Amazing PHOTOS of the month: AUGUST

We bring you a presentation of some of the best photos from around the world in the month gone by

Policemen gesture to a driver stranded in a car on a flooded road as waves are whipped up by typhoon Bolaven in Qingdao, Shandong province.

Gales and downpours brought by typhoon Bolaven swept through parts of northeast China from Tuesday evening to Wednesday, flooding cities and delaying flights, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Photograph: China Daily/Reuters

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A supporter made up as a zombie attends a rally for 'Zombie for President'. Zombie as he announces his candidacy for President of the United States and kicks off his cross country bus tour in San Diego, California August 20, 2012.

The 'Zombie for President' campaign is organized by AMC Networks after satellite provider Dish Network dropped AMC channels earlier this year.

Zombie's mission is to 'find an alternative television provider' ahead of the October 14 third season premiere of AMC's highest-rated show 'The Walking Dead'.

 Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

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A Free Syrian Army fighter fires his sniper rifle from a house in Aleppo.

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Photograph: Goran Tomasevic

A long exposure picture shows commuters walking on a platform after leaving a train of the Swiss Federal Railways at the main station in Lucerne.

Photograph: Michael Buholzer

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A man jumps from a roof of a building into the Limmat river during hot sunny summer weather in Zurich.

Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann

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An activist carries a sign during a protest march in a downpour at the Republican National Convention in Tampa Florida.

Say goodbye to the four-day national political convention, a dinosaur that could be nearing extinction. Republicans have cut their Tampa, Florida, convention from the traditional four days to three because of a threatening storm, just as they did four years ago when a hurricane hit Louisiana.

Democrats had already reduced next week's convention to three days.

Photograph: Adrees Latif

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The body of Malta's former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff lies in state at the Presidential Palace in Valletta. Mintoff, Malta's former socialist prime minister and dominant political force for more than half a century, died at the age of 96 at his residence on August 20.

Known for his confrontational style and fiery speeches, Mintoff oversaw the closure of Britain's military base on the island in 1979 -- ending the 200-year-old military link. His state funeral will take place on Saturday.

Photograph: Darrin Zammit Lupi

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A reveller lies in tomato pulp after the annual 'Tomatina' (tomato fight) in the Mediterranean village of Bunol, near Valencia August 29, 2012.

The origin of the tomato fight is disputed -- everyone in Bunol seems to have a favourite story - but most agree it started around 1940, in the early years of General Francisco Franco's dictatorship.

Photograph: Heino Kalis

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A policeman chases a supporter of the female punk band 'Pussy Riot' jailed members while climbing on a fence enclosing the Turkish embassy near a court building in Moscow.

Three women from Russian punk band Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years in jail on Friday for their protest against President Vladimir Putin in a church, an outcome supporters described as the Kremlin leader's 'personal revenge'.

Photograph: Mikhail Voskresensky/Reuters

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A Free Syrian Army fighter takes cover during clashes in Aleppo.

Photograph: Goran Tomasevic

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A horse, a boxer dog and a podenco dog (Andalusian hound) (left to right) are silhouetted in Marinaleda, southern Spain.

Photograph: Jon Nazca

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Performers shelter from the rain at the start of Notting Hill Carnival in west London August.

Photograph: Olivia Harris/Reuters

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A latecomer climbs into the prayer hall of a crowded mosque for Eid al-Fitr mass prayers at Kashmiri Takiya Jame mosque in Kathmandu.

Nepali Muslims celebrate the festival of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Photograph: Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters

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Lightning strikes over a house during a thunderstorm in the northern Swiss town of Muellheim.

Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

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A farmer rides a bull during a traditional bull race in the southern Bavarian village of Muensing near Lake Starnberg.

Photograph: Michael Dalder/Reuters

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Tate Gallery frame conservation technician Adrian Moore inspects 'The Lady of Shalott' at the Museum and Art Gallery in Birmingham, central England August.

'The Lady of Shalott' painted by John William Waterhouse in 1888 will be part of the Love and Death exhibition which opens to the public on September 8.

Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters

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Pope Benedict XVI meets a sister during his weekly audience from his summer residence of Castelgandolfo, south of Rome.

Photograph: Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters

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Swiss farmer Kari Gisler carries a bundle of hay as he practices wild haying on a steep hillside on the mountain Rophaien in the Swiss village of Flueelen, 75 km south of Zurich.

The tradition of wild haying in Central Switzerland dates back around two hundred years and is practiced from mid-July until mid-September on high altitudes with steep hillsides.

Photograph: Michael Buholzer/Reuters

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Devotees grab a goat from a pond during the Deopokhari festival in Khokana. During the annual festival, a live goat is thrown into a pond and the team of devotees that retrieve the animal first wins.

Photograph: Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters

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Fafa, a lioness that is nearly 18-year-old, receives a CT scan at the veterinary clinic in Brasilia August.

Fafa has been living in Brasilia Zoo since its birth and had undergone surgery this year to remove both its ovaries and uterus. Fafa was sedated and brought to the veterinary clinic after experiencing seizures and bleeding.

According to veterinarian John Nardott Ricardo, the lioness had to undergo a 3-hour-long session of CT scans to its chest, skull and abdomen in order to diagnose the source of its health problems. Nardott believes there is a possibility that Fafa has liver damage, which may have arisen from a cancerous tumour Fafa had in 2010.

Photograph: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

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Members of 'Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi', a group consisting of official and police guards, try to ride a military police vehicle after a funeral for soldiers who were killed during an attack at a checkpoint along the Sinai border with Israel by unknown gunmen, at the tomb of the late President Anwar al-Sadat and the Unknown Soldier monument in Cairo.

Egypt began work to seal off smuggling tunnels into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, a security source said, two days after gunmen shot dead 16 Egyptian border guards in an attack blamed partly on Palestinian jihadi terrorists.

Photograph: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

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A long exposure shows stars behind a tree during the annual Perseid meteor shower near the southern town of Mitzpe Ramon.

Photograph: Amir Cohen/Reuters

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Residents ride on makeshift rafts during a heavy downpour along a flooded street in Malabon, Metro Manila August.

The National Disaster Risk and Reduction Council said the death toll from Gener stood at 12 and one person was reported missing.

Photograph: Erik De Castro/Reuters

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United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is silhouetted by a stage light as she speaks at the University of the Western Cape about the US-South Africa partnership, in Cape Town August.

South Africa's next generation of leaders should honour the legacy of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela by promoting democratic values around the world, Clinton said.

Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/Reuters

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Devotees try to form a human pyramid to break a clay pot containing curd during the celebrations to mark Janmashtami in Mumbai.

Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

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A fisherman walks with his catch on the banks of the Yangtze River, near the Three Gorges dam in Yichang, Hubei province.

The environmental problems associated with the Three Gorges dam illustrate China's energy dilemma: To move away from its reliance on coal-fired power plants, Beijing says it has to develop cleaner forms of power.

Hydropower is the most cost-effective way China can meet its energy needs, but its problems are still unfolding. China built the dam to tame flooding on the Yangtze, improve shipping and produce pollutant-free power.

The dam has a total capacity of 22.5 GW, equivalent to burning 50 million tonnes of coal, according to the Three Gorges' Project State Assessment Report. The dam cost China more than $50 billion and displaced 1.4 million people while another 100,000 people may be moved from Hubei and the southwestern municipality of Chongqing in the next three to five years due to geological risks an official said in April.

The number of geological disasters has risen 70 percent since the reservoir reached its maximum height of 175 metres, he said.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

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A boy with his body painted like a tiger waits backstage before performing during festivities marking the annual harvest festival of Onam in Kochi.

Photograph: Sivaram V/Reuters

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A Palestinian youth slips through an opening in Jerusalem's Old City wall after prayer on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Photograph: Baz Ratner/Reuters

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Racing pigeons are released from their racing boxes as they start their flight from Alnwick to their home lofts across Yorkshire and Humberside in northern England.

Photograph: Nigel Roddis/Reuters

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