The best photos from around the world this week

The World Tank Biathlon Championships in Alabino, the Yadnia Kasado festival in Indonesia, a giant carpet of flowers in Brussels, protests in the American city of Ferguson - see these and many other photos in our selection of the best photos from around the world over the past week.

(Total 24 photos)

1. The final of the world championship in tank biathlon takes place in Alabino near Moscow on August 16, 2014. For the first time in military history, tank "battles" brought together the crews of 12 countries of the world - Angola, Armenia, Belarus, Venezuela, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Kuwait, Mongolia, Russia and Serbia. (© Reuters / Maxim Zmeev)

2. Tourists run away from a huge wave on the banks of the Qiantang River in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. (© Reuters/Stringer)

3. Moroccan law enforcement officers beat with clubs African immigrants trying to climb over the fence to get into the city of Melilla, owned by the Spanish state. (© Reuters)

4. Flowers, candles and notes adorn the commemorative star of actor Robin Williams on the Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California (USA). (© Reuters)

5. An Indian army soldier jumps through a ring of fire in Bangalore, southern India. (© Reuters)

6. The annual Hindu festival of Yadnia Kasado in Indonesia, when the inhabitants of the area around the Bromo volcano rise to the crater to throw food and pets into it in the hope that this will provide them with a good harvest and increased prosperity. (© Fully Handoko / EPA)

7. Students of the Shaolin Martial Arts School (Shaolin Tagou) in the air during a rehearsal of the trick, which should be the main part of the opening ceremony of the Youth Olympic Games - 2014. A total of 520 students take part in the performance "Build a dream." The Youth Olympic Games began on August 16 in the city of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. (© Reuters)

8. A giant carpet of flowers on Brussels Square. (© Reuters)

9. A tightrope walker walks along a cable stretched between two spheres of the Atomium in Brussels. (© Reuters)

10. Villagers with nets are preparing to catch food thrown by Hindu believers in the crater of Mount Bromo. (© Ulet Ifansasti / Getty Images)

11. Members of the Iranian security forces stand next to the remains of a plane that crashed near Tehran's Mehrabad airport. A civilian airliner that crashed during takeoff killed nearly 50 people. (© AFP)

12. IDPs from the Yazidi religious minority, who are fleeing violence in the Iraqi city of Sinjar, keep their way to the Syrian border. (© Reuters)

13. In Moscow's GUM, a sales assistant sells T-shirts with images of Russian President Vladimir Putin. (© Reuters)

14. Clouds over the ships on the east coast of Singapore. (© Reuters)

15. Palestinians during Friday afternoon prayers under the minaret of a mosque in Gaza destroyed by Israeli strikes. (© Khalil Hamra / AP)

16. Passenger train due to a landslide derailed in eastern Switzerland. (© Arno Balzarini / EPA)

Funeral workers from the Liberia Health Department spray disinfectant on the body of a woman believed to have died of the Ebola virus in Monrovia, Liberia. (© John Moore/Getty Images)

18. An unsanctioned protest in the US city of Ferguson on Saturday evening (August 16), the cause of which was the death of 18-year-old black teenager Michael Brown, who was shot dead by a police officer on August 9, allegedly suspecting shoplifting. (© Joshua Lott / AFP / Getty Images)

19. The moon illuminates the skyscrapers in Madrid, Spain. (© Getty Images)

20. A worker at a steel plant (industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp AG) in the German city of Duisburg. (© Reuters)

21. A robot waiter at a restaurant in Kunshan, China. (© AFP / Getty Images)

22. Lava flows from Mount Etna, an active stratovolcano located on the east coast of Sicily. (© AFP / Getty Images)

23. A woman with a painted face takes part in a mermaid competition in the city of Braslav, about 270 km from Minsk. (© AFP / Getty Images)

24. Competitions in the skill of driving tanks and accuracy of shooting at targets in Alabino near Moscow. (© Maxim Zmeev / Reuters)