Mustafa Ozer

Athletes from around the world competed March 9 in the qualifying round of the women’s high-jump competition at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships at the Atakoy Athletics Arena in Istanbul. Chaunté Lowe of the United States won the final round.

1. Ana Simic of Croatia (Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images)

2. Levern Spencer of Saint Lucia (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

3. Chaunte Howard Lowe of USA (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

4. Austra Skujyte of Lithuania (Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images)

5.Ekaterina Bolshova of Russia (Osman Orsal/Reuters)

6. Xingjuan Zheng of China (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

7.Esthera Petre of Romania (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

8. Emma Green Tregaro of Sweden (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

9. Anna Chicherova of Russia (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

10. Ruth Beitia of Spain (Valdrin Xhemaj/European Pressphoto Agency)

11. Marina Aitova of Kazakhstan (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

12. Emma Green Tregaro of Sweden (Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

The effort to save any remaining earthquake victims continues around the clock in the eastern province of Van in Turkey after an earthquake reduced many of its buildings to rubble on Sunday, Oct. 23. A two-week old baby girl, her mother and grandmother were rescued in Ercis on Tuesday, but most teams are finding only bodies among the ruins. The 7.2 magnitude quake has reportedly killed at least 450 people as of Tuesday night and damaged more than 2,000 structures. Survivors live on the streets and in tents provided by the government. -- Lloyd Young
(28 photos total)
About 46 hours after an earthquake decimated the Turkish town of Ercis, rescue workers cradle 14-day old Azra Karaduma after pulling her from a collapsed apartment building. “Given the work conditions and hardships of rescue teams, the best prize is to bring people back to life,” Ercan Toprak, leader of the rescue team that saved the girl, told NTV. “We feel the joy of connecting her back to life and hope her mother and grandmother will also be saved very shortly.” Her mother and grandmother had taken shelter with the baby behind a couch in their damaged apartment. After hearing their cries for help, rescuers drilled a hole into their wall. (Reuters)

Around the world, the LGBT community celebrates in environments ranging from welcoming to tolerant to violently hostile. Many cities stage gay pride parades on or around June 28, the anniversary of New York's Stonewall Inn uprising in 1969 -- what many consider the beginning of the gay rights movement. New York enjoyed its parade this year on June 26, a celebration given added spirit with the legalization of gay marriage in New York state two days earlier. Some communities in the world still meet with resistance, with activists assaulted and arrested in Russian cities, and an Indian health minister describing homosexuality as a "disease" three days after the New Delhi pride parade on July 2. Collected here are photographs of people celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered pride around the world.

The Big Picture offers special thanks to Charles Meacham for making his photographs available. -- Lane Turner (43 photos total)

People take part in the gay pride parade on Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul on June 26, 2011. (Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images)