July 12, 2015

Participants swim with a portrait of late Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong in the Hanjiang River, a large branch of the Yangtze River in Xiangyang, Hubei province, to celebrate the upcoming 49th anniversary of Mao swimming in the Yangtze River, local media reported.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai (C) blows out candles on her birthday cake at a school for Syrian refugee girls, built by the NGO Kayany Foundation, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. The youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize celebrated her 18th birthday in Lebanon by opening the school and called on world leaders to invest in "books not bullets".

Kite surfers take advantage of strong westerly winds and choppy waves on Sydney's Botany Bay, Australia.

Pope Francis is greeted by an elderly woman during his visit to the Banado Norte neighborhood in Asuncion, Paraguay.

The Villarrica Volcano is seen at night from Pucon town, Chile. Villarrica, located near the popular tourist resort of Pucon, is among the most active volcanoes in South America.

Mourners pray over the coffin of Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, 83, for a funeral procession at the Hussein Tantawi Mosque in Cairo. Sharif, the Egyptian-born actor with the dark, soulful eyes who soared to international stardom in movie epics, "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Doctor Zhivago," died in a Cairo hospital of a heart attack, on July 10.

Workers climb the frame to prepare paper lanterns ahead of the annual Mitama Festival at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan.

Residents gather to watch as stuntmen display their skills before media in Ahmadabad, India.

A team competes in the Red Bull Soapbox race in London. The Red Bull Soapbox race is an annual event where amateur drivers race with their homemade soapbox vehicles down a 420-meter hill through obstacles.

Tourists standing near the sea shore are hit by a wave, which surged past a barrier under the influence of Typhoon Chan-hom, in Qingdao, Shandong province, China.

Japanese rider Hiroshi Aoyama (R) of Repsol Honda Team comes off his bike during the MotoGP Grand Prix of Germany at the Sachsenring Circuit in Hohenstein-Ernstthal, eastern Germany.