AUSTRALIA-ANTARCTICA-RUSSIA-RESCUE

This image taken by expedition doctor Andrew Peacock of www.footloosefotography.com on January 2, 2014 shows a pair of Adelie penguins (C) inspecting the scene as the first load of passsengers (foreground) from the stranded Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy (back R) wait for a helicopter from the nearby Chinese icebreaker Xue Long to pick them up as rescue operations take place after over a week of being trapped in the ice off Antarctica. The helicopter mission to rescue 52 passengers trapped on the icebound Russian research ship finally got underway in Antarctica on January 2 after a number of false starts and failed icebreaking attempts. It was expected to take at least five hours to ferry all passengers from the icebound vessel to the Xue Long — 10 nautical miles distant — by helicopter, with five flights of up to 12 passengers and a return journey taking 45 minutes. The ship is carrying scientists and tourists who are following the Antarctic path of explorer Douglas Mawson a century ago, details of which at www.spiritofmawson.com, and have been carrying out the same scientific experiments his team conducted during the 1911-1914 Australian Antarctic Expedition — the first large-scale Australian-led scientific expedition to the frozen continent. RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE AFP PHOTO / MANDATORY CREDIT: Andrew Peacock / www.footloosefotography.com