A Buddhist devotee offering prayers during Wesak Day celebrations at a temple in Kuala Lumpur. The festival commemorates the anniversary of the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha.

Houses and buildings destroyed after a powerful tornado of at least EF4 strength and two miles wide ripped through Moore, Oklahoma, killing many and levelling everything in its path.

The all-female team from London's Metropolitan Police "bobbies" celebrating after moving the Airbus A320 during the fourth annual "Plane Pull" at JFK Airport in New York. Teams of police officers from London's Metropolitan Police Service, city police officers, state police troopers and employees of British Airways PLC and JetBlue Airways Corp. race to move the Airbus A320 jet 100 feet in the fastest time.

The 16.5-metre-tall inflatable Rubber Duck art installation lies deflated in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour. Organisers say the inflatable Rubber Duck created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman has been deflated for scheduled maintenance.

A South Korean worker attaching name cards with wishes from Buddhist followers to a lotus lantern at Jogye Temple in Seoul ahead of the celebrations marking Buddha's birthday on May 17.

Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi posing on his creation painted on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art during a preview of the annual Met's Roof Garden commission in New York city. Qureshi, who uses nearly 8,000 square feet of open-air space as his canvas, depicts his emotional response to violence occurring in Pakistan and across the globe by working areas with blood-like spilled and splattered red acrylic paint into patterns of lush ornamental leaves that evoke the luxuriant walled gardens ubiquitous in miniatures of the Mughal court and also echo the foliage of Central Park surrounding the Roof Garden. Qureshi is the first artist to have created a work that is painted directly onto the roof surface of the museum.

British billionaire Richard Branson gesturing next to AirAsia group chief Tony Fernandes before working as a flight attendant onboard an AirAsia flight bound for Kualu Lumpur, in Perth. Branson honoured a losing bet with Fernandes over whose Formula One racing team would finish ahead of the other at the Abu Dhabi race during their debut in 2010 season.

Bicyclists riding past an automated real-time bike counter on Market Street in San Francisco, California. According to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the number of cyclists on the streets of San Francisco has surged 71% between 2006 and 2011.

Sculptures by artist Jeff Koons related to the Celebration series: Balloon Swan (Blue), Balloon Rabbit (Yellow), and Balloon Monkey (Red) are on display during a press preview for Koons' first major exhibition over the last decade at Gagosian New York.

Volcano Mt Mayon spewing a thick column of ash 500 metres into the air, as seen from the city of Legazpi southeast of Manila.