In pictures: Eyewitness February 2010

23 February 2010, Cypress Mountain, Canada: Ashleigh McIvor, centre, leads Marion Josserand of France (right) and Hedda Berntsen of Norway (left), en route to taking the gold medal in front of her home crowd in the women's ski cross finals at the Vancouver Winter Olympics
Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

23 February 2010, Trikh Nawar, Afghanistan: US soldiers from Charlie company of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines treat a colleague injured when their armoured vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device
Photograph: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images

23 February 2010, London, UK: A model has her dress altered backstage at the Dairy in Bloomsbury, where New York-based British designer Nathan Jenden held his London fashion week show
Photograph: Katie Collins/PA

17 February 2010, Grøtfjord, Norway: The aurora borealis seen last week in the sky above the village of Grøtfjord, near Tromsø. Auroras are caused by the solar wind – a stream of charged particles travelling from the sun at up to 1.5m mph – colliding with gas molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere. The particles are drawn by Earth’s magnetic field to the poles, where, at an altitude of 60 miles, they hit the gas molecules, causing them to emit light
Photograph: Martial Trezzini/EPA

15 February 2010, Rio de Janerio, Brazil: Members of the Salgueiro samba school parade at the Sambadrome Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP

14 February 2010: The silhouette of the space shuttle Endeavour is captured against the colours of the sky some 200 miles above the Earth by crew aboard the International Space Station Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

15 February 2010, Bangalore, India: Swaroup Anand is conscious as he has open heart surgery at Fortis hospital. An epidural to the neck has numbed his body in a method pioneered 10 years ago
Photograph: Tom Parker/Rex Features

10 February 2010, Melbourne, Australia: School children look at Wild Man, a sculpture by the Australian artist Ron Mueck that is part of a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria
Photograph: Mick Tsikas/Reuters

2 February 2010, Hefei, China: A partially demolished home in China's Anhui province, which the owner refuses to give up until more compensation is paid. Such homes are known as 'nail houses'
Photograph: Jianan Yu/Reuters

3 February 2010, Vatican: Pope Benedict XVI watches members of Italy’s American Circus perform during his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall
Photograph: Osservatore Romano/Reuters

1 February 2010, New Delhi, India: Children in work with their parents (out of shot) on construction of the Jawaharal Nehru stadium at the weekend. The Commonwealth Games are due to be held in India in 2010. The children are under no obligation to work but are paid in bread and milk and receive dinner from the contractor
Photograph: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images