Pictures of the month: August

A meteor streaks past stars in the night sky over Stonehenge in Salisbury Plain, southern England August 12, 2010. The Perseid meteor shower is sparked every August when the Earth passes through a stream of space debris left by comet Swift-Tuttle. Picture taken using a long exposure. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty

Cowboys pray during the opening ceremony of a rodeo festival in Diamantino in midwesten Brazil August 26, 2010. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

Residents being evacuated through flood waters dodge an army truck carrying relief supplies for flood victims in Pakistan's Muzaffargarh district in Punjab province August 11, 2010. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

People attend a religious service, asking God for rains to prevent new wildfires, in the village of Kriusha, which is shrouded in heavy smog, some 250 km (155 miles) southeast of Moscow in Ryazan region, August 7, 2010. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov

A relative of Israeli Lieutenant-Colonel in the Reserves Dov Harari, who was killed in a skirmish between the Israeli and Lebanese armies, salutes beside his grave during his funeral in Netanya August 4, 2010. The U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon said Israeli soldiers were operating inside Israel when a deadly firefight broke out with Lebanese troops in the most serious border violence since a 2006 war. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama walk through a gate in the Columbia Parc Development to visit newly built homes in New Orleans, Louisiana, August 29, 2010. REUTERS/Jim Young

Officials dump a Chinese-made T-69 armoured tank into the Gulf of Thailand, near the southern Narathiwat province August 9, 2010. The 25 decommissioned Thai-army tanks will form artificial corals to improve the marine ecosystems and increase fish stock in the area. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

Japanese bridal couple Arisa Chi (2L) and her new husband Kenji Yoshida standing behind a cow after their wedding ceremony on the foggy Mount First (2168m/7113ft) in the Swiss Alpine resort of Grindelwald August 6, 2010. In Grindelwald, the small town below the gray crag of the Eiger North Face, shop signs bear Kanji characters, the train station's main platform is bustling with Japanese tourists, and a chalet is even called Nagano, the same name as the mountainous region of Japan that hosted the Winter Olympics in 1998. Japanese are among the most numerous overseas tourists in Switzerland, and their presence has given rise to businesses catering to their tastes -- including weddings. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

Cyrille Oumedjkane (R) of France is framed by a statue of singer Domenico Modugno, famous for the Italian classic "Volare" , as he dives from a 26.5-metre (86.94-feet) platform during round four of the 2010 Red Bull Cliff Diving world series in Polignano a Mare, Italy August 8, 2010. REUTERS/Dean Treml/Red Bull/Handout

A boy swims in the polluted waters of the river Sabarmati to dive for offerings thrown in by worshippers in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad August 20, 2010. In recent years, the religious festivals and customs in India have come under increasing scrutiny as public awareness of environmental issues grows. REUTERS/Amit Dave

A U.S. Army medevac crew member attempts to revive a Marine mortally wounded in an IED (improvised explosion device) blast near the town of Marjah in Helmand province in this picture taken August 22, 2010. REUTERS/Bob Strong

A computer screen shows one of the miners trapped underground in a copper and gold mine, inside the mine at Copiapo, some 725 km (450 miles) north of Santiago August 26, 2010. Thirty-three miners trapped for 21 days in a Chilean mine may get videos of Maradona and other soccer greats to beat boredom as they face several months deep underground until they are dug out. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

Fishermen drink and watch a newly married couple kiss on a bank of the Yenisei River in Divnogorsk, a town 38 km (24 miles) to the south of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, August 13, 2010. Local couples traditionally visit the river bank in Divnogorsk on their wedding day. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin

Dadang, a resident of Cempaka Putih district, drinks water after being buried in the ground in Jakarta August 3, 2010. Dadang buried himself in the ground for over three hours to protest against a local government plan to evict him from his home. Around 90 people will be evicted from their homes because their houses were built illegally, local officials said. REUTERS/Beawiharta

People swim in one of three converted dumpster pools on Park Avenue in New York, August 7, 2010. New York's Park Avenue is converting unused rubbish dumpsters into swimming pools as part of the city's Summer Streets initiative. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Canadian soldiers play table football under flashlights at a military outpost near the village of Bazaar e Panjwaii, in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar province, Afghanistan, August 8, 2010. REUTERS/Bob Strong

A Rwandan elections official waits for voters at a polling station during presidential elections in the capital Kigali, August 9, 2010. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

Fourteen-year-old Elisany Silva, who measures 2.06 meters (6'9") tall, plays with her sisters and a friend on Ajuruteua beach in Braganca in the Brazilian Amazon state of Para August 29, 2010. Elisany, one of the world's tallest teens who was forced to quit school because she became too big to ride the bus, now dreams of becoming a famous fashion model. REUTERS/Paulo Santos

Spanish banderiller Pedro Muriel is gored by a bull during a bullfight at the Malagueta bullring in Malaga August 22, 2010. Banderillers are bullfighter's assistants whose role is to weaken the bull's massive neck and shoulder muscles using harpoon pointed sticks known as banderillas (little flags). Muriel was gored in the right thigh but his wound is not serious, said his manager Ignacio Gonzalez to the magazine Mundotoro. REUTERS/Jon Nazca

