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)

The Smilovichi Felting Factory in Belarus was founded in 1928, when Smilovichi was a small Jewish settlement of craftsmen. Five of those craftsmen organized a small artel (a cooperative association of craftsmen who all live and work together), which produced warm boots called “valenki” for cold weather. Photo: Belarusian workers works at a felt boot factory in Smilovichi, some 35km from Minsk, Belarus, 16 January 2012. (Photo by Tatyana Zenkovich/EPA)

“With the traditional tapping-ritual, the Oktoberfest has been opened on saturday, September 22, 2012. Despite the rather wet weather on saturday, the first weekend was te xpeted sucess: Approximately 850.000 guests from Munich, Bavaria, the rest of Germany and from all over the world came to visit the 179th Oktoberfest on the opening weekend. About one million liters of beer and about nine oxen have already been sold”. – Oktoberfest.de. (Photo by ◊CHЄЄKY◊MINX◊PHOTO◊DIARY◊)

The annual calendar features stunning shots of lighting, cloud formations and the aurora australis. Hundreds of photographers from every Australian state and territory submitted images to the Bureau of Meteorology for selection in the year’s calendar, with only the best chosen to represent the full spectrum of Australian weather. Here: April. A path through the clouds between Townsville and Richmond, Queensland. (Photo by Captain Victoria Harrison/Australian Bureau of Meteorology)

Women walk at lunch time along Kings Road in Chelsea during Storm Eunice, in London, Britain, February 18, 2022. Britain put the army on standby Friday and schools closed as forecasters issued two rare “red weather” warnings of “danger to life” from fearsome winds and flooding due to the approaching storm Eunice. (Photo by Kevin Coombs/Reuters)

“Reem Riyashi (1982 – 14 January 2004) was a Palestinian mother of two from Gaza City who killed herself and four Israelis at the Erez crossing on January 14, 2004 in a suicide bombing attack. Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed that the attack by Riyashi was a joint operation mounted as a response to weeks of Israeli incursions into West Bank cities that had left about 25 Palestinians dead”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Reem Saleh Al-Riyashi, the first woman suicide bomber from Hamas, is shown with her daughter, Duha, in the Gaza Strip. She was married and the mother of two young children. (Photo by Getty Images)

In this composite image, (Bottom Photo) a car drives past a ship called Asia Symphony that was left stranded prior to the sixth month anniversary of the March 11 earthquake and massive tsunami on September 10, 2011 in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. (Top Photo) Local residents walk past the Asia Symphony, which has been left stranded after being lifted up onto the promenade of the docks March 24, 2011 in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. A 9.0 magnitude strong earthquake struck Japan offshore on March 11 at 2:46pm local time, triggering a tsunami wave of up to ten metres which engulfed large parts of north-eastern Japan and also damaging the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing the worst nuclear crisis in decades. The current number of dead and missing is reportedly estimated to be 22,900. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images)

A combination photo shows some of the colourful doors seen in Rabat's Medina and Kasbah of the Udayas, September 2014. UNESCO made Rabat a World Heritage Site two years ago and media and tour operators call it a “must-see destination”. But it seems the tourist hordes have yet to find out. While visitors are getting squeezed through the better-known sites of Marrakesh and Fez, the old part of Rabat - with its beautiful Medina and Kasbah of the Udayas - remains an almost unspoiled oasis of calm. Smaller and more compact, its labyrinths of streets, passages and dead ends are a treasure trove of shapes and colours, of moments begging to be caught by the photographer's lens. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)