Kyodo / Reuters

A tornado is seen in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo, in this picture taken by a resident, May 6.

Firefighters and medical teams rushed to the area after the tornado struck about 40 miles from Tokyo. The city is a science center, with dozens of research and academic institutes, but the tornado appeared to be mostly in residential areas.

Officials say a 14-year-old boy died and more than 30 people were injured.

-- Reported by the Associated Press

Read the full story.

Kyodo / Reuters

People walk near debris and damaged vehicles in a residential area after a tornado struck Tsukuba, Japan.

Kei Hashimoto / Jiji Press via AFP - Getty Images

This picture whows a tornado sweeping through Tsukuba, Japan.

Kyodo News via AP

A damaged residential area is seen after a tornado struck Tsukuba, Japan.

Kyodo / Reuters

A tornado is seen in Tsukuba, Japan.

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Dimitri Messinis / AP

The full moon rises behind the Temple of Poseidon in Cape Sounion, southeast of Athens, Greece, while tourists watch on May 5. Saturday's event is a "supermoon," the closest and therefore the biggest and brightest full moon of the year.

Saturday night's "supermoon" is the biggest and brightest full moon of the year, due to the fact that the moon is near the closest point in its orbital path around Earth. But just how much bigger and brighter does it look? That's a tricky question.

Most reports say the moon looks 14 percent bigger than usual, which is close to the truth but isn't quite right. They also say it's 30 percent brighter than usual, which isn't right, either. James Garvin, chief scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, ran the numbers to come up with an explanation that seems to make the most sense.

Read more about Garvin's explanation.

-- Reported by msnbc.com's Alan Boyle

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Ralph Lauer / Zuma Press

A supermoon rises over neon hotel signs on Highway 80 in Ft. Worth, Texas.

Mark Blinch / Reuters

The moon rises over the skyline in Toronto, Canada, May 5.

Wilfredo Lee / AP

People fish from a jetty as the moon rises over the Atlantic Ocean, May 5, near Bal Harbour, Fla.

Asmaa Waguih / Reuters

A full moon is seen behind the minaret of Mohamed Ali mosque, in Islamic Cairo, Egypt, May 5.

David J. Phillip / AP

Jockey Mario Gutierrez rides I'll Have Another to victory in the 138th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., May 5.

I'll Have Another caught Bodemeister down the stretch and pulled away in the final furlong on Saturday to win the Kentucky Derby.

Jockey Mario Gutierrez, riding in his first Derby, guided the 3-year-old colt ahead of Bob Baffert's Bodemeister and a late closing Dullahan to win on a fast track.

-- Reported by the Associated Press

Read the full story

Slideshow: Derby Day finery

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Archibald D'Mello / AP

Violet D'Mello of Aberdeen, Scotland is attacked by cheetahs while being photographed by her husband Archibald, during a visit to Kragga Kamma game reserve near Port Elizabeth, South Africa during a visit to the country. The couple visited the enclosure in which the hand-reared cheetah brothers, Mark and Monty, were kept when the attack took place.

Read more from the Daily Mail. 

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Slideshow: Animal Tracks: April 25 - May 2

Esteban Cobo / EPA

From a dog in a dress to a momma gorilla holding her baby, get your cuteness fix with irresistible photos of creatures great and small.

Launch slideshow

Reuters

A woman breaks down with her son as the search for her missing husband continues.

A flash flood was reportedly caused by an avalanche in the Annapurna mountain range, in Kaski district of Nepal, May 5. At least 13 people, including three foreigners are confirmed to have died during the flood in Pokhara and adjoining villages in Kaski district.

Reuters

The body of a victim is retrieved at the bank of the Seti River by locals.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign rally at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, May 5. Obama officially kicked off his re-election campaign with visits to Ohio and Virginia.

With his wife at his side and Air Force One as a campaign plane, President Barack Obama was holding his first political rallies of the 2012 presidential race on Saturday -- targeting two swing states, Ohio and Virginia, that could be critical to his bid to retain the White House.

The events at two universities, Ohio State and Virginia Commonwealth, were billed as the official kickoff of Obama's re-election bid, even though he's been solidly engaged in his campaign and over a year ago filed the necessary paperwork to run again.

