Pokhara, Nepal — Nepalese youth play in the mud as they plant rice in a field in Kathmandu. The farmers are celebrating National Paddy Day on Asar 15 of the Nepali calendar as the annual rice-planting season begins.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: PRAKASH MATHEMA / AFP

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Dhaka, Bangladesh — Washermen wash clothes in the polluted water of the river Buriganga at Loharpool.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: ABIR ABDULLAH / EPA

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Inner Mongolia — Mission commander Jing Haipeng, who has been on three of the country's four manned space missions, gestures as he emerges from the charred return capsule of the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft in a remote area of northern China after a 13-day mission to an orbiting module that is a prototype for a future space station. Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth after achieving China's most complex and longest operations in orbit, major steps forward in the country's effort to build a space station by 2020.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: STR / AFP

http://framework.latimes.com/?attachment_id=63759

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Los Angeles — Taka Higashino, of Japan, soars upside down over a jump to take the gold medal during the Moto-x freestyle final at the X-Games Los Angeles 18, at Staples Center on Thursday. X-Games is in its 10th consecutive year in Los Angeles.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

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Helsinki, Finland — Athletes compete in the women's heptathlon 100-meter hurdles at the 2012 European Athletics Championships at the Olympic Stadium.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND / AFP

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Wimbledon, Great Britain — Russia's Maria Sharapova serves during her third-round women's singles match against Taipei's Su-Wei Hsieh on Day 5 of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament at the All England Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: ANDREW YATES / AFP

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Baghdad — People gather near a destroyed building a day after a car bomb attack in the Washash neighborhood. Police say a series of bombs around Iraq's capital on Thursday have killed and wounded scores of people.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Hadi Mizban / Associated Press

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Kfar Qaddum, West Bank — A Palestinian protester runs for cover from the tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers during a weekly demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in the village of Kfar Qaddum, near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP

http://framework.latimes.com/?attachment_id=63764

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