THIS WEEKWORLD

THIS WEEKWORLD

TURKEY

Police officers stand guard outside an Ataturk Airport terminal in Istanbul on June 29 after two explosions at the airport killed at least 41 people and injured more than 200 others

PALESTINE

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon waves to the media during a visit to a Qatari-funded rehabilitation and artificial limbs hospital in Gaza City on June 28. In his recent trip to the region, Ban called for an end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, which he described as “collective punishment”

MADAGASCAR

A military parade takes place in the capital city of Antananarivo on June 26 to mark the 56th anniversary of the country’s independence

CUBA

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (left) shakes hands with Timoleon Jimenez, the top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), next to Cuban President Raul Castro, during the signing ceremony of a historic ceasefire agreement between the Colombian Government and FARC in Havana on June 23

SPAIN

Acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy casts his ballot in the country’s general election at a polling station in Madrid on June 26

MEXICO

People gather outdoors after a seismic alert in Mexico City on June 27 which followed a 5.4-magnitude earthquake that jolted south Mexico

SCIENTIST WINS TOP METEOROLOGICAL PRIZE

Meteorologist Zeng Qingcun was awarded the International Meteorological Organization (IMO) Prize by the World Meteorological Organization on June 22, for his contributions to satellite meteorological remote-sensing theory, numerical weather prediction theory, meteorological disaster prevention and the earth system model.

Zeng, 81, received a PhD degree in physical-mathematical sciences from the Institute of Applied Geophysics at the Soviet Union’s Academy of Science in 1961. He has been a researcher with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) since 1966 and served as its director in 1984-93.

He was elected a CAS academician in 1980 and an honorary member of the American Meteorological Society in 2014.

The IMO Prize is the most important award in meteorology. It is given annually to scientists who have made outstanding contributions to meteorology, hydrology and the geophysical sciences. Zeng is the third Chinese to win the honor following Ye Duzheng in 2003 and Qin Dahe in 2008.