1A man holding a pole stands on a mound of garbage washed ashore by big waves as others look for recyclable materials along Roxas Blvd. in Manila, Philippine
2Spectators react after Britain’s Bradley Wiggins wins the men’s cycling individual time trial at the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Reuters)
3A sea barge with three homes is pulled by a tugboat out into the Pacific Ocean waters of the Strait of Georgia near Richmond, British Columbia. (Reuters)
4Iraqis inspect the destruction a day after a car bomb attack in a shopping area in Karradah, Baghdad. A double bombing struck at an upscale neighborhood, killing and wounding scores of people, police said. (AP)
5Visitors walk in a labyrinth installation made up of 250,000 books titled ‘aMAZEme’ by Marcos Saboya and Gualter Pup,o at the Royal Festival Hall in central London, July 31, 2012. (Reuters)
6A banner showing a cartoon of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is displayed on the street in Seoul, South Korea, to demand for the improvement of North Koreans’ human rights. (AP)
7A woman is transported on a cart to the International Medical Corps’ clinic in Gendrassa camp in Maban, Upper Nile State, South Sudan. (Reuters)
8This new Chandra image of M83 is one of the deepest X-ray observations ever made of a spiral galaxy beyond our own. This full-field view of the spiral galaxy shows the low, medium, and high-energy X-rays observed by Chandra in red, green, and blue respectively. The new X-ray data from the remnant of SN 1957D provide important information about the nature of the explosion that astronomers think happened when a massive star ran out of fuel and collapsed. (NASA)
9Spanish acrobat David Pereira is silhouetted as he performs on the roof terrace of a hotel with a 368-meter-high television tower in the background in Berlin, Germany. Pereira and other artists presented parts of the new show ‘Made in Berlin’ of the Wintergarten Berlin Variety. (AP)
1The English National Ballet troupe performs during a pre-show at the artistic gymnastics women’s individual all-around competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. (AP)
2People look at a dead 13-meter (42.5-foot) whale shark washed ashore on Pandan Simo beach in Bantul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. (AP)
3Rebels from the ‘Tawheed Brigade’ in Tal Rifaat, north of Aleppo, prepare to leave for battle against the Syrian army in Aleppo. (AFP)
4A school child picks up bricks at a primary school on the outskirts of Harare, Zimbabwe. Schoolchildren are helping in the construction of a classroom at the school. (AP)
5Artists work on a giant city map of Berlin that is drawn on a concrete square in central Berlin, Germany. The walk-on piece will be opened to the public on August 25 for the 775th anniversary celebration of the founding of Berlin. (Reuters)
6A man carries cooking oil he received at a relief center for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sana’a. Around 8,000 of the IDPs who have fled fighting between Shi’ite rebels and government forces in northwestern Yemen have yet to return to their villages two years after the fighting ended. (Reuters)
7A baby rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) plays with a tiger cub at a zoo in Hefei, Anhui province, China. (Reuters)
8Firefighters and bystanders attempt to extinguish the flames from burning cars in front of the Nile City Towers during clashes between the police and an unknown mob from a nearby neighborhood in Cairo, Egypt. (Reuters)
9Buddhists carry candles during Asanha Puja Day, the eve of the Buddhist Lent, at a temple in Nonthaburi province, on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand. (Reuters)
10A dock extends into a dry cove where grass has begun to grow at Morse Reservoir in Noblesville, Indiana, USA.. The reservoir is six feet below normal levels. More than half of U.S. counties now are classified by the federal government as natural disaster areas mostly because of the drought. (AP)
11Russian President Vladimir Putin, Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague (background L-R) watch the women’s -78kg final judo match between Kayla Harrison of the U.S. and Britain’s Gemma Gibbons at the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Reuters)
12Festival goers jump into muddy water during the opening of the ‘Woodstock festival Poland’ music festival in Kostrzyn nad Odra. (AFP)
1Boys dressed as holy cows participate in a parade to mark the Gaijatra Festival, also known as the festival of cows, in Kathmandu, Nepal. Hindus in Kathmandu celebrate the festival to ask for salvation and peace for their departed loved ones. Cows are regarded as holy animals in Nepal which help departed souls to reach heaven. (Reuters)
2An internally displaced Somali man carries his belongings as he leaves from his makeshift shelter waterlogged in flood waters at a temporary camp following heavy rainfall in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu. (Reuters)
3A network of cables and dish antennas is seen on the roofs in a slum colony in New Delhi. There are currently 515 over-the-air and satellite television stations in India with Hindi television channels having the highest market share with their availability throughout the country. (AFP)
4Palestinian women pass an Israeli checkpoint on their way to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, on the third Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan near Bethlehem, West Bank. (AP)
5A internally displaced Congolese child walks amidst school benches on the outskirts of Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. (AP)
6Latvia’s Maris Urtans competes in the men’s shot put qualifying rounds at the athletics event during the London 2012 Olympic Games. (AFP)
7Lita Velasquez feeds cats in the central park of Lima’s upscale seaside Miraflores district, in Peru. About 120 felines populate the park. (AP)
8Visitors run away from the waves whipped up by winds near Qiantang River in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China. Two typhoons made landfall in less than 10 hours, forcing over 300,000 people to evacuate. (Reuters)
9Television personality and real estate developer Donald Trump speaks with members of the media as he arrives for the premiere of former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson’s one man show ‘Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth’ in New York, August 2, 2012. (Reuters)
10Women walk through the central textile market to buy new clothes in downtown Jakarta, Indonesia. (Reuters)
11An artist scores a basket during a show held prior the women’s preliminary round group A basketball match of the London 2012 Olympic Games Angola vs. Croatia at the basketball arena in London. (AFP)
1Indian people carry their belongings on a horse cart to leave for safe land during a flash flood on the banks of the River Tawi in Jammu, India. (AP)
2Shepherd Ingo Schorneck leads a herd of sheep during the regional Shepherds Championships of Thuringia in Hohenfelden, central Germany. (AP)
3African Union troops and tanks move forward on the front line during clashes between Somali soldiers backed by African Union troops and Islamic insurgents near the town of Marca, 88 kilometers north of Mogadishu, Somalia. (AP)
4A boy takes a nap on luggage as passengers are stranded at Shenyang Railway Station in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China. Flooding triggered by Typhoon Damrey disrupted services of three railways in northeast province, Xinhua News Agency reported. (Reuters)
5A participant demonstrates his skills using a water jetpack during a recreational sporting competition at an entertainment center near the village of Pleshchenitsy, 70 km (44 miles) northeast of Minsk, Belarus. (Reuters)
6Villagers walk to the crater of Mount Bromo during the annual Kasada festival in Indonesia’s East Java province. Villagers and worshipers throw offerings such as livestock and crops into the volcanic crater to give thanks to the Hindu gods for ensuring their safety and prosperity. (Reuters)
7The Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy in infrared light from the Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency-led mission, and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Considered dwarf galaxies compared to the big spiral of the Milky Way, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are the two biggest satellite galaxies of our home galaxy. (ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI)
8A man runs for cover during clashes between Free Syrian Army fighters and Syrian Army soldiers in the Salah al-Din neighborhood of central Aleppo. (Reuters)
9Everton dos Santos Lopes (L) of Brazil defends against Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo (R) of Cuba during their round of 16 Light-Welterweight (64kg) match of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the ExCel Arena in London. Iglesias Sotolongo was awarded an 18-15 points decision. (AFP)
10Boats of participants of the Canal Parade pass through the canals as part of the annual gay pride parade in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The canal parade is the highlight of Gay Pride Amsterdam, which is held in the capital every year. (Reuters)
1People release paper lanterns on the Motoyasu River facing the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, commonly called the Atomic Bomb Dome, in Hiroshima, Japan in remembrance of victims on the 67th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. (Reuters/Kyodo)
2Competitors race in the women’s 1,500m heat at Olympic Stadium during the 2012 Olympic Games in London. (Reuters)
3Mars Science Laboratory ‘Curiosity’ team members celebrate at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California after the successful landing of the ‘Curiosity’ rover on Mars. (AP)
4Jasper Goldberg (L), 22, and Andreas Bastian (R), 22, watch a live broadcast of NASA’s Mission Control center from Times Square, New York City, as the planetary rover ‘Curiosity’ lands on Mars.
5A man sits on a rock as police investigate Sunday’s mass shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek. A gunman killed six people at the suburban Milwaukee temple in a rampage that left terrified congregants hiding in closets and others texting friends outside for help. (AP)
6Indian Sikh devotees offer prayers at the Golden Temple, Sikh’s holiest shrine in Amritsar, India. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that he was shocked and saddened by the shooting attack that killed six people at a Sikh house of worship in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. (AP)
7Fran Calvo and Monica Fraile were among two couples who took the opportunity to get into the pool to get married at Sea Life Aquarium in Benalmadena, Spain (AFP)
8A protester of the ‘Occupy Frankfurt’ movement, wearing a Guy Fawkes mask made popular by the graphic novel ‘V for Vendetta’, stands next to the Euro currency sign sculpture in front of the European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. (Reuters)
9A woman floats on inflatable rings in the water at the seaside town of Beidaihe, 100 kms east of Beijing. China’s leaders, including the man expected to be the next president, have begun their secretive summer meetings at the seaside resort. (AFP)
10Mexico’s Isabel Delgado Plancarte and Nuria Diosdado Garcia spit water during their performance in the synchronized swimming duets free routine qualification round at the Aquatics Centre during the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Reuters)
1People react as a rare snow fall hits Johannesburg, South Africa. The South African Weather Service has warned that extreme cold will blanket much of the nation over the next few days. (AP)
2Pakistanis buy food from a stall to break their fast, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Karachi. (AP)
3Egyptian women mourn during the military funeral in Cairo of 16 Egyptian soldiers who were killed on August 5, 2012, during an attack at a checkpoint along the Sinai border with Israel by Islamic militants with purported ties to Gaza. (AP)
4Rescuers pull a rubber boat as they evacuate residents from their flooded homes in Marikina, Metro Manila. Deadly torrential rains submerged much of the Philippine capital and surrounding areas, forcing nearly 270,000 people to flee their homes. (Reuters)
5Volcanic ash covers a tree as a farmer feeds her horses after the eruption of Mount Tongariro at Rangipo in the Tongariro National Park, New Zealand. (AFP)
6A Free Syrian Army fighter screams in pain after he was injured in a leg by shrapnel from a shell fired from a Syrian Army tank in the Salaheddine neighbourhood of central Aleppo. (Reuters)
7In this picture taken using multiple exposures, Danell Leyva of the U.S. competes in the men’s gymnastics horizontal bar final in the North Greenwich Arena during the London 2012 Olympic Games in London. (Reuters)
1Member of female punk band ‘Pussy Riot’, Nadezhda Tolokonnik
2An Israeli Armored Personnel Carrier drives along the border with Egypt (L) at the Kerem Shalom crossing into the southern Gaza Strip, a military zone where the borders of Israel, Egypt and Gaza intersect, and where an Egyptian military vehicle was seized by Islamist gunmen who tried to storm the border into Israel. (Reuters)
3Bohumil Lhota, a 73-year-old builder, turns the house he built in Velke Hamry, near the town of Jablonec nad Nisou, 100km (62 miles) north-east from Prague, Cezch Republic. Lhota conceptualized the idea to create the unique house and started to build it in 1981 to benefit from the cooler ground temperature. Lhota’s house, which was built in 2002, is able to move up and down and rotate on its sides, which allows him to adjust to his preferred window view. (Reuters)
4Henna Johansson of Sweden competes against Kaori Icho of Japan (in blue) during the 63-kg women’s wrestling freestyle competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. (AP)
5A villager carries local noodles for workers breaking stones to earn daily money near a grave site of Phnom Trungbat where skulls and bones were unearthed in Dau Dantrey village, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of Siem Reap in Cambodia. (AP)
6A man carries a flower arrangement on his back during the annual festival of flowers in Medellin, Colombia, August 7, 2012. The flower festival is one of the most important events of Medellin and has been celebrated every year since 1957. (AP)
7Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks to supporters during a campaign event at Central Campus High School in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. (Reuters)
8Laborers work to reconnect an electric circuit after pylons were turned over by Typhoon Haikui in Wenling, Zhejiang province, China. (Reuters)
9Taxi driver Richard Meid waits for a fare in front of the British Museum during the 2012 Summer Olympics, in London. (AP)
10A wall mural painted by Brazilian graffiti artist Os Gemeos is seen in Boston, USA. The work has created a stir after viewers posted comments on a local TV channel’s Facebook page, claiming it looked ‘like a terrorist’ and urging for it to be removed, according to news reports. (Reuters)
1A waterbomber drops water over a wildfire in Ouranoupoli, northern Greece. Around 25 fire units are battling the blaze which broke out on August 8 in the heart of Mount Athos. (AFP)
2United States’ Brigetta Barrett competes in a women’s high jump qualification round in the Olympic Stadium at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. (AP)
3Roma families push shopping carts with their belongings as they are evacuated from an illegal camp in Villeneuve d’Ascq. French police evicted some 150 people who resided in an illegal camp of traveling people and Roma in northern France. (Reuters)
4A Syrian Air Force fighter plane fires a rocket during an air strike in the village of Tel Rafat, some 37 km (23 miles) north of Aleppo. (Reuters)
5Runners taking part in NVA’s Speed of Light create a visual display with their light suits during a performance on Arthur’s Seat during the Edinburgh International Festival in Edinburgh, Britain, August 8, 2012. (Reuters)
6Indigenous girls perform a traditional dance during International Day of the World’s Indigenous People celebrations in Dhaka. The Bangladeshi government directed all district administrations to not cooperate in celebrations of the indigenous day, claiming to the effect that there were no indigenous people in the country. (Reuters)
7A boy walks near army trucks carrying tanks and vehicles, expecting opposition against militants, arriving at Rafah city, some 350 km (217 miles) northeast of Cairo. Egyptian police fought gunmen in northern Sinai’s main town of al-Arish a day after security forces began a crackdown on Islamist militants in the region. (Reuters)
8A performer is silhouetted in a sea of cloth during the 47th independence celebration in Singapore. (AP)
9A member of the street theater company ‘Osadia’ from Barcelona in Spain showcases ‘hair art’ which incorporates a British theme during the London 2012 Olympic Games. (AFP)
1Ice field in Patagonia, a territory shared by Argentina and Chile located at the southern end of South America, where some of the most dramatic landscapes on Earth (Photo: Ellen Jacob/USA)
2Friends enjoy the beach at Assateague Island. The 37-mile long barrier island is located off the eastern coast of Delmarva. The northern two-thirds of the island is in Maryland while the southern third is in Virginia. (Photo: Alison Klein/USA)
3Lichens growing on the rocky slopes of Big Sur, California (Photo: Elizabeth Pfotzer/USA)