Nuns who are members of a rescue team travel on a truck on their way home after work, on the outskirts of Leh, east of Srinagar August 10, 2010. REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta

Indian policemen sit beside anti-India graffiti during a curfew in Srinagar August 9, 2010. In the world's largest democracy, it is curfew time. Many of Indian Kashmir's streets lie deserted aside from stray dogs. Police, who have killed dozens of protesters defying India's efforts to quell a separatist uprising, stand at street corners in the region's summer capital of Srinagar. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause

A diver jumps into a swimming pool during a military exercise inside a navy base in Zuoying, Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan August 25, 2010. REUTERS/Nicky Loh

Youths practice traditional Swiss Alpine wrestling in a ring covered with sawdust at a traditional 'Schwingkeller' gym in Sumiswald in the Swiss Emmental valley August 10, 2010. Swiss Alpine wrestling, called 'Schwingen', is the oldest sport in Switzerland. The Swiss Federal Alpine Wrestling Festival (Eidgenoessisches Schwing- und Aelplerfest) takes place in Frauenfeld from August 20 to 22. REUTERS/Michael Buholzer

Patrons eat at a taco stand, as the body of a man lies on the pavement, in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, August 10, 2010. According to local media, the man died after suffering a fatal heart attack. REUTERS/Francisco Gonzalez Bolon/Expreso

A man escorts his wife out of their flooded village in Sukkur, located in Pakistan's Sindh province August 6, 2010. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

A worker sleeps on a hand cart at a wholesale poultry market in Mumbai August 16, 2010. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

A Pygmy Marmoset (Callithrix pygmaea) is seen at a primate rescue and rehabilitation center near Santiago August 3, 2010. The Pygmy Marmoset, known as the world's smallest monkey and under danger of extinction, was confiscated after being found inside the clothes of a Peruvian citizen during a highway police check at the northern city of Antofagasta, some 1367 km (849 miles) of Santiago. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

An elderly supporter of the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski holds up a crucifix during a protest in front of the Presidential palace in Warsaw August 3, 2010. REUTERS/Bartosz Bobkowski/AGENCJA GAZETA

A man wearing a large pair of sunglasses watches the third cricket test match between England and Pakistan as he sits on a windowsill of a block of flats at the Oval in London August 18, 2010. REUTERS/Philip Brown

A mother bathes her child, who is showing symptoms of dengue fever, in cold water to reduce her temperature in the pediatric emergency room of a public hospital in Santo Domingo August 13, 2010. Thirty-two people have died from dengue fever out of the 7,313 suspected cases reported this year in the Dominican Republic, according to local media. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

A spectator rests near the sixth hole during the third round of the 92nd PGA Golf Championship at Whistling Straits, in Kohler, Wisconsin, August 14, 2010. REUTERS/Jeff Haynes

Actor Terry Crews (C) poses shirtless for photographers on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, August 19, 2010. Crews and castmates Sylvester Stallone (L), Dolph Lundgren (obscured) and Jason Statham (not in picture) from the film "The Expendables" rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Young boys play on a sports oval which has been converted into a camp for displaced flood victims in Charsadda in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province August 22, 2010. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne

Nai, whose husband is a tattoo artist, poses for a portrait with Reuters during the 2010 Taiwan International Tattoo Convention in Taipei July 31, 2010. The convention aims to gather people from all over the world to promote the industry and garner positive thinking towards tattoos. REUTERS/Nicky Loh

Riot police spray water on a high school student during a protest in Valparaiso city, about 121 km (75 miles) northwest of Santiago August 18, 2010. Students protested against changes to the public state education and are demanding that government increase their budget to fund universities, according to local media. REUTERS/Eliseo Fernandez

Members of the New York Police Department join in prayer at the Islamic Cultural Center of New York in the Manhattan borough of New York August 26, 2010. The Islamic Cultural Center was the first mosque built in New York City and was completed in 1991. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Rescuers hold onto a rope as they move a flood survivor to a safer place in the flooded town of Yingxiu in Wenchuan, Sichuan province August 14, 2010. At least 38 people are missing after rain-triggered floods and landslides ravaged Wenchuan County in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Xinhua News Agency reported. REUTERS/Stringer

A Russian former paratrooper looks at a policeman as he celebrates the forces' annual holiday in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, August 2, 2010. The holiday for the Russian airborne troops has been celebrated since the Soviet era till today. REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin

War amputee Jean Claude Benda, 31, stands outside his home with a prosthetic leg at Kiwanja in eastern Congo, August 25, 2010. Benda was shot in the leg on November 4, 2008 during a massacre by rebels that killed some 150 fighting-age males near a United Nations base in Kiwanja. No longer able to work as a farmer, Benda now relies on his pregnant wife to provide for him and his five children. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly

People attending a joint burial ceremony of ethnic Albanians who went missing during the 1998-1999 Kosovo war are seen in a reflection as they mark the International Day of the Disappeared in Kosovo Polje near Pristina August 30, 2010. REUTERS/Stringer

