The Week in Pictures

A father holds his son as he reaches to feed an elephant at South Africa’s National Zoo in Pretoria.  (Joe Klamar / AFP/Getty Images)

Residents of Grand Isle, which is threatened by the gulf oil spill, and visitors gather in prayer during an interfaith blessing on the beach.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Serbia’s Nemanja Vidic, top left, jumps for a header during the World Cup Group D soccer match between Serbia and Ghana at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.  (Hassan Ammar / Associated Press)

Unable to fly, an oil-covered brown pelican tries to clean and dry its wings after landing on a dock on Grand Isle. Animal rescue workers were called and the bird was captured for treatment.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Competitors slog through a puddle during the World Famous Mud Run at Camp Pendleon in Oceanside. Many runners said this year’s 6.2-mile course was tougher than last year’s.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Kashmiri Muslim protesters throw stones at an Indian police officer during a protest in Srinigar, Indian Kashmir’s main city. Clashes erupted Saturday, a day after a teenage boy was allegedly killed after being struck by a rubber bullet fired by police.  (Dar Yasin / AP Photo)

England striker Emile Heskey, in white, vies with U.S. midfielder Ricardo Clark (13) and U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu during their Group C first round 2010 World Cup match at Royal Bafokeng stadium near Rustenburg.  (Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP/Getty Images)

Fans blow vuvuzelas following the World Cup Group A soccer match between South Africa and Mexico at Soccer City. The game ended in a 1-1 draw.  (Hassan Ammar / Associated Press)

A performer takes part in a victory parade for Philippine Vice President-elect Jejomar Binay in Manila‘s financial district of Makati.  (Pat Roque / Associated Press)

Chicago White Sox’s Alex Rios is surrounded by birds in center field in the eighth inning against the Chicago Cubs during an interleague baseball game at Wrigley Field. The White Sox defeated the Cubs, 10-5.  (David Banks / Associated Press)

Artists perform during the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony at Soccer City.  (Martin Meissner / Associated Press)

Frishta, an Afghan girl, begs for money as youths play football in front of the war-damaged Darlaman Palace in the Afghan capital.  (Shah Marai / AFP/Getty Images)

A boy toots a vuvuzela near an image of the horn that is popular among South African soccer fans. The country is hosting the World Cup soccer event.  (Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP / Getty Images)

Italy reserve goalkeeper Federico Marchetti makes a save Thursday as his team prepares for the World Cup. The international soccer tournament begins Friday when host South Africa plays Mexico; Italy plays Paraguay on Monday.  (Filippo Monteforte / AFP/Getty Images)

David Brabham of Australia drives the No. 26 Highcroft Racing HPD during practice for the Le Mans 24-hour race. Sebastien Bourdais has earned the pole position for Peugeot in the race that begins Saturday.  (Rick Dole / Getty Images)

A young alligator pops its head up in water. Its among the wildlife threatened because of the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. The scope of the spill may be bigger than early estimates. Full story  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Singer Shakira performs at the FIFA World Cup kickoff celebration concert at the Orlando Stadium.  (Michelly Rall / Getty Images)

Pensioners join in the annual Founder’s Day Parade at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The parade is held in honor of Britain’s King Charles II, who set up the hospital in 1682 to care for soldiers unfit for further duty because of injury or old age. Traditionally, a member of Britain’s royal family attends the event.  (Leon Neal / AFP/Getty Images)

Aerial view of a sinuous track of withdrawing inland waters. After days of flooding due to torrential rains, rivers and streams are slowly withdrawing in the region where 3,730 people have been forced to escape their homes due to floods.  (Sandor H. Szabo / EPA)

Children take shelter from the rain in front of a home in Yangalma village, where most of the children suffering from lead poisoning come from. Nigerian officials say more than 160 people have died from lead poisoning, the majority of them children. At least six villages remain contaminated with the lead, released during illegal, but highly profitable gold mining in the poor region.  (Sunday Alamba / Associated Press)

An Indonesian man takes a nap at a stall that sells cow feet at the meat section of a market.  (Irwin Fedriansyah / Associated Press)

