Snow covers spring flowers in Denver. A spring storm that has brought over a foot of snow to parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska and thunderstorms and tornadoes to the Midwest was slowing down travelers and left some without power Monday morning. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Visitors line up for tickets which are distributed at on a first-come basis at the Washington Monument in Washington, ahead of a ceremony to celebrate its re-opening. The monument, which sustained damage from an earthquake in August 2011, is reopening to the public today. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

An Afghan police officer investigates the site of a government building after Taliban fighters stormed the building in Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan. Taliban fighters stormed a government building in eastern Afghanistan after killing two police guards on Monday, the most serious in a wave of attacks marking the start of the insurgents’ annual spring offensive. In the Taliban heartland in the south, an attack on a police checkpoint in Helmand province killed nine policemen.THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A woman wearing a white fox mask uses a mobile phone at Sensoji Temple in Tokyo’s Asakusa district. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A woman walks past a fashion boutique outlet under construction covered by its advertisement board at a shopping mall in Beijing, China. Chinese president Xi Jinping has told the country to get used to slower growth, damping expectations of a new stimulus, following weakening trade and manufacturing. Economic growth slowed in the latest quarter to 7.4 percent after last year’s full-year expansion of 7.7 percent tied 2012 for the weakest performance since 1999. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS