Fastest advanced metro starts service

Passengers walk from the Metrol Line 2 to Metro Line 3 in Guangzhou. The world's fastest underground train speeding 135 kilometers an hour is put into service on the Metro Line 3 Dec. 26, 2005.Consisting of three train cars and worth more than 36 million yuan (US$4.5 million), it is the most advanced underground train on the Chinese mainland.

Bin Laden's niece poses for racy photo shoot

Wafah Dufour, niece of Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden has recently posed half-naked for a US-based fashion magazine GQ, and her racy portraits will be carried on the January 2006 issue of the magazine.

Alexandra Ivanovskaya crowned Miss Russia 2005

Alexandra Ivanovskaya, Miss Far East from the Russia city of Khabarovsk smiles after she won the Russia national beauty contest "Miss Russia 2005" in Moscow on Dec. 22.

A retrospect of Israel-Palestine relations in 2005 (2)

A Palestinian boy puts up a Palestinian national flag near a Jewish settlement in Gaza to celebrate the pullout of Israeli troops on Aug 9. Israel began to carry out the pullout plan from Gaza strip as from Aug 15. By Sept 12, the pullout was completed, bringing Israel's 38-year-long occupation of Gaza to an end. However the airport, port in Gaza are still under control of Israel.

A retrospect of Israel-Palestine relations in 2005 (1)

For Israel and Palestine, 2005 is a year of peace and turbulence, hope and disappointment, laughter and tears. The concerned parties efforts have eased the situation. However, conflicts still take place now and then and peace talks suffer setbacks occasionally.

Gas attack sickens 78 in St. Petersburg store

A gas attack on a Russian chain store sickened 78 people Monday, and boxes with glass vials attached to wires were found in three other outlets of the same store, authorities said. Police said they believed a commercial dispute or blackmail attempt was behind the incidents, and Russian news agencies quoted the city's top official as saying that authorities had ruled out terrorism.

26 confirmed dead in a bar fire

The Tandao Bar is cordoned off in the wake of a fire in the town of Tanzhou in Zhongshan City, south China's Guangdong Province, on Dec. 26, 2005. Twenty-six people have been confirmed dead and 11 others injured when the bar caught fire on the night of Dec. 25.

Beijing marks 112th anniversary of Mao's birth

Shao Hua (1st L), Mao Xinyu (1st R) and Liu Bin (2nd L), relatives of late Chinese leader Chairman Mao Zedong, lay a flower basket at the Memorial of Chairman Mao Zedong to commemorate the 112th anniversary of his birth in Beijing, Dec. 26, 2005. Chairman Mao, who was born on Dec. 26, 1893 and passed away on Sept. 9, 1976, was the founder and leader of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the People's Republic of China.

Tsunami memorial ceremony in Banda Aceh

Two women weep while watch a documentary at a memorial ceremony about the tsunami in Banda Aceh of Indonesia, Dec. 26, 2005. The city commemorated the anniversary of 2004 devastating disaster Monday that left over 169,000 Acehnese dead or missing and half a million homeless.

Anniversary of tsunami marked in Thailand

A man inserts a flower into the sand to commemorate his relative killed in last year's tsunami, on the Padung beach in Phuket, Thailand's southern tourism province, Dec. 26, 2005. Thailand on Monday held a series of commemorations in several southern provinces ravaged by last year's tsunami to mark the anniversary of the unprecedented disaster. (Xinhua Photo)