair and exhibition which will take place from June 15 to June 19, 2011 in Basel


An aerial view of a bridge that collapsed when a flood hit Tongcheng, in central China's Hebei province


Festival goers lie in the mud during the final day of the Isle of Wight Festival


British performance artist Alice Newstead hangs by shark fishing hooks to protest against the slaughtering of sharks for their fins in Hong Kong


Cast members rehearse on the giant floating stage on Lake Constance in Bregenz, Austria, for the opera Andre Chenier by Italian musician Umberto Giordano. The opera, directed by British director Keith Warner, will have its premiere on July 20 at the annual Bregenz festival


Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, right, playing for a Tusk Trust team and Prince Harry playing for a Sentebale team shake hands at the end of a Sentebale Polo Cup match in Ascot


Christopher Winter (C) of team Koenig Pilsener and Philip Selkirk of team Maus Immobilien compete during the Julius Baer Beach Polo World Cup at Hoernum beach in Germany


Boats are rowed on Grand Canal in Venice, during the 37th edition of the 'Vogalonga', a non-competetive 32 km regatta around the Venetian lagoon


An artist performs at the two-day Kiev Fire Fest, Ukraine


Queen Elizabeth II unveils a statue of classic winner Yeats on day one of the Royal Ascot Meeting at Ascot Racecourse, Berkshire


Dining chairs designed by Jordanian Khaled Sharaan go on display in Amman before sending the collection to an auction house in London. The dining chairs collection - the Never ending Dinner - includes images which the artist considers to be controversial leaders who lived throughout modern history


A vendor carries plastic balls for sale as he walks down the streets in New Delhi


Officers from the municipal authorities of Huaian city perform songs at the Huaian Great Hall of the People in Huaian, Jiangsu Province of China. This year's celebrations will mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China


A boy plays with a sculpture of a cossack's horse during the celebrations for the 383rd anniversary of the foundation of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk