From the earthquake in Iran and the killing of miners on strike by police in South Africa to the end of Ramadan and a meteor shower over Macedonia, TIME presents the best images of the week.
Aug. 12, 2012. Iranian women mourn after a deadly earthquake in northwest Iran. Ahmad Halabisaz–Xinhua/ZUMAPRESS.comAug. 11, 2012. A neighbor works in El cubillo de Uceda during a forest fire near Guadalajara, Mexico.Pedro Armestre–AFP/Getty ImagesAug. 13, 2012. A light shines behind President Barack Obama as he speaks during a campaign event at Bayliss Park in Council Bluffs, Iowa.Carolyn Kaster–AP PhotoAug. 12, 2012. The Olympic flame burns during the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium. Pascal Lauener–ReutersAug. 11, 2012. North Koreans barbecue under a tree at Majon Beach near Hamhung, North Korea.David Guttenfelder–APAug. 10, 2012. Painted children take part in the festivities held in honor of Santo Domingo de Guzman, Managua's patron saint.Hector Retamal–AFP/Getty ImagesAug. 12, 2012. A Palestinian man leads a horse into the water to have a bath on the beach as Palestinians enjoy a summer day at the sea shore in the west of Gaza City.Ali Ali–EPAAug. 12, 2012. An aerobatic team from the Finnish Air Force performs during an air show in the town of Zhukovsky near Moscow.Maxim Shipenkov–EPAAug. 13, 2012. A member of Russian female punk group Pussy Riot who is still at large adjusts her mask after an interview with a Reuters journalists in Moscow.William Webster–ReutersAug. 11, 2012. Local men fish with trained cormorants perched on their boats in an ancient village in Yongjia County, Zhejiang Province, China.ReutersAug. 10, 2012. A rebel from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) stands in the stairwell of a building being used as an access route in the Salaheddin district of the northern restive city of Aleppo.Phil Moore–AFP/Getty ImagesAug. 10, 2012. U.S. Marine Corps Officer Candidates School graduates bow their heads during the invocation during their commissioning ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va.Chip Somodevilla–Getty ImagesAug. 10, 2012. A young Indian girl is reflected in a mirror as she gets ready to perform during Janmashtami festival celebrations in Mathura, India. Janmashtami is the festival that marks the birth of Hindu God Krishna. Rajesh Kumar Singh—APAug. 10, 2012. Two woman help another walk on her knees across a sawdust covered floor toward the altar of Las Sierritas church at an event in honor of the city's patron saint, Santo Domingo de Guzman, in Managua, Nicaragua.Esteban Felix–APAug. 10, 2012. A Kashmiri Muslim woman prays during special prayers to observe the Martyr Day of Hazrat Ali, cousin of Prophet Mohammed, on the 21st day of Ramadan in Srinagar, India.Dar Yasin–APAug. 10, 2012. Palestinian women walk past a section of Israel's controversial barrier at Qalandiya checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Ramallah.Mohamad Torokman–ReutersAug. 10, 2012. Supporters of Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev perform yoga during an anti-corruption protest in New Delhi.Altaf Qadri–APAug. 10, 2012. Kashmiri Muslims look on from a window as an unseen custodian displays a holy relic in Srinagar, India.Tauseef Mustafa–AFP/Getty ImagesAug. 11, 2012. Iranian residents try to rescue a child from the rubble in Sourmah village, near the town of Varzaqan, after two earthquakes hit northwestern Azarbaijan province in Iran.Farshis Tighehsaz–Pars Pix/ABACAPRESS.COMAug. 11, 2012. Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan during a campaign event in Ashland, Va.Eric Thayer–Redux/The New York TimesAug. 11, 2012. Participants acting as soldiers of the French army fire muskets in Austerlitz during the traditional Napoleonic days marking the 243rd anniversary of the birth of Napoleon Bonaparte.Radek Mica–AFP/Getty ImagesAug. 11, 2012. South Korea's Hwang Woojin loses control of his horse Shearwater Oscar during the Show Jumping event of the Modern Pentathlon during the 2012 London Olympics.John Macdougall–AFP/Getty Images
Aug. 11, 2012. A competitor performs on the catwalk at the first German Voguing Festival in Berlin.Gero Breloer–APAug. 11, 2012. Residents carry a pig over mud as they return it to a pen as floods recede in the outskirts of Quezon City, north of Manila, Philippines.Aaron Favila–APAug. 11, 2012. Hung by steel hooks to redeem a vow, this Sri Lankan Hindu places holy ash on the foreheads of other devotees during the annual Vel or Chariot Festival of the Arumuham Sivasubramaniam Swami Hindu temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka.Pushpa Kumara–EPA/M.A.Aug. 11, 2012. Kashmiri Muslim women watch volunteers and rescue workers search for missing people in the water of Dal Lake in Srinagar, India, after the collapse of a wooden bridge injured dozens. Dar Yasin–APAug.11, 2012. The German steam boat "Bussard," built in 1905, parades on the Baltic Sea during the "Hanse Sail" sailing festival in Rostock, northeastern Germany. Bernd Wuestneck–AFP/Getty ImagesAug. 11, 2012. Britain's Mo Farah reacts as he wins the men's 5000m final ahead of Ethiopia's Dejen Gebremeskel at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium.Dylan Martinez–ReutersAug. 12, 2012. A fan of Great Britain watches the Mountain Biking men's race at the 2012 Summer Olympics.Matt Rourke–APAug. 11, 2012. Palestinian refugee children play in front of their house before Iftar, or breaking of the fast, during the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan in Al-Shabora refugee camp in Rafah City, Gaza.
Ali Ali–EPAAug. 12, 2012. A supporter of Indian yoga guru, Baba Ramdev, dries her clothes at the venue of an anti-corruption protest in New Delhi.Rajesh Kumar Singh–APAug. 12, 2012. An Israeli in a Batman costume holds a placard during a protest against war with Iran, outside the home of Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv.Nir Elias–ReutersAug. 13, 2012. A meteor streaks past stars in the night sky over the village of Kuklici, Macedonia. Ognen Teofilovski–ReutersAug. 14, 2012. Villas are seen on the top of an eight-story shopping mall in Zhuzhou, China.ChinaFotoPress/ZUMAPRESS.comAug. 13, 2012. The injured captain of a Somalia-bound Ugandan attack helicopter lies next to the crash site in Kenya.Peter Greste–ReutersAug. 13, 2012. A boy balances on wooden poles as he performs tricks to earn his living on a street in Kathmandu.Navesh Chitrakar–ReutersAug. 13, 2012. A Free Syrian Army sniper looks through the sight on his rifle inside a house in Aleppo, Syria.Goran Tomasevic–ReutersAug. 13, 2012. A little girl takes a nap at Deborgaon relief camp in the riot affected Kokrajhar district of Assam state, India.EPA/STRAug. 13, 2012. Girls fit their ballet skirts during their ballet class at the 'Ballet Santa Teresa' academy in Rio de Janeiro. 'Ballet Santa Teresa', a non-governmental organization (NGO) gives children who live in areas with social risk, some suffering domestic violence, free ballet classes and other activities as a part of socio-cultural integration project. Pilar Olivares—ReutersAug. 13, 2012. A female fin whale opens its mouth as it lies stranded and alive on the beach at Carlyon Bay on in St Austell, England. Matt Cardy–Getty ImagesAug. 13, 2012. President Barack Obama gets a hug from Joy Dannelly as he visits the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.Jim Watson–AFP Aug. 13, 2012. A Kashmiri villager rows his boat through the waters of Wular Lake, which is covered with water chestnuts, at Bandipora, about 65 km (40 miles) north of Srinagar, India. Danish Ismail–ReutersAug. 14, 2012. A dead crow hangs from two sticks in a vegetable field at the Magadino plane, southern Switzerland. Vegetable farmers have hung up ten dead crows to scare off other hungry birds. Karl Mathis–EPAAug. 14, 2012. Palestinian men use a ladder to cross over the separation wall, in the Palestinian town of A-Ram, North of Jerusalem, in the West Bank.Atef Safadi–EPAAug. 14, 2012. A man holds balloons for sale near the National Stadium in Kabul.Omar Sobhani–ReutersAug. 14, 2012. A kid wearing a monkey mask plays in front of school children taking part in a summer camp training for the Chinese traditional Peking Opera in Beijing.Andy Wong–APAug. 14, 2012. An exiled Tibetan places candles on a sculpture known as Tibetan Martyrs' Wall, during a candlelit vigil in Dharmsala, India.Ashwini Bhatia–APAug. 14, 2012. Gambling machines are destroyed in Renjiagou village in Shunqing District, Nanchong City, southwest China's Sichuan Province. Li Xiangyu–XinhuaAug. 15, 2012. Injured Syrian women arrive at a field hospital after an air strike hit their homes in the town of Azaz on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria.Khalil Hamra–APAug. 15, 2012. Police wait with their trumpets to perform during a gathering to celebrate the 65th anniversary of India's independence from British rule, in Bangalore, India.Aijaz Rahi–APAug. 15, 2012. Elvis Presley chairs hold spots for people waiting outside Graceland. Fans are lined up to take part in the annual candlelight vigil marking the 35th anniversary of Presley's death. Mark Humphrey–APAug. 15, 2012. A horse, a boxer dog and a podenco dog are silhouetted in Marinaleda, southern Spain.Jon Nazca–ReutersAug. 16, 2012. Police surround the bodies of striking miners after opening fire on a crowd at the Lonmin Platinum Mine near Rustenburg, South Africa.APAug. 16, 2012. A Pakistani man and his daughter sleep on a bed on a street median on the outskirts of Islamabad. Many Pakistanis sleep outdoors to escape the heat during the summer months. Muhammed Muheisen—APAugust 17, 2012. Indian Muslims offer prayer on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan at Jama Maszid, in New Delhi, India. Rajesh Kumar Singh—APAugust 17, 2012. A person wears an orange mask as a demonstration by supporters of the jailed feminist punk band 'Pussy Riot' takes place outside the Russian Embassy on in London, England. The three women who staged an anti-Kremlin protest in a church in February, were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, and could face a three-year jail sentence. Dan Kitwood—Getty Image