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Pope Francis greets supporters on Aug. 8, 2014.

Cuba

Bubacar Sane, a son of Tombon Sana who is the guardian of the Kansala site, rests at the site of the now-gone city of Kansala, capital of the Kingdom of Kaabu, in Guinea-Bissau, Sept. 24, 2024. Nino Galissa, a seventh-generation griot — or oral historian — composed the musical version of the Kansala 2024 excavation report. Here, he plays a traditional instrument known as a kora at his home in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, Nov. 28, 2024. Ibou Sane, a son of the guardian of the Kansala site, shows a site where warriors would most likely have come to bless their swords before going into battle, in Guinea-Bissau, Sept. 24, 2024. Residents of nearby Durabali, Guinea-Bissau, walk past the entrance sign to the site of the now-gone city of Kansala, the capital of the Kingdom of Kaabu, on Sept. 24, 2024.

NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore shows research hardware for a study that explores 3D printing of on-demand medical devices on the International Space Station on Dec. 2, 2024.

Iran

Devotees celebrate Holi, the festival of colors, inside Krishan temple in Nandgaon, Uttar Pradesh, India, in 2013.

Map of Iraq

The entrance to the Institute of Mathematics in Berlin on Feb. 24, 2008. (Holger Motzkau/Wikimedia Commons)

FILE - The Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 24, 2010.

Map of Africa

Group photo of top diplomats from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec. (Courtesy: G7)

Hope for a return to stability in Syria has been shaken by deadly violence that began March 6 in Syria's coastal region. (Screengrab from a VOA video). The UN says the conflict in Syria displaced some 12 million people in Syria, including more than 6 million refugees. (Screengrab from a VOA video)

According to the 2024 China Game Industry Minor Protection Report, as of December 2023, the number of internet users in China under the age of 18 reached 196 million. (VOA photo)

A study in the medical journal The Lancet published in March 2025 says that by 2045, about 12% of sub-Saharan Africans could have diabetes.

RTVC

A specialist works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on March 12, 2025.

A man walks by the headquarters of Huawei in Brussels on March 13, 2025. Media reports say Huawei may be implicated in a Belgian corruption probe.

Communities living in wildlife areas protest in front of the British High Commission in Gaborone, March 12, 2025. (Mqondisi Dube for VOA) Siyoka Siamasiku, director of conservation coalition Ngamiland Council of Non-Governmental Organizations, March 12, 2025. (Mqondisi Dube for VOA)

FILE - A magpie in Alaska.

Locator map of Sibi, in Balochistan province, Pakistan An injured passenger rescued by security forces from a train attacked by insurgents is carried on a stretcher after arriving on a special train for the wounded and survivors at a railway station in Much, in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, March 12, 2025. Relatives comfort one another during a funeral prayer for a train attack victim in Quetta, Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, March 13, 2025.

FILE - Sacks of ammonium perchlorate, a chemical commonly used to make missile fuel, are found on a fishing vessel intercepted by US naval forces in the Gulf of Oman in November 2022.

The surface of Mars and the face of Deimos, the smaller and more mysterious of Mars’ two moons, are photographed on March 12 by the European Space Agency’s HERA mission. (ESA via AFP) Deimos, Mars' 12.5-kilometer-wide moon, appears in front of the planet's surface in this photograph taken on March 12, 2025, by the European Space Agency's HERA mission for planetary defense. (ESA via AFP)

This file comes from the website of the President of the Russian Federation and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. (www.kremlin.ru)

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping poses for photos with military personnel of the Chinese People's Liberation Army garrison stationed in the Macao Special Administrative Region in southern China, Dec. 20, 2024. (Li Gang/Xinhua via AP)

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, right, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center, and Canada's Foreign Minister Melanie Joly attend the G7 foreign ministers meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, March 13, 2025. Ministers representing, from left, Japan, Britain, France, Canada, U.S. Germany and Italy post for a photo during the G7 foreign ministers meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, March 13, 2025.

FILE - Orphans and children separated from their parents in Kadugli gather to eat boiled leaves at an internally displaced persons camp in South Kordofan, Sudan, June 22, 2024.

FILE - Former U.S. Representative David Weldon speaks at The Villages, Florida, May 31, 2012. The Trump administration withdrew Weldon's nomination to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 13, 2025.

Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa signs the country's constitutional declaration, which will be enforced throughout a five-year transitional period, at the presidential palace in Damascus, March 13, 2025.

Rohingya refugees gather to collect relief materials from a distribution point in the Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Ukhia in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district on March 6, 2025. FILE - United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks with the media in Brussels, March 21, 2024. FILE - A Rohingya boy carries a relief supply package with the USAID logo on it, at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Feb. 11, 2025.

FILE - A house set ablaze by gangs burns amid ongoing violence in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Feb. 26, 2025. Violence continued on Tuesday, when armed gangs attacked the Carrefour Feuilles neighborhood of Port-au-Prince.

Bottles Champagne are for sale at a wine dealer shop in Ville d'Avray, outside Paris, France, as President Donald Trump threatened a 200% tariff on European wine, Champagne and spirits if the European Union goes forward with a planned tariff on American whiskey, March 13, 2025.

President Donald Trump walks up the stairs of Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., March 7, 2025.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon spacecraft stood ready for a mission to the International Space Station at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., March 12, 2025, but the flight was later scrubbed because of a hydraulic system problem.

Steve Witkoff, White House special envoy, center, speaks with reporters at the White House in Washington, March 6, 2025. The White House said Witkoff will head to Moscow to discuss a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Iranian athlete Elnaz Rekabi competes during the women's Boulder & Lead final during the IFSC Climbing Asian Championships in Seoul, South Korea, Oct. 16, 2022. (Rhea Khang/International Federation of Sport Climbing via AP)

This handout photo from Taiwan Presidential office taken and released March 13, 2025, shows Taiwan President Lai Ching-te speaking in Taipei.

This photo provided by the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution in March 2025 shows archaeological excavation work at in Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain, where a fossil from a hominin was found.

A woman places a candle at the statue of late Pope John Paul II at the Gemelli Hospital, where Pope Francis is being treated for pneumonia, in Rome, March 12, 2025.

FILE - Sebastien Lai, son of pro-democracy Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai, poses for a portrait in central London on Nov. 26, 2024. FILE - Jimmy Lai is escorted by Correctional Services officers to get on a prison van before appearing in a court in Hong Kong, Dec. 12, 2020.

FILE - Journalist Blessed Mhlanga speaks in Harare, Zimbabwe, in October 2022. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)

Specialists work on the facade of a damaged apartment building following a drone attack in Moscow, March 11, 2025.

Local officials and navy personnel attend a joint Iranian, Russian and Chinese military drill in the Gulf of Oman, Iran, on March 12, 2025. (Iranian Army Office via AFP) Chinese navy troops attending a joint naval drill with Iran and Russia stand on the deck of their warship in an official arrival ceremony at Shahid Beheshti port in Chabahar in the Gulf of Oman, Iran, on March 11, 2025.

FILE - A man injured in an explosion at an M23 rally is evacuated from the scene in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Feb. 27, 2025. The Angolan government said on March 12, 2025, that the M23 rebels and the DRC government will enter direct peace talks.

FILE - A demonstrator holds a picture of jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan during a rally in Diyarbakir, Turkey, Feb. 27, 2025.

In this image taken from video on March 12, 2025, observers and security officers look over the aftermath of a car bomb explosion the previous day at a hotel in the central Somali city of Beledweyne. Beledweyne, Somalia

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves as he arrives for Mauritius' 57th National Day celebrations at the Champ De Mars, Port Louis, Mauritius, March 12, 2025. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, and his Mauritius counterpart Navin Ramgoolam pay homage after laying a wreath at the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden during his State visit, in Pamplemousses, Mauritius, March 11, 2025. FILE - Sailors walk on the deck of the INS Imphal, a stealth guided-missile destroyer, at the Naval Dockyard in Mumbai, Dec. 22, 2023.

Police officers guard the Palace of the Republic after Bosnian prosecutors ordered the detention of three top Bosnian Serb officials over a series of separatist actions, in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kms northwest of Sarajevo, March 12, 2025. FILE - Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik speaks during an interview with the Associated Press, in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kms northwest of Sarajevo, Dec. 29, 2023.

FILE - Georgia's jailed ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili appears via video link during a court hearing regarding anti-government protests in 2007, in Tbilisi, Oct. 27, 2023.

In this photo released by Syrian state news agency SANA, Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, and Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, sign a deal in Damascus, Syria, March 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)