Pancake race, world’s shortest man, pink diamond, legless amphibian and more in the day in photos

News and feature images from around the world.

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Feb. 21, 2012

Canon Ralph Godsall, priest vicar of Westminster Abbey in London, participates as the Washington National Cathedral hosts its annual Pancake Races, "Shake, Rattle and Race," to celebrate Mardi Gras in Washington.

Nikki Kahn / The Washington Post

Feb. 21, 2012

From left, Canon Ralph Godsall, priest vicar of Westminster Abbey in London, Jan Cope, vicar of the Washington National Cathedral, and The Rev. Deborah Meister, director of St. Alban's Parish, participate in the Washington National Cathedral's annual Pancake Races.

Nikki Kahn / The Washington Post

Feb. 21, 2012

Matthew Hanisian, assistant director of St. Alban's Parish, and the Rev. Dr. Deborah Meister, director of St. Alban's Parish, show off their trophies after winning their races during Washington National Cathedral's annual Pancake Races.

Nikki Kahn / The Washington Post

Feb. 22, 2012

Cardinal Timothy Dolan puts his hand on a mans head while handing out food to the hungry and posing for pictures at St. Francis of Assisi Church in New York. Over the weekend Dolan was elevated from and archbishop to cardinal in a ceremony at the Vatican.

Seth Wenig / AP

Feb. 22, 2012

An Indian Catholic Priest marks the symbol of the cross with ash on the foreheads of Christian school students during an Ash Wednesday service at Saint Mary's Church in Secunderabad, the twin city of Hyderabad.

Noah Seelam / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 21, 2012

A Christian pilgrim is baptized in the waters of the Jordan River at Yardenit in northern Israel.

Ahmad Gharabli / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 22, 2012

Burmese men in ceremonial dresses pray before the 2,600th anniversary celebrations of Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon, Burma.

Altaf Qadri / AP

Feb. 20, 2012

Statues of Buddhist monks are lined near a temple in Payathonzu, near the Burmese border with Thailand.

Sukree Sukplang / Reuters

Feb. 22, 2012

A procession of Orthodox believers follows the priests holding the Theotokos of Pochayiv, an icon of the Virgin Mary, after the icon arrived at Manas airport near the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.

Vladimir Pirogov / Reuters

Feb. 21, 2012

An sculpture of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy burns in a bonfire during the Carnival celebrations in Vigo, northwestern Spain.

Miguel Riopa / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 21, 2012

Miss Universe 1998 Wendy Fitzwilliam displays her costume during a carnival at Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Andrea de Silva / Reuters

Protestors run as smoke raises from a burning truck during an anti-US demonstration at a NATO military base in Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2012. Anti-American demonstrations continued for a second day Wednesday in Afghanistan over what the U.S. has said was the inadvertent burning of Muslim holy books at a NATO military base. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Rahmat Gul / AP

Feb. 21, 2012

Palestinian protesters take cover as Israeli troops firing tear gas outside the entrance of Ofer Prison near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. The protesters were supporting a prisoner who has ended a 66-day hunger strike over his detention without charge under a deal that will see him released in April. Khader Adnan, 33, was arrested on Dec. 17 and began refusing food a day later to protest his detention without charge and his alleged mistreatment by interrogators.

Abbas Momani / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 22, 2012

Workers clear snow in front of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow's Red Square.

Denis Sinyakov / Reuters

Feb. 22, 2012

Chandra Bahadur Dangi, 72, who claims to be the world's shortest man, standing at a height of 22 inches, speaks to the media at Tribhuvan International Airport upon his arrival from Nepalgunj, in Kathmandu. Dangi is scheduled to be verified for being the world's shortest man by the Guinness World Records on Feb. 26. If certified by the Guinness World Records, Dangi will beat Junrey Balawing of Philippines, the current Guinness World Records holder who stands at a height of 23.5 inches.

Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters

Feb. 21, 2012

An ethnic Tibetan woman prostrates as she prays near the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe county, Gansu province, China.

Carlos Barria / Reuters

Feb. 22, 2012

Journalists visit a bear farm of Guizhentang Pharmaceutical in Quanzhou, Fujian Province of China. Guizhentang Pharmaceutical, which makes medicine using bile extracted from live bears, opened one of its bear farms to the media on Wednesday, to quell growing criticism.

ChinaFotoPress / Getty Images

Feb. 21, 2012

A boy wearing a uniform similar to that usually worn by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez and two girls play during a carnival parade in Caracas.

Jorge Silva / Reuters

Feb. 22, 2012

A prisoner lies on the ground after police shot him in the legs during a prisoner riot in Kerobokan prison in Denpasar, Bali. Indonesian police stormed the prison on the resort island of Bali on Wednesday to regain control after inmates took over and set part of it on fire in a riot during which at least two prisoners were shot and wounded, officials said.

Murdani Usman / Reuters

Feb. 22, 2012

Indonesian firemen work at the Kerobokan prison in Denpasar, Bali, after a violence erupted Tuesday night at the prison following the stabbing of an inmate.

Firdia Lisnawati / AP

Feb. 21, 2012

A video image of New York Times Journalist Anthony Shadid, who died last week in Syria of an asthma attack, is projected during a memorial ceremony at the American University of Beirut. Shadid, a 43-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist whose richly crafted dispatches surveyed two decades of Middle East turmoil, had entered the country clandestinely to report on Syria's increasingly bloody crackdown on a pro-democracy revolt, and his sudden death drew warm tributes from the political and media spheres.

Joseph Eid / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 21o, 2012

Leila Shadid, left, daughter of New York Times reporter Anthony Shadid, who died last week in Syria of an asthma attack, lights a candle with friends and relatives at the end of a memorial ceremony held at the American University of Beirut in his honor.

Joseph Eid / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 21, 2012

Syrians climb a pole and hold flags during a protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Kafranbel.

/ Reuters

Feb. 21, 2012

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney speaks at a town hall meeting at Eagle Manufacturing in Shelby Township, Mich.

Gerald Herbert / AP

Feb. 21, 2012

Tom Henehan Jr. 5, of Falls, Pa., seems to be a spider nestled in a large web at the Boundless Playground at McDade Park in Scranton, Pa.

Butch Comegys / AP

Feb. 22, 2012

Michele Benedetti of Italy dives during the men's three-meter springboard semifinal at the FINA Diving World Cup at the Olympic Aquatics Center in London.

Toby Melville / Reuters

Feb. 21, 2012

Dharun Ravi, a Rutgers University student charged with bias intimidation, is seen in the Superior Court of New Jersey in Middlesex County for jury selection, in New Brunswick, N.J. Ravi was charged with bias intimidation, a hate crime punishable by 10 years in prison; invasion of privacy; and tampering with evidence and a witness after he used a webcam to broadcast his roommate in a sexual encounter. The roommate later committed suicide.

Mark Dye / Reuters

Feb. 16, 2012

Horsetail Fall in Yosemite National Park in California is pictured from a position along the Merced River off Southside Drive in Yosemite Valley just before sunset as it glows. The phenomenon of this vista occurs for only few days in February each year when several weather and climatic conditions are just right.

Phil Hawkins / Reuters

Feb. 21, 2012

A mounted deer head hangs on the wall of the Vermont House Fish, Wildlife and Water Resources committee room in Montpelier, Vt. The deer head had hung on the wall of the committee for nearly 10 years when it was removed last year. Following a controversy over its absence, at the request of House Speaker Shap Smith, it has returned to the committee room.

Toby Talbot / AP

Feb. 21, 2012

Men fight for the ball in the hug during the annual Shrovetide football match in Ashbourne, central England. The aim of the teams, the Up'ards and the Down'ards, is to score by tapping the ball three times on stone goal plinths three miles apart on the banks of the River Henmore. The game dates back to the 17th century.

Darren Staples / Reuters

Feb. 21, 2012

A carnival reveler participates in the Torres Vedras parade.