Read the full story

Related content:

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Jim Urquhart / Reuters

Kail Mantle rounds up horses during the Montana Horses Annual Horse Drive outside Three Forks, Montana, May 4, 2012.

Jim Urquhart / Reuters

Wrangler Shad Boardman rides his horse across a river during the Montana Horses Annual Horse Drive.

The Mantle family, who own Montana Horses and who have invited the public to witness horse drives for the last 11 years, are holding their last horse drive. Approximately 300 horses are rounded up and driven 35 miles from their winter range to the Mantle ranch over the course of three days. The horses are later picked up by leasers to be used as pack and trail horses at dude ranches and national parks.

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Jim Urquhart / Reuters

Horses run to the corrals during the Montana Horses Annual Horse Drive outside.

Jewel Samad / AFP - Getty Images file

This December 1, 2011 file photo shows the 2011 National Christmas Tree after being lit by US President Barack Obama and the First Family during a ceremony on The Ellipse near the White House in Washington, DC.

The Colorado blue spruce passed away "due to complications resulting from transplant shock" just 14 months after it was planted in the Ellipse field outside the White House, the National Park Service said May 4, 2012.  Born on a tree farm in New Jersey, it replaced a similar tree knocked down in a wind storm after 33 years.

A successor tree -- also a Colorado blue spruce, from an undisclosed state adjacent to the US capital -- has been identified, and it will be planted in late October, the federal agency said.  The ceremonial lighting of the National Christmas Tree is a Washington tradition that dates back to 1923 when then-president Calvin Coolidge flicked the switch on a fir tree festooned with 2,500 electric bulbs.  Last Christmas, in a nod to 21st century energy efficiency, the tree featured 65 sets of programmable color-changing LED lights as well as 160 starburst ornaments in an heirloom topper design.     

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Richard Ellis / Getty Images

Graduating seniors at the Citadel are reflected in the brass uniform buckle of an undergraduate before the Long Grey Line ceremony on Friday in Charleston, South Carolina. The Long Grey Line has been performed at the Citadel since 1842 and honors the graduating seniors.

Richard Ellis / Getty Images

Graduating seniors at the Citadel perform the brassing ceremony following the Long Grey Line ceremony. Brassing involves scratching the uniform buckle of undergraduates by punching it with your class ring.

Richard Ellis / Getty Images

Graduating Citadel seniors harrass an undergraduate before the start of the Long Grey Line ceremony.

Richard Ellis / Getty Images

Graduating Citadel seniors stand to watch underclassman parade past during the Long Grey Line ceremony.

See more images of graduation ceremonies in PhotoBlog.

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Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA

Spekhov Yevgeny, editor of correspondence department, shows an issue of paper 'Pravda' from 10 May 1945 after the capitulation of Nazi Germany in the editorial office of Russian Communist party newspaper 'Pravda' (Truth) in Moscow, Russia on Friday. Russian celebrate 100 year anniversary of the first issue of the newspaper 'Pravda' which was published on 05 May 1912 in St. Petersburg, becoming the biggest newspaper during the Soviet period of the Russian history and the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party from 1912 until 1991 when the paper was closed down after the decree of the President Boris Yeltsin. In 1997 Russian communists recovered 'Pravda' as an official paper of the Russian Communist party.

Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA

A journalist works near the memorial working place (R) of the wife of Vladimir Lenin Nadezhda Krupskaya in the editorial office of Russian Communist party newspaper 'Pravda' (Truth) in Moscow.

Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA

Pre-anniversary issues of paper 'Pravda' (Truth) are pictured while on the production line at the printing works outside Moscow.

Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters

Boris Komotsky, editor of Pravda newspaper, works at his desk in an office, with an image of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin seen in the background, at Moscow.

Reuters reports that the 100-year-old Russian newspaper is still 'urging the workers of the world to unite':

Times are hard. But its editor says that battling hostile authorities, the threat of closure and financial problems is how Pravda spent its early years after first appearing in St Petersburg on May 5, 1912, until the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

"In many respects our role and purpose has gone back to what it was before 1917," Boris Komotsky said in his office in Moscow's Pravda Street, a huge photograph of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin reading Pravda on the wall behind him.

