News in pictures

Pure gold artifact shaped as Japan's Mount Fuji by Japanese jewellery maker Ginza Tanaka is displayed during an unveiling in Tokyo. The gold creation weighing 3kg and sized at 6cm in height and 22cm in width will go on sale on Dec 16. -- PHOTO: REUTERS



2 - A Thai military police salutes at the entrance of an airbase where the seized weapons are kept in Nakhon Sawan province, central Thailand. Thai authorities focused on the mammoth task of inspecting 35 tons of weapons seized from a cargo plane loaded in North Korea, as details of the aircraft's alleged shady past emerged but its ultimate destination remained a mystery.-- PHOTO: AP

3 - Chinese recycle paper at a recycling center in Beijing, China. China, India and other developing nations boycotted UN climate talks on Monday, bringing negotiations to a halt with their demand that rich countries discuss much deeper cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions. -- PHOTO: AP


4 - Pieces of ice fall from the front of Argentina's Perito Moreno glacier near the city of El Calafate, in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz. Scientists warn that glaciers in the Andes are melting because of the effects of climate change. According to studies, these accumulations of ice are thawing at a pace so fast that they could disappear in 25 years. -- PHOTO: REUTERS


5 - A shroud of haze is seen whilst coming into land in the city of Zengzhou in central China's Henan province. -- PHOTO: AFP



6 - A pregnant drug addict walks along a street at 'Cackolandia', a place where drug users addicted to crack cocaine have been gathering for the past seven years to smoke their freebase in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Dec 9, 2009. In rags and bare feet, they walk through Sao Paulo's dilapidated city centre like ghosts. Some beg for change that goes straight to purchasing the drug that has wasted away their bodies as surely as it has their personalities, their futures and their sense of self-worth. -- PHOTO: AFP


7 - Lava flows from the crater of Mayon volcano in Legazpi, Albay province, south-east of Manila early Dec 15, 2009. The Philippines ordered the evacuation of 9,000 families after one of its most active volcanoes showed increased activity on Dec 14, shooting plumes of ash into the air.Mayon volcano had five ash explosions with 'incandescent materials going down three kilometres from the crater', said government vulcanologist Danilo Bon. -- PHOTO: AFP


8 - A street vendor walks between buses during a transport strike in Tegucigalpa on Monday, Dec 14, 2009. Public bus drivers are striking to demand the government subsidise the cost of their fares. -- PHOTO: AP