Iranian women pray to mark the first day of Eid al-Fitr on Aug. 19 in a neighborhood in west Tehran. Muslims around the world celebrated the holiday, which marks the end of the month of Ramadan, the Muslim calendar's ninth and holiest month during which followers are required to abstain from food, drink, and sex from dawn to dusk.

South African miners gesture as they listen to former youth leader Julius Malema on Aug. 18 at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine. The mine was the site of a massacre on Aug.16 when police opened fire on hundreds of workers staging a strike, killing 34. The protest violence was the deadliest the country has seen since the end of apartheid.

Firefighters work at the site of a wildfire in Tabuyo del Monte, Spain, on August 21. Numerous wildfires have broken out across the country as temperatures hit record highs in recent weeks, an extra headache for authorities struggling to get the country's deep economic recession under control.

An Ethiopian woman walks past posters of late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Aug. 22, in Addis Ababa. Thousands of wailing Ethiopians turned out to greet the body of the country's leader for the last two decades after his death in a Brussels hospital.

A child cools off in a fountain in downtown Rome on Aug.18, the seventh day of a heat wave hitting most of Europe.

A man dressed in a costume takes part in a gay pride parade in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, on Aug. 18. The event -- part of the city's second gay pride festival -- attracted thousands of marchers.

An activist holds the Japanese flag before a dozen members of the right-wing group Gambare Nippon (Hang in There Japan) swam ashore to place the country's flag on a disputed island in the South China Sea, part of a group known as the Senkakus in Japanese and the Diaoyus in Chinese, on Aug. 19. The island is at the heart of a corrosive territorial row with China, and the activists' move is likely to further inflame tensions with Beijing.

The security guard of the headquarters of the group which edits the Ivorian newspaper Le Temps observes damage after the group's headquarters were attacked by unidentified assailants facilities on Aug. 19 in Abidjan. The paper was known to be close to former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo. The attackers set fire to one room and stole computer equipment following an Aug. 18 attack on Ggagbo's headquarters.

A rebel sits in a van during a patrol in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Aug. 19. Syrian army helicopters loyal to embattled President Bashar al-Assad dropped leaflets over the city urging residents not to shelter rebels and warning the Free Syrian Army it had one last chance to surrender.

Indian bakers arrange trays of Parotha and Naan breads on the eve of Eid in Ahmedabad, India, on Aug. 19.

Pilgrims gather around a statue of the Virgin del Rocio during a traditional pilgrimage, in Huelva, Spain, on Aug. 20. Once every seven years, the statue travels by night from El Rocio to Almonte.

Reporters gather for the Aug. 20 unveiling of the stage inside of the Tampa Bay Times Forum in preparation for next week's Republican National Convention. Thousands will descend on the west Florida city for the four day convention, which takes place Aug. 27-30.

A soldier of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, of the U.S. Army cleans waste left behind by mortars at Forward Operating Base Joyce in the Kunar province, Afghanistan, on Aug. 20.

Israeli Arab children play inside in a swimming pool at an amusement park as Muslims celebrated Eid al-Fitr on Aug.20 in Acre, Israel.

Lebanese security forces sit atop a tank as they take position in the northern city of Tripoli following clashes between pro- and anti-Syrian regime supporters on Aug. 21. Clashes erupted days after a wave of kidnappings took place targeting Syrians in Lebanon, in a new sign that violence in neighboring Syria is exacerbating tensions beyond its borders.

A peasant from Bajo Aguan participates in a demonstration outside the Supreme Court in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Aug. 21. Farmers from the area were arrested after erecting barricades to protest a ban on the peasantsbeing armed, sparking more protests. 

South Koreans wearing gas masks run out of a building during a civil defense drill in Seoul on Aug. 22. The drill comes amid high cross-border tensions as North Korea's government in Pyongyang denounced an annual joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea.

Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, the mayor of the village of Marinaledav and a member of the Andalucian regional parliament, leads activists in their protest march towards Cordoba, Spain on Aug. 22. Andalucia, which had a major construction industry before the bubble burst, has an unemployment rate of nearly 34 percent, higher than Spain's overall average of nearly 25 percent.

A woman holds her baby as Palestinians enjoy a day at the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel on Aug. 20. According to Israel's coordinator for government activities in the territories, Israel has allowed the entry of more than 1 million Palestinians from the occupied West Bank since the beginning of Ramadan due to improved security.

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