"We are the opposition's main organ, fighting for power, for policy changes. We've gone though so many problems. Now each of the workers here is a hero. At times they've had to work without getting a paycheck."

There's a newspaper in America with the same name - in English. The Elkhart Truth, in northern Indiana, worked together with msnbc.com to produce the Elkhart Project, a yearlong series of reports about a region hit particularly hard by the recent recession.

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Ahmad Hammad / AP

Armored Egyptian military vehicles block the road outside of the Ministry of Defense in Cairo on May 4.

Hamada Elrasam / AP

Protesters take shelter during brick throwing clashes outside the Ministry of Defense in Cairo on May 4.

Egyptian armed forces and protesters clashed in Cairo on Friday, with troops firing water cannons and tear gas at demonstrators who threw stones as they tried to march on the Defense Ministry, a flashpoint for a new cycle of violence only weeks ahead of presidential elections.

Related links:

• Army imposes curfew in Cairo district after clashes
• PhotoBlog: Thousands protest in Cairo as military fires back with tear gas 

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Natalia Jimenez / msnbc.com

Visitors arrive at the Frieze Art Fair on Randall's Island in New York City on May 3.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

People walk through exhibits at the first New York Frieze Art Fair on May 4, 2012 in New York City.

Frieze New York provides a whirlwind snapshot of the contemporary art world. Over four days, the art fair brings together a selection of 182 galleries from 30 countries under a 250,000-square foot tented venue, designed by Brooklyn architects SO-IL. This is the first time the London based fair will be in New York City.

For more information about the art fair visit the Frieze New York website.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

People walk through exhibits at the first New York Frieze Art Fair on May 4, in New York City.

Natalia Jimenez / msnbc.com

A woman walks by artist Lothar Hempel's work on display as part of the Frieze New York Art Fair on Randall's Island in New York City.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

People walk through exhibits at the first New York Frieze Art Fair on May 4, in New York City.

Photos by Charlie Riedel / AP

Chuck Kenney, from Goodells, Mich., places a bet before the 138th running of the Kentucky Oaks horse race at Churchill Downs, May 4, 2012, in Louisville, Ky.

Charlie Riedel / AP

Mallory McCallen, from Houston, Tx., reads through a race program before the running of the first race.

The Kentucky Oaks, sometimes called the little sister of the Kentucky Derby, is held at Churchill Downs on the Friday before the Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Ky. It features 3-year-old Thoroughbred fillies, and the race is 1 1/8 miles long. The Oaks and the Derby are the oldest continuously contested sporting events in history and are the only horse races that continue to be held in their original venue.

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Ahmed Gomaa / AP

Egyptian soldiers raise their batons at a protester during clashes outside the Ministry of Defense in Cairo, Egypt, on May 4. Egyptian armed forces and protesters clashed in Cairo on Friday, with troops firing water cannons and tear gas at demonstrators who threw stones as they tried to march on the Defense Ministry, a flashpoint for a new cycle of violence only weeks ahead of presidential elections.

Amr Nabil / AP

An Egyptian protester holds a national flag as he chants slogans at a rally in Tahrir Square in Cairo Egypt, on May 4. Thousands rallied in Egypt against the country's ruling military council on Friday, two days after a flare-up of street violence left at least nine dead and fueled a wave of Islamist-led opposition to the generals ahead of presidential elections.

Ahmed Gomaa / AP

An injured protester is evacuated by motorbike from the site of clashes outside the Ministry of Defense in Cairo, Egypt, on May 4. Egyptian armed forces and protesters clashed in Cairo on Friday, with troops firing water cannons and tear gas at demonstrators who threw stones as they tried to march on the Defense Ministry, a flashpoint for a new cycle of violence only weeks ahead of presidential elections.

Reuters reports -- Protesters threw rocks at troops guarding Egypt's defense ministry on Friday as thousands marched in Cairo to denounce violence against demonstrators and the exclusion of candidates from the country's presidential election.

The crowd hurled insults at the soldiers sent to defend the ministry after 11 people were killed in clashes there on Wednesday, and called for the overthrow of the head of the ruling military council, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.

"O Tantawi, good morning, this is your last day," shouted the crowd, and "Field Marshal leave, the people are dangerous."

Read the full story.

