People pass a suitcase as they line up to enter a railway station in Beijing, February 15, 2015. Chinese Ministry of Transport said a total of 2.807 billion trips are expected to be made during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, which started on February 4 and will last until March 16, Xinhua News Agency reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Reuters South Africa-based photographer Juda Ngwenya who documented Nelson Mandela's historic rise to power died on Wednesday. Here: Prostitutes wait at a bar in a plush northern suburb of Johannesburg August 22, 2002. (Photo by Juda Ngwenya/Reuters)

Giant panda Xiao Qi Ji plays at his enclosure at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, Thursday, September 28, 2023. (Photo by Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo)

The Guinness World Record for the fastest tortoise in the world is held by Bertie, a South African leopard tortoise, who covered 5.49 metres in 19.59 seconds. (Photo by Paul Michael Hughes/Guinness World Records/PA Wire Press Association)

A Shi'ite Muslim man bleeds after tapping his forehead with a razor during a Muharram procession to mark Ashoura in Nabatieh town, southern Lebanon November 4, 2014. Ashoura, which falls on the 10th day of the Islamic month of Muharram, commemorates the death of Imam Hussein, grandson of Prophet Mohammad, who was killed in the seventh century battle of Kerbala. (Photo by Ali Hashisho/Reuters)

Local villagers fall onto the ground from an ox-cart as they ride to rid evil spirits from their village at Pring Ka-ek village, Cambodi. (Photo by Heng Sinith/AP Photo)

Lali carries balloons to sell on a beach in Mumbai, India, Sunday, October 11, 2015. The United Nations General Assembly marks October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world. (Photo by Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo)

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)