The Frame

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama paid tribute Monday to the men and women who have died defending America, pointing to Vietnam veterans as an under-appreciated and sometimes maligned group of war heroes who remained true to their nation despite an unwelcome homecoming.

"You were sometimes blamed for the misdeeds of a few," Obama said at the Vietnam War Memorial. "You came home and were sometimes denigrated when you should have been celebrated. It was a national shame, a disgrace that should have never happened."

"Even though some Americans turned their backs on you, you never turned your back on America," Obama said.

Marking Memorial Day at both the black granite wall honoring more than 58,000 soldiers who died in the Vietnam War and earlier at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from the capital, Obama noted that for the first time in nine years, "Americans are not fighting and dying in Iraq," and the nation was winding down its role in the conflict in Afghanistan.

(34 images)

Thousands of Sufi devotees from different parts of India annually travel to the shrine of Sufi Muslim saint Hazrat Khwaja Muinuddin Chishti, in Ajmer, in the Indian state of Rajasthan for the annual Urs festival observed to mark his death anniversary. The event is held over six days and is celebrated in the seventh month of the Islamic lunar calendar.

(38 images)

CAIRO (AP) -- More than 15 months after autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak's ouster, Egyptians streamed to polling stations Wednesday to freely choose a president for the first time in generations. Waiting hours in line, some debated to the last minute over their vote in a historic election pitting old regime figures against ascending Islamists.

A sense of amazement at having a choice in the Arab world's first truly competitive presidential election pervaded the crowds in line. At the same time, voters were fervent with expectations over where a new leader will take a country that has been in turmoil ever since its ruler for nearly 30 years was toppled by mass protests.

(30 images)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- From a park near Albuquerque, to the top of Japan's Mount Fuji, to the California coast the effect was dramatic: The moon nearly blotting out the sun creating a blazing "ring of fire" eclipse.

Millions of people across a narrow strip of eastern Asia and the Western U.S. turned their sights skyward for the annular eclipse, in which the moon passes in front of the sun leaving only a golden ring around its edges.

The rare lunar-solar alignment was visible in Asia early Monday before it moved across the Pacific -- and the international dateline -- where it was seen in parts of the western United States late Sunday afternoon.

People from Colorado, Oklahoma and as far away as Canada traveled to Albuquerque to enjoy one of the best vantage points at a park on the edge of the city.

(35 images)

CLOVIS, Calif. (AP) -- Slovakia's Peter Sagan of Slovakia raced to his event-opening fourth straight stage victory in the Tour of California on Wednesday to increase his overall lead to 16 seconds. The 22-year-old Sagan, riding for Liquigas-Cannondale, finished the 130.2-mile stage from Sonora to Clovis -- the longest leg in the race -- in 5 hours, 18 minutes, 8 seconds in 95-degree conditions. Australia's Heinrich Haussler, racing for Garmin-Barracuda, was second for the fourth straight day, about a bike-length behind. Rabobank's Michael Matthews, also from Australia, was third in the stage.

Sagan's fourth straight 10-second bonus for a stage win gave him a 40-second advantage over the expected overall contenders, including defending champion Chris Horner, the RadioShack-Nissan rider from Bend, Ore The eight-day event continues Thursday with an 18.4-mile individual time trial in Bakersfield, followed by two mountain stages. The 735-mile race concludes Sunday with a 42-mile road race from Beverly Hills to Los Angeles.

(44 images)

A father holds the body of his child as South Vietnamese Army Rangers look down from their armored vehicle. Survivors huddle together after an attack by government troops. A dead U.S. soldier, covered by a sheet, lies on the battlefield in Vietnam.

Horst Faas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning combat photographer who became one of the world's legendary photojournalists in nearly half a century with the AP, captured these images during the Vietnam War. Faas died Thursday in Munich at age 79, his daughter said.

Here's a look at some of the powerful photographs by Faas. 

(27 images)

MOSCOW (AP) -- The Victory Day parade, the annual Red Square military parade which commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany and is Russia's most important secular holiday. The enormous suffering of World War II, and the Red Army's determination to beat back the Nazi invasion, are cherished elements in Russia's national identity.

The Soviet Union lost an estimated 26 million people in the war, including 8.5 million soldiers.

Among the thousands of spectators along the square were World War II veterans bent with age, their suitcoats festooned with rows of medals.

"Your courage and ability to love and defend your homeland will never recede into the past and will remain the hallmark of morals, patriotism and sense of civic duty in the eyes of the younger generation," Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

This year's parade included some 14,000 impassive servicemen precision-marching through the 5.5-acre (2.3-hectare) square and a 1.5-kilometer-long (nearly mile-long) convoy of mobile missile-launchers, tanks and other military vehicles.

(37 images)

Photojournalist Taylor Weidman, based out of Mongolia, is founder of the Vanishing Cultures Project. The project is, "...dedicated to documenting endangered cultures, advocating for locally-run preservation projects and helping to fund these projects through donations, book sales and print sales," Weidman says. As part of the project, Weidman and a writer spend four to six months a year with an indigenous group facing rapid cultural change. They create a book documenting the traditions and lifestyles of the communty to, "serve as an enduring record." Last year they spent time in Nepal. "Hidden in the rain shadow of the Himalaya in one of the most remote corners of Nepal lies Mustang, or the former Kingdom of Lo. Hemmed in by the world's highest mountain range to the south and an occupied and shuttered Tibet to the north, this tiny Tibetan kingdom has remained virtually unchanged since the 15th century. Today, Mustang is arguably the best-preserved example of traditional Tibetan life left in the world. But today, Mustang is poised for change. A new highway will connect the region to Kathmandu and China for the first time, ushering in a new age of modernity and altering Mustang's desert-mountain villages forever.

(21 images)

CAIRO (AP) -- Egyptian troops blasted protesters with water cannons, tear gas and live ammunition, trying to prevent them from marching on the Defense Ministry Friday in clashes that left one soldier dead and scores of people injured just three weeks ahead of presidential elections.

The fierce street battles raised fears of a new cycle of violence surrounding the upcoming vote to replace Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted more than a year ago. For the first time in Egypt's chaotic transition, hard-line Islamists, rather than secular forces, were at the forefront of the confrontation with the military rulers who have been accused of trying to cling to power.

The military council imposed an 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew on the area surrounding the Defense Ministry, which has emerged as a flashpoint for the protesters' anger after nine people were killed on Wednesday in clashes between unidentified assailants and protesters who mainly comprised supporters of a disqualified Islamist presidential candidate.

(23 images)

MADRID (AP) -- On the front lines of the world's May Day protests this year, along with the traditional chants, banners and marches, a gamut of emotions flowed through the crowds: Anger. Fear. Elation. Despair.

With Europe's unemployed denouncing austerity measures, Asia's laborers demanding higher salaries and U.S. protesters condemning Wall Street, Tuesday's demonstrations by hundreds of thousands were less a celebration of workers' rights than a furious venting over spending cuts, tax hikes and soaring unemployment.

(54 images)