Thursday: The day in photos

Devotees offer prayers after taking a holy dip in the Sangam, the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati, during the annual celebration of the Hindu festival Magh Mela in Allahabad, India.  (Rajesh Kumar Singh / Associated Press)

A woman passes a bank in London advertising a sale on its products. The Bank of England has further cut its key interest rate to a record low of 1% as it tries to get the ailing British economy back on track.  (Kirsty Wigglesworth / Associated Press)

A U.S. helicopter makes its way over Baghdad, where preliminary results show Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s party scored a sweeping victory over rival Shiite Muslim groups in last week’s provincial elections.  (Wathiq Khuzaie / Getty Images)

Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) party, campaigns in Kiryat Motzkin, Israel. He is among the candidates running for the prime minister’s post.  (Leon Neal / AFP/Getty Images)

Daria Obratov of Croatia trains in preparation for the Luge World Championships in Lake Placid, N.Y. The competition begins Friday.  (Mike Groll / Associated Press)

A man takes a break on a street corner in Havana.  (Rodrigo Arangua / AFP/Getty Images)

A Belarusian woman works in a felt-boot factory in Smilovichi. Thick felt boots, called “valenky,” for cold winter conditions are common throughout Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Latvia.  (Viktor Drachev / AFP / Getty Images)

Students demonstrate in Strasbourg, France, as part of a nationwide protest over a government decree that alters the status of university professor-researchers.  (Johanna Leguerre / AFP / Getty Images)

Photographers snap pictures of a replica of the “Mona Lisa” at the WAM Design Center in Budapest prior to the opening of the exhibition “Da Vinci, the Genius.” The exhibition is the most complete traveling exhibition ever created on Leonardo and covers his vast explorations in art, engineering, architecture, anatomy, sculpture, music, mathematics and optics, many of which have had a critical effect on the modern world.  (Attila Kisbenedek / AFP / Getty Images)

Lady, a 19-year-old polar bear, catches fish in her pool at Budapest Zoo.  (Bela Szandelszky / Associated Press)

London commuters wait to squeeze onto the next train to Victoria Station at Clapham Junction. A recent report by the London Assembly’s transport committee says that the city’s overground rail network is struggling to cope with the growing number of passengers, with trains carrying around 40% more passengers than they should during the morning and evening peak periods.  (Dan Kitwood / Getty Images)

Workers make a final check on the assembly line at an Audi plant in Ingolstadt, Germany. Audi stopped production for five days in February at its biggest German plant as orders for new cars plummeted.  (Joerg Koch / AFP / Getty Images)

A model sits in a bathtub to promote a shopping mall in Hong Kong. A government spokesman said visitors to Hong Kong and solid spending by residents had helped boost retail figures but warned that it remained a tough environment.  (Mike Clarke / AFP / Getty Images)