Picture desk live: the day's best news images

A gift for photographers as Nicolas Sarkozy is mobbed by his supporters while arriving for a campaign meeting in Nice ahead of Sunday's first round of the French presidential election Photograph: Philippe Wojazer/AP

François Bayrou – president of the centrist Democratic Movement party – chooses a picturesque backdrop during a campaign visit to Annecy in the French Alps Photograph: Jean-pierre Clatot/AFP/Getty Images

Pakistani soldiers continue searching into the night for the remains of victims of a plane crash, which happened just outside Islamabad airport Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images

How many people can you get on a motorbike (something of a picture desk obsession): a Pakistani couple and their three daughters ride along a street in the capital, Islamabad Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP

An Israeli border policeman punches a Palestinian during a protest against the expansion of the nearby Jewish settlement of Halamish in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Photograph: Majdi Mohammed/AP

Saying it with flowers: Russian Communist party members and supporters march in Moscow's Red Square to pay their respects at Lenin's mausoleum to mark the 142nd anniversary of his birth on Sunday Photograph: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images

The personal toll of the long-running conflict in Kashmir: relatives of Sukhpal Singh, an Indian police officer, mourn in an ambulance in Srinagar. Police said a man carrying a pistol shot Singh at close range. He died on his way to a hospital Photograph: Dar Yasin/AP

Two girls selling sweets watch from their makeshift stall as other children attend a school in the city of Makeni in Sierra Leone Photograph: Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters

The prize for cute animal photograph of the day goes to the three baby brown bears called Ben, Yogy and Zora taking a walk at the JuraParc in Mont-d'Orzeires near Vallorbe, Switzerland Photograph: Laurent Gillieron/EPA

A familiar sight returns as protesters once again flock to Cairo's Tahrir Square as they did throughout the Arab spring. This demonstration, the biggest for months, sought to put pressure on the generals to hand over power ahead of presidential elections Photograph: Nasser Nasser/AP

Bernie Ecclestone is thronged by journalists at the Bahrain grand prix track. The F1 boss is seen here with Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, who has claimed that cancelling the race would empower extremists Photograph: Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, and lawyer Benjamin Crump, arrive at the Seminole county criminal justice centre for a bail hearing for George Zimmerman, the neighbourhood watch volunteer charged with murdering her 17-year-old son Photograph: John Raoux/AP

The home secretary, Theresa May, practises her poker face after grimacing on almost every newspaper front page today. May had been speaking at the Stonewall conference, which looks at how to tackle homophobic bullying in schools and 'celebrate different families' Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Can we play? Children bounce on Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller's new interactive artwork. The installation, entitled Sacrilege, is a full-scale inflatable replica of Stonehenge
Photograph: Murdo MacLeod

This poignant image was taken on Wednesday but only reached us overnight. President Barack Obama sits on the famous bus in which Rosa Parks sparked the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and struck a blow for racial equality when she refused to give up her seat for a white passenger. Obama was at the Henry Ford Museum following an event in Dearborn, Michigan Photograph: The White House/Getty Images

Aung San Suu Kyi talks to reporters after news emerged that her planned debut in Burma's parliament next week could be shelved amid a standoff between her party and the government over the wording used for the swearing-in oath Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

A surprised crowd gathers to watch as the Little Girl Giant, a huge marionette, is moved through the streets of Liverpool. The puppet will take part in a series of free performances entitled Sea Odyssey, which is a love story based on the sinking of the Titanic Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA