Images Dated 30th May 2011

Burano in Venice

The unbelievably colourful Burano, one of the islands in the Venice lagoon, where every house is painted a bright shade of blue, yellow, pink, purple. Put this with the washing flapping in the breeze, the window boxes of red geraniums, and the painted saints in their wall niches and you feel like you're at a permanent festival

© 2011 Kelly Cheng

Arch de Constantine Rome

The Arch of Constantine is a triumphal arch in Rome, situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill.
It was erected by the Roman Senate to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312.
Dedicated in 315, it is the largest Roman triumphal arch. The arch spans the Via triumphalis, the way taken by the emperors when they entered the city in triumph.
Though dedicated to Constantine, much of the decorative material incorporated earlier work from the time of the emperors Trajan (98a??117), Hadrian (117a??138) and Marcus Aurelius (161a??180), and is thus a collage.
The last of the existing triumphal arches in Rome, it is also the only one to make extensive use of spolia, reusing several major reliefs from 2nd century imperial monuments, which give a striking and famous stylistic contrast to the sculpture newly created for the arch.
The arch is 21 m high, 25.9 m wide and 7.4 m deep. It has three archways, the central one being 11.5 m high and 6.5 m wide and the lateral archways 7.4 m by 3.4 m each. Above the archways is placed the attic, composed of brickwork reverted (faced) with marble.
A staircase within the arch is entered from a door at some height from the ground, on the west side, facing the Palatine Hill.
The general design with a main part structured by detached columns and an attic with the main inscription above is modeled after the example of the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum

© Copyright: Stig Stockholm Pedersen

Illustration photo of slices of cucumber and a tomato slice

Slices of cucumber and a tomato slice are pictured in this illustration photo taken in Berlin May 30, 2011. A German hospital said on Monday it anticipates the deadly E. coli outbreak will worsen in the coming week as a virulent strain of the bacteria has so far killed 11 people and left more than 300 seriously ill, mostly in northern Germany. The outbreak of E. coli-caused hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious complication of a type of E. coli known as Shiga toxin-producing E. Coli (STEC) is the largest ever of its kind in Germany and worldwide, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in a risk assessment. German authorities have warned consumers to avoid eating raw cucumbers, lettuces and tomatoes and has removed some products from store shelves.
REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski (GERMANY - Tags: AGRICULTURE FOOD HEALTH IMAGES OF THE DAY) - BM2E75U15IQ01