THIS WEEK WORLD

JAPAN

Visitors walk beside a Hello Kitty statue during the 65th annual Sapporo Snow Festival on February 5. The weeklong event showcased a total of 198 snow statues

AFGHANISTAN

A boy waves flags bearing the image of former Foreign Minister and presidential candidate Zalmai Rassoul during a gathering in Kabul on February 3. Afghans are scheduled to elect a new president on April 5

THE UNITED STATES

A clerk stands at the cigarette counter of a CVS drugstore on February 5 in Washington， D.C. CVS， the second largest U.S. drugstore chain， announced that day it will stop selling cigarettes by the end of the year

SYRIA

Residents of the besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp， south of Damascus， receive food parcels from the UN on January 31

ITALY

A man fishes in the flooded St Marks Square in Venice on February 1. The flooding was caused by wind and rain combined with the lagoon citys periodic tidal phenomenon

TOGO

Recently seized ivory is displayed at the Togolese Security Ministry in Lome on February 4. Togo is intensifying its efforts to crack down on ivory trafficking， warning smugglers that the country will no longer be a staging post for the illegal tradeendprint