Laborers hold their colleague to install underground electric cables on a roadside at Noida in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh August 27, 2010. REUTERS/Parivartan Sharma

Members of an international religious movement called the White Brotherhood perform ritual dance known as Paneurhythmy near Babreka lake, in Rila Mountain, 120 km (75 miles) south of Sofia, August 20, 2010. The teaching of the movement, whose founder is Bulgarian Peter Danov, is a synthesis of Christianity and Hinduism with a heavy emphasis on brotherly love, a healthy diet and living in harmony with nature. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov

British singer George Michael is escorted out of Highbury Corner Magistrates Court in London, August 24, 2010. Michael pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of drugs and possessing cannabis, local media reported. He was was given a six-month interim driving ban and will face further sentencing at a later date. REUTERS/Andrew Winning

A German shepherd dog leaps into the air to bite a water balloon thrown her way while playing on a hot summer day in Encinitas, California August 16, 2010. REUTERS/Mike Blake

An Afghani policeman smiles during a joint patrol with U.S. policemen from the 504-th Military Police Battalion, 170-th Company in the suburbs of Kandahar city, Kandahar province, August 18, 2010. REUTERS/Oleg Popov

Mohammad Omer stands with his belongings on a road while fleeing from rising flood waters in his village Karam Pur, 70 km (43 miles) from Sukkur in Pakistan's Sindh province, August 11, 2010. Pakistani Taliban militants have urged the government to reject Western aid for victims of devastating floods, saying it would only be siphoned off by corrupt officials. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

A woman sits under her umbrella in People's Square in Shanghai during a heavy rain storm on August 3, 2010. REUTERS/Aly Song

A museum assistant poses for photographers by a front cloth designed by Pablo Picasso at the V&A galleries, in London August 5, 2010. The front cloth, which appeared in the Ballet Russes performance of Le Train Bleu in 1924, is the largest known canvas designed by Picasso in the world. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett

Women and a child watch the funeral of Mohammad Iqbal, a Kashmiri youth, from the window of a house in Srinagar August 4, 2010. Kashmiri separatist leaders have appealed for calm in the biggest anti-India protests in two years that have killed dozens of people and raised fears that anger at New Delhi was spinning out of control. At least four people died on Tuesday in fresh clashes with police, raising the death toll of seven weeks of protests to 43. Iqbal died in a hospital after he was shot at by Indian police on July 30, a relative of Iqbal said. REUTERS/Fayaz Kabli

A police officer aims his weapon as the body of former police officer Rolando Mendoza slumps from the door of a bus in Manila August 23, 2010. Philippine police shot and killed a sacked former policeman who was holding 15 Hong Kong tourists aboard a bus in downturn Manila and TV images showed some hostages leaving the vehicle alive. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

Hip-hop star Wyclef Jean greets the crowd before officially registering as a presidential candidate at an office in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince August 5, 2010. REUTERS/St-Felix Evens

Brazil's Ioran Etchechury (C) falls into the water during the men's 2000m round one steeplechase qualification race at the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Singapore August 18, 2010. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash

Bodyguards react after the sound of an explosion behind the entourage of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (C) as he is welcomed to Hamadan, 336 kilometres (209 miles) southwest of Tehran, August 4, 2010. REUTERS/Stringer

Security guards carry out a soccer fan who came onto the field during an exhibition match between Barcelona and South Korea's K-League All-Star soccer team at Seoul World Cup Stadium August 4, 2010. REUTERS/Truth Leem

Hospital personnel attempt to revive a mortally wounded Marine after he was brought in by medevac helicopter at Camp Dwyer near the town of Marjah in Helmand Province August 22, 2010.REUTERS/Bob Strong

A couple is seen in the waters off Belj Beach in Tipaza, 80 km (50 miles) west of Algiers August 3, 2010. REUTERS/Louafi Larbi

Flamingos chicks are seen before being ringed at the Fuente de Piedra natural reserve, near Malaga, in southern Spain August 7, 2010. Around 600 flamingos are ringed and measured before being placed in the lagoon, one of the largest colonies of flamingos in Europe, according to authorities of the natural reserve. REUTERS/Jon Nazca

The crescent moon is seen near mosques in old Cairo on the fifth day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan August 15, 2010. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

A resident carrying a birdcage attempts to leave his landslide-hit house in the northeastern Turkish town of Gundogdu in Rize province August 27, 2010. Eight people were killed and six others were missing after a series of landslides triggered by torrential rains late on Thursday, wiped out several homes in Gundogdu, located in Rize province in Turkey's eastern Black Sea region, said the state-run Anatolia News Agency. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

A dog plays on a street under a heavy tropical shower in Havana August 25, 2010. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan

A girl watches waves in the ocean on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California, August 11, 2010. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Spectators wait for play to begin during a fog delay, as they look at the 10th hole in the first round of the 92nd PGA Golf Championship at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin, August 12, 2010. Play was delayed several hours because of dense fog. REUTERS/Matt Sullivan