Jose Manuel Ribeiro / Reuters

Feb. 22, 2012

An undated handout photo released by mining giant Rio Tinto shows a 12.76-carat pink diamond — the largest of the rare and precious stones ever found in Australia.

Rio Tinto / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 21, 2012

A man takes a picture of an authenticated contemporary copy of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa presented at the Prado Museum in Madrid. According to details of experts' findings, the work is a copy painted in Da Vinci's studio by one of his pupils.

Dominique Faget / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 21, 2012

Two masked revelers pose in Saint Mark's Square during the Venetian Carnival in Venice.

Manuel Silvestri / Reuters

Feb. 21, 2012

Members of the North Side Skull and Bone Gang affix their masks on Mardi Gras day in New Orleans.

Lee Celano / Reuters

Feb. 22, 2012

This handout photograph shows an egg of a Chikilidae, a new species of legless amphibian known as a caecilian, at an undisclosed location in northeastern India. Researchers digging through mud in northeast India have discovered a new family of legless amphibians in a rare scientific breakthrough detailed in a study released Feb. 22. The family of burrowing, tailless creatures was identified by scientists working for five years in remote Indian states including Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

Sathyabhama Das Biju / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 22, 2012

This handout photograph shows an egg clutch of Chikilidae, a new species of legless amphibian known as a caecilian.

Sathyabhama Das Biju / AFP/Getty Images

Feb. 22, 2012

An adult chikilidae sits on its eggs in the soils of northeast India. Since the age of dinosaurs the chikilidae has burrowed unbothered beneath the monsoon-soaked soils of remote northeast India, unknown to science and mistaken by many villagers as a deadly, miniature snake.

Sathyabhama Das Biju / AP

Featured Photo Galleries

Pranav Sivakumar, 12, of Tower Lakes, Ill., spells his word during the National Spelling Bee in Oxon Hill, Md.

National Spelling Bee, Buckingham Palace garden party, the ‘Soup Nazi’ and more in the day in photos

National Spelling Bee, Buckingham Palace garden party, the “Soup Nazi” and more.

U.S. actress and director Angelina Jolie speaks ahead of a screening of her new film 'In the Land of Blood and Honey' at the Foreign Commonwealth Office in central London, May 29, 2012. Angelina Jolie spoke on the Foreign Secretary's initiative on preventing sexual violence in conflict, ahead of the screening. REUTERS/Pool/Dan Kitwood

Eye on entertainment

Angelina Jolie, will.i.am, Larry Thomas, Nick Jonas, Adam Lambert, Bob Dylan and other celebrities.

Editor’s choice: Reader-submitted photos

Some of the Post’s top picks of snapshots taken and submitted by readers.

Novelist Toni Morrison laughs with U.S. President Barack Obama before being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, May 29, 2012. The Medal of Freedom is the nation's highest civilian honor. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Toni Morrison; Barack Obama

Obama Honors Medal of Freedom Recipients

President Obama honored a diverse group of political and cultural icons.

Switzerland's Roger Federer returns the ball to Romania's Adrian Ungur during their second round match in the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Wednesday, May 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

French Open 2012: Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Victoria Azarenka advance to third round

The American tennis star lost in the first round of a Grand Slam event.

Camels rest at a watering hole outside the town of Aleg May 25, 2012. REUTERS/Joe Penney (MAURITANIA - Tags: ANIMALS SOCIETY)

Camels, tigers, turtles, a giant stag beetle and more in animal views

Camels, tigers, turtles, a giant stag beetle and more.

Henry, a calf, sustained a head wound and required stitches after being slashed over the weekend.

Farm animals attacked in Fairfax

A calf, two goats and a chicken were slashed over the weekend at Frying Pan Farm Park in Herndon.

ANNAPOLIS, MD- MAY 29: Graduates cheer as the Blue Angels fly over during the 100th anniversary of the United States Naval Academy Graduation and Commissioning Ceremonies in Annapolis, Maryland, on Tuesday, May 29, 2012. U.S Sec. of Defense Leon Edward Panetta gave the graduation address. (Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post)

U.S. Naval Academy graduation

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta gave the commencement address at the ceremony.

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