The spectacular PHOTOS of the month

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

Caitlin, an Australian tourist, enjoys the sun on a beach of the Croisette during a hot summer day in Cannes.

Photographer: Eric Gaillard/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca tosses a pistol onto a pile of guns to be melted at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's 20th annual Gun Melt at the Gerdau Steel Mill in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

According to press releases from the sheriff's office, 5,495 weapons confiscated from criminals in Los AngelesCounty and collected through a gun buyback program are being melted and reformed as steel rebar at the mill.

Photographer: David McNew/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

A Buddhist monk pours water on the head of a believer during a ritual for good luck at a pagoda in Phnom Penh.

Photographer: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Clergy gather for Pope Francis' final mass on CopacabanaBeach in Rio de Janeiro.

Pope Francis, in a stunningly candid assessment of the state of the Catholic Church, said on Saturday it should look in the mirror and ask why so many people are leaving the faith of their fathers.

Photographer: Sergio Moraes/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

A man raises his hands in front of a burning police vehicle following a brief clash at the end of election day in Phnom Penh.

Security was tightened in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, after polling ended in a general election in which the opposition said it had made gains despite what it called vote-rigging by Prime Minister Hun Sen, in power for 28 years.

Photographer: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

A river is seen flowing among sand dunes in the TanamiDesert located in Australia's northern territory.

The frontrunner to become Australia’s next prime minister, Tony Abbott, holds ambitious plans to develop the country's sparse and inhospitable north by 2030 to attract a new wave of mining investment and boost agricultural exports to Asia.

Photographer: David Gray/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Demonstrators of the group that calls itself Black Bloc attack a car dealership during a protest in Sao Paulo.

The group of activists declared their protest in support of similar actions happening in Rio de Janeiro against the city and state governments and their public spending on major sports infrastructure for the World Cup and Olympics, as Pope Francis continues his visit there.

Photographer: Victor Moriyama/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

North Korean students look out from behind coloured cardboards, used to form pictures as a background ahead of a mass gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang", in Pyongyang, as part of celebrations ahead of the 60th anniversary of the signing of a truce in the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The games are the world's biggest choreographed extravaganza, part circus act, part rhythmic gymnastics floor, with plenty of reverence for the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

Photographer: Jason Lee/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Nick "The Quick" Nica of Montreal, Quebec, draws and fires his single action revolver while competing in the Canadian Open Fast Draw Championships in Aldergrove, British Columbia.

The present-day Fast Draw competition was born from the Hollywood myth of the western gunfighter, and the idea is to draw a single action revolver from a holster, and cock, fire and hit a designated target in the shortest possible time.

No live ammunition is ever used, only blank cartridges or wax bullets. The targets are either a metal silhouette used with wax bullets or balloons that burst from the muzzle blast from the blank cartridges.

A light atop the timer signals the competitor when to fire and once the target is hit, it turns the timer off, measuring the speed to thousandths of a second.

Photographer: Andy Clark/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Thousands of exploded propane cylinders litter the storage yard of a propane plant following massive explosions overnight in the plant's yard, in Tavares, Florida.

Dozens of explosions rocked a propane tank servicing plant in central Florida, northwest of Orlando, late on Monday, injuring seven workers, at least three critically, and prompting the evacuation of nearby homes, authorities said.

Photographer: David Manning/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Syrian refugees try to enter a truck which will transport them back to their homeland at the Al-Zaatri refugee camp in the Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the border with Syria.

Photographer: Muhammad Hamed/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Participants get ready to apply facial masks in Taipei.

A total of 1,213 people broke the Guinness World Record by applying facial masks for 10 minutes at the same time on Sunday, according to event organisers.

Photographer: Pichi Chuang/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

A man sitting on a beach chair in his swimming trunks takes his meal at a small table partially dipped into the Hanjiang river to escape the summer heat, as other swimmers look on under a bridge in Wuhan, Hubei province, China.

Photographer: China Daily/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Shi'ite people place copies of the Koran on their heads during a ceremony marking the death anniversary of Imam Ali at his shrine in the holy city of Najaf, about 160 km south of Baghdad.

Imam Ali, the son-in-law of Prophet Mohammad, was wounded in the head during a battle and died after two days in 661 AD in Najaf.

