David Handschuh / Pool via Getty Images
Same-sex couple Ray Durand, left, and his partner Dale Shields kiss while having their picture taken after their wedding ceremony at the Manhattan City Clerk's office on the first day New York State's Marriage Equality Act goes into effect on July 24 in New York City. Today was the first day gay couples were allowed to legally marry in New York State after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the historic legislation into law.
Read the full story here.
Jose Luis Saavedra / Reuters
A farmer crosses a snow-covered area in Butalelbum, located in Alto Bio Bio, 700 km (435 miles) south of Santiago, July 23, 2011. Heavy snow has affected rural areas of southern Chile, where it has isolated some 16,000 people. The Chilean government has declared a disaster area after the cold snap, with some areas facing up to 2.3 meters of snow, according to local media.
While huge amounts of snow are not ideal, maybe this picture will at least bring cool thoughts to those enduring extreme heat in the northern hemisphere.
Michael Reynolds / EPA
A re-enactor portraying a Confederate soldier, center, drinks water from a flask to stay cool during the heat, before the reenactment of the First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) in Manassas, Va., July 23. The reenactment, with over 8,000 re-enactors, is part of the 150th Anniversary Commemoration of the first major land battle in the American Civil War, which took place in Manassas, July 21, 1861. The original battle happened when about 35,000 Union troops marched from Washington and clashed with a Confederate force of 20,000, which resulted in a Confederate victory. Re-enactors had to endure a brutal heat wave with some wearing wool uniforms, as temperatures were expected to reach 102 Fahrenheit.
Read more about the heat wave here.
David Guttenfelder / AP
A girl plays the piano inside the Changgwang Elementary School in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 9.
David Guttenfelder / AP
Central Pyongyang, North Korea at dusk on April 12.
David Guttenfelder / AP
A woman looks at monkeys behind a glass enclosure at the central zoo in Pyongyang, North Korea, April 22.
David Guttenfelder / AP
A North Korean traffic police officer stands along a street in central Pyongyang, North Korea, April 13.
David Guttenfelder / AP
People go about their daily routines south of Pyongyang along the highway leading to the southern city of Kaesong, North Korea, April 17.
Jean H. Lee, The Associated Press bureau chief in Seoul, and David Guttenfelder, AP's chief Asia photographer, have made numerous reporting trips to North Korea in recent years. They were granted unprecedented access on their latest journey to Pyongyang and areas outside the nation's showcase capital.
AP
Emergency workers and people work to help passengers from the wreckage of train after two carriages from a high-speed train derailed and fell off a bridge in Wenzhou in east China's Zhejiang province July 23.
AP reports:
At least 11 people have died after two high-speed trains crashed into each other in China's eastern province of Zhejiang on Saturday causing two carriages to fall off a bridge, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Another 89 people have been sent to hospital, it added. Each carriage could carry about 100 people, Xinhua said.
The accident occurred after the first train was hit by lightning and lost power, and was then rear-ended by another bullet train, Xinhua added, citing provincial television.
Read the full story here.
Frantzesco Kangaris / EPA
British singer songwriter Amy Winehouse performs on stage at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, Britain, June 28, 2008. According to media reports Amy Winehouse was found dead at her flat in North London, Britain on July 23.
Read the full story here and see more images from Winehouse's life here.
Wilfredo Lee / AP
A Caribbean Flamingo chick pokes its head out from under the wing of one of its parents sitting on a nest mound on display at Zoo Miami, Friday July 22, 2011 in Miami.
Ali Jarekji / Reuters
People look at a Maaz Al Shami (Damascene goat), where the title of "Most Beautiful Goat" will be awarded at the Mazayen al-Maaz competition in Amman July 22, 2011. This is the first goat competition held in Jordan.
I guess this isn't any different than a dog show.
Amateur video shows the destruction in the streets of Oslo, Norway, following a bombing at a government building.
From all of the stills and video I've seen from Oslo today, I expect this to define "aftermath" in my memory of the downtown blast. As is so often the case in compelling video footage, it's the audio that delivers much of the emotional punch.
Scanpix Norway / Reuters
An injured woman is helped by a man at the scene of a powerful explosion that rocked central Oslo July 22. A huge explosion damaged government buildings in central Oslo on Friday including Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's office, injuring several people, a Reuters witness said. The blast blew out most windows on the 17-story building housing Stoltenberg's office, as well as nearby ministries including the oil ministry, which was on fire.
For more pictures of the explosion in Oslo, Norway, check out our slideshow.
Read the full story.
Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA
Christian youth participating in an annual religious gathering called 'A Closer Walk' are baptized in the Atlantic Ocean in Wildwood, New Jersey on July 22. The US East Coast is experiencing a major heat wave, with temperatures reaching 105 degrees Fahrenheit and a heat index as high as 115 degrees.
Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA
Christian youth are baptized in the Atlantic Ocean in Wildwood, New Jersey on July 22.
Laurent Cipriani / AP
Three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador of Spain, leading in the climb towards Alpe d'Huez, right, looks back to see stage winner Pierre Roland of France, left, and Samuel Sanchez of Spain, center, close the gap during 19th stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 86 miles starting in Modane Valfrejus and finishing on Alpe d'Huez in France on July 22.
Bryn Lennon / Getty Images
Cadel Evans of Australia and Team BMC racing leads Pierre Rolland of France and Team Europcar during stage nineteen of the 2011 Tour de France from Modane Valfrejus to Alpe-d'Huez on July 22 on the Col du Galibier, France
Koen van Weel / EPA
Leopard Trek team riders Andy Schleck (left) and Frank Schleck (center) together with BMC team rider Cadel Evans climb the Alpe d'Huez during the 19th stage of the Tour de France cycling race between Modane and Alpe-d'Huez, France on July 22.
Guillaume Horcajuelo / EPA
Andy Schleck of Luxembourg celebrates on the podium with the leader's yellow jersey after the 19th stage of the Tour De France cycling race between Modane and Alpe-d'huez, France on July 22.
Related content:
Scanpix Norway via Reuters
Debris is seen on the street after a powerful explosion rocked central Oslo on Friday, July 22. A huge explosion damaged government buildings in central Oslo on Friday including Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's office, injuring several people, a Reuters witness said. The blast blew out most windows on the 17-story building housing Stoltenberg's office, as well as nearby ministries including the oil ministry, which was on fire.
Thomas Winje Oijord / AFP - Getty Images
An injured man is treated at the scene after an explosion near the government buildings in Norway's capital Oslo on Friday. At least one person was killed by the powerful explosion which ripped through government and media buildings.
Full story here: Police: At least 2 dead as bomb blast hits Oslo
As NBC's Martin Fletcher reports, an eyewitness described the scene after an explosion rocked Oslo's city center, saying smoke, chaos and injured people fill the streets.
Google maps / DigitalGlobe / GeoEye
As seen from a satellite in this image taken from Google maps, the name Hamad is clearly seen from space.
Google maps / DigitalGlobe / GeoEye
Another view via Google.
You need about 2 miles of sand to carve your name big enough and a crew of hired hands to dig. But a billionaire sheikh from Abu Dhabi, Hamad bin Hamdan al Nahyan, has done just that.
See the image on Google maps.
Read more on Space.com
Searching for images of the huge ice island headed towards Newfoundland that we reported on last night, I contacted the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. They have kindly shared with us the image below, taken by their Terra satellite on Wednesday, which shows the island as a solid white shape close to the center of the frame.
NASA/GSFC, Rapid Response
Iceberg PII-A is seen off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada on July 20th at 14.25 UTC, photographed from the Terra satellite.
msnbc.com reports:
A Manhattan-sized chunk of ice that broke off a glacier in Greenland nearly a year ago is drifting toward the coast of Newfoundland, Canada — providing a stunning sight to scientists and curiosity-seekers but also posing a potential threat to ships.
The ice island is 20 square miles — roughly 6.2 miles long and 3.1 miles wide. It was formed when a 97-square-mile chunk of ice broke off Greenland's Petermann Glacier on Aug. 5, 2010, possibly due to warming of the Atlantic Ocean. Continue reading.
A huge chunk of ice, roughly the size of Manhattan, is slowly making its way toward the Canadian coast. Msnbc.com's Al Stirrett reports.
Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
People cool off in the Unisphere fountain at the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park as a rainbow is pictured, in the Queens borough of New York on Friday, July 22.
A couple seeks relief from the weather in a fountain. More images of the latest weather can be found in our slideshow.
These remarkable photos by Mauricio Handler show a diver in Mujeres, Mexico who was almost sucked into the mouth of a giant whale shark while photographing underwater marine life in July 2011. According to the Daily Mail, the diver escaped from the encounter without injury.
Mauricio Handler/ Handlerphoto.com via Solent News & Photo Agency
Whale sharks are incredibly docile, who filter-feed, swimming with their wide mouths open, collecting plankton and small fish. They have mouths up to nearly 5 feet wide that contain up to 350 rows of teeth and despite their size, do not pose a risk to divers. Click here to read more about these marvelous creatures.
Mauricio Handler/ Handlerphoto.com via Solent News & Photo Agency
Mauricio Handler/ Handlerphoto.com via Solent News & Photo Agency
See more photos of creatures on Animal Tracks.
David Dawson / Centre Pompidou via EPA
Painter Lucian Freud in his studio in an undated photograph entitled Working at Night. Freud died at the age of 88 on July 21.
The AP reports from LONDON:
Lucian Freud, a towering and uncompromising figure in the art world for more than 50 years, has died, his New York-based art dealer said Thursday. He was 88.
Freud was known for his intense realist portraits, particularly of nudes. In recent years his paintings commanded staggering prices at auction, including one of an overweight nude woman sleeping on a couch that sold in 2008 for $33.6 million. Continue reading.
The photo above shows Freud working at night in his studio. It was taken by his long time assistant David Dawson. In 2004, Dawson was interviewed by The Observer about life with Lucian.
Abed Al Hashlamoun / EPA
A protester on the ground argues with Israeli soldiers during a demonstration of Palestinians, foreign protesters and leftwing Israeli peace activists against Israel's controversial separation barrier in the West Bank village of Beit Omar, near Hebron, on July 22. Israel says the barrier is designed to prevent attacks but the Palestinians view it as an 'apartheid wall' that carves off key parts of their promised state.
Watch a discussion from Wednesday's Dylan Ratigan show on the importance of the Israel-Palestine conflict to regional stability:
Author Jeremy Ben-Ami and panel debate whether the Arab Spring has recast the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Daniel Ochoa De Olza / AP
Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is seen before a cabinet meeting at Moncloa Palace in Madrid on July 22. Investors are easing pressure on Spanish markets in reaction to the European Union's new deal to help Greece with another bailout. After days of negative trading Madrid's stock exchange climbed 2 percent just 15 minutes after opening Friday.
Zapatero and his fellow Eurozone leaders on Thursday agreed to a sweeping deal that will grant Greece a massive new bailout, and initial reaction from markets and analysts was cautiously positive, the AP reported. Read the full story.
Kim Ludbrook / EPA
Vadim Kaptur, a diver from Belarus, is helped from the water after hitting his head on the 10m diving platform while training at the 2011 FINA World Swimming Championships in Shanghai, China, on July 22.
I'm not sure which is worse, this nasty accident or the recent Tour de France crash that saw a cyclist hurled into a barbed wire fence.
Jo Yong-Hak / Reuters
A diver surrounded by sardines performs taekwondo during a promotional diving performance for summer vacation visitors at the Coex Aquarium in Seoul, South Korea, on July 22.
It looks like the sardines are fairly adept at avoiding the interloper's kicks.
Most news pictures hit the wires very quickly, often within minutes of being taken, but some take longer to emerge.
We reported earlier this week on a violent incident that took place in China's restive western region of Xinjiang on Monday. 18 people were reported killed after a clash at a police station. Overnight, Reuters moved a series of pictures of the incident which had been released by local authorities.
Xinjiang Public Security Bureau via Reuters
Armed policemen aiming their weapons near a burning office as they try to rescue hostages in a police station during a clash in Hotan, in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China on July 18. China on Wednesday raised the death toll to 18 from the clash at the police station in the restive far western region of Xinjiang, saying that 14 "rioters" died along with two policemen and two hostages in the worst violence there in a year.
Xinjiang Public Security Bureau via Reuters
Police trying to rescue hostages at a police station during a clash in Hotan on July 18.
Xinjiang Public Security Bureau via Reuters
Rescuers carrying an injured victim on a stretcher out of a police station after a clash in Hotan on July 18.
Read the full story from Wednesday: China raises death toll to 18 in Xinjiang violence.
Walter Hinick / AP
Jenifer Schneider, "The Cannon Lady" is blasted out of the 27-foot barrel of a truck mounted cannon into the air some 40 feet landing in a safety net down the street in front of the Finlen Hotel on East Broadway during the opening day of Evel Knievel Days in uptown Butte, Mont., Thursday afternoon, July 21, 2011.
Jennifer Schneider, the Cannon Lady, gets launched at Evel Knievel Days in Butte, America. July 21, 2011.
Learn more about the bizarre performances of human cannonballs from this podcast by HowStuffWorks.com
Thierry Legault / Astrophoto.fr
A three-image composite tracks the International Space Station and the shuttle Atlantis as they move across the sun's disk on July 15.
They look like alien bugs hopping across the sun, but these specks may represent the very last pictures of a space shuttle in orbit as seen from Earth.
French astrophotographer Thierry Legault, an expert in the technique of tracking spacecraft silhouettes, captured these views of the International Space Station and the shuttle Atlantis during their final rendezvous. Atlantis landed today, bringing the 30-year space shuttle program to an end.
The picture above is a composite, showing three views of the station-shuttle complex as it passed over the sun's disk on July 15. Legault had to travel to just the right location to get the shot. This one was taken from Caen in France. The entire transit took just seven-tenths of a second. Legault has labeled the shuttle and elements of the space station in this higher-resolution view:
Thierry Legault / Astrophoto.fr
The labels on this image point out the position of Atlantis and components of the International Space Station during a July 15 transit.
In an email, Legault told me that he traveled through the Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands to capture the silhouettes. One picture, snapped north of Prague and posted to Legault's website, shows the space station and the shuttle side by side, 50 minutes after Atlantis' undocking earlier this week.
Legault produced the piece de resistance today during a stopover near Emden, in northern Germany. It may not look quite as impressive as the others, but it could well be more historic. Legault wrote that the picture was taken "just 21 minutes before the deorbit burn, therefore there are chances that it is the very last image of a space shuttle in orbit."
Here's a composite of four images, taken during the 0.9-second-long transit. The silhouettes of Atlantis are highlighted within white circles:
Thierry Legault / Astrophoto.fr
A four-image composite tracks Atlantis' transit across the sun's disk, just 21 minutes before today's deorbit burn. The white circles highlight Atlantis.
For the telescope and camera buffs out there, Legault says the images were produced using a Takahashi TOA-150 6-inch apochromatic refractor (focal length 3600mm) on an EM-400 mount, with a Baader Herschel wedge. The camera is a Canon 5D Mark II, set for an exposure of 1/8000s, 100 ISO, working in continuous shooting at four frames per second. Transit forecasts were calculated by www.calsky.com.
Merci beaucoup to Thierry for sharing his pictures with us through the years.
More great views of Atlantis:
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," Alan's book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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