Shelby County Register's office / AP

In this 1968 photo released Wednesday, March 30, 2011 by the Shelby County Register's office, authorities escort James Earl Ray to the Shelby County, Memphis, Tenn. jail.

AP reports
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Long-forgotten photos that show James Earl Ray being brought to jail after his arrest for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. were unveiled Wednesday to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of the civil rights leader's death.

Dozens of black-and-white photos, along with letters Ray wrote from jail and other documents, were found a few years ago among old county records in a warehouse in east Memphis, Shelby County Register Tom Leatherwood said. A few photos were posted on The Commercial Appeal's website to accompany a story published Wednesday, and Leatherwood later made the rest available on a county website.

See the full story here.

Shelby County Register's office / AP

Sheriff William N. Morris Jr., second from left, and deputies process James Earl Ray after his arrest.

Shelby County Register's office / AP

James Earl Ray is seen in the Shelby County Jail after his arrest.

Joe Tan / Reuters

Lu Zhihao, right, sleeps during a noon break at a kindergarten in Foshan, Guangdong province on Tuesday, March 29.

Joe Tan / Reuters

Lu Zhihao walks with his parents on a street in Foshan on Tuesday.

Young Lu Zhihao weighs 136 pounds at 3 feet 7 inches tall.  Reuters reports that Lu put on weight dramatically since his appetite increased when he was 3 months old. His worried parents took him to several hospitals, but the reason for his obesity remains unknown, though it is possibly due to his dietary habit, according to local media.

More images here.

More about childhood obesity here.

NASA's Messenger probe entered orbit around Mercury just this month after a journey of six and a half years, but it's already hard at work. Hundreds of images have been sent back in the past couple of days. Take a look at this trio of highlights, and then get the full story behind these marvels from Mercury:

NASA / JHUAPL / CIW

Messenger acquired this image of Mercury's horizon on March 29 as the spacecraft was flying northward along the first orbit during which its dual-camera system was turned on. Bright rays from Hokusai Crater can be seen running north to south in the image.

NASA / JHUAPL / CIW

Mercury isn't the solar system's most colorful planet, but you can make out subtle shades in this first color image from Messenger, acquired on March 29. This is actually part of an eight-image sequence highlighting the bright rayed crater known as Debussy.

NASA / JHUAPL / CIW

Here's a closer look at Debussy Crater, acquired by Messenger's Narrow Angle Camera on March 29. The bright rays, consisting of impact ejecta and secondary craters, spread out from Debussy at the top of the image. The rays extend for hundreds of miles across Mercury's surface.

More about Mercury:

• Scientists tell the story behind the pictures
• First look at Mercury from orbit
• 10 surprising facts about the Mercury probe
• Mercury just might hit us someday
• Interactive: The new solar system 

Join the Cosmic Log community by clicking the "like" button on our Facebook page or by following msnbc.com science editor Alan Boyle as b0yle on Twitter. To learn more about my book on Pluto and the search for planets, check out the website for "The Case for Pluto." And if you want to stay on my good side, don't ever call Mercury the "smallest planet."

Shakil Adil / AP

A Pakistani prisoner, left, poses with an Indian prisoner during the Pakistan-India cricket match shown on television in Karachi's central jail in Pakistan on Wednesday, March 30. Pakistan and India are playing the semi final of the Cricket World Cup in Mohali, India.

Mk Chaudhry / EPA

Pakistani spectators celebrate during the ICC Cricket World Cup semifinal between India and Pakistan, in Multan, Pakistan on March 30. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani to watch the game in Mohali, India. The move came as the two countries are struggling to revive formal peace talks stalled after the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai which India claims was planned in Pakistan.

Manish Swarup / AP

Indians react as they watch the ICC World Cup cricket semifinal match between India and Pakistan, on a television set at a hair salon in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, March 30.

Rajesh Kumar Singh / AP

Indian laborers listen to a commentary of the ICC Cricket World Cup semifinal match between India and Pakistan, on a radio in Allahabad, Wednesday, March 30.

Saurabh Das / AP

Indian supporters react as Yuvraj Singh is bowled out on the very first delivery he faced as they watch India take on Pakistan in the second semifinal of the Cricket World Cup at a bar in Chandigarh, India, Wednesday, March 30.

