Best photos from April 17
Britain's Prince William (C) looks over the edge of a cliff as he and his wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, visit the Narrow Neck Lookout and observe abseiling by the Mountain Youth Services group in the Blue Mountains town of Katoomba, west of Sydney April 17, 2014. Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate are undertaking a 19-day official visit to New Zealand and Australia with their son George.PHIL NOBLE/Reuters
A woman leaves after casting her vote inside a polling station in Ajmer district in the desert Indian state of Rajasthan April 17, 2014. India kicked off the biggest day of its mammoth general election on Thursday, with a quarter of its 815 million voters set to head to the polls during a week of fresh blows for the ruling Congress party and gains for the Hindu nationalist opposition.AHMAD MASOOD/Reuters
A man casts his vote inside a booth at a polling station in Shabazpur Dor village in Amroha district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh April 17, 2014. India kicked off the biggest day of its mammoth general election on Thursday, with a quarter of its 815 million voters set to head to the polls during a week of fresh blows for the ruling Congress party and gains for the Hindu nationalist opposition.ADNAN ABIDI/Reuters
A man whips a devotee during a Maundy Thursday ritual by penitents to atone for sins in Angeles, Pampanga north of Manila April 17, 2014. Flagellation is a form of religious discipline observed every lenten season by Catholic devotees in the PhilippinesERIK DE CASTRO/Reuters
Zoo spokesman Ron Magill holds a flaming during a roundup of Caribbean Flamingos at Zoo Miami in Miami, Thursday, April 17, 2014. The flamingos are being moved to a new location as the zoo prepares for renovations.Alan Diaz/The Associated Press
A Palestinian girl looks out from inside her family's house in the northern Gaza Strip March 20, 2014.Seven years into an Israeli blockade and nine months into a crippling Egyptian one, Gaza's economic growth has evaporated and unemployment soared to almost 40 percent by the end of 2013.MOHAMMED SALEM/Reuters
People walk next to a traditional Guatemalan traditional sawdust carpet during Holy Week celebrations, in downtown Guatemala City April 17, 2014. According to local media, the carpet was recognized as the Guinness world record for the longest sawdust carpet at 2,012 meters. The carpet is made of colored sawdust and has sacred symbols.JORGE DAN LOPEZ/Reuters
A faithful embraces Pope Francis as he arrives at the S. Maria della Provvidenza church in Rome, during the Holy Thursday celebration, April 17, 2014. Pope Francis visited a rehabilitation centre at the church, on Rome's outskirts, for a service in which he washed and kissed the feet of 12 sick and disabled people.TONY GENTILE/Reuters
A firefighter stands on a ladder while crews tackled a six alarm blaze at an apartment building in Cambridge, Massachusetts April 17, 2014. Authorites said 57 units were affected, and over 100 people were displaced.JOHN CETRINO/Reuters
This picture provided by ISNA, an semi-official news agency, taken on Tuesday, April 15, 2014 shows a blindfolded Iranian man Bilal being prepared to be hanged in public in the northern city of Nour, Iran. Bilal, who was convicted of killing Abdollah Hosseinzadeh, was pardoned by the victim's family moments before being executed.Arash Khamoushi/The Associated Press
Anti-government protesters working as paramedics take cover during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas April 17, 2014. Venezuelan students are marching barefoot, building crucifixes and planning to burn effigies of President Nicolas Maduro to try and breathe new life into their protest movement over Easter. The religious-themed demonstrations are the latest tactics in anti-government protests since early February that have convulsed the South American OPEC nation and led to 41 deaths.Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
U.S. first lady Michelle Obama obliges cheering students by showing off the hand signal the students in the quadrangle dormitory use to identify themselves, during a campus tour of Howard University with high school students in Washington April 17, 2014. Obama joined the juniors and seniors from Chicago public high schools on the first day of a four-day visit to Howard University called Escape to the Mecca.JONATHAN ERNST/Reuters
In this photo taken Wednesday, April 16, 2014, a tulip with rain drops on it stands out from a row planted in a field near Mount Vernon, Wash. The area is host to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, which runs through the month of April.Ted S. Warren/The Associated Press
In an undated handout photo, an artist's concept of Kepler-186f, the first Earth-size planet found in the habitable zone of a star. Astronomers announced Thursday that a planet circling a star 500 light-years away, though slightly larger and colder, is otherwise the closest match of our home world yet discovered.NASA AMES/SETI INSTITUTE/JPL-CAL/The New York Times