The Soyuz TMA-15 spacecraft was transported on Monday, May 25, to Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in preparation for the scheduled 20th expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). During a 180-day mission, due in two days, the six-member crew will receive and unload three Russian Progress craft and a Japanese HTV-1 space freighter, conduct two spacewalks and carry out a series of scientific experiments. (Reuters photos)
Sixteen new king and gentoo penguins arrived in Melbourne Aquarium on Monday, May 25, for a new breeding program. The Southern Ocean and Antarctic aquarium in central Melbourne is famous for breeding programs of endangered sea species.
Following the military defeat of the Tamil Tigers, hundreds of the world's Tamil diaspora are mobilizing for a new phase in their struggle. One of those protests were witnessed in central Sydney streets as about 1000 pro-Tamil demonstrators halted traffic on Saturday, May 23. 
As the Iranian presidential race gets its final touches, supporters of Iran's presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi swarmed to Tehran streets distributing his electoral posters. The June 12 poll will pit incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Mousavi, Mohsen Rezai and Mehdi Karroubi who were all approved by Iran's powerful 12-member Guardians Council.
(Reuters' photos)
Scores of Myanmarese monks took to the streets outside the UN office in the Thai capital Bangkok on Friday, May 22, 2009, calling for ending the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The trial, which entered its fifth day on Friday, has sparked outrage in the West, and the European Union is considering tougher sanctions against the military government.
(Reuters' photos)
Dozens of Palestinian children held a march on May 14, 2009, at the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Lebanon’s Beirut to mark Nakba, when Israel was created on the ruins of Palestine in 1948. Palestinians around the world mark Nakba Day on May 15, as a day of mourning for losing their homeland. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, defines as refugees the descendants of Palestinians who fled or were forced out of their homes in 1948.
(Reuters photos).
Millions of Indians went on Wednesday, May 13, to cast their votes in the final of five stages of the country's marathon elections, with signs that a weak coalition could emerge the winner. More than 100 million voters across 9 states were eligible to vote Wednesday for 86 seats in the 543-seat lower house of parliament. The poll had 714 million voters eligible to cast their ballots at more than 828,000 polling stations. Results of the election are expected on Saturday.
(Reuters photos)
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a German entrepreneur is still making money selling its remaining concrete chunks to tourists as souvenirs. When the wall came down in 1989, Volker Pawlowski was a construction worker in West Berlin and he bought large sections of the 100 kilometres concrete barrier that had surrounded West Berlin. Pawlowksi, whose wife and daughter are also in the business, has enough Wall remnants to sell for decades
Amid waves of job cuts sweeping the world as part of a global recession, around 4,000 Metal workers of the socialist trade union FGTB-ABVV in Belgium staged a protest on Monday, May 11, in the city of Namur to defend their jobs and salary conditions.
(Reuters photos)