Treasury Secretary Timothy F.Geithner arrives on Capitol Hill to testify before the Senate Finance Committee on the future of U.S. economic relations with China.  (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

A woman prays at 41-foot-tall statue of Jain sage Lord Bahubali carved out of a single block of granite. Jainism, which originated in India, has nearly 4 million followers in the country.  (Ajit Solanki / Associated Press)

Officers and firefighters survey the scene on the northbound 405 Freeway where a California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer who had pulled over an SUV was hit by a sedan barreling down the shoulder, according to authorities. The crash left the officer in critical condition and caused a traffic nightmare on the Westside.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Receiver Isaac Bruce, right, embraces former St. Louis Rams teammate D’Marco Farr at a news conference announcing Bruce’s retirement after a 16-year NFL career.  (Tom Gannam / Associated Press)

Players on the Brazil squad that will compete in soccer’s World Cup, which begins Friday in South Africa, train at Randpark Golf Club.  (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP / Getty Images)

Italy players practice headers at a training session for international soccer’s World Cup, which begins Friday.  (Alessandra Tarantino / Associated Press)

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men watch a light show on an Old City wall during the Jerusalem Festival of Light on Wednesday.  (Maya Hitij / Associated Press)

Firemen cut open a gate as a school building burns in the background in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby, Sweden, late Tuesday. Between 50 and 60 youths reportedly pelted police officers and firefighters with stones, and set the school on fire.  (Fredrik Persson / Associated Press)

Los Angeles Lakers players Kobe Bryant, left, and Pau Gasol chat during practice at TD Garden on Wednesday. The Lakers hold a 2-1 lead over the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals; Game 3 is on Thursday night at Boston.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Policemen exercise at the parade ground in Allahabad, India.  (Rajesh Kumar Singh / Associated Press)

A grasshopper rests on a car roof at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus near Rustenburg after the English team’s training session ahead of the 2010 World Cup tournament in South Africa.  (Paul Ellis / AFP / Getty Images)

Photographer Rich Matthews takes a closer look at oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  (Eric Gay / Associated Press)

A fisherman throws a net as a boat moves along the Brahmaputra River at Nimati Ghat, about 195 miles east of Gauhati. Water levels of the Brahmaputra and other rivers of Assam state have risen due to rain.  (Anupam Nath / Associated Press)

Trainers give massages to bottlenose dolphins in the new Dolphinarium of Attica Zoological Park east of Athens. Bottlenose dolphins are very social animals. They can be found in groups of two to 15 individuals, although groups of more than 1,000 have been reported.  (Orestis Panagiotou / EPA)

South African football fans cheer along a street in advance of the 2010 World Cup football tournament, which will take place in South Africa from Friday until July 11. It is the first time the biggest and most prestigious competition in sport is being played on African soil.  (Issouf Sanogo / AFP / Getty Images)

A Chinese man takes a bite of deep-fried scorpion on a skewer. The exotic skewers, while a curiosity to foreign tourists, are claimed to have medicinal value by enthusiasts of the unusual snacks.  (How Hwee Young / EPA)

Diane Wilson, who says she is a commercial fisherman from Seadrift, Texas, pours what she later claimed is syrup made to look like oil over herself during a hearing with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Wilson was quickly escorted from the room and arrested. The hearing was on issues related to the Interior Department‘s May 27 report called “Increased Safety Measures for Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf,” which addresses the safety of offshore oil development.  (Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA)

Coveted rookie Stephen Strasburg delivers a pitch during a 14-strikeout, seven-inning performance in his major league debut with the Washington Nationals on Tuesday. Washington defeated Pittsburgh, 5-2.  (Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP Photo)

Cleveland Indians outfielder Trevor Crowe goes all out to snag a fly ball hit by Marco Scutaro of the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday. Though Scutaro was out, Boston prevailed, 3-2.  (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)

A boat, seen through a plastic sheet, sails on the Bosphorus during a torrential rain in Istanbul.  (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)

