The Week in Pictures

Erich Bergen performs at a Michael Jackson tribute concert Saturday in Las Vegas, honoring what would have been the singer’s 51st birthday.  (Eric Jamison / Associated Press)

Romanian Michael Jackson fans crowd to touch a memorial for the artist which was inaugurated in Herastrau park Saturday. Hundreds of fans attended the event, in which one of the park’s main alleys was named the Michael Jackson Alley on what would have been the late pop star’s 51st birthday.  (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)

The space shuttle Discovery lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla.. Discovery and a crew of seven will deliver supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. Full story  (Chris O’Meara / Associated Press)

Newly ordained monks chant prayers at Dhammakaya temple in central Thailand’s Pathumthani province.  (Apichart Weerawong / Associated Press)

Soldiers stand guard outside Government House in Bangkok, Thailand, where a demonstration was planned by supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to demand the resignation of the current prime minister.  (Sakchai Lalit / Associated Press)

Forest Service firefighters monitor the Station Fire along Angeles Crest Highway.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Helicopters drop water on flames as they work their way downhill toward a home off Angeles Crest Highway. Residents near the Station fire in La Cañada Flintridge were waiting for possible evacuation orders.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) pays his respects at Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s flag-draped coffin.  (Elise Amendola / Associated Press)

Visitors at a folk festival ride a merry-go-round in Griesbach, southern Germany. The Karpfham festival, held annually at the end of August, has its roots in a horse show held hundreds of years ago. The fair is still an important occasion for horse-breeders.  (Sebastian Widmann / AFP/Getty Images)

A child watches supporters of Honduras’ ousted President Manuel Zelaya march during a protest in Tegucigalpa. Zelaya was ousted two months ago on June 28 and sent to Costa Rica.  (Esteban Felix / Associated Press)

A Palestinian man walks past decorative wall hangings in Jerusalem’s Old City , on his way to attend the first Friday prayers of the holy month of Ramadan. Muslims throughout the world are celebrating the holy month of Ramadan, during which many fast from dawn till dusk.  (Dan Balilty / Associated Press)

The shuttle Discovery prepares to launch after three earlier attempts were scrubbed. Discovery finally lifted off from launch pad 39-A, at 11:59 p.m. EDT Friday night.  (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

Mourners carry the coffin of Abdul Aziz Hakim in Baghdad during a two-day funeral procession. Thousands poured into the streets of the Iraqi capital Friday to pay their respects to the revered Shiite leader who died of complications from lung cancer.  (Loay Hameed / Associated Press)

Katie Ryan, left, weeps while waiting in line with her parents Jack Ryan and Barbara Ryan, all of Sudbury, Mass., to see Sen. Edward Kennedy lie in repose at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum.  (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

A man falls from a horse while playing the traditional central Asian sport of kok-boru (ulak-tartysh) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The players on horseback compete for points by throwing a stuffed sheepskin into a well.  (Vyacheslav Oseledko / AFP/Getty Images)

A Palestinian Muslim girl holds her hands in a praying position during the first Friday prayers of the holy fasting month of Ramadan at Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City.  (Muhammed Muheisen / Associated Press)

Palestinians walk after praying during the holy fasting month of Ramadan at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. Muslims throughout the world are celebrating Ramadan, during which observants fast from dawn till dusk.  (Bernat Armangue / Associated Press)

A punter ties up a boat on the River Cam. The traditional narrow-beam wooden skiffs are a popular attraction for tourists, who sip champagne and take in Cambridge University’s colleges and picturesque bridges as they travel along the river.  (Lefteris Pitarakis / Associated Press)

Brazilian children play inside an abandoned water tank on the land from which they were evicted on southern outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The children and other slum dwellers were living on property belonging to a bus company.  (Mauricio Lima / AFP/Getty Images)

Kashmiri girls attend school in Srinagar, India, whose Muslim residents are observing the holy month of Ramadan.  (Dar Yasin / Associated Press)

