The Best Pictures of the Week, June 17 – June 24

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This week: a refugee southern Sudan in the run-up to the elections, the World Trade Center steel program; protests on both sides in Libya; Saturn’s icy moon; China’s floods; a Greek Air Force plane under the sea; riots in Senegal; US troops in Afghanistan on the day President Obama orders 33,000 home by next summer.

See last week’s Best Pictures of the Week.

Sudan
June 21, 2011. Eight-year-old Raby waits in Wau, a city in southern Sudan, at a transit center that welcomes refugees. Combatants in northern and southern Sudan have been fighting over whether the South can secede and form its own nation. The conflict has displaced more than a million people. Cedric Gerbehaye—Agence VU
Venezuela
June 18, 2011. A protester outside a prison near Caracas prepares to launch a tear-gas canister. An uprising at the prison has led to a violent standoff between authorities and inmates, at least 22 of whom have died. Family members of the prisoners have joined the battle outside the gates. Carlos Garcia Rawlins—­Reuters
USA
June 16, 2011. A fire truck recovered from the World Trade Center site after 9/11 sits inside an 80,000-sq.-ft. (7,500 sq m) hangar at JFK International Airport. The hangar holds artifacts to be displayed at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City. Curators from other museums can request from the hangar damaged steel from Ground Zero to display at their institutions. Mike Segar—Reuters
Libya
June 19, 2011. A Libyan girl holds the rebellion's flag during an anti-Gaddafi demonstration in the streets of the rebel-stronghold of Benghazi in eastern Libya. Nine people were killed and 51 were wounded in fighting around Misrata when forces loyal to Gaddafi used heavy artillery to bombard the Dafnia sector at the western entrance to the western city, according to rebel officials.Gianluigi Guercia—AFP/Getty Images
Libya
June 17, 2011. In Tripoli, Libya, boys gather at a rally opposing air strikes against dictator Moammar Gaddafi. Libya's government organized the demonstration—and invited photographers. But the children look as uncertain as Americans wondering when the conflict might end. Ahmed Jadallah—Reuters
Libya
June 17, 2011. On a tour led by an official of the Libyan government, supporters of Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gaddafi demonstrate in Tripoli, Libya. On Friday, Gaddafi released an audio speech where he predicted a military defeat of NATO. Moises Saman—The New York Times
Space
June 18, 2011. NASA captured this image of Helene, an icy and irregular moon of Saturn. At its closest approach, the NASA spacecraft Cassini flew within 4,330 miles (6,968 km) of Helene’s surface. AFP/Getty images
Italy
June 21, 2011. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sips a cappuccino at a government meeting in Rome. The embattled Berlusconi and his supporters have lost recent elections, and opponents seem poised to take power. Mauro Scrobogna —La Presse/Zuma Press
June 17, 2011. Entrants hoping to be Miss Universe pose in Tokyo. The winner was Maria Kamiyama, 24, a sales clerk from Osaka. She will represent Japan at the Miss Universe pageant in São Paulo. Kim Kyung-Hoon—Reuters
Germany
June 17, 2011. Indifferent to—or, more likely, unaware of—the mordant juxtaposition they produce, children play on the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Holocaust memorial in Berlin. Markus Schreiber—AP
Belarus
June 22, 2011. A soldier from Belarus stands in front of a flame-lit memorial marking the 1941 Nazi invasion of Brest. The Belarusan city became a key battleground in German-Russian hostilities during World War II.Sergei Grits—AP
China
June 21, 2011. Graduates in the Chinese province of Hubei make their way through an inundated lakeside park. Cities along the Yangtze River are bracing for more downpours, even after flooding has already forced thousands from their homes. Newscom
June 21, 2011. A Greek Air Force Mirage 2000 jet fighter rests on the bottom of the Aegean sea near the Greek island of Samos after it crashed on June 9, 2011. Both pilots ejected before the crash and were rescued unhurt by a military vessel, Greek military officials said.Greek Air Force/Reuters
Netherlands
June 21, 2011. These weird pictures capturing the sun in the sky from the shortest to longest day of the year were shot with a home-made cameras made from a beer can. Around 100 pinhole cameras were put around an observatory in Holland last December as part of a public experiment, revealing the sun's progress after six months.Philippus Lansbergen Observatory/National News/Zuma Press
