Kieran Doherty / Reuters

Britain's Prince William supports his wife, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, as she pulls her heel from a grate during a St. Patrick's Day visit to Mons Barracks in Aldershot, southern England, on March 17.

Matt Dunham / AP

Britain's Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, holds onto the hand of her husband, Prince William, as she bends down to pull the heel of her shoe out of a drainage grill.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is not immune to awkward situations in heels, but at least her husband, Prince William, is there to lend a hand as she attempts to free herself from a drainage grill at Mons Barracks in Aldershot, England, on St. Patrick’s Day.

The duke and duchess were there to present sprigs of shamrocks to the 1st Battalion Irish Guards during the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, a tradition started in 1901 by Queen Alexandra of Denmark, the wife of King Edward VII, who took the throne that same year.

Slideshow: St. Patrick's Day

Peter Muhly / AFP - Getty Images

See images from the festivities from New York to Moscow.

Launch slideshow

Joshua Lott / Reuters

Dustin Murley and Jessey Sisson race on their ostriches during the annual Ostrich Festival in Chandler, Ariz, March 10.

Joshua Lott / Reuters

Dustin Murley falls off his ostrich as Jessey Sisson looks on during the ostrich race at the annual Ostrich Festival in Chandler, Ariz.

Joshua Lott / Reuters

Dustin Murley falls off his ostrich as Jessey Sisson looks on during the ostrich race at the annual Ostrich Festival in Chandler, Ariz.

Joshua Lott / Reuters

Dustin Murley is run over by his ostrich after falling off during the ostrich race at the annual Ostrich Festival in Chandler, Ariz. on March 10.

Chandler, Ariz. has more than a 100-year history with the world’s largest bird, the ostrich, but it wasn't until 1989 that the community decided to celebrate its feathered friend with the annual Ostrich Festival.

The three day event held in late winter or early spring offers your typical fun festival fare with one exception, ostrich racing.

“An ostrich is not really the most intelligent animal in the world,” said Steve Boger, whose Hambone Express brings ostrich racing to the event. “The only thing that’s less intelligent than an ostrich would be a person who would get on one and ride it.”

“It’s kind of like getting in the car with no steering wheel and no seat belt,” he told the Arizona Republic. “You’re definitely at their mercy.”

With no stirrups or reins and only a small pad to serve as a saddle, falls are common in this event, he said. Continue reading the Arizona Republic article.

Why ostriches? From the 1890s to the 1920s the desert community was home to 80 percent of the American population of ostriches. They were brought to Arizona, which had a similar climate to their native Africa, to harvest their feathers for use in women’s hats. However, with fashion being fickle, the fancy plumes were no longer a necessity and ranchers began unloading their ostriches in the 1920s.

The ostriches never returned to Arizona in any great number, but the festival was created as a community galvanizing event and to honor the history of the bird's contribution to the area's growth.

For the record, the Humane Society of the United States doesn't condone ostrich racing.

“At first glance it (ostrich racing) does appear to look fun, but it’s cruel,” said Kari Nienstedt, the Arizona director of the organization. “We don’t condone any event that torments captive wildlife causing undue stress and possible serious injury to an animal.”

Nienstedt further wishes that Chandler would celebrate the ostrich in a more humane way. 

Joshua Lott / Reuters

Dustin Murley raises his hand as he races his ostrich during the annual Ostrich Festival in Chandler, Ariz.

Joshua Lott / Reuters

Spectators prepare to watch the ostrich race during the annual Ostrich Festival.

Joshua Lott / Reuters

Jessey Sisson rides his ostrich during the ostrich race at the annual Ostrich Festival.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

A worker cleans debris from the Fun Town Pier that was damaged by Superstorm Sandy, Feb. 19, in Seaside Heights, N.J.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Workers install new pilings to replace the boardwalk that was damaged by Superstorm Sandy, Feb. 19, in Seaside Heights, N.J.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Workers install new pilings for the boardwalk that was damaged by Superstorm Sandy, Feb. 19, in Seaside Heights, N.J.

Rebuilding the boardwalk made famous by MTV's "Jersey Shore" began in earnest last Friday as heavy equipment including a gigantic drill and a pile-driving machine were brought onto the sand in the south end of Seaside Heights, N.J., the Associated Press reported.

They quickly began drilling holes in the sand and pounding wooden pilings into them, shaking the ground for blocks around.

It marked the beginning of a $3.6 million contract the borough awarded to rebuild the boardwalk. Mayor William Akers said the initial work — restoring the boardwalk so that it can be walked on safely — should be done by May 10. Continue reading.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has estimated that damage in New Jersey caused by Superstorm Sandy could reach $37 billion.

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Mark Wilson / Getty Images

The Star Jet roller coaster remains in the water on Feb. 19, after the Casion Pier it sat on collapsed from the forces of Superstorm Sandy, in Seaside Heights, N.J.

Henry Griffin / AP file

Years before he was a senator, John Kerry, testified about the war in Vietnam before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington D.C., on April 22, 1971.

Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

Forty two years later, John Kerry testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations committee for the last time as a senator during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 24.

In John Kerry’s farewell speech on the Senate floor yesterday, the former democratic senator from Massachusetts alluded to the first time he spoke to the Senate in 1971.

During his speech, Kerry said he came “not with my vote, but with my voice — and that is why the end of my tenure here is in many ways a bookend.” He continued:

Forty-two years ago, I testified before Senator Fulbright’s Foreign Relations Committee about the realities of war in Vietnam.