Manish Swarup / AP

Indians react as they watch on a television set the ICC World Cup cricket semifinal match between India and Pakistan, in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, March 30.

 Some really fun images coming in now as two nations share their passion for the game of cricket.

David Arnott posted an earlier piece on the preparations and politics behind the game here.

Also, here's a sports story about the matchup, and another story about the leaders of India and Pakistan enjoying the game together.

Sudipto Ganguly and Amlan Chakraborty of Reuters report from Mohali, India: The prime ministers of India and Pakistan meet on Wednesday during a World Cup cricket match between the rivals, hoping to use one of the world's biggest sporting contests to rebuild relations shattered by the Mumbai attacks.

Prakash Singh / AFP - Getty Images

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, left, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh walk back to the pavilion after meeting with cricketers before the start of the ICC cricket world cup semi-final match between India and Pakistan at the Punjab Cricket Association stadium in Mohali, India on March 30.

The two teams will meet in the northern Indian town of Mohali for a semi-final match. Scores of Pakistanis crossed one of the world's most militarised borders to travel to the stadium and millions of Indians have taken the day off work.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited his counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani to watch the game and discuss reviving a peace process, although "cricket diplomacy" will offer more symbolic gestures than any breakthroughs in a conflict that has lasted for more than 60 years.

"Keeping in view the sentiments of people of both countries, I'm going there to express solidarity with our team as well as their (Indian) team and to promote cricket," Gilani told reporters before flying to India.

Gurinder Osan / AP

India supporters cheer before the start of the Cricket World Cup semi-final match between Pakistan and India in Mohali, India on March 30.

Attacks in Mumbai in 2008 heightened distrust and complicated Western efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, where the foes are engaged in a proxy war. New Delhi blames Pakistani militants in collusion with elements of the government, including Pakistan's spy agency for the Mumbai assault .

Concerned about his legacy, 78-year-old Singh has pushed reconciliation with Pakistan despite misgivings within his own government.

In a major confidence-building measure ahead of the match, Islamabad agreed on Tuesday to let Indian investigators travel to Pakistan to probe the Mumbai attacks after a meeting of the countries' respective home secretaries.

Rehan Khan / EPA

Members of Pakistan's Hindu minority pray for victory for their team Pakistan in the semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup during a collective prayer ceremony, in Karachi, Pakistan on March 29.

The two cricket-crazy South Asian nations have talked of little else for the past week in a buildup that has put the spotlight on, among other topics, players' preparedness, a row over match-fixing, and public prayers for victory.

Cricket is just one of the many cultural, religious and ethnic ties the two countries share dating back thousands of years. But the nuclear-armed rivals fought three wars and countless border skirmishes since their 1947 independence from Britain, feeding an obsessive mistrust.

Indian army helicopters and anti-aircraft guns have imposed a no-fly zone over the Mohali stadium, a few hours' drive east of the Pakistani border, to prevent an attack by militants.

Bikas Das / AP

An Indian cricket fan throws flames as others cheer during an event organized to wish the Indian cricket team good luck ahead of the ICC World Cup semi-final match between India and Pakistan, in Kolkata, India, on March 29. Ordinary life will stop for several hours in both countries Wednesday as hundreds of millions of fans tune in to follow the match.

Scores of Pakistani fans crossed the border post in India's northern Punjab state on Tuesday amid tight security.

"Obviously, love grows when two countries play together," said Syed Akbar Masood Nizami, a Pakistani cricket fan. "The people from both countries get together, sit together to cheer their teams and it helps develop feelings for each other."

Many companies in both countries have declared a half day on Wednesday. The Karachi stock exchange plans to put a big screen up for traders to watch. Lawmakers in the eastern Indian state of Bihar have petitioned their government to suspend legislative business during match time.

"This is a more important event than any other event for Pakistan this year," said Omar Ehtisham Anwar, a fund manager at Faysal Asset Management in Karachi who has taken the day off to watch the match.

"There is no way I would miss even a second of this match -- I will try to not even blink during the game."

The winner of what has been dubbed the "mother of all matches" will play Sri Lanka in the final in Mumbai on Saturday.

Textbooks, drawings and musical instruments are scattered around the damaged classroom of Ohkawa Elementary School, Ishinomaki city, Japan, on March 21. The school, located at the mouth of Kitagami River, was swallowed by a tsunami as students and teachers tried to escape outside after the huge earthquake on March 11. Of 108 students, 21 were confirmed dead and 56 are still missing. (Koki Uemura, Sankei Shimbun / MSN Japan)

See more panoramic images from the disaster in Japan.

