Newly released photographs taken by a doctor who has examined workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant show the difficult living conditions they have endured while battling to bring the situation under control.

Takeshi Tanigawa via Reuters

Workers engaged in operations to stabilize the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant take a rest on the floor of a gymnasium inside the grounds of the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant, about 10km away from the crippled Daiichi plant in Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan, in this photo taken May 7 and released June 2 by industrial medical doctor Takeshi Tanigawa, who examined the workers.

The Japan Times reported that Ehime University professor Takeshi Tanigawa had visited the workers twice since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered a series of meltdowns at the plant. He warned that there was an increased risk of accidents because the workers had suffered from chronic sleep deprivation and fatigue, the paper said.

Takeshi Tanigawa via Reuters

Industrial medical doctor Takeshi Tanigawa, right, talks with a worker operating to stabilize the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant, in this photo taken April 16 and released by Tanigawa on June 2.

Tanigawa also warned that workers were at risk of developing PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) due to what they had been through in the early days of the disaster, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

See more images of the disaster in our slideshow and more pictures related to Fukushima on PhotoBlog.

Christophe Archambault / AFP - Getty Images, file

A man with a tattoo at a market in downtown Bangkok on March 9. On June 2, Thailand ordered a crackdown on foreign tourists having religious images tattooed on their bodies while visiting the kingdom, official media said.

The AP reports from Bangkok:

Thailand's Culture Ministry says foreign tourists should be barred from getting Buddhist tattoos while visiting because the practice is culturally insensitive.

Culture Minister Niphit Intharasombat said in a statement that his ministry has been receiving complaints from residents that tattoo parlors are etching sacred images of Buddha and other religious images onto the skin of non-Buddhist visitors across the country.

"Foreigners see these tattoos as a fashion," Niphit said in the statement posted on his ministry's website Thursday. "They do not think of respecting religion, or they may not be aware" that it can be offensive.

Thailand is mostly Buddhist, and Buddha statues and images here are considered sacred objects of worship. Millions of foreigners visit the Southeast Asian nation annually.

Niphit said his ministry had called on tattoo parlors nationwide to halt the activity. According to the country's government news agency, NNT, he also asked provincial governors to "inspect tattoo studios and seek their cooperation."

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

A boy walks toward a water point to collect water for his family, on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan on June 2. The U.S. should hold back much of its $7.5 billion aid package to Pakistan until it reforms dysfunctional policies related to energy, taxes and other areas, according to a new report that criticizes the American aid program's focus in a country beset by corruption, poverty and militancy.

The AP reports from ISLAMABAD:

The U.S. should hold back much of its $7.5 billion aid package to Pakistan until it reforms dysfunctional policies related to energy, taxes and other areas, according to a new report that criticizes the American aid program's focus in a country beset by corruption, poverty and militancy.

The report by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Global Development is the culmination of months of research and interviews with aid and other experts in Pakistan and the United States. Titled "Beyond Bullets and Bombs: Fixing the U.S. Approach to Development in Pakistan," it also calls for focusing more on trade by giving Pakistani exports easier entry to U.S. markets. Continue reading.

Related links:

Center for Global Development - Beyond Bullets and Bombs

The Council for Foreign Relations - Crisis Guide: Pakistan

Slideshow - Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

Rungroj Yongrit / EPA

A customs official holds a confiscated Indian Roofed Turtle during a press conference at the Customs Department in Bangkok, Thailand on June 2.

msnbc.com news services report:

Thai customs officials found 451 turtles and seven freshwater crocodiles stashed in suitcases offloaded from a passenger flight from Bangladesh.

The animals seized at Bangkok's bustling Suvarnabhumi airport were worth 1 million baht ($33,000), authorities said.

The alleged trafficker, a Bangladeshi national, did not collect the luggage and fled on arrival in Bangkok, customs officials said.

Related content:

• Rats on a plane! (And crocs, turtles on another)
• Curious newborn pangolin greets photographers
• Black market - an in-depth study of the illegal trade in wildlife

Jamal Saidi / Reuters

Syrian children carry pictures of 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib and hold candles during a protest in front of the United Nations building in Beirut on Wednesday, June 1, 2011. The Syrian boy, who activists say was tortured and killed by security forces, has emerged as a powerful symbol in protests against the rule of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad which have been met with a bloody crackdown.

From NBC News:

BEIRUT — The images grow no less shocking with time — a gaping wound on a tiny skull, the hair matted with blood; a gunshot that pierced the skin of a small torso and went straight toward the kidney; and finally, the broken neck and severed penis of a 13-year-old boy, his mangled body contorted on a plastic sheet. Full story

Menahem Kahana/ AFP-Getty Images

Israelis march with their national flags into Jerusalem's old city through Damascus Gate on June 1, 2011 as some 40,000 Jewish Israelis take part in a Jerusalem Day parade in the city's mainly Arab eastern sector to celebrate its capture 44 years ago, during the Six Day War.

Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images

A man and children wave flags outside the old city during a march.

For more news on the Middle East and Africa, click here.

M. Spencer Green / AP

From left, Jim Darby, 79, and his partner Patrick Bora,73, and Janean Watkins, 37, and her partner, Lakeesha Harris, 36, wait in line at the Cook County Office of Vital Records to obtain a civil union licenses, Wednesday, June 1, in Chicago. The couples, who arrived at the Cook County Building early in the morning to be first in line as Illinois' new civil union law took effect today.

John Gress / Reuters

Robin Petrovic, right, and Jamie Gayle embrace after they received their Civil Union license in Chicago on Wednesday. Illinois is the sixth state that allows civil unions or their equivalent.

John Gress / Reuters

Janean Watkins, second right, and Lakeesha Harris cry after being the first couple to receive their Civil Union license in Chicago on Wednesday.

The AP reports:

CHICAGO — Over the past 10 years, Lakeesha Harris and Janean Watkins have built a life together, with six children and a home. But they said they always felt relegated to second-class status. Until Wednesday.

The Chicago couple arrived at the Cook County building downtown at midnight to be the first in line as Illinois' new civil unions law took effect, allowing gay and lesbian couples to obtain civil union licenses.

"We've been ostracized and relegated to the bottom rung of society. I feel like this is some sort of justice for us, for our family," said Harris, 36. "I'm so grateful. I'm thankful. There are so many things going through my mind right now." Continue reading.

Associated Press photographer Rodrigo Abd has been working in Libya since the beginning of May, contributing frequently to our ongoing slideshow of images of the conflict. Today he filed a series of photos taken in the city of Misrata as its citizens readjusted to life after the siege.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

A general view of Tripoli Street from the terrace of a building used by snipers loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi during fighting with rebels in downtown Misrata, Libya. May 22.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

A man walks next to traces of the battles in Tripoli Street. May 22.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

A baby carriage is seen on top of a barricade in Tripoli Street. May 22.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

A couple lift their daughter's pram as they walk next to a destroyed tank in Tripoli Street. May 25.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

An effigy is seen hanging from electric cables meters away from Tripoli Street. May 23.

Rodrigo Abd / AP

Women visit a makeshift museum where ammunition is displayed in Tripoli Street. May 22.

The AP reports:

The residents of Misrata came out as families — fathers with their young daughters, mothers with their toddler sons in tow — to survey with their own eyes what had become of their city.

By word of mouth, they descended on Tripoli Street, the epicenter of the punishing fight between ragtag rebels and forces loyal to Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi who were besieging the city.

Rebels expelled Gadhafi's forces from the western city after fierce street battles, pushing the front lines in a sweeping arc around the port city and giving civilians much-needed breathing room.

People picked up baby strollers and carried them over the piles of shell casings littering the pavement, steering them around the sand berms and burnt-out tanks blocking the sidewalks.

They snapped pictures of their children in front of the shattered facades, and surveyed a curbside collection of shrapnel and ammunition Gadhafi's troops used in their failed attempt to pound the city into submission.

At heart, they were paying their respects to their brothers, their sons, their neighbors who had died defending Misrata. But they were also, quite simply, reclaiming their city.

Last year, Rodrigo Abd and his AP colleague Evan Vucci contributed a series of PhotoBlog posts for msnbc.com from COP Nolen, a U.S. Army outpost in Afghanistan. Revisit that work here.

Larry Downing / Reuters

Tia Ha, of Victorville, California, misses the spelling of a word in the preliminary round of the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee contest at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland on June 1.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Spellers wait for their turn to spell a word during the second round of the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee competition on June 1.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Autumn Marie Currin of Angier, North Carolina reacts after misspelling a word during the second round of the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee competition on June 1 in National Harbor, Maryland. Spellers participated in the annual competition to become the best spelling bee of the year.

For the latest on the contest click here.

Carlos Barria / Reuters

A child plays with a bubble gun on a subway train in Shanghai on International Children's Day on Wednesday, June 1.

Frederic J. Brown / AFP - Getty Images

Children play inside inflatable wheels floating on the water of a lake at a Beijing park as schoolchildren have the day off to celebrate International Children's Day on Wednesday in Beijing. International Children's Day began in 1925 when the World Conference for the well-being of Children in Geneva, Switzerland, chose the date of June 1 to mark the occassion. China has the world's biggest population of 1.3 billion people but is battling a severe gender imbalance with the latest completed census in the country finding 118.06 males born to every 100 females over the past decade.

Wong Campion / Reuters

Children of migrant workers look out from backstage as they wait for their performance during the International Children's Day celebration at a kindergarten in Kunming, Yunnan province on Wednesday.

Heng Sinith / AP

Cambodian schoolchildren living near the dam site of Steung Mean Chey participate in an Interntional Children's Day event in the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Wednesday. More then 300 schoolchildren took part in the event sponsored by a social activists group and presented with some educational materials.

Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP - Getty Images

Russian children play with foam in Dvortsovaya Square in central St. Petersburg on Wednesday celebrating International Childrens' Day.

Armend Nimani / AFP - Getty Images

Kosovo Albanian children's dressed as ballet dancers take part in activities marking the International Children's Day in Pristina, on Wednesday.

International Children's Day began in 1925 when the World Conference for the well-being of Children in Geneva, Switzerland, chose the date of June 1 to mark the occassion.

Tony Gentile / Reuters

A gust of wind lifts Pope Benedict XVI's mantle during his weekly general audience at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican on June 1.

The TODAY Show's Matt Lauer had an audience with Pope Benedict this morning. Watch the video:

Dado Ruvic / Reuters

A forensic expert from the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) works on trying to identify the remains of a victim of the Srebrenica massacre, at the ICMP centre near Tuzla, Bosnia on June 1.

The painstaking task of identifying the victims of the Srebrenica massacre continued today, almost 16 years after 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in the Bosnian town. The work is carried out by the International Commission on Missing Persons, an organization established to support the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.

Former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic was handed over to U.N. officials in the Hague yesterday after being extradited from Serbia. Mladic faces charges of genocide and other war crimes for atrocities committed by soldiers under his command, including the events of July 1995 in Srebrenica. Read the indictment (link opens a PDF document).

Related content:

• Mladic extradited to UN court in The Hague
• Muslim boy in Srebrenica video with Mladic looks back
• Video - Srebrenica welcomes Mladic arrest:

Oded Balilty / AP

Opera singers walk to the stage for a rehearsal of Verdi's opera, Aida, which is being performed at the foot of the historic mountain of Masada, Israel, on May 31.

Oded Balilty / AP

Performers prepare for a rehearsal of Verdi's opera, Aida, near Masada on May 31.

Darren Whiteside / Reuters

A member of Israel's opera performs during a dress rehearsal of Verdi's Aida near Masada on May 31.

Verdi's Aida will be performed at the foot of the ancient mountain fortress of Masada, in the Judean desert close to the Dead Sea.

UNESCO inscribed Masada as a World Heritage Site in 2001, describing it thus:

Masada is a rugged natural fortress, of majestic beauty, in the Judaean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. It is a symbol of the ancient kingdom of Israel, its violent destruction and the last stand of Jewish patriots in the face of the Roman army, in 73 A.D. It was built as a palace complex, in the classic style of the early Roman Empire, by Herod the Great, King of Judaea, (reigned 37 – 4 B.C.). The camps, fortifications and attack ramp that encircle the monument constitute the most complete Roman siege works surviving to the present day.