The week in pictures

1: Aiming for the heavens: This stunning laser rainbow projection was created by artist Yvette Mattern

in Whitley Bay, England. The light installation celebrated the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad

in the North East of England. The 'Global Rainbow' previously lit up the skies of Germany,

France and the United States.

2: The remains of St Joseph's Catholic Church in Ridgeway, Illinois.

The 110-year-old church was torn apart after it was struck by a tornado.

At least 13 people died as severe weather swept through the area.

3: Ladies who do afternoon tea: Queen Elizabeth, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge look at a Jubilee cake at Fortnum & Mason food store in Central London.

4: Pc David Rathband pictured with his wife Kath, son Ashley and daughter Mia in 2010.

In July of that year gunman Raoul Moat fired shots at the patrol car PC Rathband was sitting in -

completely blinding him. He was found dead at his home in Blythe, Northumberland, on Wednesday.

5: These comic-style stickman drawings are created using a clever process called 'light painting'.'

Artist Rafael Rodrigo, 39, creates the unique artworks using a torch and a camera set to a long exposure.

6: Polar bear Huggies licks her twin cubs while breastfeeding them during their first public appearance

at the Ouwehands Zoo in Rhenen, Germany. Ouwehands Zoo is one of the two zoos participating in a special

breeding programme for endangered polar bears.

7: A tornado-ravaged home in the town of Harveyville, Wabaunsee County, Kansas.

The powerful tornado swept through the Midwest killing 13 people.

8: Gimme shelter: French PM Nicolas Sarkozy is protected by plain-clothes policemen during a walkabout in Bayonne.

He was forced to take refuge in a bar after being mobbed and booed by protesters.

9: Utah Jazz' Jeremy Evans jumps over a man sitting in a chair as he competes in a slam dunk contest

during the NBA All-Star weekend in Orlando, Florida.

10: Scarlett Stoever, 23, trains at Cirque School in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Circus professionals train at the school, which also teaches recreational circus classes to the public.

11: The iconic double-decker hop-on, hop-off Routemaster buses hit the capital's streets on Monday -

six years after they were withdrawn.

12: Men wait to buy bread in front of a bakery as the snow falls in Al Qusayr,

a city in western Syria about three miles southwest of Homs.

13: People rest on the Costa Allegra cruise ship. Tired passengers left the crippled cruise ship

in the Seychelles capital Victoria ending a three-day ordeal in the Indian Ocean after a fire

knocked out the vessel's main power supply.

14: A helicopter hovers over passengers on the Costa Allegra.

They couldn't be rescued until the ship was towed to the capital Victoria in the Seychelles.

15: A student creates a pose with her taxidermied mouse during an anthropomorphic mouse taxidermy class

in Brooklyn, New York.The four-hour class is for people to learn the art of anthropomorphic taxidermy.

The practice of mounting and displaying taxidermied animals as if they were humans or engaged in human activities

was a popular art form during the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

16:Model supervisor Jose Granell poses with a model of Hogwarts Castle as seen in the film

'Harry Potter' at a media viewing held at Warner Bros Studios in Watford, near London.

17: Marthe Odile Charton, 100, enjoys a glass of alcohol-free sparkling wine after blowing candles on her

25th Leap Day birthday, in her retirement home in Ingersheim near Colmar, Eastern France.

Odile is a "leaper" born on February 29,1912 in Ingersheim.

18: Screen siren Angelina Jolie turned heads at the 84th Annual Academy Awards

with her show of leg and striking pose.

19: Forced into egg-xile: One of the eggs in London's The Big Egg Hunt, designed by Alton Towers

for new ride Nemesis Sub-Terra, caused controversy for being 'too scary.'

Already rejected by Canary Wharf, Covent Garden and Primrose Hill, the egg was escorted off

London's Carnaby Street by men in protective biohazard suits.

20: Nepal's Chandra Bahadur Dangi, 72, has been declared the world's smallest man by Guinness.

He is the size of a toddler standing at a mere 21.5 inches tall (54.6 cm).

Dangi takes the shortest man record from Junrey Balawing of the Philippines,

who is 23.5 inches (60 centimeters) tall.