• Panoramic image: Sightseeing ship atop house in Otsuchi, Japan
• Grounded cargo ship in Kamaishi port, Japan
• Tokyo dimming the lights because of nationwide electrical shortages
• Schools becoming makeshift relief centers in tsunami damaged Minamisanriku, Japan
• Destruction in Kesennuma, Japan
• Damage in Natori, Japan
• Inside the passenger terminal of the airport in Sendai, Japan
• Airport in Sendai, Japan
• Panoramic image shows the damage in Kesennuma, Japan

 For more images from Japan, see our slideshow and Japan coverage in PhotoBlog. 

This panoramic photo taken on March 23 shows a sightseeing ship left atop a two-story building by the tsunami that hit Japan on March 11. (Koki Uemura, Sankei Shimbun / MSN Japan)

See more panoramic images from the disaster in Japan.

• Grounded cargo ship in Kamaishi port, Japan
• Tokyo dimming the lights because of nationwide electrical shortages
• Schools becoming makeshift relief centers in tsunami damaged Minamisanriku, Japan
• Destruction in Kesennuma, Japan
• Damage in Natori, Japan
• Inside the passenger terminal of the airport in Sendai, Japan
• Airport in Sendai, Japan
• Panoramic image shows the damage in Kesennuma, Japan

 For more images from Japan, see our slideshow and Japan coverage in PhotoBlog.

Here are several images from Reuters photographer Damir Sagolj's work over the last two weeks in Japan, and his comments:

“What fascinates me is the way ordinary Japanese are reacting to this catastrophe. After all the tragedies I have covered in my career, I must say that this one is very special: no looting, no fight for food, fuel or place in shelters (though they need them, it is cold and they are hungry). They wait in lines that are kilometres long for fuel as if they are on a promenade and will chat with others while waiting for ice cream.

I panic when my vehicle has only half of tank!  [comments continue below pictures]

Damir Sagolj / Reuters

Family members of an earthquake and tsunami victim gather around an open coffin during a mass funeral at a field outside Kesennuma town, Miyagi prefecture on March 27, 2011. Desperate municipalities such as Kesennuma have been digging mass graves to bury victims of the disaster, unthinkable in a nation where the deceased are almost always cremated and their ashes placed in stone family tombs near Buddhist temples. Local regulations often prohibit the burial of bodies.

Damir Sagolj / Reuters

People wait in line to receive aid in a destroyed part of Yamada town, Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan on March 26, 2011

Damir Sagolj / Reuters

Fishermen take a break from cleaning the port devastated by a tsunami two weeks ago at the island of Oshima March 25, 2011. Through burnt ships and debris, a boat called Sunflower sails to bring food, clothing and families to isolated victims of a devastating earthquake and tsunami on Japan's Oshima Island off the northeaster Sanriku coast. For the survivors, the boat is the only connection between their island with a population of 3,200 and the city of Kesennuma on Japan's main island, which is usually 25 minutes away by ferry.

Damir Sagolj / Reuters

Volunteers prepare food to be distributed to victims at a shelter for those evacuated from the disaster zone in Rikuzentakata March 23, 2011, after the area was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.

Damir Sagolj / Reuters

Tsunami victims pass the time as their clothes dry at the shelter for those evacuated from the disaster zone in Yamada town, Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan more than two weeks after the area was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 28, 2011. Japan appeared resigned on Monday to a long fight to contain the world's most dangerous atomic crisis in 25 years after high radiation levels complicated work at its crippled nuclear plant.

The other day in one of the shelters a woman returned a piece of clothing she received earlier from aid workers. The jacket was too big for her daughter and she folded it back and returned to the distribution centre. She could have kept it and maybe sell or exchange it for something else she needs. But, not in Japan; it’s fascinating, the order and discipline of people experiencing the worst days of their lives.

There are no tears and no screaming in front of our lenses, just a silent grief. I don't know where this calmness comes from. What in their culture or history makes them so special? I don't even know is it good or bad. Can they really process all the sorrow without venting it with tears?

I'm so impressed by their behavior and power to stay cool in such a situation that it feels really stupid to write how cold I was sleeping outside while covering this story. Or to talk about whatever happens or will happen while here, before boarding planes to take us back to the comfort of our homes.”

This image is certain to inspire a double take. Getty Images photographer Mahmud Turkia captured a bomb plummeting into the ground in what he is reporting to be the "tightly-guarded residence of Moammar Gadhafi and other military targets."

Mahmud Turkia / AFP - Getty Images

A bomb drops on a tightly-guarded residence of leader Moammar Gadhafi and military targets in the suburb of Tajura on Tuesday, March 29. NATO-led coalition aircraft had been seen in the skies over the capital earlier in the afternoon.

These images are appearing as U.S. ships and submarines unleashed a barrage of cruise missiles at Libyan missile storage facilities in the Tripoli area late Monday and early Tuesday. Full story...

Mahmud Turkia / AFP - Getty Images

Smoke billows as several explosions were reported in the tightly-guarded residence of leader Moammar Gadhafi and military targets in the suburb of Tajura on March 29.

Related content:
US launches fresh barrage of missiles at Tripoli 
Slideshow: Latest pictures from Libya

Andrea Comas / Reuters

Spanish Queen Sofia reacts as she holds a six-month-old panda at the Madrid Zoo & Aquarium on Monday, March 29.

By the looks of things, Queen Sofia got caught off guard during her visit with a panda cub earlier today. She stopped by the zoo in Madrid to see twin pandas, Po and De De.

The first of their species to be born in Spain since 1982, the cubs were conceived through artificial insemination in a joint effort by Spain's National Research council and scientists from China.

Po and De De are only the third litter to be born in Europe, according to Chinese veterinarian Yuan Bo. He travelled from Beijing to assist the birth and the first months of the newborns.

Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA

On a bitterly cold morning at the Tidal Basin, more than 3,000 cherry blossom trees, donated from Japan nearly 100 years ago, reach full bloom in Washington, DC, on March 29. Japan's National Tourism Board pulled out of this year's cherry blossom festivities in D.C. due to the ongoing catastrophes in Japan.

Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA

On a bitterly cold morning at the Tidal Basin, photographers set up their tripods to photograph cherry blossom trees, donated from Japan nearly 100 years ago, that have reached full bloom in Washington, DC, on March 29. Japan's National Tourism Board pulled out of this year's cherry blossom festivities in D.C. due to the ongoing catastrophes in Japan.

 The prettiest shot so far is from Jim Lo Scalzo of EPA. 

Albert Gea / Reuters

Solar panels fill the roofs of mausoleums in a cemetery in Santa Coloma de Gramanet, near Barcelona, Spain on March 28. Solar panels on the rooftops of Spain are likely to pay for themselves within five years without needing subsidies and revive an industry in the doldrums after the country became the world's second-largest producer.

 Is this a desecration of a cemetery or just good use of available space?

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

A Libyan rebel urges people to leave, as shelling from Gadhafi's forces started landing on the front line outside Bin Jawwad, 150 km east of Sirte, central Libya, on March 29.

AP's Anja Niedringhaus writes: BIN JAWWAD, Libya — For the second straight day, we came to Libya’s front line, and it was very tense when we arrived. Then the shelling from Moammar Gadhafi’s forces started, and it grew closer and closer. Suddenly a shell hit a house nearby. That’s when the rebel in this picture chased us all down at full speed, screaming, “Get out of here, fast! Get out of here!” Everybody ran, or sped away in pickup trucks. It’s incredibly stressful on the front lines here — six years after I stopped smoking, I’m back on two packs a day. I’ve been covering wars for 20 years, but this tops everything. And as I type this, the front line is moving toward us. Time to start moving again.

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

Libyan rebels flee as shelling from Gadhafi's forces strikes the front line outside Bin Jawwad on March 29.

 Read more about the latest developments in Libya and see more images on PhotoBlog and in our slideshow.

Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images

Two US army soldiers from Company C, 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, MEDEVAC team fall as they carry a wounded colleague, center, through a flooded field to a US Army Blackhawk helicopter in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan on March 28.

Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images

A US soldier looks back at his wounded colleaque as he lies inside a Blackhawk helicopter in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan on March 28.

Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images

US army flight crew chief Sgt Cory Rodgers, left, wipes the face of a wounded soldier on a Blackhawk helicopter over Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan on March 28.

 See more images from Afghanistan in our slideshow.