23 June 2011. Catholics attend a procession during the Corpus Christi celebration in Esplanada dos Ministerios, Brasilia, Brazil. Corpus Christi, or Body of Christ, is the holiday when Catholics commemorate the institution of the Holy Eucharist, or communion. Fernando Bizerra Jr—EPA
June 17, 2011. Swimmers take to the water of Lake Windermere during The British Gas Great North Swim in Windermere, England. The Great North swim is the biggest event ever of its kind in Britain. Up to 10,000 athletes are taking to the open waters of Lake Windermere in the Lake District throughout the weekend and also raising up to GBP 1 Million for charity. Christopher Furlong—Getty Images
China
June 21, 2011. A fisherman holds his fishing net in his mouth in a polluted river in Wuhan, Hubei province. More than half of China's cities are affected by acid rain and one-sixth of major rivers are so polluted that the water is unfit even for farmland, a senior official said in a bleak assessment of the environmental price of the country's economic boom. Darley Wong—Reuters
Denmark
June 19, 2011. Visitors walk through Olafur Elisson's work 'Your Rainbow Panorama' on the roof of the Danish art museum ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum in Aarhus, Denmark. The work by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson consists of a circular, 150-meter-long and three meter-wide circular walkway in glass in all the colors of the spectrum. Peter Klaunzer—EPA
China
June 22, 2011. Paramilitary policemen rappel down a building as they take part in an anti-terrorism drill in Shanghai.China Daily/Reuters
June 21, 2011. A Brazilian elite team member participates in the 2011 Commando Forces competition in San Salvador. 25 teams from countries of the hemisphere participate to prepare elite forces to fight terrorism and organized crime in Latin America. Jose Cabezas—AFP/Getty Images
June 23, 2011. Demonstrators clash with riot policemen next to Senegal's parliament building in Dakar as several protests were reported after President Abdoulaye Wade dropped plans to allow presidential candidates to be elected with just a quarter of the vote. Moussa Sow—AFP/Getty Images
June 23, 2011. US player Serena Williams bounces the ball as she plays against Romania's Simona Halep in a Women's Singles match at the 2011 Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Tennis Club, in southwest London. Carl de Souza—AFP/Getty Images
June 21, 2011. "Ukukus," or protectors of the Lord "Qoyllur Rit'i," try to reach a cross on a glacier during celebrations in honor of the Lord at the Sinakara Valley in Cuzco, June 21, 2011. The annual festivity of the Lord of "Qoyllur Rit'i" or Lord of the Snow Star attracts thousands of pilgrims, dancers and musicians from surrounding regions with processions and dances around the sacred shrine. The main event is carried out by protectors called "ukukus", who climb glaciers over the Mount Colquepunku to bring back crosses representing the Lord. Enrique Castro-Mendivil—Reuters
Pakistan
June, 22, 2011. Pakistani Kushti wrestlers fight during their daily training in Lahore, Pakistan. Kushti, an Indo-Pakistani form of wrestling, is several thousand years old and is a national sport in Pakistan. Muhammed Muheisen—AP
Afghanistan
June 22, 2011. Canadian army soldiers sun bathe in Seprwan Ghar forward fire base the Panjwai district of Kandahar province southern Afghanistan. Canada will end its combat role in Afghanistan by the end of July, after nearly ten years fighting in Afghanistan. Baz Ratner—Reuters
France
June 21, 2011. A French Rafale-2 jet fighter performs during its demonstration flight at the 49th Paris Air Show at le Bourget airport, east of Paris.Francois Mori—AP
June 22, 2011. A US soldier from Viper Company (Bravo), 1-26 Infantry walks along with Afghan soldiers (front) during a patrol at Combat Outpost (COP) Sabari in Khost province in the east of Afghanistan. Ted Aljibe—AFP/Getty Images
June 23, 2011. A US soldier from Viper Company (Bravo), 1-26 Infantry stands on a guard tower as the sun rises at Combat Outpost (COP) Sabari in Khost province in the east of Afghanistan. On June 23, President Barack Obama ordered all 33,000 US surge troops home from Afghanistan by next summer, declared the beginning of the end of the war and vowed to turn to "nation building" at home. Ted Aljibe—AFP/Getty Images

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