It wasn't until last week that I would sit before that Committee again, this time testifying in my own confirmation hearing. It completed a circle, which I could never have imagined drawing, but one our founders surely did: that a citizen voicing his opinion about a matter of personal and national consequence could one day use that voice as a senator, as the Chairman of that same Committee before which he had once testified a private citizen.

And then as the President’s nominee for Secretary of State — that is a fitting representation of what we mean when we talk about a government of the people, for the people and by the people.

Several days before his Senate testimony in 1971, Kerry appeared on Meet the Press, telling NBC’s Robert Goralski:

We are down here to demand that those who call themselves the most committed of all in this country, namely the senators and congressmen who have been talking peace for the past few years, that these men exercise their responsibility, granted them by the constitution of this country, to end this war.

That is what we are here to demand, and we are here to demand it because we are the men who have seen what is happening in Southeast Asia. And we believe that there is no reason, and no excuse, and no justification, for the loss of one more American life there, or for the loss of more Vietnamese. This war can be ended, and should be ended now, and that is what we are here to say.

Watch Kerry’s full appearance on Meet the Press.

The Senate confirmed Kerry to be secretary of state on Tuesday.

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Richa Singh, 24, who works for an online travel portal, says, "women are seen as objects in this city, it doesn't matter what I wear, I still get stared at by men on the streets."

Since the death of a medical student who was gang raped on a bus in New Delhi the issue of women's security has been under the spotlight as never before in India. Mansi Thapliyal, a female Indian photographer working for Reuters, interviewed a variety of women in New Delhi to find out how they feel about their safety since the rape.

Reactions were strong and wide ranging, from women who now feel they need to arm themselves or take self-defense classes, to others who are scared to go out alone at night.

"My city is known as the so-called rape capital of the country," Thapliyal wrote in a blog post on Reuters.com. "They say it’s unsafe, it’s dangerous, and it’s full of wolves looking to hunt you down." Read her entire blog post on Reuters.com.

Thapliyal decided to focus her camera on the city’s women to find what they think about their security, and how they are protecting themselves. Below is a collection of her photos shot earlier this month, and made available to NBC News today. 

Aanchal Sukhija, 19, studying fashion media communication, said that whenever she hires an auto rickshaw she has to send a short message to her father giving details of the auto in order to feel secure.

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Aanchal Sukhija waits for an auto rickshaw outside a metro station in Gurgaon on the outskirts of New Delhi.

Nalini Bharatwaj, 37, chairperson of a management institute, says "Half of the time I am alone with my children and sometimes I have to travel late at night from work. It's enough to shut up anyone trying to molest me or even pass a comment if I flaunt my gun." 

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Nalini Bharatwaj, holds a gun while posing in her office in New Delhi.

Deepshikha Bharadwaj, 24, who works for an advertising agency, has posted the notice that reads, 'Sorry I am not staying late now,' on her desk and said she wanted to send a message to her colleagues that she is not going to work late in the office anymore.

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Deepshikha Bharadwaj stands inside an elevator in her office on the outskirts of New Delhi.

Sweety, 22,a student, travels four hours every day from her village to the city to learn karate and taekwondo. She said, "boys in my village are scared to tease me after I beat up one boy who was passing lewd comments on me."

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Sweety, takes a self defense class in New Delhi.

Simrat, 24, who works for a non-profit arts organization, said, “I made the decision to use public transport as my primary way of moving through the city because I really believe that it is my right to be able to use public space, just as much as it is of any man."

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Simrat travels in the women's compartment of a metro in New Delhi.

Chandani, 22, who works as a cab driver for a social enterprise which claims to provide safe and secure cab services for women driven by women, said demand for their cabs has increased.

 "I am doing a very unconventional job for women,” she said. “Given that I do night shifts, I carry pepper spray bottle and I'm trained in self-defense. Initially I faced a lot of problems but driving cabs at night has helped me to overcome my fears.”

Mansi Thapliyal / Reuters

Chandani sits inside her car on a street in New Delhi.

Slideshow: 57 faces of the 57th inauguration

Benjamin Lowy / Getty Images Reportage for NBC News

As people attending the second inauguration of President Barack Obama trained their eyes on the historic event, photojournalist Benjamin Lowy trained his lens on them.

Launch slideshow

“There is something about Americans glancing up,” said photojournalist Ben Lowy. “As Americans we’re always looking forward to the future. It doesn't matter if we’re black, white, yellow, or brown, we look the same when we look up.”

This concept is what attracted Lowy, represented by Getty Images Reportage, to the National Mall in Washington D.C. on a chilly morning in January. His personal mission was to capture as many individual faces “watching history go by” at the second inauguration of Barack Obama. It’s indirectly a continuation of a project he started while covering the political conventions in 2012, he said.

Lowy said when he looked closely at the faces of the convention attendees, “ I couldn't really tell the Republicans from the Democrats.”

“We’re all taking part in democracy,” he said. “Whether you were a member of the 47 percent who voted for Mitt Romney or you voted for Obama in 2012, we’re Americans no matter what.”

In total Lowy captured more than 2,000 portraits on Monday, and we present 57 of his photographs in the slideshow linked above to commemorate the 57^th Inauguration.

Related Links:

• Slideshow:  The second Inauguration of Barack Obama
  
• PhotoBlog: More images from the inauguration
• Obama takes ceremonial oath, tells nation 'our journey is not complete