Firefighters, police, members of the military and the public participate in the ceremonial transfer of the National 9/11 Flag into the The National September 11 Memorial Museum permanent collection. The giant American Flag, which was flying from a building beside the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and was later found badly damaged in the debris of ground zero, was unfurled at the World Trade Center site in a ceremony. The flag was refolded and firefighters marched it into the museum. The National September 11 Memorial Museum opened its doors to the general public today.
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U.S. first lady Michelle Obama dances onstage during the Turnaround Arts Talent Show at the White House in Washington Tuesday. Turnaround Arts is a program to help turn around low-performing schools and increase student achievement through arts education.
Reuters
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A dwarf walks in between mushroom-shaped houses after performances at Kunming World Butterflies Garden, Yunnan province. The “Kingdom of The Dwarves” opened in the summer of 2009 with over 100 people suffering from dwarfism from all over China, forming a unique community. The only criteria for a job in the “Kingdom Of The Dwarves” is to be shorter than 130cm (51 in). Discrimination in their home town and a lack of job opportunities are some of the reasons that drive the dwarfs to find a job in the park which runs two shows a day.
Reuters
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Members of the International Festival of Indigenous and Tribal Groups, wearing traditional dresses, attend Pope Francis’ Wednesday general audience in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
Reuters
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Horses are seen in silhouette making their way to the track for morning workouts at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. The Belmont Stakes will be host to California Chrome as he competes for the coveted triple crown at Belmont Park on June 7, 2014.
Reuters
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A light show featuring a ballet dancer and swans from Swan Lake is projected onto spraying water by the Vivid Aquatique Water Theatre during a preview of the Vivid Sydney light and music festival. For 18 days beginning on May 23 the Vivid Sydney festival, one of the world’s largest creative industry forums, will combine outdoor lighting sculptures and installations.
Reuters
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Commuters are reflected as they walk, while work continues on a new PATH terminal designed by Santiago Calatrava near Ground Zero in New York City.
Reuters
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Two young male Sumatran tigers play in a new $19.5 million tiger habitat at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park in San Diego’s San Pasqual Valley. The soon to open exhibit will house six tigers and features waterfall feed ponds, rocks for climbing and tall crass for catnaps. REUTERS/Mike Blake (UNITED STATES – Tags: ANIMALS SOCIETY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)
Reuters
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Demonstrators clash with police during a protest at McDonald’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois. Workers were calling for higher wages and better work conditions.
Reuters
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Secretary of State John Kerry and Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto look out over the grounds from inside Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City.
Reuters
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Recovered antiquities are seen at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. The museum celebrated the retrieval of around 166 artefacts which were stolen from the Iraqi National museum during the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government in 2003.
Reuters
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Operators from 17 countries participate in an International Special Operations Exercise at SOFIC, the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference, in Tampa, Florida. SOFIC provides a forum for domestic and foreign military personnel, governments and industry professionals to network and discuss challenges related Special Operations Forces around the globe.
Reuters
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Deborah Peter holds up a sign while making a statement to the press before a hearing on Capitol Hill. Peter, who now lives in the United States, spoke about the killing of her family by members of the Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2011.
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The USS Oak Hill passes the Statue of Liberty. Fleet Week festivities officially began with a parade of ships into New York Harbor and up the Hudson River.
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A Bosnian woman cycles past a flooded cemetery in the village of Domaljevac near the Bosnian town of Orasje along river Sava. Floodwaters receded Wednesday in Bosnia and Serbia, just enough to reveal the next shock: recovery from the historic flood will probably cost billions of euros that neither of the countries has.
AP
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A protester braces as police fire a water cannon at demonstrators during clashes in Valparaiso, Chile. Protesters believe the education reforms proposed Monday by President Michelle Bachelet are not enough. Bachelet proposed an end to state subsidies to for-profit schools. Still to come is a proposal that would make university education free in Chile.
AP
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,Just engaged Jefferson Rougeau, left, Steven Creps embrace on the steps of the state Capitol, Tuesday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania’s ban on gay marriage was overturned Tuesday by a federal judge in a decision that makes same-sex marriage legal throughout the Northeast.
AP
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In this photo taken Tuesday, an Egyptian man holds his daughter as they celebrate Moulid outside the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine, in Cairo, Egypt. Every year, Egyptians celebrate Moulid, which commemorates of the birth of Muslim Prophet Mohammed’s granddaughter, Zeinab, by performing ritual dances, prayers and having fun with their families.
AP
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A Palestinian Bedouin child plays with a bicycle tire in the remains of his family’s makeshift homes which were destroyed by the Israeli army near the West Bank city of Jericho in the Jordan valley. Palestinian security sources said the Israeli army destroyed more than 30 tents and sheds which the army said were illegally built close to the Jewish settlement of Meswah.
AP
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Julius Malema, center, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), arrives at Parliament wearing a hard hat and overall to show solidarity with coal mine workers, for the first sitting of the National Assembly after elections held in South Africa in Cape Town, South Africa. South Africa held its first sitting of Parliament on Wednesday, after recent elections, to swear in new members of parliament and to formally elect President Jacob Zuma as head of state.
AP
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A Ukrainian government soldier rests inside an armored personnel carrier at a checkpoint near Slovyansk, Ukraine. The government has over the past week had its hand in the east strengthened by a sequence of strongly worded statements by metals tycoon Rinat Akhmetov, who owns major industrial assets in Donetsk region.
AP
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Biologist Rodrigo Cerqueira touches an armadillo, named Ana Botafogo in honor of the Brazilian dancer, at the Rio Zoo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A Brazilian environmental group has launched an effort to save the endangered three-banded armadillo, the mascot for the World Cup that starts next month. The armadillo is in danger of extinction, largely because of deforestation and hunting in its habitat in the shrub lands of northeastern Brazil, according to the Caatinga Association. Those risks in large part are why the armadillo was chosen as World Cup mascot. Another is that when it’s frightened, it rolls up into a ball small enough to fit into one hand, looking like a tan soccer ball.
Reuters
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Lucifer, an 11-year-old male Asian lion, is surrounded by ZSL London Zoo’s team of vets and keepers as they carry out a health check ahead of him moving home. Lucifer was named after his studbook number: 666.
Splash News
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An officer is pictured at the Cidade da Policia (Police’s City) complex during a civil police 24-hour strike in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The police called for the strike to demand for better salaries and benefits.
Reuters