Khaled Elfiqi / EPA

Egyptian securrity forces (not pictured), use water canons against protesters, during a sit-in at Abbassiya square, near the Defense Ministry in Cairo, Egypt, on May 4. Protesters clashed for the second time in two days after marches converged at the Defense Ministry. On May 2, clashes left nine people dead after unknown assailants attacked protesters according to the Egyptian military council.

Khaled Elfiqi / EPA

Egyptian anti-military protesters hurl stones at Egyptian army forces (not pictured), during clashes at Abbassiya square, near the Defense Ministry in Cairo, Egypt, on May 4. Protesters clashed for the second time in two days after marches converged at the Defense Ministry. On May 2, clashes left nine people dead after unknown assailants attacked protesters according to the Egyptian military council.

Ahmed Gomaa / AP

An injured protester is assisted at the site of clashes outside the Ministry of Defense in Cairo, Egypt, on May 4. Egyptian armed forces and protesters clashed in Cairo on Friday, with troops firing water cannons and tear gas at demonstrators who threw stones as they tried to march on the Defense Ministry, a flashpoint for a new cycle of violence only weeks ahead of presidential elections.

Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

People attend a protest after Friday prayers in Tahrir Square in Cairo on May 4. Thousands marched to Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to protest against the exclusion of prominent candidates from Egypt's presidential election, convinced that the country's ruling generals are trying to manipulate the outcome.

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Desmond Boylan / Reuters

Customers are entertained as they dine inside the newly licensed restaurant "El Bedouino" in Havana on April 1. The restaurant is an example of how life is changing in Cuba since President Raul Castro launched a string of limited economic reforms, legalizing certain kinds of businesses, including restaurants, hostels and street vendors.

Enrique De La Osa / Reuters

Women sell clothes they made to pedestrians along a street in Havana on March 24.

Desmond Boylan / Reuters

A woman pays a man with a private licence to sell goods at a stall in Havana on Feb. 29.

Reuters reports -- After his ailing older brother, Fidel, stepped down as president four years ago, Raul Castro began to encourage self-employment. He initiated changes in sectors previously restricted to the state or which had operated illegally in Cuba's vast black market.

He has given Cubans the right, with some restrictions, to buy and sell homes and cars for the first time since the early days of the 1959 revolution, led by Fidel.

Would-be farmers can lease land from the government. New small entrepreneurs are being allowed to enter into contracts with state companies and local governments.

As a result, more Cubans are setting up their own businesses as the cash-strapped government moves to cut spending and boost tax revenue.

Read the full story.

Desmond Boylan / Reuters

A car with a "for sale" sign is seen on a street in Havana on Feb. 29. Unseen in the past, cars for sale are an example of how life is changing in Cuba since President Raul Castro launched a string of limited economic reforms, legalizing certain kinds of businesses, including restaurants, hostels and street vendors.

Enrique De La Osa / Reuters

Leather craftsman Arle Toro (right) tries to sell a hat to a pedestrian along a street in Havana on March 24.

Desmond Boylan / Reuters

A woman walks past an apartment with a "for sale" sign in Santiago de Cuba March 25, 2012. Unseen in the past, home sales are an example of how life is changing in Cuba since President Raul Castro launched a string of limited economic reforms, legalizing certain kinds of businesses, including restaurants, hostels and street vendors.

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AP

Photographers Guillermo Luna Varela, left, and Gabriel Huge, right, were among four people found slain and dumped in plastic bags in a canal in Veracruz, Mexico on Thursday, May 3, 2012. A fellow journalist said Luna was Huge's nephew.

Three photojournalists who worked the perilous crime beat in Mexico's violence-torn Veracruz state were among four people found dismembered and dumped in plastic bags in a canal Thursday, less than a week after a reporter for an investigative newsmagazine was found dead in her home in the state capital.

The targeting of sources of independent information by two warring drug cartels threatens to add Veracruz to the growing list of Mexican states where fear snuffs out reporting on the drug war.

Reuters

Regina Martinez was found dead in the bathroom of her house in Xalapa on April 28, 2012.

The bodies of photographers Guillermo Luna, Gabriel Huge and Esteban Rodriguez were discovered in the town of Boca del Rio along with that of Luna's girlfriend, Irasema Becerra.

Regina Martinez, a correspondent for the national magazine Proceso, was found dead in her bathroom on Saturday with signs she had been beaten and strangled.

The London-based press freedom group Article 19 said in a report last year that Luna, Varela and Rodriguez were among 13 Veracruz journalists who had fled their homes because of crime-related threats. 

In total, more than 70 journalists have been murdered in Mexico in the last decade, according to the government-funded National Human Rights Commission. The latest grisly discovery came on World Press Freedom Day.

-- The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

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Felix Marquez / AP

Police remove from a canal plastic bags containing the dismembered bodies of four people in Boca del Rio, Veracruz, on May 3, 2012. The fourth victim was Guillermo Luna's girlfriend, Irasema Becerra, state prosecutors said.

Jack Guez / AFP - Getty Images

Hagai Amir, the brother and key accomplice of the man who assassinated Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, flashes the victory sign as he leaves Ayalon prison in Ramla near Tel Aviv on May 4, 2012. Amir was freed from prison after serving 16 years in prison for complicity in the murder of Rabin, and another six months for death threats he made against former prime minster Ariel Sharon.

Reuters reports — Hagai Amir, the brother of the man who assassinated late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, said he was proud of his own role in the murder plot after he was freed from prison on Friday.

Amir was released after serving 16 years in prison. Yigal Amir, his brother, killed Rabin at a peace rally in Tel Aviv in 1995 and is serving a life sentence. He said he shot the politician to stop him from handing parts of what he believed were the biblical land of Israel to the Palestinians in peace negotiations.

"I am not regretful. I am proud of what I did," Amir, an Israeli Jew, told reporters as family members whisked him into a car and drove away. Read the full story.

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Oliver Weiken / EPA

Dozens of left-wing demonstrates gathered at the prison in central Israel to protest the release. "We will not forget, we will not forgive," they chanted.

Oliver Weiken / EPA

Shlomo and Geula, the parents of Hagai and Yigal Amir, wait for their son to be released from prison on May 4, 2012.

Northern Territory Parks And Wildlife via AFP - Getty Images

A 14.5 foot male estuarine (saltwater) crocodile retrieved from a crocodile trap at Daly River Community some 139 miles south of Darwin, Australia.

A 14.5-foot-long crocodile that may have eaten up to nine pet dogs has been hauled out of a river in Australia.

Community police officer Mark Casey told Australia's Northern Territory News that there had been nine reports of dogs being taken in the month before the crocodile was trapped.

"Crocs are an ever-present danger but you don't see them," he said.

"They can sit for days on end on the other side of the river and watch you go fishing off the same log or rock - that's how they hunt."

"Next thing you know, bang, the dog's gone."

Previously on PhotoBlog: Just who is the biggest crocodile of them all?

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Natacha Pisarenko / AP

Government supporters celebrate outside the Congress in Buenos Aires on May 3, 2012 after Argentina's takeover of its formerly state-owned energy company won approval from legislators.

Ivan Fernandez / EPA

Deputies and spectators attending the session of Congress celebrate the final approval of the proposal of creating a bill to expropriate the oil company.

Reuters reports — Argentina's Congress nationalized the country's biggest oil company, YPF, by an overwhelming lower house vote on Thursday that underscored broad popular support for a measure that threatens to scare off foreign investment. 

"It's a good move for the country because if the government does not control strategic resources such as oil, it loses power," said financial analyst Leonardo Rodriguez, 32, as he sipped a latté in the well-heeled Buenos Aires neighborhood of Puerto Madero.

"But the approach used in taking over the company, without negotiating, was too jarring and authoritarian," Rodriguez said. "There could be serious consequences. I mean, who wants to invest in a country where the government expropriates private property from one day to the next?" Read the full story.

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AP

In this image taken from video, New York Yankees' Mariano Rivera, center, grimaces after twisting his right knee shagging fly balls during batting practice before a baseball game with the Kansas City Royals, Thursday, May 3, 2012, in Kansas City, Mo.

Manager Joe Girardi revealed the severity of the injury after the game. Royals team doctor Vincent Key diagnosed a torn ACL after looking at the MRI.

"This is bad, there's no question about it," Girardi. "

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