4An 82-year old Padaung woman cooks in her kitchen in De Maw Soe Township, Loikaw, Kayah State in eastern Burma. Padaung is one of the ethnic groups in the country. (Photo: Simon Soe/Burma)
5Island boys hauling their sailboat ashore in the Caribbean island of Granada (Photo: Alison Klein/USA)
6Horses grazing in open pasture at the base of Mt. Shasta in Siskiyou County, California, USA. (Photo: Elizabeth Pfotzer/USA)
7A toddler enjoys playing in a pool of water in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo: Thar Ngae/South Korea)
8School of fish being fed by scuba divers nearby in the Exema islands in The Bahamas (Photo: Elizabeth Pfotzer/USA)
1Women walk by a wall painted with images of Lebanon’s old currency along a street of the Arab University in Beirut. (Reuters)
2The coffin of the late Ghanaian President Johns Evans Atta Mills passes mourners in Accra, Ghana. World leaders joined thousands of Ghanaians for the funeral of President John Atta Mills, who came to symbolize country’s maturing democracy in a region long plagued by coups and disputed votes. (AP)
3South Korean President Lee Myung-bak makes a surprise visit to islands called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, at the center of a long-running territorial dispute with Japan, ignoring warnings from Tokyo that it would worsen the neighbors’ already strained relations. (AP)
4Residents wait to be examined by doctors in Kassab camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), in Kutum, North Darfur, Sudan. (Reuters)
5Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra greets people as she visits new flood gates at Navanakorn industrial estate to the north of Bangkok. (Reuters)
6Devotees form a human pyramid to break a clay pot containing curd during the celebrations to mark the Hindu festival of Janmashtami in Mumbai, India. Janmashtami, which marks the birthday of Hindu god Krishna, is being celebrated across the country. (Reuters)
7People try to recover things that are being washed away by the flood in Boca Del Rio on the outskirts of Veracruz, Mexico. Tropical Storm Ernesto skirted the coast of the Gulf of Mexico on August 9, 2010, sending wind gusts and showers across the state of Veracruz. (Reuters)
8China’s Deng Senyue competes using the clubs in her individual all-around gymnastics qualification match at the Wembley Arena during the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Reuters)
9Tall ships are prepared for sailing out of the harbour of Rostock, eastern Germany during the 22nd Hanse Sail event at the Baltic Sea. (AP)
10A stuntman pretends to play the piano in the air as he and his cardboard instrument are lifted by a hot air balloon over Vilnius, Lithuania, during the Piano.lt summer festival. (AFP)
1A man uses a bicycle to transport a sofa in Tomana slum, Marikina city in the suburbs of Manila, following floods that submerged 80 percent of Manila early in the week. (AFP)
2U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (R) stands with Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) after introducing him as his vice-presidential running mate during a campaign event at the battleship USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, Virginia. (Reuters)
3Smoke billows from a burning truck which was set on fire by suspected drug traffickers to create a barricade on a road in Morelia, Michoacan state, Mexico. (AFP)
4A woman plays with a dog during a charity event in Minsk , Belarus. The Public Association for Animal Protection organized an event to match homeless dogs and cats to prospective new owners in the capital. (Reuters)
5A Free Syrian Army fighter fires an RPG after a Syrian Army tank shell hit a building across a street during heavy fighting in Salaheddine neighborhood of central Aleppo. (Reuters)
6A Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu devotee hangs from hooks on a wooden pole during the annual cart festival at Murugan Hindu Temple in Colombo. (Reuters)
7A meteor (top) streaks past stars in the night sky above Lake Geneva and Mont-Blanc, at Mont-Tendre near Montricher in Jura, north of Geneva, Switzerland, on late August 10, 2012. The Perseid meteor shower is sparked every August when the Earth passes through a stream of space debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle. The three lines on the bottom of the sky are aircrafts. (Reuters)
8You Ya-ting, left, and her partner Huang Mei-yu walk down the aisle in the prayer hall as they are married by a nun in the first Taiwan lesbian Buddhist ceremonial wedding in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Taiwan still does not legally recognize same-sex marriage. (AP)
9People walk on the bridge across the Golden Horn bay after its opening in Vladivostok, Russia. (Reuters)
10Bulgaria’s Silviya Miteva competes using the ball in the individual all-around rhythmic gymnastics final at Wembley Arena during the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Reuters)
11A festival goer wears black wings as she stands on the grounds of the M’era Luna music festival in Hildesheim, central Germany. (AFP)
1Firefighters of Alcoy and Elda try to extinguish a fire in Torre de Macanes near Alicante, Spain. One person was killed and three injured Sunday as firefighters battled wildfires across the country, the latest victims in a sweltering summer of forest blazes. (AFP)
2A girl holds a boy on her back to help him cross a flooded street in Valenzuela, on the outskirts of Manila, Philippines. Authorities warn an intensifying storm could bring more misery to the flood-battered capital and surrounding areas, where nearly half a million are in evacuation centers. (AFP)
3French Olympians high-jumper Melanie Skotnik, left, and Marlene Harnois who won a bronze medal in the Taekwondo women’s 57kg category, push luggage as they leave the athlete’s village to board a train after the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. (AP)
4Activists of the Youth Association Nepal, a youth wing of the Communist Party of Nepal Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) party, wear masks of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai during a protest rally in Kathmandu. The words on the masks read, ‘Corrupted prime minister.’ (Reuters)
5A man adjusts a bouquet after a commemoration ceremony of the 51st anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall at the Berlin Wall Memorial at Bernauer Strasse. Germany marks the anniversary of the day communist East Germany sealed itself off behind the Wall. (AP)
6Paramilitary soldiers take part in a full-dress rehearsal for India’s Independence Day celebrations in Agartala, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Tripura. India commemorates its Independence Day on August 15. (Reuters)
7A long exposure shows stars behind a tree during the annual Perseid meteor shower near the southern town of Mitzpe Ramon, Israel. (Reuters)
8Vehicles clog 9 de Julio Avenue during the 10th day of a subway strike, called by workers’ unions to demand increased wages and improvements in transportation service, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The city and national government have been wrangling over who will take charge of the subways, a highly subsidized system that is a drain on coffers. (Reuters)
9Visitors enjoy sunny weather at the 58-meter-high chairoplane on top of a former planned power plant cooling tower, now part of a family fun fair park, in Kalkar, Germany. (AP)
10An artisan works on an idol of Hindu elephant god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, at a workshop in the southern Indian city of Chennai. Idols of Ganesh are made two to three months before the day of ‘Ganesh Chaturthi,’ a popular religious festival in India. (Reuters)
1The Valle Gran Rey on the Spanish Canary island of La Gomera after it has been devastated by wildfires. The blaze on the Atlantic island of La Gomera, part of the Canaries, forced 5,000 people to be evacuated and ravaged more than 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of land, including part of a rare nature reserve. (AFP)
2A woman watches national flags displayed on trees to celebrate the anniversary of the August 15th liberation of Korea from Japan’s colonial rule, in front of Songpa-Gu Office in Seoul, South Korea. (AP)
3A barrier with a Free Assange posters are seen opposite the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, Britain. Ecuador is likely to announce a decision on whether to grant political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange before the end of the week. (Reuters)
4Men perform a traditional dance during a ceremony to mark Pakistan’s Independence Day in Quetta. (Reuters)
5French firefighters inspect damage inside a leisure center after overnight clashes in Amiens, France. About 100 youths burned cars, a leisure center and a nursery school, according to an official from the prefect’s office. (Reuters)
6A young Indian boy hangs out of a back window as he is taken back home after school, in a three wheeled motor rickshaw in Ahmedabad. (AP)
7One hundred Doraemon figures, each with a different pose, are seen during an exhibition in Hong Kong to celebrate 100 years before the birth of one of Japan’s most popular cultural icons. (Reuters)
8British Euro Millions winners Adrian (R) and Gillian Bayford spray champagne after winning £148,665,000 ($235 million) on the EuroMillions, in Hatfield Heath. (AFP)
9A worker inspects the decoration of a beer tent at the construction site for the Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. Millions of beer drinkers from around the world will come to the Bavarian capital for the 179th Oktoberfest beer festival, which will start on September 22 until October 7. (Reuters)
1Injured Syrian women and children evacuate a field hospital after a second air strike in the town of Azaz on the outskirts of Aleppo. (AP)
2Burma’s new Vice-President Nyan Htun being sworn-in during a regular session of parliament at Union Parliament in Naypyitaw. The 58-year-old Nyan Tun is seen as a political moderate. He has been country’s naval commander since 2008. (AP)
3Overcrowded passenger boats are seen on the Buriganga River in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Millions of residents in Dhaka have started the exodus home from the capital city ahead of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. (Reuters)
4A striking mine worker brandishes his weapons outside a South African mine in Rustenburg, 100 km (62 miles) northwest of Johannesburg. Thousands of striking miners armed with machetes and sticks faced off against South African police at Lonmin’s Marikana mine after it halted production following the deaths of 10 people in fighting between rival unions. (Reuters)
5Gardeners work on a giant carpet made of flowers to form a floral decoration at Brussels’ Grand Place, Belgium, August 14, 2012. The design requires about 700,000 flowers to create, according to event organizers. (Reuters)
6Michael Jais (R) sends his opponent Michael Scheu into the water as they take part in a so-called ‘Fischerstechen – fisherman joust’ competition at the lake Staffelsee in Seehausen, Germany. (Reuters)
7Residents look at a pit caused by a road cave-in, in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China. According to local authorities, two people died from injuries sustained in the fall into a 10-meter-deep pit. (Reuters)
8A Panamanian Golden frog inside an enclosure during the Golden Frog Day in the Nispero Zoo at the Valle de Anton, August 14, 2012. The Golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) is one of Panama’s national symbols. There are only ten frogs in the breeding program at the zoo and it is in danger of extinction in the country, according to biologist Edgardo Griffith. (Reuters)
1NBA basketball player Kobe Bryant (C) waves to his fans before attending a promotional event in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. (Reuters)
2Students from Pashupatinath Veda Vidya Ashram, a school on Hindu religious teaching, look out from the window of their class, in Katmandu, Nepal. (AP)
3Elvis Presley fans from around the world visit his grave at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Presley’s death. (AP)
4British police officers arrest a protester in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the front of the Ecuadorian Embassy in central London, London. Ecuador’s Foreign Minister announced that the government would grant asylum to Assange, who took refuge in its London embassy two months ago. (AP)
5A firefighting tanker plane drops fire retardant on homes threatened by the Taylor Creek Fire outside Cle Elum, Washington, USA, August 15, 2012. (Reuters)
6Thai vegetable market vendors pull back awnings and their produce off a railway track to allow a cross-country train to dissect through the middle of the town of Maeklong in Samut Songkhram province, 60 km (37 miles) west of Bangkok, Thailand. The bustling market has to scramble from the tracks eight times a day as trains pass. (Reuters)
7Students clash with a riot police vehicle during a demonstration against the government to demand changes in the public state education system in Santiago, Chile. (Reuters)
8In the grasp of the International Space Station’s robotic Canadarm2, the HTV-3 Exposed Pallet is moved for installation on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-3) currently docked to the space station. Earth’s horizon and the blackness of space provide the backdrop for the scene. (NASA)
9An Afghan tailor woman in a burqa sews a gown in Mazar-i-Sharif, north of Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP)
10A member of the Italian Carabinieri police falls off his horse during a parade prior to a training session of the Palio race in Siena’s main square, August 15, 2012. (Reuters)
1Pussy Riot punk group supporters place masks on a monument to WWII heroes to resemble its members at an underground station in Moscow, Russia. A judge has sentenced each of three members of the provocative punk band to two years in prison on hooliganism charges following a trial that has drawn international outrage as an emblem of Russia’s intolerance to dissent. (AP)
2An Iranian woman holds a Palestinian flag as she shows her palm painted in the colors of the Palestinian flag during the ‘Quds Day’ rally, an anti-Israeli demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians in Tehran. (AFP)
3Ghasiram Kisan feeds Buddu, a one-and-a-half year old sloth bear at the family’s home in Lakhapada, 350 km (218 miles) from Bhubaneswar, India. The wild bear, which was rescued by wildlife officials, wandered into the village as a cub following a herd of goats and had lived with the family ever since. (AP)
4Artists work on a giant city map of Berlin on a concrete square in Berlin, Germany. The 50 by 50 meters (164 by 164 feet) large map will be opened for the public on August 25, 2012, for the 775th anniversary celebration of the founding of Berlin. (AP)
5A month-old cotton-top tamarin, a species of monkey which originates from South America, is seen with its parents at their enclosure in the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem. Tamarins are on the list of the world’s 25 most endangered primates. (Reuters)
6People attempt to climb greased and slippery poles, to which prizes and flags are attached, to celebrate Indonesia’s Independence Day in Jakarta. (AFP)
7A combine cuts rice in a field near Tucker, Arkansas, USA, August 16, 2012. (AP)