Afghans avail themselves to the equipment at a park in the capital. President Hamid Karzai has extended his lead over his top challenger in the recent vote, but he is still short of a majority.  (Paula Bronstein / Getty Images)

Palestinians wait for food handouts from an Islamic charity. The charity distributes extra food during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to dusk.  (Hazem Bader / AFP/Getty Images)

Iraqi and Iranian Shiite Muslims carry the coffin of political and religious leader Abdelaziz Hakim outside the Iraqi Embassy. Hakim, 59, who led the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, died of lung cancer.  (Behrouz Mehri / AFP/Getty Images)

A Palestinian construction worker toils in the Jewish neighborhood of Har Homa in East Jerusalem. Israeli expansion in the disputed city, which Palestinians want as the capital of a future state, is a stumbling block to peace talks.  (Tara Todras-Whitehill / Associated Press)

Chinese freshmen queue up to register as they arrive at the prestigious Tsinghua University. Ten million students took this year’s college entrance exams, which help determine whether a student joins China’s educated elite or the general work force.  (AFP/Getty Images)

A Kashmiri boy recites verses from the Koran at a local seminary. Muslims throughout the world are marking the holy month of Ramadan, during which they fast from dawn till dusk.  (Dar Yasin / Associated Press)

A paperboard Usain Bolt races at world record speed on a 50-meter rail against a challenger at the main railway station in Zurich, Switzerland. The real Jamaican sprinter is in Zurich to attend the IAAF Golden League athletics meeting Friday.  (Patrick B. Kraemer / Associated Press)

The space shuttle Discovery is prepared for launch in Cape Canaveral, Fla., after two earlier attempts were scrubbed. The launch of the shuttle to the International Space Station has been rescheduled for Friday morning .  (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

Boys play with a soccer ball as monsoon clouds hover over Katmandu, Nepal.  (Gemunu Amarasinghe / Associated Press)

Tanks fire as helicopters fly above during an exercise by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force at the foot of Mt. Fuji in Gotemba, Japan. About 2,400 personnel and 60 tanks and armed trucks participated in the drill.  (Junko Kimura / Getty Images)

U.S. Marine Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, left, and Sgt. Major Hooph pay their respects to Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard during a memorial service at a forward operating base in the town of Now Zad in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. Bernard was mortally wounded during a Taliban ambush Aug. 14.  (Julie Jacobson / Associated Press)

A helicopter makes a drop over a brush fire north of La Canada Flintridge on Wednesday. The blaze broke out about 3:20 p.m. near mile marker 29 on Angeles Crest Highway. Smoke from this blaze and another in the Angeles National Forest fouled Southland skies and prompted health officials to warn those with respiratory problems to stay indoors.  (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

A Hindu holy man performs the Varuna Yajna ritual to appease the rain god in Mumbai, India. Priests stood neck-deep in water for more than four hours praying for the arrival of rain.  (Rajanish Kakade / Associated Press)

Residents of Cartier Drive in Rancho Palos Verdes watch as a helicopter, right, makes a water run at a brush fire in the Portuguese Bend area.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Smoke fills the air from a two-day-old brush fire north of La Canada Flintridge. The blaze started Wednesday near the Angeles Crest Highway around mile marker 29.  (Francine Orr/ Los Angeles Times)

Firefighter Scott Allen glances across Angeles Crest Highway as canyon winds whip up flames at sunrise.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Japanese tanks spew umbrellas of gunfire during a public military exercise at the foot of Mt. Fuji. The annual drill attracts about 30,000 spectators.  (Toshifumi Kitamura / AFP/Getty Images)

A Nairobi teen eats in a makeshift kitchen in the Kibera slum, where the nongovernmental organization Concern, in cooperation with local Kenyan groups, has launched a campaign to provide cash grants to help people start businesses or simply get back on their feet after suffering in the postelection violence of 2007.  (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

The flag flies at half-staff at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington in memory of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.  (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

A message on the scoreboard at Boston’s Fenway Park honors the memory of Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy during Wednesday’s Red Sox game.  (Elsa / Getty Images)

A cross marks the spot where Robert F. Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy will be buried nearby, up the hill from the resting place of President John F. Kennedy.  (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

VfB Stuttgart defender Ricardo Osorio, left, vies for the ball with FC Timisora’s Iasmin Latovlevici in a UEFA Champions League match in Stuttgart, Germany.  (Torsten Silz / AFP/Getty Images)

Andrew Quinn, second from left, and Shane Madden of the U.S. compete against teams from Russia, India and South Africa in a double sculls event at the Rowing World Championships in Poznan in western Poland.  (Alik Keplicz / Associated Press)

The changing of the guard takes place shortly after sunrise at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., where Sen. Edward M. Kennedy will be buried alongside his slain brothers.  (Tim Sloan / AFP/Getty Images)

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s office in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington a day after his death.  (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

Trabants sit in the parking lot of Trabi Safari in Berlin. Trabi Safari conducts tours through the streets of Berlin in Trabants, or Trabis, the East German cars known for their sputtering engine, synthetic body and thick fumes.  (Sean Gallup / Getty Images)

Participants perform a patriotic song in Beijing, where a concert drew people from all walks of life.  (Xie Huanchi / New China News Agency via Associated Press)

A model displays a creation by stylist Max Weber during the Hair Fashion Show in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  (Andre Penner / Associated Press)

A Palestinian woman and child cry during the funeral of brothers Nael and Mansour Al-Batneji in Rafah, the Gaza Strip. Three brothers from the family were killed in an Israeli airstrike Tuesday on smuggling tunnels from the Gaza Strip to Egypt.  (Eyad Baba / Associated Press)

Dino Amor Pareja, a suspected ranking leader of the Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group Rajah Solaiman Movement, shouts “Allahu Akbar (God is Great!)” following his capture in the Philippines.  (Bullit Marquez / Associated Press)

A man slides along the ground during La Tomatina festival near Valencia. Thousands of people take part in the tomato food fight each year. It began in 1945.  (Biel Alino / EPA)

A worker hangs strands of vermicelli to dry at a factory. Vermicelli is in demand among Muslims when they break the daylong fast during the holy month of Ramadan.  (Rajesh Kumar Singh / Associated Press)

Supporters of a farmers’ union who had gathered for a meeting at a park take shelter from the rain under plastic sheets. Rainfall during India’s monsoons were 25% below normal this year, with drought declared in 161 out of India’s 625 districts.  (Gurinder Osan / Associated Press)

A woman places flowers in rubble in front of the Iraqi foreign ministry building a week after twin truck bombs targeted it and the finance ministry building, killing at least 101 people.  (Hadi Mizban / Associated Press)

Mohammed Fanas, 61, awakens Muslims for a meal before sunrise as he walks through the streets of this port city. The job is on its way to extinction as people increasingly use alarm clocks. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, observant Muslims fast from dawn until dusk. The meal before sunrise is known as the Sohour.  (Mohammed Zaatari / Associated Press)

A crowd plays with a tomato balloon during La Tomatina festival. In an hour, 121 tons of tomatoes are demolished in the food fight.  (Biel Alino / EPA)

Henry Sanford, a staff assistant in the office the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), reads the news about Kennedy’s death on the Internet. Kennedy died at age 77 at his home in Hyannis Port, Mass., on Tuesday after battling brain cancer.  (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

As temperatures soar, a couple get some cool -- and colorful -- thrills in the giant funnel of the Pacific Spin ride at Knott’s Soak City Waterpark in Buena Park. The water park’s summer season will shorten to weekends only after Sept. 7 and ends Sept. 20.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Madeline Schaffrick Pellissier of France competes in the women’s snowboard halfpipe during day five of the Winter Games NZ at Cardrona Alpine Resort on Wednesday in Wanaka, New Zealand.  ((Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images))

Frenchman Antoine le Menestrel climbs a building in Brasilia, