The Best Pictures of the Week, July 1 - July 8

July 2, 2011. In tornado-ravaged Joplin, Mo., residents light July 4 fireworks amid the ruins of their community. The May twister there—the deadliest U.S. tornado since 1947—killed 157 people.

July 7, 2011. Palestinian militants from Al-Ansar brigades, the armed wing of Al-Ahrar movement, demonstrate their skills during a drill in front of the media in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip July 7, 2011.

July 7, 2011. Steam and other emissions rise from a coal-fired power station near Lithgow, 120 km (75 miles) west of Sydney. Australia is set to slap a carbon tax of A$23 a metric ton ($24.60) on its major emitters, newspapers said on Thursday, but it has halved the number of companies liable for the tax in a bid to overcome hostility to the policy.

July 5, 2011. A young Somali girl who fled violence and drought in Somalia stands in line among adults outside a food distribution point in Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya. Dadaab, a complex of three settlements, is the world's largest refugee camp. Built to house 90,000 people and home to more than four times that number, it was already well over its maximum capacity before an influx of 30,000 refugees in the month of June.

July 5, 2011. Seven-year-old Fartun Hassan hangs a cloth she had just washed on a tree at a Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) hospital at the Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya.

July 3, 2011. A resident runs on a flooded stairway as floodwater pours into an underground garage amid heavy rainfalls in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Heavy downpours hit Chengdu on Sunday, flooding roads and breaking down city traffic.

July 5, 2011. Dolphins perform at Cuba’s National Aquarium in Havana. When the aquarium was opened in 1960, it consisted of 13 small-volume fishbowls. It now has a tank in which up to eight trained dolphins can put on a show.

July 4, 2011. Two boys look at the body of a humpback whale at Toluca beach, 50 km south from San Salvador.

July 7, 2011. A wild cow chases runners at the bullring following the first running of the bulls of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona. Four people suffered minor injuries in the run that lasted two and a half minutes, according to local news sources.

July 8, 2011. A fighting bull loses its balance during the third day of the San Fermin running-of-the-bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

July 6, 2011. Revelers celebrate the Chupinazo—the official start of the San Fermín fiestas in Pamplona, Spain.. The festival, which was glorified in Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, is known around the world for the daily running of the bulls.

July 1, 2011. Drama in the air as two parachutists get in a tangle during an 'Aviation training' element at the Airpower 2011 airshow in Zeltweg, Austria. Both soldiers were injured in the incident and flown to nearby hospitals.

July 7, 2011. A U.S. Army soldier (rear) plays the trumpet as U.S. Army soldiers from 2-35 infantry battalion take part during a memorial ceremony in forward firebase Joyce in Kunar province July 7, 2011. Four U.S. Army soldiers, Lieutenant Dimitri Del Castillo, Staff Sergeant Nigel Kelly, Specialist Levi Nuncio and Specialist Kevin Hilaman, two Afghan national army soldiers, an Afghan linguist and dog died during operations in Kunar district in the last week of June 2011.

July 6, 2011. A supporter holds a portrait of Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko during a session outside a court building in Kiev July 6, 2011.

July 6, 2011. Children on the provincial children's gymnastics trampoline team exercise in a gym in Fuzhou in southeast China's Fujian province. Over 30 children under age 12 in the team, selected from around the province, go through hard training in the sports center, aiming to be Olympic medalists in the future.

July 3, 2011. A man watches a traditional dance during the Corpus Christi procession in the streets of Guatemala City.

July 7, 2011. Boys shoot flaming arrows during celebrations for Ivan Kupala, the feast of St John the Baptist, a traditional Slavic orthodox holiday celebrating the summer solstice, 270 kilometers south from Minsk in Turov.

July 1, 2011. Los Alamos Canyon is filled with smoke from the Las Conchas fire in Los Alamos, N.M. As firefighters held their ground Friday on the flank of the massive wildfire that burned near the nation's premier nuclear weapons laboratory, officials at the lab and in the surrounding town began planning for the return of thousands of residents and employees who fled the area earlier this week.

