IN PHOTOS: Around the globe in the last 24 hours

Rediff.com presents some the best photographs from around the world in the last 24 hours.

A riot police vehicle releases a jet of water against demonstrators during a rally in Santiago city on June 30.

Tens of thousands of students marched in Chile's capital on Thursday demanding changes in the public state education system.

Photograph: Victor Ruiz Caballero/Reuters

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Painter Ge Xiaoguang (L) uses an elevator in front of a giant portrait of China's late chairman Mao Zedong in his working studio located between the Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Reclusive Chinese painter Ge's art has gazed over one of the world's most famous city squares for decades. For 30 years, he has painted the portraits of former paramount leader Mao Zedong that look across Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

The giant oil paintings of the 'Great Helmsman' have kept watch from the Gate of Heavenly Peace since the Communist Party won the civil war and declared a New China on October 1, 1949.

Photograph: Barry Huang/Reuters

Palestinian villagers and firefighters try to extinguish a fire they say was started by Jewish settlers in a field in the West Bank village of Burin near Nablus on June 30

Photograph: Abed Omar Qusini/Reuters

The sun shines through the smoke from the Las Conchas wildfire near the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. 

The New Mexico wildfire raged largely unchecked for a fourth day near one of the nation's top nuclear arms production plants on Wednesday, but firefighters finally gained some ground in corralling the flames.   

Photograph: Eric Draper/Reuters

A performer holds a flag of the Communist Party of China during an event to celebrate the upcoming 90th anniversary of the founding of the party, at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai on June 30.

China is celebrating the anniversary on Friday.

Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

A man flashes the trademark sign of toppled premier Thaksin Shinawatra as his arch rival Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva campaigns for his ruling Democrat Party under a business building in Bangkok on June 30.

Thailand holds a general election on July 3 that might be a step on the road to stability after five years of political turbulence.

But it could just as easily prolong the crisis, especially if there is no clear-cut winner.   

Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Contestants stand on the stage after the annual race on high heels during Gay Pride celebrations in the quarter of Chueca in Madrid on June 30.

The winner of the race receives a prize of 1000 euros.

Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters

An Israeli man (2nd L) attacks a supporter of Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement in northern Israel, during a demonstration against the arrest of Salah, near the British Embassy in Tel Aviv on June 30.

Salah, a fiery critic of the Jewish state, was detained while on a lecture tour in Britain, whose Home Secretary Theresa May said he should have been barred from the country.

He now faces deportation from Britain.

Photograph: Nir Elias/Reuters

A Palestinian man jumps through a ring of fire during a summer camp organised by the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip.

If pro-Palestinian activists unexpectedly manage to slip past Israel's naval blockade on the Gaza Strip in the coming days, they might be surprised by what they see in the Hamas-controlled enclave.

Roads are being paved, houses are being built, new cars have taken to the busy streets and shops are full of myriad products.

Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters

Employees of SMBC Nikko Securities Inc work using only LED desk lights, during daytime at the company office in Tokyo on June 30, a day before a target to cut electricity use by 15 percent in regions affected by Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami takes effect.

The cuts are aimed at helping avoid power blackouts during the peak summer demand period amid efforts to restore generating capacity lost in the disaster. 

Photograph: Toru Hanai/Reuters

Rebel army officers fix weapons captured from forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at a workshop in Benghazi on June 30.

Photograph: Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters