The trees at Madison Square Park on Jan. 6. (Natalie Keyssar for the Wall Street Journal.)
The Dark Passenger
An umbrella provided cover for a tourist couple and a splash of color in snowswept Florence, Italy, Friday, as unusually cold and snowy weather continued across the region. (Maurizio Degl’innocenti/European Pressphoto Agency)
BRIGHT DISPLAY: A display of a “worker” painting blue skies and white clouds was installed on the exterior of a power plant in Beijing Thursday. (Alexander F. Yuan/Associated Press)
A BIG BOOK: Publisher Millennium House presented the world’s biggest book at a book fair in Frankfurt Wednesday. The fair runs through Oct. 10. (Uli Deck/ZUMA Press)
STRANDED: A member of a rescue team sprayed water Wednesday on the fin of a whale stranded on the western coast of Denmark. A marine biologist says the 50-foot whale is unable to move and could be stuck on its belly. It is not known if the animal is ill or disoriented. (Claus Fisker/European Pressphoto Agency)
WAITING HIS TURN: Politician Joshua Kutuny sat in High Court in Nairobi, Kenya, Wednesday. He and two other officials are accused of hate speech they allegedly made during rallies against a draft constitution days after a separate rally turned deadly with a grenade attack. (Noor Khamis/Reuters)
BROWN BEAR: A teddy bear lay in the mud in the flooded village of Wilkow, Poland, Monday. (UPPA/ZUMA Press)
GETTING THEIR FEET WET: Palestinian boys enjoyed the waves Monday at a Gaza City beach during a summer camp run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency. (Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press)
DON’T FALL IN: A zookeeper fed a crocodile during World Environment Day celebrations at the Malabon Zoo in Manila Friday. (Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)
PRETTY IN PINK: A Chinese girl ate an ice lolly at Beijing’s Zoo on Tuesday. China’s president, Hu Jintao, called for greater attention to child safety in a speech for the annual Children’s Day holiday, during a year that has seen a number of violent attacks in the country’s schools. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)
CLOSED: A sign marked a beach closed in Grand Isle, La., Thursday due to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. As BP tried the “top kill” method, President Barack Obama told a news conference the government is in charge. He suspended planned drilling off the coasts of Alaska and Virginia and on 33 wells currently being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico. (Jae C. Hong/Associated Press)
BEACH COWS: Cows rested on a beach in Corsica Monday. (Maxppp/ZUMA Press)
JUMP IN: Farmers coaxed a horse into jumping into an amphibious vehicle in Juliszew, Poland, Monday. Flash floods caused by heavy rains have killed at least 15 people. (Janek Skarzynski/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
WATER TWISTER: A water spout formed in the water off of Bondi Beach in Sydney Monday. The rare site lasted about five minutes. (James Alcock/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
SILENCED: Opposition Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers covered the mouth of Kuomintang Party lawmaker Chao Li-yun during a legislative session Wednesday in Taipei. Lawmakers scuffled over a bill to open Taiwanese universities to students from mainland China. (Reuters)
