REWIND: Best images in the last 48 hours

We take a look at the most amazing pictures from across the globe in the last 48 hours.

A rebel fighter points his gun at a suspected Gaddafi supporter as other rebels try to protect the suspected supporter, on a road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah, near Ajdabiyah in Libya

Western powers launched a second wave of air strikes on Libya early on Monday after halting the advance of Muammar Gaddafi's forces on Benghazi and targeting air defences to let their planes patrol the skies.

Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

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A piano is submerged in water in the area devastated by tsunami in Rikuzentakat on Monday.

Japan faces a mammoth disaster relief and reconstruction effort after its worst-ever earthquake triggered a tsunami that devastated the country's northeastern coast, killing thousands and spawned a severe nuclear crisis.

Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Riot police arrest a protester during a demonstration against the visit by US President Barack Obama in Concepcion, Chile on Monday.

Obama is in Santiago on the second leg of his three-country Latin America tour.

Photograph: Jose Luis Saavedra/Reuters

Security guards protect United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (2nd R) as pro-Gaddafi protesters (back) try to block his path as he leaves the Arab League headquarters on his way to Tahrir Square, after a meeting with Arab League chief Amr Moussa, in Cairo, Egypt on Monday.

A group of protesters angry about international intervention in the war in Libya between Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and the rebel forces started a scuffle and blocked the path of Ban Ki-Moon as he left a meeting at the Arab League.  

Photograph: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

Youth supporters of Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo have their hair cut as they gather at a stadium at army headquarters to sign up for military service in Abidjan.

Thousands of youth supporters of Gbagbo answered a call to join the army on Monday, adding fuel to a violent power struggle that risks sending the country back to civil war. 

Photograph: Luc Gnago/Reuters

Hassidic Jews celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighbourhood.

Purim is a celebration of the Jews' salvation from genocide in ancient Persia, as recounted in the Book of Esther.

Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

A local man fights a fire coming from the kitchen of a house in the village of Diraz, west of Manama, capital of Bahrain. There were no reports of death or injuries and the cause of the fire is unknown.

Photograph: James Lawler Duggan/Reuters

A cyclist is seen through a part of a Fiat 126 car, nicknamed "Maluch" in Poland, as an advertisement of a car service near Lodz, central Poland.

Photograph: Tomasz Stanczak/Agencja Gazeta/Reuters