Mexican devotees honor the folk saint Santa Muerte—a scythe-carrying skeleton—each month, though the Catholic Church links the saint to black magic and Satanism.
In northern Japan, declines in drifting Arctic sea ice are raising fears that global warming will impact wildlife and tourism at Shiretoko National Park.
Nicaragua celebrates its patron saint, an Amazonian volcano lets off steam, the Olympic torch reaches the Great Wall, and more of the best news photos this week.
With a reported repertoire of 32 sounds, belugas are called canaries of the sea. But in Russia some conservationists warn that the white whales may be too enticing for their own good.
An exterminator, searching for gold in the Australian outback, became stranded for more than four days and says he survived by eating termites and other insects.
Designed to hoist passenger planes into space, the first WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane rolled out for a champagne splash by billionaire Richard Branson.
The commercially funded WhiteKnightTwo, now the world's largest carbon-composite aircraft, should soon ferry a six-passenger spaceship beyond Earth's atmosphere.
Built in 1904, the Grand Pier in Weston Super Mare, England, was reduced to a smoldering wreck, taking with it a go-kart track, rides, and an entertainment center.
