Day in pictures

1 of 9 People dressed as hot air balloons march through the streets of Mainz, Germany, during a carnival parade.

2 of 9 At a similar parade in Cologne, a little girl tries to catch sweets thrown to the crowds.

3 of 9 Motorbike taxi drivers in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi deliver kumquat trees, traditionally displayed to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

4 of 9 Cherie Blair, wife of the UK prime minister, holds a five-month-old during a visit to a hospital in Auckland, New Zealand.

5 of 9 Residents on the island of Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands, inspect the aftermath of cyclone Meena.

6 of 9 Cuban women puff on their cigars as a ban on smoking in public places enters into effect across the island.

7 of 9 A Tibetan man drinks wine after a ceremony to mark the Tibetan New Year, which will fall on 9 February.

8 of 9 Japanese schoolchildren look at a snow sculpture of Norway's house of parliament at the Snow Festival in Sapporo.

9 of 9 The four-year-old daughter of one of four Egyptian engineers kinapped in Baghdad looks at a picture of her father.