The pack rides past sunflowers in the 192 km and eleventh stage of the 2009 Tour de France cycling race run between Vatan and Saint-Fargeau. -- PHOTO: AFP
Relatives of victims of 'White Terror' hold lilies as they walk past a pond full of lilies in Taipei during a memorial to mark the 22nd anniversary of the end of martial law. During the 'White Terror' period, a military crackdown took place against dissidents protesting against the administration of Chen Yi, a governor appointed by Chiang-Kai-shek to help rebuild Taiwan after World War II. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
An ethnic Uighur man sits at his outdoor carpet stall near the Dong Kuruk Bridge mosque in the city of Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
A vendor smokes on a pile of scallion while waiting for customers at a wholesale market in Beijing. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Tom Kenny - the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants - poses for photos as SpongeBob SquarePants, the first animated character to receive a figure made entirely of wax is unveiled at Madame Tussauds in New York. -- PHOTO: AFP
Pakistani religious students attend a class at a seminary in Karachi. Pakistan has virtually shelved a US-aided, multi-million-dollar plan to reform seminaries considered nurseries of jihad, faced with uncooperative Islamists, as the military cracks down on the Taleban. -- PHOTO: AFP
Filipino schoolchildren ride a tricycle through a flooded street following heavy downpours in suburban Malabon city north of Manila. -- PHOTO: AFP
Workers check on 3,604 cups of coffee which are made into a giant Mona Lisa in Sydney, Australia. The cups of coffee were each filled with different amounts of milk to create the different shades needed for the design. -- PHOTO: AP
A supporter of presidential candidate General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz adjusts a poster hanging outside a campaign tent in a village near Boutilimit, Mauritania. Mauritania, a coastal country in north-west Africa, will go to the polls on Saturday. -- PHOTO: AP
A third quarter 'Buck Moon', a term used to describe the moon in July, rises behind a spire on the top of the First Baptist Church bell tower in Pennsylvania. -- PHOTO: AP
A worker installs scaffoldings at a construction site in Shenyang, Liaoning. China's economy gathered momentum in the second quarter thanks to massive fiscal and monetary stimulus, leaving the government's full-year growth target of 8 per cent within reach. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
The space shuttle Endeavour lifts off from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Endeavour carries a crew of seven astronauts on a mission to the International Space Station. The successful launch was the sixth attempt, as earlier efforts were hampered by poor weather conditions -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Japan's Empress Michiko touches the wreath she and Emperor Akihito presented at Punchbowl Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. The emperor and empress are on the second day of a three-day state visit to Hawaii. They stopped here on their way home to Japan from Canada. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
An Asian elephant named 'Minyak' gets a bath from its handler. Minyak is part of the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which is performing in Houston, Texas. -- PHOTO: AP
National Guard soldiers clash with protesters in Curiepe, Venezuela. National Guard troops seized control of a police station controlled by an opposition governor on Wednesday, sparking clashes between troops and protesters. -- PHOTO: AP
Vets at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Washington, USA, cleans the teeth of Jaya, a 93kg female Sumatran tiger, during her annual check-up. A team of zoo personnel performed a battery of tests while the animal was anesthetized including blood work, X-rays and an ultrasound of the reproductive tract to see if the animal can still conceive. -- PHOTO: AP