8Tibetan Buddhists and tourists view a huge Thangka, a religious silk embroidery or painting displaying the Buddha portrait, during the Shoton Festival at Zhaibung Monastery in Lhasa, capital of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. (Reuters)
9Many galaxies are comparatively isolated, without close neighbors. One such example is the small galaxy known as DDO 190, snapped here in a new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. DDO 190 is classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy as it is relatively small and lacks clear structure. (ESA/Hubble & NASA)
10Jordy Smith of Durban, South Africa suffered a disappointing start to his Billabong Pro Tahiti campaign placing third during round one. Smith failed to emerge from the barrels he rode and was defeated by Kieren Perrow and Adrian Buchan (both of Australia). (AP)
1New Zealand All Blacks’ Ma’a Nonu (top) and captain Richie McCaw tackle Australia’s Wallabies’ Rob Horne during their Beldisloe Cup rugby union test match in Sydney, Australia. (Reuters)
2Farmers plant rice seedlings in a paddy field in Taoyuan County, northern Taiwan. According to event organizers, 1215 farmers broke the Guinness World Record by planting rice seedlings for 2.1 hectare in 16 minutes 20 seconds. (Reuters)
3People sit by the Fountain of the Trocadero, with the Eiffel Tower in the background, as temperatures soars to 37C (98.6F), in Paris, France. (AP)
4A mother cries when the riot police detain student protesters in a school during a demonstration against the government to demand changes in the public state education system in Santiago, Chile, August 17, 2012. (Reuters)
5Macedonian Army soldiers, members of the special force battalion Rangers, march during a parade in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Macedonian Army, in the capital Skopje. (AP)
6Pakistani Muslims travel on an overloaded train as they head to their hometowns ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr in Lahore. (AFP)
7Arizona Cardinals’ DeMarco Sampson (10) makes a catch as Oakland Raiders’ DeMarcus Van Dyke (23) and Brandon Underwood (28) collide during the second half in a preseason NFL football game, in Glendale, Arizona, August 17, 2012. The Cardinals defeated the Raiders 31-27. (AP)
8South Korean pop boy group Super Junior performs during the SMTown Live World Tour III, in Seoul, South Korea. (AP)
9Two referees watch sheep passing by during a professional sheperd contest in Schlesin, northern Germany. (AFP)
10Newly crowned Miss World Yu Wenxia of China waves after she won the Miss World 2012 beauty pageant at the Ordos Stadium Arena in inner Mongolia city of Ordos. (AP)
11Parachutists perform during an air show dedicated to the Day of the Russian Air Fleet at the Yemelyanovo airport outside Krasnoyarsk, Russia. (Reuters)
1U.N. observers embrace upon arrival in Damascus, Syria from Homs, as they prepare to depart the country. Intense fighting on Monday between rebels and Syrian regime forces killed several people, including two children and two women in Daraa, rights groups said. (AP)
2Indian Muslims offer Eid-al-Fitr prayers in the northern hill town of Shimla. Millions of Muslims across Asia began celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday on August 19, with a month of fasting giving way to feasting, family reunions and raucous festivities. (AFP)
3Women protest in front of a court in Ga-Rankuwa, north of Pretoria, South Africa. The women were demanding the release of husbands, brothers and sons among the 259 arrested miners expected to be charged with public violence at the Lonmin Platinum Mine. (AP)
4An African elephant enjoys a refreshing shower at the zoo during a heat wave in Erfurt, central Germany. In some parts of Germany, temperatures rose over 38 degrees Celsius. (AP)
5Lightning is seen above buildings during a storm in central Shanghai, China. (Reuters)
6U.S. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus unveils the stage for the upcoming Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. The political convention kicks off Monday, August 27. (Reuters)
7People from India’s northeastern states crowd the Gauhati railway station in Assam state after disembarking from a special train from Bangalore. India’s home secretary accuses websites in Pakistan of spreading false rumors that caused thousands of people, fearing retaliation for ethnic violence in their home state, to panic and flee from southern and western India. (AP)
8Volunteers harvest Chardonnay grapes at Ferency vineyard near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Bat Ayin, south of Bethlehem. Established in 1993, Ferency’s winery produces some 6,500 bottles of kosher wine a year using organically-grown grapes. (Reuters)
9Spanish cyclist Movistar Team Alejandro Valverde, left, crosses the line beside Spain La Vuelta cyclist Katusha’s Team Joaquin Rodriguez, from Spain, and winning the third stage of the Spanish Vuelta cycling race. (AP)
10A customer has her eyesight tested for an eyeglass prescription at a shop in Bangkok, Thailand. (AP)
1Lebanese security forces sit atop a tank as they take position in the northern city of Tripoli following clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian regime factions. (AFP)
2Oxen stand inside their shed at a flooded village in the Thar Pound township delta area, Irrawaddy Division, Burma. More than 700 villages and 200,000 acres (80,940 hectares) of rice fields were flooded, according to local media reports. (Reuters)
3Embers from a wildfire glow on the ground in Tabuyo del Monte, near Leon in Spain. Numerous wildfires broke out across Spain in the sweltering heat in recent weeks. (AFP)
4U.S. singer Greyson Chance is greeted by Chinese fans upon arrival at the MTV Award Gala held in Beijing, China. (AP)
5A boy walks past pigeons at an open ground in Mumbai, India. (AP)
6An estimated 3,000 people all dressed in white attend a flash mob feast at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. The venue was a secret until just before the dinner started at 7 p.m. when registered guests got emails telling them where to go. (AP)
7A protester is carried by riot police in front of the campaign headquarters of Romania’s suspended President Traian Basescu in Bucharest. Romania’s Constitutional Court struck down a referendum to impeach Basescu, thwarting a drive by the country’s leftist government to oust its chief political opponent just months before a parliamentary election. (Reuters)
8Ecuador’s Tungurahua volcano spews lava, ash and pyroclastic material into the air in Tungurahua. (Reuters)
9A line of Japan Ground Self-Defense Force tanks flare up a smoke screen during the annual live-firing exercise and demonstration at Higashi Fuji training range in Gotemba, southwest of Tokyo. (AP)
10Officials stand underneath a bridge where part of a CSX freight train derailed overnight in Ellicott City, Maryland, USA. Authorities said two people not employed by the railroad were killed in the incident. (AP)
11A girl sits on a floor painting which creates a three dimensional optical illusion at a shopping mall in Hong Kong, August 20, 2012. (Reuters)
1Two giraffes look at each other from the windows of the enclosure during the annual weigh-in at the London Zoo. (AFP)
2The body of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is escorted upon arrival in the capital Addis Ababa . Thousands of Ethiopians descended on the center of the capital to mourn Meles, their firm-handed ruler of more than two decades, whose body was flown home after his death in a Brussels hospital at 57. (Reuters)
3A man waves a Romanian flag during a protest against President Traian Basescu in Bucharest, Romania. (AP)
