The month in pictures: July 2012

31 Photos

REUTERS/Dominic Ebenbichler

By Antony Bennison, MSN UK photo editor REUTERS/Dominic Ebenbichler 1 of 31 To full screen

Grabbing for gold

A selection of the best images from the last few weeks See gallery

Micronesia's Manuel Minginfel drops weights during the men's 62Kg Group B weightlifting competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

REUTERS/Larry Downing 2 of 31 To full screen

Skin storm

Jeff Bitting (right) from St Augustine, Florida, speaks backstage with fellow full-body tattoo contestants before judging at the National Tattoo Association Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. In his 33 years of getting tattoos, Bitting says he has had about 500 hours of work and will complete his other leg in his bid to win more full-body contests.

REUTERS/Avishag Shar-Yashuv 3 of 31 To full screen

Survivors

Hava Hershkovitz, 79, (second right), a Holocaust survivor and winner of a beauty contest for survivors of the Nazi genocide, stands with other contestants during a contest in the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski 4 of 31 To full screen

Bolts from the blue

Lightnings strike over buildings during a thunderstorm in Berlin.

REUTERS/Mark Blinch 5 of 31 To full screen

On parade

People throw confetti from their windows during the Gay Pride parade in Toronto on 1 July.

REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin 6 of 31 To full screen

Behind bars

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of female punk band Pussy Riot, stands behind bars during a court hearing in Moscow. Three members of the all-woman group were first detained in February after they stormed into Moscow's main cathedral to sing a protest song against Vladimir Putin.

REUTERS/Eloy Alonso 7 of 31 To full screen

Fired up

A coal miner burns a wood barricade in the surrounding of Pozo Soton coal mine in El Entrego, near Oviedo, northern Spain. The miners are protesting against the government's proposal to decrease funding for coal production.

REUTERS/Ulises Rodriguez 8 of 31 To full screen

Time for a laugh

A clown checks his mobile phone during an international clown festival in San Salvador. Every year clowns from Mexico, Colombia and the US meet in San Salvador to exchange make-up tips and the latest tricks and jokes.

REUTERS/China Daily 9 of 31 To full screen

Glorious mud

Players compete for the ball in the mud during a 2012 Swamp Soccer World Cup China match at the Olympic Green area, next to the National Stadium in Beijing.

EUTERS/Luke MacGregor 10 of 31 To full screen

Giant of the skies

An Airbus A380 flies through cloud during a display flight at the Farnborough Airshow in southern England.

REUTERS/Vincent West 11 of 31 To full screen

On the street

Kissima Kebe, a 32 year-old street salesman originally from Senegal and currently living in Zaragoza, sits on a bench at the Plaza de Recoleta in Spain, wearing some of his goods, on the fourth day of the San Fermin festival. Kebe has been coming to the festival for two years and says that although the number of people in the streets does not appear to have dropped, sales are down from last year, due to Spain's economic crisis. On a good day Kebe expects to make around 30 euros. He is often moved on and has his goods confiscated by the police, and says things are very difficult, but doesn't want to return to Senegal with nothing. He says many people come from Africa to Europe because of low wages, with an average worker pay of around two euros per day.

REUTERS/Eloy Alonso 12 of 31 To full screen

San Fermin festival

Performers dressed as oversized traditional figures dance through the streets during the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain. Visitors to the nine-day festival, depicted in Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, take part in activities including the running of the bulls, an early morning half-mile dash from the corral to the bullring alongside six bulls destined to die in the afternoon's corrida. This is followed by processions of giant traditional figures, concerts, firebulls, fireworks, and large doses of eating, drinking, dancing and late nights.

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Into the fight

Spanish bullfighter Saul Jimenez Fortes prepares before the fifth bullfight of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona.

REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz 14 of 31 To full screen

Occupup

A dog is seen carrying a banner during a protest by Occupy Wall Street activists at Zuccotti Park in New York.

REUTERS/Alex Domanski 15 of 31 To full screen

Babe-in-arms

A three-days-old gorilla baby lies in the arm of its mother Rebecca at the zoo in Frankfurt.

REUTERS/Gene Blevins 16 of 31 To full screen

Watching the skies

A double rainbow appears after a heavy monsoon storms over Nipton Road in Searchlight, Nevada.

REUTERS/NASA/Carla Cioffi/Handout 17 of 31 To full screen

Lift off

The Soyuz TMA-05M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A trio of Russian, Japanese and US astronauts were on board, bound for a four-month mission on the International Space Station. They were: veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, Nasa astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.

REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar 18 of 31 To full screen

Demon times

People carry an effigy of demon Ghantakarna as another effigy of the demon is burnt to symbolise the destruction of evil, during the Ghantakarna festival in the ancient city of Bhaktapur, Nepal. According to legend, the demon is believed to "steal" children and women from their homes and localities.

REUTERS/Susana Vera 19 of 31 To full screen

Foaming at the mouth

A protester gets out of a fountain full of foam after a demonstration against government austerity measures in central Madrid. A protest movement against the centre-right Spanish government's latest austerity measures grew during the month as public sector workers stepped up demonstrations around the country.

REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski 20 of 31 To full screen

The whole tooth

A hippopotamus gets shower in its enclosure at the Skopje Zoo in Macedonia.

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Caught out

A man is attacked by a bull during a traditional bullfight in Arenal, Bolivar.

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Taking a dip

A child swims in the Sao Miguel River during the "Meeting of Traditional Cultures of Chapada dos Veadeiros" in a multiethnic village in Goias, Brazil. The annual event, now in its 12th year, celebrates Brazilian popular culture and the intersection between the various manifestations of traditional culture around the mid-west and across the country.

REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar 23 of 31 To full screen

Healing hands

A hand of a Muslim boy offering prayer is pictured during the holy fasting month of Ramadan at Nepali Jame Mashjid in Kathmandu.

REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao 24 of 31 To full screen

Retail therapy

People are reflected in mirrors at an entrance of a shopping complex in Tokyo.

REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar 25 of 31 To full screen

Downpour

A girl with her umbrella waits to cross the road during rainfall in Kathmandu, Nepal.

REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta 26 of 31 To full screen

Early morning rain

An illuminated auto rickshaw moves through a street as it rains during early morning in Jammu, India.

REUTERS/Mike Blake 27 of 31 To full screen

Off duty

Soldiers sit in empty seats as they watch the women's gymnastics qualification in the North Greenwich Arena during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

REUTERS/Thomas Peter 28 of 31 To full screen

In colour

People throw coloured powder in the air during Holi festival celebrations in Berlin. Holi, also known as the festival of colours, is celebrated in India and other Hindu countries. In its original form Holi heralds the beginning of spring. The Berlin event brought Indian Djs, acrobatics and dance to the German capital.

REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado 29 of 31 To full screen