Just hours after Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation Monday because of health reasons, lightning struck the roof of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. The eery moment, believed by some to be a sign from God, was caught on camera by AFP photographer Filippo Monteforte. Here are photos of lightning strikes at some other iconic places around the globe. MORE ON WEATHER.COM: The World's Tallest BuildingsThe World's Most Amazing DamsThe World Most Amazing Waterfalls ...

This slow-shutter-speed exposure shows water flowing through ice and snow near Hohenschwangau, southern Germany. (KARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND/AFP/Getty Images) Winter on the Rocks Thus far, February has provided some amazing images from around the world, images that have one thing in common: water. Some photos have told heartbreaking stories of loss and pain. Others have amazed us with the resilience of humanity. Some images point to the economic toll that water can take on an unsuspecting city, and others pictures show the...

Mug Shot of Joe Rickey Hundley (Kootenai County Sheriff) COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — An Idaho man charged with slapping a toddler on a Minneapolis-to-Atlanta flight made an initial appearance in federal court Tuesday. Joe Rickey Hundley, 60, surrendered to federal agents and then stood before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mikel H. Williams, who appeared via video at the federal courthouse in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Hundley, of Hayden, Idaho, was released by the magistrate on a $10,000 unsecured bond. As conditions of...

(Stockbyte) DENVER — Marijuana tourism is on the way to Colorado, under a recommendation made Tuesday by a state task force to regulate the drug made legal by voters last year. But Colorado should erect signs in airports and borders telling visitors they can't take pot home, the task force recommended. Colorado's marijuana task force was assembled to suggest regulations for pot after voters chose to flout federal drug law and allow its use without a doctor's recommendation. Made up...

This undated photo, provided by passenger Jacob Combs, shows the dire situation aboard the Carnival Triumph cruise ship. (Jacob Combs) A class-action over events that left passengers of the cruise ship Triumph without power or working toilets for five days in the Gulf of Mexico, according to CNN. The lawsuit, filed on Monday in U.S. federal court in Miami by Matt and Melissa Crusan of Oklahoma, and should be held liable for physical and emotional anguish, reports Reuters. According to...

Lucy, 3, cries during a TSA screening at Lambert Airport in St. Louis on Feb. 8, 2013. (YouTube) ST. LOUIS — The Transportation Security Administration is apologizing after agents at Lambert Airport in St. Louis sought to screen a 3-year-old girl in a wheelchair. The mother of the child shot video that caused a stir in social media after it was posted online. The incident happened Feb. 8. The girl and her family were about to fly to Disney World...

Aurora Borealis JUNEAU, Alaska — Bill Carter had been planning his bucket-list winter vacation to Alaska for 30 years, and he couldn't have picked a better time to take it. The retired chemist from Jesup, Ga., didn't mind that February temperatures can hover near minus 40 degrees on the outskirts of Fairbanks, because the night sky there offered Carter something most people never get to see: the aurora borealis. "Yellows, oranges, greens. There were light bursts that would come from...

Staying at an ice hotel is cool — literally and figuratively. (Lauren Mack) The Daily Meal spent a night at Hôtel de Glace, a Québec ice hotel constructed anew each winter with 20,000 blocks of ice. This year the Hôtel de Glace is open until March 24. Though ski vacations remain a popular winter retreat, vacations revolving around ice are increasing in popularity thanks to ice festivals popping up around the world, like the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival (哈尔滨国际冰雪节)...

North Koreans carry bundles on their backs as they cross a frozen lake north of the capital city of Pyongyang, North Korea on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) Few people from outside North Korea ever get to see, with their own eyes, what life is like inside the country's restrictive borders - scenes ranging from a simple haircut to a mass synchronized swimming performance. Associated Press photographer David Guttenfelder is in North Korea and has been documenting scenes...

Devil's Slide tunnel project in Pacifica, Calif. Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2013. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) PACIFICA, Calif. — Two slick new mile-long tunnels are undergoing final safety tests this month, poised to divert motorists away from an ocean cliff-hanging roadway dubbed Devil's Slide south of San Francisco to a smooth, Alpine-like passageway unlike any in the U.S. today. The $439 million project, paid with federal emergency funds, features massive exhaust fans, carbon monoxide sensors and a pair of 1,000-foot bridges soaring...

Andrew Whyte's Lego traveler watches a rainbow. 'Sometimes you've just got to watch,' he says. 'When a rainbow appears, drop the camera and marvel in its beauty.' (Photo: Andrew Whyte) They say a good photographer gets the shot, rain or shine. If that's true, then UK photographer Andrew Whyte's little camera-wielding Lego tourist is one of the best around. As part of his Legography series, Whyte takes his iPhone and his mini figure all over his city of Portsmouth, located...

NEW YORK -- What could possibly go wrong? An Australian billionaire is getting ready to build a new version of the Titanic that could set sail in late 2016. Clive Palmer unveiled blueprints for the famously doomed ship's namesake Tuesday at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York. He said construction is scheduled to start soon in China. Palmer said 40,000 people have expressed interest in tickets for the maiden voyage, taking the original course from Southampton,...