4Firefighters extinguish a fire at a squatter colony in Pasay city, metro Manila, Philippines. (Reuters)
5Federal policemen escort a group of prisoners toward a plane bound for an undisclosed location at the Morelia International Airport, August 21, 2012. (Reuters)
6American tourist Ella uses an iPad while riding a Wi-Fi-outfitted donkey led by her brother Aaron, in Kfar Kedem, a biblical reenactment park in the village of Hoshaya in the Galilee, northern Israel. Visitors riding donkeys through the Old Testament landscape can now also surf the web while being transported across the land of the Bible. (AP)
7Italy’s Luisa Pugnali, left, fights for the ball with South Korea’s Jang Selgi during their soccer match of the Women’s U20 World Cup at Komaba stadium in Saitama, Japan. (AP)
8Thai security personnel inspect the site where vehicles burnt by suspected Muslim militants at a Honda dealer’s showroom in southern Thailand’s Pattani province. (Reuters)
9Pope Benedict XVI meets a sister during his weekly audience at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, Italy. (Reuters)
1Tourists walk 272 steps to visit the Batu Caves, on outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The caves are one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, dedicated to Lord Murugan. (AP)
2This combination of two handout photos made available by the Centro de estudios Borjanos shows the 20th century Ecce Homo-style fresco of Christ. The original, deteriorated version (left) by Elías Garcia Martínez, a 19th-century painter and after (right) an elderly amateur artist Celia Gimenez, 80, took it upon herself to restore it in the church of the northern Spanish agricultural town of Borja. (AP)
3Strong waves batter breakwaters from approaching Typhoon Tembin in the coastal village of Ilan, Taiwan. More than 1,000 residents have been evacuated from mountainous areas of Taiwan as Typhoon Tembin approaches the island. (AP)
4Dried sunflowers in a field near the Bulgarian capital Sofia. After the harshest winter in decades, the Balkans in the southeast of Europe are now facing its hottest summer and the worst drought in what officials across the region say is nearly 40 years. (AP)
5Riot police clash with opposition protesters in an attempt to disperse the protest in Togo’s capital Lome, August 22, 2012. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to try to disperse protesters as tensions over upcoming legislative elections boiled over. (Reuters)
6Traditional dancers talk to each other before Maldives President Mohamed Waheed arrives to meet Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, Sri Lanka. (Reuters)
7A resident searches through debris in the Kapuk Muara district of Jakarta, following a fire caused by a power surge. The north Jakarta fire department chief said that 300 houses were burnt down, making some 1500 people homeless. (AFP)
8An artist works on the design of a religious icon on a piece of enamel-covered jewellery at a factory owned by jewellery maker Russkiye Samotsvety Corporation in St. Petersburg, Russia. The company, which was founded in 1912 and celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, produces jewellery in gold, platinum, and silver, jewellery ornaments, interior decoration items, enamel-filigree tableware and various items. (Reuters)
9A man embraces his dog as it receives saline from a drip in the Anclivepa-SP veterinarian hospital, financed by Sao Paulo’s municipal government, which opened two months ago, offering free health care for the pets of low-income residents, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Reuters)
10Mine workers attend a memorial service at the Lonmin Platinum Mine near Rustenburg, South Africa. Police shot and killed 34 striking miners and wounded 78 others last week. (AP)
11An Indian laborer works at a coal depot on the outskirts of Jammu, India. Opposition lawmakers have been demanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh resign after an audit found the government lost huge sums of money by selling coal fields without competitive bidding. (AP)
12Japanese toilet maker TOTO employee Akiko Matsuyama gets on a ‘Toilet Bike Neo’ displayed at its showroom in Fujisawa, near Tokyo. TOTO rolled out the eco-friendly three-wheel 250cc motorcycle with a specially customized toilet-shaped seat that runs on bio-fuel from the discharge of livestock or waste water. (AP)
1Self-confessed mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik appears on television screens inside a electronic superstore outside the Norwegian capital. An Oslo court sentenced him to 21 years in prison for his killing spree last year that left 77 people dead. (AFP)
2A hippo is lifted from a swimming pool at the Monate Conservation Lodge, near Modimolle, South Africa, after being trapped there for three days. (AP)
3A supporter of Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi (in red) clashes with anti-Morsi protesters during a demonstration in Tahrir Square in Cairo. (Reuters)
4Honor guards carry the flag-draped casket of the late Interior minister Jesse Robredo for a two-day state funeral at the Malacanang palace in Manila. Divers have recovered the body of the Philippines’ interior minister from the wreckage of a light aircraft that crashed into the sea near the central island of Masbate on August 21, 2012, three-days after the plane crashed. (Reuters)
5A man looks out at the beach as tropical storm Isaac approaches in Barahona, Dominican Republic. Isaac strengthened slightly as it spun toward the Dominican Republic and Haiti, but seemed unlikely to gain enough steam to strike the island of Hispaniola as a hurricane. (AP)
6A Nepalese man climbs the Boudhanath stupa in Katmandu, a world heritage site, to hang prayer flags. (AP)
7Sunni Muslim gunmen run to take up position in the neighborhood of Bab al-Tebbaneh in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, during sectarian clashes between Sunni Muslims and Alawites. (Reuters)
8A Yoruba woman worships the goddess of the Osun river and other spirits in Osogbo, Nigeria. Many of the worshipers observing the centuries-old ethnic Yoruba celebration in southwestern Nigeria are Christians and Muslims. (AP)
9Volunteers stage inflated balloons that will be dropped from the ceiling during the Republican National Convention as preparations continue at the Tampa Bay Times Forum in Tampa, Florida. (AFP)
10A man walks down a lane filled with water-damaged furniture from heavy rains brought by Typhoon Tembin in Pingtung county, Taiwan. (AP)
11Spain La Vuelta Cyclist Argos Shimano’s Team John Degenkolb, from Germany, second left to right, before he crosses the line and wins the seventh, 164.2-kilometer (102.02 miles) stage, between Huesca and Alcaniz, of the Spanish Vuelta cycling race that finishes in Alcaniz, northern Spain. (AP)
1A woman wades through flood waters as she works to save her possessions from her flooded home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Tropical Storm Isaac emerged over warm Caribbean waters slightly weaker but ready to regroup after dumping torrential rains on Haiti, where thousands of people remain homeless more than two years after a devastating earthquake. (Reuters)
2A boy with his body painted like a tiger waits backstage during festivities marking the annual harvest festival of Onam in the southern Indian city of Kochi. The 10-day-long festival is celebrated annually in India’s southern coastal state of Kerala to commemorate the return of King Mahabali to meet his beloved subjects. (Reuters)
3Dan Carter of New Zealand’s All Blacks tries to avoid being tackled by Will Genia (L) and Rob Horne (R) of Australia’s Wallabies in their Bledisloe Cup rugby union test match in Auckland, New Zealand. (Reuters)
