ROBOT BOOST: Lord Puttnam examines Shadow, a robotic arm developed with funds from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta), of which he is chairman. He was announcing an extra £95 million in funding for the organisation.

COURTS STRIKE: Striking members of AMO, the union that represents court staff, demonstrate outside Birmingham Magistrates’ Court during the first strike in the 800-year history of the court system.

GATES’S GREETING: Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, gets a traditional greeting from a care- home worker in Delhi during a visit on behalf of his charitable foundation to combat Aids.

SHUTTLE DELAYED: Mission commander Ken Bowersox waves as his crew leaves the operations building at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch of the space shuttle Endeavour faces a delay of at least a week after the discovery of an oxygen leak.

AGASSI ARRIVES: Andre Agassi, the world No 2 tennis star, poses in traditional Chinese costume before the start of the Masters Cup tournament in Shanghai.

CARRIER ALERT: The sun rises over an F-14D Tomcat fighter on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is on deployment in the Middle East for operations against Iraq.

PLANE DITCHES: Rescuers retrieve a passenger from an aircraft that crashed into Manila Bay shortly after take-off from the capital of the Philippines. At least 16 of the 34 people aboard survived.

FASHION BALLOON: A model in a plastic balloon shows a pair of trousers made from Thai silk during a show at Bangkok fashion week.

OCEAN HONOURED: The singer Billy Ocean with an honorary Doctor of Music degree which was presented to him by the University of Westminster at the Barbican Centre in London for his services to the music industry.

POSTER PUNISHMENT: A Chinese man accused of illegal flyposting in Xian, China, is escorted through the city by officers determined to clean up the ancient capital. The bills pasted on his jacket are part of his punishment.