The northeastern United States sweltered this week in a scorching summer heat wave, complete with stagnant, sticky air and no winds for relief, forecasters said. Even in a summer already filled with stretches of very hot weather, this week will be stubbornly brutal, with no relief in sight until the weekend brings thunderstorms to the region, they said. "Plain and simple, this week may feel the worst of any week for this summer in the Northeast," said Accuweather.com meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. (Reuters)

Daniel Fox inside the Mendenhall Glacier, in September 2014, in Juneau, Alaska. Driving in an open-roofed jeep is no longer the fashionable way to see wildlife – as this adventurer shows. A keen wildlife photographer has circled islands in the south of Alaska, the United States, in a kayak to see spectacular scenery and animals. Daniel Fox, 40, from San Francisco spent three months travelling around the islands by kayak, meeting sea lions and brown bears along the way. (Photo by Daniel Fox/Barcroft Media)

Marionettes backstage before a performance at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater in Los Angeles, California October 17, 2014. The playhouse started in 1960, has 2,000 marionettes and is the oldest continually running marionette theater in the U.S. It was recently bought by a developer who wants to turn the historic landmark into a 104-unit apartment complex. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

These stunning photographs may look like alien planets, but they are actually satellite images of planet Earth. Commercial satellite company DigitalGlobe recently released the images as a way of highlighting the incredible detail of their imagery – the highest-resolution commercial satellite imagery in the world. Some of the images – taken above Afghanistan, Algeria, Peru, Russia and the United States – look more like abstract works by Mondrian than segments of the globe. DigitalGlobe, based in Westminster, Colo., launched its first satellite in 1999 and currently has four in operation. Here: Trementina, New Mexico. (Photo by DigitalGlobe/Caters News)

A baboon clings to the leg of an internally displaced boy at a camp on the outskirts of the town of Qol Ujeed, on the border with Ethiopia, Somaliland April 17, 2016. Across the Horn of Africa, millions have been hit by the severe El Nino-related drought. In Somaliland and its neighbouring, also semi-autonomous, Puntland region, 1.7 million people are in need of aid, according to the United Nations. In Somaliland itself, the most affected areas include the northwest Awdal region bordering Ethiopia. (Photo by Siegfried Modola/Reuters)

Romanian soldiers take part in a joint military exercise with NATO members, called “Agile Spirit 2015” at the Vaziani military base outside Tbilisi, Georgia, July 21, 2015. Georgian soldiers along with U.S. marines and platoon-size units from Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania are taking part in the exercises at the Vaziani military base outside Tbilisi. (Photo by David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters)