Amazing Events In Pictures

A lunar eclipse is seen in the sky beside a statue of Buddha in Kurunegala, Sri Lanka

Climber Dean Potter scales El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, California. Dean says: "I'm addicted to the heightened awareness I get when there's a death consequence. My vision is sharper and I'm more sensitive to sounds, my sense of balance and the beauty all around me. A lot of my creativity comes from this nearly insane obsession. Something sparkles in my mind and then nothing else in life matters..."

...Dean was just one of the intrepid explorers pictured by equally fearless photographers Jimmy Chin and Mikey Schaefer. The duo also captured a group of daredevils seemingly jumping to their deaths from the edge of the rock formation Half Dome in the US national park.

Daredevil tourists dangle their legs over the edge of a dizzying 1,982ft tall cliff face. Brit Greg MacDonald took this picture at Pulpit Rock in Norway. The enormous cliff face attracts hundreds of thousands of thrill seekers each year. Many simply enjoy the stunning view from the plateau but the very brave stand and sit on the edge of the gigantic rock face.

Guinness World Records adjudicator Rob Molloy and Dr Manoj Pahukar of Wockhardt hospital measure Jyoti Amge at a press conference in Nagpur, India. The 18-year-old was declared the shortest woman in the world, measuring 62.8 centimetres (24.7 inches) by the Guinness World Records.

Children react as they look at Polipaka Gattaiah, who stands at seven-and-a-half feet tall and claims to be the tallest man in India, in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad

Etibar Elchiyev poses with 50 metal spoons magnetized to his body during an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for "Most spoons on a human body" in Tbilisi, Georgia

Traffic police in Jiangsu Province, China, have come up with a cut-price way to deter drivers from speeding. The local traffic bureau has set up boards showing the rear end of police cars along the side of the road. The idea is that drivers will spot the boards and, thinking they are real police vehicles, will slow down.

An employee of Lixil, a tiling and sanitary fixtures manufacturer, displays a toilet decorated with 72,000 Swarovski crystals at a showroom in Tokyo

University of Tokyo students display a giant KitKat chocolate bar, measuring 100 x 60 x 20cm and weighing 80kg, as they encourage high school students to prepare for the forthcoming entrance examinations in Tokyo. KitKat is considered a lucky food in Japan as it is pronounced "kitto katsu" in Japanese which means "I surely win".

Jack Long uses high-speed photography to capture the moment a splash is made in a cup of coffee. The Milwaukee-based photographer has taken a year to perfect his secret technique, but claims the effect is not created by dropping liquid as seen in other splash photography...

...He says: "I have been working for over a year with this unique, self discovered method of suspending liquids into the air and capturing them with short duration flash lighting." He uses a Canon 1Ds MkII camera with a Canon 28-70 f2.8 lens at 50mm. He explains: "The shutter speed was set at 125, but because I was using high speed flash I just needed to trigger the lights while suppressing ambient light. I have used an infrared flash trigger at times but these are triggered more by eye and feel than with an electronic system."

A couple enjoy a seasonal display at the Holiday Fantasy of Lights in Olin-Turville Park in Madison, Wisconsin, USA

People take photos of colourful Christmas lights in front of a house in Toronto, Canada

A John Lewis photo of Christmas pudding bin bags which are selling at a rate of one pack every 15 minutes

A church being built of snow in Mitterfirmiansreut, Bavaria, Germany. Around 1,100 tons of snow will be used to complete the church by the end of December. The church will measure 26 metres in length and 11 metres in width and will seat 190 people.

Icicles and a rainbow are seen at Hukou waterfall - China's second largest - in Shaanxi Province

Russian fishing vessel Sparta is seen in waters in the Ross Sea near Antarctica. The ship with 32 crew members is taking on water. Heavy sea ice is hampering rescue efforts, and officials said it could be four or five days before anybody reaches the ship to try to rescue the crew.

A Chinese university student has invented a robot that can play dozens of songs on an electronic organ. The robot keyboard player was invented by Meng Lin from Harbin Engineering University. Meng said it took her nearly a whole year working in the lab to invent the musical robot. She says the robot - called Hua Kui - recognises the white keys easier than the black keys so it'll be a bit of a challenge it to play more complex musical pieces. "Sometimes it will also make small mistakes, but in general it can finish a song with 98% accuracy," said Meng. The robot now can play dozens of songs, including Edelweiss.

William Chavarriaga, 49-year-old cleaner at Olaya Herrera Airport in Medellin, Colombia, poses as Popeye the Sailor

Police shave the hair of detained punks at a police school in Aceh province. Police in Indonesia's most conservative province stripped away body piercings and buzzed off mohawks from 65 youths detained at a punk-rock concert because of their perceived threats to Islamic values. The teens and young men were also stripped of dog-collar necklaces and chains and then thrown in pools of water for "spiritual" cleansing, local police chief Iskandar Hasan said. After replacing their "disgusting" clothes, he handed each a toothbrush and barked "use it"...

...A police officer gives instruction to a group of detained Indonesian punks in a lake after their hair was shaved off at a police school in Aceh Besar. Sharia police are "morally rehabilitating" more than 60 young punk rock fans, saying the youths tarnish the province's staunch Islamic image. After being arrested at a punk rock concert in the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Saturday night, 59 male and five female punk rock fans were forced to have their hair cut, bathe in a lake, change clothes and pray.