Marines carry a transfer case containing the remains of Sgt. Brandon C. Bury. The 26-year-old of Kingwood, Texas, died while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan, according to the Department of Defense.  (Steve Ruark / Associated Press)

Creamed spinach  (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

People hold union flags and banners during a demonstration called by Spanish labor unions to protest government austerity cuts. Garbage went uncollected and hospital care was reduced in Spain as tens of thousands of public workers went on strike to protest austerity cuts intended to rein in a public deficit that has rattled global financial markets. Unions representing the country’s roughly 2.6 million public workers, including doctors and street cleaners, called the strike last month after the government unveiled another $18 billion in spending cuts over two years.  (Cristina Quicler / AFP / Getty Images)

Israeli security officers arrest an Israeli settler during clashes between police and settlers following the destruction of two small houses built without authorization.  (Daniel Bar-On / AFP / Getty Images)

Bird rescuers work in teams to pick up numerous oiled pelicans from Queen Bess Island. A second wave of oil started flowing into Barataria Bay, where Queen Bess is located, late last week and did heavy damage to the rookeries. Queen Bess was one of three sites in Louisiana where brown pelicans were reintroduced after they went nearly extinct due to pesticides.  (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Matt Miller, 23, of Harrison, Mich., shoots the ball during a game of “21” being played at Combat Outpost Winkleman during some down time. Miller works as a joint tactical air controller.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

A scavenger on a boat collects recyclable items from garbage-strewn Citarum River in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia.  (Kusumadireza / Associated Press)

Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the new iPhone 4 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.  (Paul Sakuma / Associated Press)

Matthew Booth and his South Africa teammates do some exercises during a practice session.  (Alexander Joe / AFP/Getty Images)

Players from Australia’s World Cup team cast shadows on a fence as they arrive for a practice.  (Stan Honda / AFP/Getty Images)

A heron stands on oil containment booms that are being used to protect the beach area from the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico  (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

A dancer from Germany’s Ballett Magdeburg performs “Swan Lake” during the opening ceremony of the 4th edition of the International Ballet Festival in Cali, in Colombia’s Valle del Cauca state.  (Luis Robayo / AFP/Getty Images)

Revelers take part in a traditional “La Patum” party in Berga, in the Spanish region of Catalonia. The Patum is a popular and traditional festival celebrated each year in Berga during the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. It consists of several performances of mystical and symbolical figures, marked by their solemnity and the use of fire and pyrotechnics.  (Josep Lago / AFP/Getty Images)

Vegetable sellers return home by boat along Brahmaputra River.  (Anupam Nath / Associated Press)

A little boy is administered polio vaccination drops. The latest drive to eradicate polio has targeted southern provinces -- including Kandahar, Helmand and Farah -- where most of the 38 polio cases in 2009 were reported.  (Allauddin Khan / Associated Press)

Revelers take part in Berga’s traditional La Patum festival, when there are dance performances featuring mystical and symbolical figures as well as displays of pyrotechnics.  (Josep Lago /AFP/Getty Images)

Panathinaikos Athens players and coaching staff run for cover as they are pelted with projectiles, firecrackers and even flares before the start of their fourth basketball match of a best-of-five final series in Piraeus. Panathinaikos won the Greek championship for the 31st time in the club’s history on Sunday evening by defeating bitter rival Olympiacos, 69-76, in a tumultuous fourth game marred by fan violence in the stands throughout the match. The game’s start had initially been pushed back 40 minutes due to fan violence inside and outside the venue.  (Nikos Makris / EPA)

An Afghan refugee waits at the United Nations’ refugee-agency registration center on the outskirts of Peshawar prior to returning to home. About 1.7-million Afghan refugees remain in Pakistan after fleeing civil war and Taliban rule in their homeland.  (A. Majeed / AFP / Getty Images)

South African fans cheer and blow ear-splitting “vuvuzela” horns before England’s soccer team takes on local team Platinum Stars FC in a training exhibition match at Moruleng Stadium ahead of the start of the 2010 World Cup football tournament on June 11.  (Jung Yeon-Je / AFP / Getty Images)