Photographer: Ahmad Mousa/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

North Korean soldiers clap as they listen to President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea Kim Yong-nam (unseen) deliver a speech ahead of a mass gymnastic and artistic performance "Arirang", in Pyongyang, as part of celebrations ahead of the 60th anniversary of the signing of a truce in the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Photographer: Jason Lee/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Member of the female punk band "Pussy Riot" Nadezhda Tolokonnikova looks out from a holding cell as she attends a court hearing to appeal for parole at the Supreme Court of Mordovia in Saransk.

Tolokonnikova lost a court battle to be released but remained unrepentant over last year's protest against President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral.

Tolokonnikova watched from behind the black metal bars of a courtroom cage as a regional court upheld an earlier decision not to release her after nearly a year in prison so that she could look after her five-year-old daughter.

Photographer: Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Dogs look out from a canine car in Mexico City. Robbery and kidnapping of breed dogs have quadrupled during the last few years in Mexico, according to animal care and control organisations.

Criminal gangs which operate mostly in public parks threaten owners with guns or use dogs in heat to lure their pets and kidnap them. Ransoms for these breed dogs can go up to an estimate of sevenfold the value of the pet.

Canine Advocacy Programs suggest that the average cost of having adopted pets spayed or neutered and implanted with an identification chip is around $50.

Photographer: Edgard Garrido/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

A policeman is being held by fellow policemen to have kohl applied to his eyelids at the Grand Mosque on the 11th day of the holy fasting month of Ramzan in Sanaa.

The cosmetic powder is traditionally popular in Yemen as a protection against eye ailments.

Photographer: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Water gushes through the Xiaolangdi Dam as flood is discharged on the Yellow River in Luoyang, Henan province, China.

Photographer: Carlf Zhang/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Britain's Prince William and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge appear with their baby son, as they stand outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital, in central London. Kate gave birth to the couple's first child, who is third in line to the British throne, on Monday afternoon, ending weeks of feverish anticipation about the arrival of the royal baby.

Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

A Free Syrian army fighter holds his weapon as he stands inside a burned shop in Aleppo's Karm al-Jabal district.

Photographer: Hamid Khatib/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Snails crawl on the face of a woman during a demonstration of a new beauty treatment at Clinical-Salon Ci:z.Labo in central Tokyo.

Clinical-Salon Ci:z.Labo, which began the unique facial earlier this week, offers the 10,500 yen five-minute session with the snails as an optional add-on for customers who apply for a "Celeb Escargot Course", an hour-long treatment routine of massages and facials based on products made from snail slime that costs 24,150 yen.

According to a beautician at the salon, the snail slime is believed to make one's skin supple as well as remove dry and scaly patches.

Photographer: Issei Kato/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

The breakfast provided by the hospital is kept beside Saurav Kumar, a sick boy who consumed contaminated meals given to children at a school on Tuesday, in Patna.

The government announced that it would set up an inquiry into the quality of food given to school pupils in a nationwide free meal scheme after at least 23 children died in one of the deadliest outbreaks of mass poisoning in years.

Photographer: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Russia's President Vladimir Putin (left) is seen through the glass of C-Explorer 5 submersible after a dive to see the remains of the naval frigate "Oleg", which sank in the 19th century, in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea.

Photographer: Aleksey Nikolskyi/RIA Novosti/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

A baby is baptised during a mass baptism ceremony in Tbilisi. About 400 children were baptised by the Georgian Orthodox church during the 30th mass baptism ceremony at the country's main cathedral Holy Trinity.

Photographer: David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

A woman takes a break from dancing during the second day of the 13th EXIT music festival at Petrovaradin Fortress, in Novi Sad, Serbia.

Photographer: Marko Djurica/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

Fire from a train explosion is seen in Lac Megantic. At least five people died and 40 were missing on Sunday after the runaway train carrying crude oil exploded and destroyed the center of a small Canadian town in a disaster that raises fresh questions about shipping oil by rail.

Photographer: Stringer/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

A fighting cow leaps over revelers into the bull ring after the fourth running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona.

Photographer: Joseba Etxaburu/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

"Kilikis" wait for children to come out of the building where they were hiding during San Fermin festival's "Comparsa de gigantes y cabezudos" (Parade of the giants and the big heads) in Pamplona.

"Kilikis", wearing outsized masks and playfully hitting bystanders with sponges on sticks, parade daily through the city accompanied by brass bands during the nine-day-long festival made popular by writer Ernest Hemingway.

Photographer: Susana Vera/Reuters

Click NEXT to see more pictures...

A man competes, as a police helicopter circles above, at the Muscle Beach Independence Day bodybuilding contest on VeniceBeach in Los Angeles, California.

Photographer: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

...