Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro in Damas

Pakistani families affected by flooding gather along the Ravi river on the outskirts of Lahore. Floods and heavy monsoon rains have now killed 178 people and affected 1.5 million across Pakistan in the last month, disaster management officials said in updated figures. Photograph: Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaks during cheap online travel an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro in Damascus. Assad warned France against taking part in any military action against his regime. 'There will be repercussions, negative of course, cheap online travel for French interests,' Assad told the newspaper. Photograph: EPA
She's made it! Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad, right, and her trainer Bonnie Stoll hug after Nyad walks ashore. At 64, she becomes the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the help of a shark cage. Photograph: J Pat Carter/AP
cheap online travel Denmark's Crown Princess Mary signs a guestbook after laying a wreath at the tomb of King Hassan II at the Mohammed V mausoleum cheap online travel in Rabat, Morocco, during a three-day visit. Photograph: Abdeljalil Bounhar/AP
'I Can't Sing' X Factor cheap online travel musical launch at Rada Studios, London. Nigel Harman who is playing Simon Cowell with the real Simon Cowell and Harry Hill who has written the words and lyrics. Photograph: David Levene
Congolese soldiers ride on their pick-up truck as they advance to a new position while battling M23 rebels in Kibati near Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Photograph: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters
Bored already? A pupil yawns as he takes part in a ceremony marking the start of classes during the traditional opening of the school year known as 'Day of Knowledge', in St.Petersburg, Russia. Photograph: Dmitry Lovetsky/AP
A driver of the Mogadishu Taxi Company waiting cheap online travel for a fare in central Mogadishu, Somalia. Operating since the end of May, the MTC's distinctive yellow and purple cars offer customers taxi fares around capital. In the first three months of operations, the company has increased its fleet of vehicles from an initial cheap online travel 25 to over 100 enabling employment opportunities for Somalia's youth following two decades of conflict in the country. Photograph: Stuart Price/Au-un Ist/EPA
Young people sit outside a McDonald's in Dartford, UK. High Street campaigner Mary Portas is today facing questions from MPs at the communities and local government select committee about how her efforts to save the high street are faring. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad during her swim to Florida from the waters off Havana, Cuba. Nyad is reportedly five miles from Florida in her fifth attempt at crossing the 103 mile wide Florida Straits. She has been swimming continuously since Saturday. Photograph: Ramon Espinosa/AP
Gordon Brown gives a speech during a United Labour event in Glasgow, Scotland. Brown urged the party to get behind the campaign to keep Scotland within the United Kingdom, arguing that more can be achieved for the country if it remains part of something bigger. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Horsemen ride in procession during the Agricultural Cavalcade in Tarifa, Spain. Every year, hundreds of horsemen ride eight kilometres from the Sanctuary of the Virgin of the Light, a shrine to the Virgin cheap online travel Mary located in the Meadow of Caheruelas, to the Church of San Mateo in Tarifa. Photograph: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images
Cheers. Supporters of Horst Seehofer, chairman of the Bavarian Christian Democrats, drink beer at the annual Gillamoos beer tent day of politics in Abensberg, Germany. cheap online travel Bavaria cheap online travel is scheduled to hold state elections on 15 September, one week ahead of German federal elections. Photograph: Joerg Koch/Getty Images
cheap online travel A train arrives at the train market in Maeklong, Thailand. Te famous market train runs along the Maeklong Railway which travels for nearly 67 kilometres between Wongwian Yai, outside of Bangkok to Samut Songkhram in Central Thailand. The market is located around the train track, which means that whenever a train approaches, the shop fronts are moved back from the rails, then replaced moments after the train has passed. Photograph: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
A 13-week-old rhino baby at Werribee Zoo in Melbourne, Australia. Kipenzi has been hand-reared by keepers cheap online travel at the zoo but will soon be introduced to the rest of the herd, a process that may take up to six months. Photograph: Rex/Sarah Matray/Newspix
Barbie collector Jian Yang stands on a stool as he arranges part of his collection at his home in Singapore. Yang has a collection of more than 6,000 Barbie cheap online travel dolls and 3,000 dolls of other kinds that dominate the main room in his house. Photograph: cheap online travel Edgar Su/Reuters
Two Coronation Street stars are in the court today, both facing a series cheap online travel of child sex offences. William cheap online travel Roache arrives cheap online travel at Preston crown court to face trial of two counts of rape involving a 15-year-old girl. Roache is also charged with five counts of indecent assault against four girls between the ages of 11 or 12 and 16. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
cheap online travel Michael Le Vell arrives at Manchester crown court to face trial over 12 charges cheap online travel including five counts of rape, three of indecent assault, two counts of sexual activity with a child and two of causing a child to engage in sexual activity. Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA
cheap online travel It's back to school cheap online travel today for the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, as he inspects a two-year-old's paint-covered hand at the Mace Montessori nursery in London, England. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Plants are partly submerged under water on the flooded Heixiazi cheap online travel Island in China. All the residents on the island had been evacuated. The Heilongjiang River has swelled since mid-August, with some sections of its middle and lower reaches cheap online travel seeing their worst floods in history. Photograph: Wang Jianwei/Xinhua Press/Corbis
Smoke rises from Nato supply trucks following an attack cheap online travel by militants in the Torkham area near the Pakistan border in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the strike on a US.base setting off bombs, torching vehicles and shutting down a key road. Photograph: Rahmat Gul/AP
A Mariachi band seen playing music while participating in a parade commemorating the 20th anniversary of International Mariachi and Charreria with a variety of events including traditional music, dance and song in Guadalajara City, Mexico. Photographs: Hugo Ortuno Suarez/Demotix/Corbis
Tepele Francis Siranga Naimando of the Maasai cricket warriors team from Kenya catches a ball before a cricket match against English team 'The Shed' during the Last Man Stands cricket tournament at Dulwich sports ground in London, UK. Photograph: Philip Brown/Reuters