Global Picture: June 3 - June 9
Bodyguards block a 27-year-old German man from leaping toward Pope Benedict XVI’s jeep Wednesday at the start of his general audience in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. Officials at the Vatican declined to identify the man, but the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the pope’s spokesman, said the man was not armed. “He was clearly deranged but did not want to kill or harm the pope,” Lombardi told reporters. “He only wanted to draw attention to himself.” The assailant was taken to a hospital for psychiatric treatment. Although no one was injured, and the 80-year-old pontiff seemed unaware of the disturbance, the incident invoked memories of the assassination attempt against the pope’s predecessor, Pope John Paul, in 1981 when Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca shot and seriously wounded the pope, also in St. Peter’s Square. (Romano Gambineri / EPA)
A Lebanese soldier monitors traffic Monday along the road as an army unit maneuvers around the outskirts of the Nahr el Bared Palestinian refugee camp in the northern part of the country. Scores of soldiers have been killed battling militants in Lebanon’s worst internal fighting since the civil war that ended in 1990. The eruption of deadly violence at a second Palestinian refugee camp, Ein el Hilwa in the south, has raised fears of violence spreading through the country’s dozen camps that have become breeding grounds for extremism. (Ramzi Haidar / AFP / Getty Images)
Palestinians cover their ears last Friday in the West Bank city of Nablus as militants from Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades fire their weapons into the air at a rally commemorating members killed over the years in the conflict with Israel. Four decades after an underdog Israeli military campaign that captured the world’s imagination, the people of Israel, the Middle East and the world still struggle to coexist. The war tripled Israel’s size and probably prevented its annihilation. But with victory came many casualties for both Israelis and Palestinians. (Muhammed Muheisen / AP)
A police officer orders his dog to attack residents of the Mathare slum of Nairobi, Kenya on Thursday. It was the third day of a crackdown of the shadowy Mungiki sect, born of the 1950s Mau Mau uprising against British Rule, but more recently engaged in crime including murder in which victims are beheaded. Since Monday, police have killed more than 30 Mungiki suspects, and have arrested 300 in Mathare, home to 500,000 people. Gun battles erupted on Thursday as police conducted house-to-house searches for members of the outlawed Mungiki. (Karel Prinsloo / AP)
President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush arrive Tuesday at the Rostock-Laage Airport in northeastern Germany for the Group of 8 summit that began Wednesday. Leaders of the member nations--Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia--met for three days. (Marcus Brandt/AFP/Getty Images)
Antiglobalization protesters march through a field to avoid police blockades near Bad Doberan, Germany, on Wednesday. About 6,000 people demonstrated against the G-8 summit along a security fence, and blocked an important access road. The summit in Heiligendamm ends Friday. (Jan Woitas / EPA)
After Chilean Supreme Court prosecutor Monica Maldonado recommended Thursday that former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori be extradited from Chile to Peru on charges of corruption and human rights violations during his 1990-2000 presidency, Chilean Alfredo Etcheverry is the center of attention at a news conference at the court in Santiago. Representing the government of Peru before the Supreme Court, Etcheverry said he will ask the court to order Fujimori back under house arrest until Judge Orlando Alvarez issues his ruling, which is not expected for several months. (Martin Bernetti / AFP / Getty Images)
In preparation for its defense here of the America’s Cup, the Swiss boat Alinghi trains off the coast of Valencia, Spain, Monday. Alinghi will try to maintain possession of the cup against Emirates, the team from New Zealand, which this week swept the Italian entry, Luna Rossa, to win the Louis Vuitton Cup and the right to a rematch for the oldest trophy in international sport. The sailing series between landlocked Switzerland and the island nation of New Zealand begins on June 23. (Fernando Bustamante / AP)
