The fortnight from across the globe (January 15-January 31)

Published: Feb 5, 2015

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Flor

Image by : Michael Brown / Reuters

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A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on January 20, 2015. The unmanned rocket blasted off with a next-generation communications satellite designed to provide cellular-like voice and data services to US military forces around the world. Picture taken using long exposure, looking over the campus of Florida Institute of Technologies in Melbourne, about 40 miles from the launch pad

A devotee offers prayers by rolling on the ground at Sankhu during the Swasthani Brata Katha festiva

Image by : Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters

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A devotee offers prayers by rolling on the ground at Sankhu during the Swasthani Brata Katha festival in Kathmandu on January 26, 2015. During the month-long festival, devotees recite one chapter of a Hindu tale daily from the 31-chapter sacred Swasthani Brata Katha book that is dedicated to God Madhavnarayan and Goddess Swasthani, alongside various other gods and goddess and the miraculous feats performed by them. The devotees also go on pilgrimages to various temples, perform religious rituals, take a holy bath in the rivers and fast for a month, especially among women who believe fasting helps in their family's well-being or in getting them a good husband

Constitution assembly members shout slogans in parliament during a meeting on the final day to draft

Image by : Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters

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Constitution assembly members shout slogans in parliament during a meeting on the final day to draft the new constitution in Kathmandu on January 22, 2015. A new constitution is widely seen as crucial to ending the instability that has plagued Nepal since the end of a Maoist-led civil war in 2006 and settling the republic, nestled between regional powers India and China that jostle to woo a new geopolitical ally. But it has been thwarted by differences among political parties over how to divide the country into federal states

Women carry gas cylinders at a distribution point in Cairo on January 19, 2015. Egypt is going throu

Image by : Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

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Women carry gas cylinders at a distribution point in Cairo on January 19, 2015. Egypt is going through its worst energy crisis in decades and is seeking fresh sources of natural gas, which powers most of its homes and factories

A Palestinian boy wearing a military costume arrives at a military-style graduation ceremony for Pal

Image by : Suhaib Salem / Reuters

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A Palestinian boy wearing a military costume arrives at a military-style graduation ceremony for Palestinian youths who were trained at one of the Hamas-run Liberation Camps in Gaza City on January 29, 2015. Hamas's armed wing organised "Liberation Youth Camps" for Palestinians aged between 15 and 21 to prepare them to "confront any possible Israeli attack,” Hamas officials said. According to the organisers, some 17,000 youths graduated from these camps

US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi. Obama, w

Image by : Jim Bourg / Reuters

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US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi. Obama, who was chief guest during the Republic Day celebrations, became the first US president to visit India twice while in office. The US president announced $4 billion in government-backed investments and lending to India, as he sought to scale up a trade relationship he said was "defined by so much untapped potential"

Pope Francis is seen through a plastic cover as he arrives to visit Palo Cathedral near Tacloban air

Image by : Stefano Rellandini / Reuters

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Pope Francis is seen through a plastic cover as he arrives to visit Palo Cathedral near Tacloban airport on January 17, 2015. Storms greeted Pope Francis when he arrived in the central Philippines city of Tacloban on Saturday to pray for the dead and comfort survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, the country's worst natural disaster that killed 6,300 people barely a year ago

Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda drinks water during a news conference at the BOJ headqu

Image by : Toru Hanai / Reuters

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Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda drinks water during a news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo on January 21, 2015. Two years into the so-called Abenomics, a mix of aggressive monetary and fiscal policy plus structural reform, the Bank of Japan is struggling to reach an ambitious inflation target and convince Japanese that years of deflation are in the past. On Wednesday, the Bank of Japan sharply cut its inflation forecast and Kuroda conceded it may take longer than expected to hit 2 percent inflation, underlining the challenges of meeting the target as oil prices continue to slump

Holocaust survivor Hy Abrams, 90, poses for a portrait with a book that he carries with him every da

Image by : Carlo Allegri / Reuters

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Holocaust survivor Hy Abrams, 90, poses for a portrait with a book that he carries with him every day that documents all the different concentration camps he was held in during the World War II, in the Brooklyn borough of New York on January 15, 2015. In a little leather book, Abrams keeps the names that still haunt him: Auschwitz, Plaszow, Mauthausen, Melk and Ebensee. It has been 70 years since the Soviet army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, where Abrams was taken at the age of 20 by German Nazi soldiers and separated from his mother, father, brother and three sisters

Mourners gather around the grave of Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on January 23, 2015. King Abdullah

Image by : Faisal Al Nasser / Reuters

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Mourners gather around the grave of Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh on January 23, 2015. King Abdullah was buried in an unmarked grave in keeping with local religious traditions. His successor pledged to maintain existing energy and foreign policies