4A Nepalese girl looks for snails, used for medicinal purpose, in a paddy field on the outskirts of Katmandu. (AP)
5A police officer, center background, tries to stop fighting between loyalist and Nationalist groups outside St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Trouble broke out after loyalist bands marched past the church while playing music that was banned by the parades commission. (AP)
6Vanessa Maier (C) pours water in a barrel as she competes to win the traditional ‘Markgroeninger Schaeferlauf’ shepherd’s run in Markgroeningen, southwestern Germany. Highlight of the traditional festival is the barefoot race of shepherd girls and boys over a 300 meters long stubble field. (AFP)
7Hussein Ali Omar, 60, one of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims that Syrian rebels have been holding for three months in Syria, hugs his mother upon arrival at his house in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. Syrian rebels freed Omar in a move aimed at easing cross-border tensions after a wave of abductions of Syrian citizens in Lebanon. (AP)
8Stilt walkers take part in the 2012 Colombo Music Festival in Colombo, Sri Lanka. (Reuters)
9Johnny Sears (L) of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers celebrates his interception against the BC Lions with Brandon Stewart (C) and Jonathan Hefney during the first half of their CFL game in Winnipeg, Canada, August 24, 2012. (Reuters)
10Firefighters extinguish a wildfire at Kryoneri, northeast of Athens, Greece. The fire broke out before dawn near Afidnes, clouding the skies over the capital’s northern suburbs with smoke and ash. (AFP)
1A family walks on a street as flames rise after an explosion at the Amuay refinery near Punto Fijo, Venezuela. Residents who live next to the country’s biggest oil refinery said they smelled a strong odor of sulfur hours before a gas leak ignited in an explosion Saturday that killed at least 39 people and injured more than 80. (AP)
2A person walks by a sign warning about Hurricane Isaac, in Key West, Florida. Isaac gained fresh muscle Sunday as it bore down on the Florida Keys, with forecasters warning it could grow into a dangerous Category 2 hurricane as it nears the northern Gulf Coast. (AP)
3Protesters wave national flags from the window of a police bus after they were detained at a demonstration in New Delhi, India. Police detained scores of anti-corruption activists who tried to march to the homes of top political leaders to protest a scandal over the government’s sale of coal fields without competitive bidding. (AP)
4Ethiopian Orthodox faithful participate in Sunday mass at Bole Medhane Alem Church, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (AP)
5A participant operates a homemade flying machine during the Red Bull Flugtag (Flight Day) event in Brasilia, Brazil. (Reuters)
6A boat is stuck on the drying riverbed of the drought-stricken Danube River in Belgrade, Serbia. Serbia appears to be one of the worst hit by its most severe drought in nearly 60 years, resulting with direct economic losses of some two billion euros. (Reuters)
7Brazil’s Glaucia, left, fights for the ball with South Korea’s Shin Dam-yeong during their soccer match of the U20 Women’s World Cup in Tokyo, Japan. South Korea won 2-0. (AP)
8Oil floats on water in the foreground as half-sunk Cyprus flag carrier Thmothrmopolyseara lies in the Indian Ocean, off the southern coast of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Authorities mobilized coast guards and volunteers to clean beaches following an oil spill after the ship sank off-shore due to bad weather. (AP)
9A performer is painted green during the children’s day parade at Notting Hill Carnival in west London, Great Britain. (Reuters)
10A passerby is reflected on a decorated mirror displayed for sale in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP)
1A woman is seen through a hole in her home’s wall, caused by clashes between Sunni Muslims and Alawites in Tripoli, northern Lebanon. Lebanese army checkpoints are seen in the background. (Reuters)
2Dark clouds gather above Shanghai as Typhoon Bolaven passes near the Chinese coast. (Reuters)
3A silver cup won at the first modern Olympic Games, in Athens in 1896 by marathon runner Spyros Louis, is on display at the Acropolis Museum. The cup, recently sold by the Greek athlete’s descendants, was bought by a private Greek foundation at an auction in London. (AP)
4Protesting Muslim youths stand next to burning tires in Mombasa, Kenya after Aboud Rogo, a Muslim cleric facing terror-related charges, was shot dead. Human rights groups say the killing falls into a pattern of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances of suspected terrorists, allegedly being orchestrated by Kenyan police. (AP)
5Jugglers preform during the 7th Afghanistan Juggling Championships in Kabul. The competition, organized by the Mobile Mini Circus for Children brought together the best jugglers from different Afghan provinces. (AFP)
6Anti-Basescu protesters shout slogans as the parliament recognized a court decision that suspended President Traian Basescu should return to office in Bucharest. The Constitutional Court ruled a referendum to oust Basescu was invalid because turnout was less than half the electorate, even though 88 percent of those who voted wanted the president removed from office. (Reuters)
7Rickshaw drivers wait for tourists in central Beijing, China. (Reuters)
8Children look at fish at Sumida Aquarium in Tokyo, Japan. (AP)
9A performer dances at the Notting Hill Carnival in west London. (Reuters)
10Workers prepare the Palace of Cinema for the 69th edition of the Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido, Italy. (AP)
11A Palestinian youth jumps into the Mediterranean Sea on the beach at the port of Gaza City, Gaza. (AP)
1Partially reflected in a glass shelf, journalists cover a news conference of members of Syrian opposition groups presenting the program ‘The Day After: Supporting a Democratic Transition in Syria’, in Berlin, Germany. (AP)
2A chapter of the layered geological history of Mars is laid bare in this postcard from NASA’s Curiosity rover. The image shows the base of Mount Sharp, the rover’s eventual science destination. This image is a portion of a larger image taken by Curiosity’s 100-millimeter Mast Camera on Aug. 23, 2012. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
3An Albanian boy uses a branch in an effort to put out a blaze raging near the city of Memaliaj. Albania has battled multiple forest fires since June after several heat waves and months of drought. (AFP)
4Many residents leave the New Orleans area in anticipation of tropical storm Isaac, which is expected to make landfall on the Louisiana coast as a hurricane in Kenner, Louisiana. (AP)
5A clown performs during a media preview of ‘Slava’s Snowshow’ at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. The show was created by renowned Russian clown Slava Polunin in 1993. (AP)
6A Chinese fisherman is rescued by South Korean coast guard officers, unseen, from a Chinese ship in Jeju, South Korea. A powerful typhoon pounded South Korea with strong winds and heavy rain. (AP)
7A Gulf Air jet arrives over the top of houses to land at Heathrow Airport in west London. Britain’s transport minister said she would probably resign if the government gave in to pressure to expand London’s Heathrow airport. (Reuters)
8Afghan locals gather at the site of a bomb blast in Kandahar province. The chief of police in Kandahar province survived the insurgent truck-bomb attack that killed four civilians, a spokeswoman for NATO-led forces and Afghan officials. (Reuters)
9Republican vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan, center, R-Wis., works on the speech he will deliver at the Republican National Convention, with senior adviser Dan Senor, left, and senior aid Conor Sweeney during the campaign charter flight from Wisconsin to Tampa, Florida. (AP)
1Malaysian students wave their national flags during rehearsal for Malaysia Day celebrations at Independence Square in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia will celebrate its 55th National Day on August 31. (AP)
2Homes are flooded as Hurricane Isaac hits in Braithwaite, Louisiana. (AP)
3A soldier looks on as supporters of the ruling MPLA party attend its last rally for the parliamentary elections in Camama, outside the capital Luanda. Angolans will go to the polls on Friday to elect lawmakers and their president. (Reuters)
4Racing pigeons are being released from their racing boxes as they start their flight from Alnwick to their home lofts across Yorkshire and Humberside in northern England. (Reuters)
5Revelers play with tomato pulp during the annual ‘tomatina’ tomato fight fiesta in the village of Bunol, near Valencia, Spain. (AP)
6Palestinians put a huge key on a truck, know as ‘the key of return,’ which was exhibited at the seventh Berlin Biennale, in the West Bank refugee camp of Aida near Bethlehem. The key symbolizes what the Palestinians call their ‘right of return’ to properties lost during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. (AP)
7Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is carried in a ‘pa’ata’ by students from St. Joseph’s Primary School during the opening ceremony of the Pacific Islands Forum in Avarua on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. (AFP)
8A fireman looks at his colleagues as the finish to extinguish a fire which destroyed 10.000 square meters of a building at the slaughterhouse in Corbas, near Lyon, France. (AFP)
9Kyrgyz riders play the traditional Central Asian sport Buzkashi also known as Kok-boru or Oglak Tartis (‘goat grabbing’) in Bishkek. Mounted players compete for points by throwing a stuffed sheepskin into a well. (AFP)
10A convict consoles his son while being taken to prison after a court verdict in a 2002 religious violence case, in Ahmadabad, India. The court in western India found 32 people guilty of charges ranging from murder to rioting for their part in the deadly religious violence. (AP)
11A dancer is suspended mid-air by a crane during her performance of ‘La Argentina’ in Singapore which is hosting international acts during it’s Night Festival. ‘La Argentina’ is a performance which aims to bring viewers back to Buenos Aires in 2010 during the celebration of the Bicentenary of Argentinean Independence.(AP)
1A woman pastes a picture of disappeared activists on a photo collage, creating a portrait of Philippine President Benigno Aquino during a protest in Manila, commemorating the International Day of the Disappeared. (AFP)
2An elderly man, wearing a military uniform with decorations, sits near a fountain during a sunny day in central Moscow, Russia. (AFP)
3A replica of the Christ of Corcovado Statue, installed in front Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, France, is part of the preparation of World Youth Day, which will take place in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. (AFP)
4The lobby of the Hotel Metropol in Moscow, Russia, which has seen over the past century the extremes of Russian life. The hotel was sold Thursday for $275 million after an auction organized by the Moscow city government as part of its privatization program. (AP)
5People walk on the Deauville beach front, in Normandy, France, where the 38th Festival of American Cinema opens Friday for 10 days. (AP)
6A floral installation crafted by Paper Engineer Benja Harney, hangs from the central dome of Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building in Australia. (AFP)
7A Bionics Institute handout graphic, released by Bionic Vision Australia (BVA), shows an early bionic eye prototype. Australian scientists said they had successfully implanted the first bionic eye prototype. (AFP/Bionics Institute)
8Natalia Partyka of Poland serves during her Women’s Singles C10 table tennis classification match against Umran Ertis of Turkey at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. (Reuters)
9A Black Crowned Crane (Balearica pavonina) watches the photographer in his enclosure in the zoo in Dresden, eastern Germany. (AP)
1An Egyptian boy carries a child in Wadi El-Rayan, southwest of Fayoum, 60 miles (100 kilometers), south of Cairo. Wadi El-Rayan is a protected area famous for its waterfalls and is home to many historically significant sites including, Roman and Pharaonic ruins and a valley with fossilized whale bones. (AP)
2An Ethiopian wearing traditional Oromo costume pays respect to the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi at the Prime Minister’s Palace in Addis Ababa. Meles’s body is lying in the city’s Meskal square until his official funeral which will be on September 2, 2012. (AFP)
3Mud flows down a hill as rescuers look for survivors after a landslide hit a hydropower station in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, China. (Reuters)
4Arab delegates attend the Nonaligned Movement summit in Tehran, Iran. (AP)
5Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney (R) is joined by his wife Ann (2nd R) and vice presidential running mate Paul Ryan (L) is joined by his wife Janna after Romney’s acceptance speech during the final session of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, August 30, 2012. (Reuters)
6A firefighter tries to control a raging forest fire in Ojen, southern Spain. Officials say around 4,000 people have been evacuated from their houses as a wildfire spread rapidly through hills around the city of Marbella. (AP)
7A boy rides his bicycle on the sand as a blue moon shines on the outskirts of the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar. A blue moon occurs when there’s a second full moon in one calendar month. (AP)
8Warehousemen dismantle a case containing a bust of ‘Louis XII’ in one of the rooms of the Louvre-Lens museum in the northeastern French city of Lens, three months before its official opening. (AFP)
9A Thai police expert holds a Malaysian flag and reaches to a suspected package, which is a bomb decoy, found in the southern Yala province. Thai police said suspected insurgents placed bomb-like devices and Malaysian flags in 60 spots across the region dominated by ethnic Malay Muslims. (Reuters)
10Eric Yttri (R) plays a flaming tuba during the Burning Man 2012 ‘Fertility 2.0' arts and music festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, USA, August 30, 2012. More than 60,000 people from all over the world have gathered at the sold out festival, which is celebrating its 26th year, to spend a week in the remote desert, cut off from much of the outside world to experience art, music and the unique community that develops. (Reuters)
11A man places a floral tribute for Britain’s Princess Diana on the gate of Kensington Palace in London, on the 15th anniversary of her death. (AP)
12A man checks hand-made umbrellas left drying at a family umbrella workshop in Pathein, Irrawaddy Delta, Burma. (AP)
13Syrians, who fled their homes due to fighting between the Syrian army and the rebels, take refuge at the Bab Al-Salameh border crossing, in hopes of entering one of the refugee camps in Turkey, near the Syrian town of Azaz. (AP)
143D glasses in front of a 3D TV screen at the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin, Germany. (AP)
15A tree shows the erosion on the beach at Muri on the Island of Rarotonga, the largest island in the Cook Islands. (AFP)
