Allen Walker is a fictional teenage character who appears as the protagonist of Katsura Hoshino's manga D.Gray-man, as well as two anime adaptations, three light novels, two video games, and several crossover fighting games. In the 19th century, the gentlemanly teenager joins the Black Order, a group of soldiers known as Exorcists, and fights Akuma demons and their creator, the Millennium Earl. In the anime television series and related franchise, he was voiced by Sanae Kobayashi. In 2016, for the new television anime series D.Gray-man Hallow, he was voiced by Ayumu Murase, and by Todd Haberkorn in an English-language anime series. The character has been popular with D.Gray-man readers, usually ranking in the top three in the series' popularity polls. Reactions to him have also been generally positive in manga and anime publications and other media. Critics have noted approvingly that his calm demeanor and mysterious origin are atypical of a protagonist in manga for boys. Merchandise featuring Allen Walker's likeness includes clothing and cosplay pieces. ( Full article...)

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• Under the Alan Turing law (namesake pictured), more than 49,000 men in England and Wales are pardoned for breaching historical legislation that outlawed homosexual acts.
• Morocco is readmitted to the African Union despite an ongoing dispute over Western Sahara.
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February 4: Independence Day in Sri Lanka ( 1948)

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The Saalfeld Fairy Grottoes are caverns or grottoes of a former mine in near Saalfeld, in the German state of Thuringia. They have long been famous for their countless colorful mineral formations ( speleothems) formed over many years by water dripping through relatively soft rock. Since 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records has termed the Feengrotten "the most colorful cave grottoes in the world." Photograph: Ansgar Koreng Recently featured: Charles de Solier, comte de Morette Eurasian eagle-owl River Dordogne Archive More featured pictures...