July 6, 2011. A woman splashes water with a container as she performs the Shuigu dance during a cultural festival in Jianhe county, Guizhou province. The dance, which is also known as the water drum dance, has a history of over 500 years in local Miao villages.

July 2, 2011. Wild horses are seen gathered during the "Rapa Das Bestas" event in the village of Sabucedo, Spain. On the first weekend of the month of July, hundreds of wild horses are rounded up, trimmed and groomed in different villages in Spain's northwestern region of Galicia.

July 1, 2011. Anti-government protestors gesture during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa, Yemen. Military officials say dozens of Yemeni officers suspected of turning against embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh have been arrested under orders from his son.

July 7, 2011. Yemeni protestors throw a fellow protester into the air during an anti-government demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa, Yemen.

July 2, 2011. Prison guards stand around inmate Juan Ramirez Tijerina as he hides in a suitcase during an escape attempt from a prison in Chetumal in this July 2, 2011 handout photo. Ramirez Tijerina tried to escape from prison by hiding inside the suitcase after a conjugal visit on Saturday, according to the authorities.

July 7, 2011. Indonesian artists make a sculpture of a child from clay in preparation for Yogyakarta art festival in Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia.

July 1, 2011. Kashmiri Muslim women pray as the head priest, unseen, displays a holy relic believed to be a hair from the beard of Prophet Mohammed, at the Hazratbal Shrine, on the outskirts of Srinagar, India. Devotees thronged the Hazratbal shrine on the second day of the Muslim festival of Mehraj-u-Alam, believed to mark the ascension of Prophet Mohammed to Heaven.

July 3, 2011. A young Indian Hindu devotee looks at the camera while being dressed as Lord Krishna as she waits to participate in the "Rath Yatra", along with Sri Krishna devotees from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), in Kolkata. According to mythology, the Rath Yatra dates back some 5,000 years when Hindu God Krishna along with his older brother Balaram and sister Subhadra were pulled on a chariot from Kurukshetra to Vrindavana by Krishna's devotees.

July 6, 2011. Shadows of Indian policemen are cast on ground as they salute during a wreath laying ceremony for their colleague Shabir Ahmed in Srinagar, India. Shabir, an Indian police officer, succumbed to injuries Wednesday at a hospital after he was wounded when suspected rebels shot at him outside his residence last week, police said.

July 5, 2011. Soldiers take part in a military parade a few days ahead of the July 9 independence of South Sudan. The festivities are likely to be short. The separation of Sudan into two states has ignited rounds of fighting on both sides of the new border.

July 4, 2011. Southern Sudanese boys take shelter from afternoon rains that disrupted rehearsals for independence day celebrations in the capital city of Juba. Southern Sudan is set to declare independence from the north on July 9.

July 4, 2011. Southern Sudanese boys take shelter from afternoon rains that disrupted rehearsal for independence day celebrations in the capital city of Juba. The mural behind the boys depicts a map of the united Sudan.

July 6, 2011. A rebel with a bicycle celebrates the liberation of al-Qawalish, 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Tripoli, Libya, after six hours of battle. In the background smoke rises from a the power station that was shelled by retreating soldiers loyal to Moammar Gadhafi.

July 3, 2011. Children swim in Purity Lake in Madison, N.H., near the town of Freedom.

July 6, 2011. The Panama City skyline is reflected in a swimming pool at the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower.

July 3, 2011. An Afghan man prays at sunset on a helipad following a rainstorm at Forward Operating Base Bostick in Kunar province, Afghanistan.

July 6, 2011. Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi poses for a photograph during her visit to Mt. Popa in Kyauk Padaung Township, near Mandalay. Suu Kyi attracted a large crowd as she continued her visit to an ancient temple city in central Myanmar, proving her enduring popularity after years of house arrest.