World in photos

Reventador volcano in the Ecuadorian Amazon erupts Thursday. According to the director of the Geophysical Institute of the National Polytechnic School, Hugo Yepez, this eruption cycle will not generate problems of ash falling on nearby cities because the activity is not “explosive. As well, it has limited gas emissions, [and less] water vapor and ash.”  (Jose Jacome / EPA)

A Palestinian woman chants slogans during a protest by supporters of the Popular Front against Palestinian infighting in Gaza City on Tuesday. The group was protesting a mysterious explosion that killed five Hamas militants and a young girl in Gaza on July 25, and against the arrests of dozens of Fatah supporters by Hamas security forces in the Gaza Strip, and the arrests of Hamas supporters by Fatah security forces in the West Bank.  (Adel Hana / Associated Press)

A helicopter is used in a rescue mission after the fishing boat Seawin Sapphire ran aground off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, during rough seas Thursday. A second fishing trawler, West Coast One, also landed up on the beach after going to the assistance of the vessel. No casualties were reported.  (Carl Fourie / Associated Press)

A white-sleeved Pope Benedict XVI shakes hands with the faithful as he arrives in Bressanone, near Bolzano, Italy on Monday. The pontiff will stay in the alpine resort in the northern Dolomite mountains until Aug. 10, before returning to Castel Gandolfo and beginning preparations for a September trip to France.  (Alessia Giuliani AFP/Getty Images)

Jewish visitors to the White House hold onto their yarmulkes as President Bush‘s helicopter’s rotor blast hits them while the president departs Thursday for a trip to West Virginia and then to Kennebunkport, Maine, to spend the weekend before returning to Washington.  (Ron Edmonds / Associated Press)

The body of Indian army soldier Ajit Shivaji Gaonkar, 34, draped in the Indian flag, is carried during a funeral procession in Mumbai, India, on Thursday. Gaonkar was killed in a nightlong gun battle between India and Pakistan along the heavily armed frontier that divides Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir on Monday, according to the Indian army.  (Gautam Singh / Associated Press)

Hungarians wait in a center for displaced residents after a 2-ton unexploded World War II bomb was found during the demolition of a building among ruins in central Budapest, Hungary, on Tuesday. Thousands of people were evacuated and streets and bridges were closed to traffic in the neighborhood before the bomb was defused by military experts later in the day.  (Balazs Mohai / EPA)

Visitors to the Ruins, also known as the Old Summer Palace, ride a boat on a lake covered with lotus plants in Beijing on Tuesday. Coinciding with the opening of the Summer Olympics, a newly renovated 30-acre section with 14 scenic spots was opened to the public.  (Michael Reynolds / EPA)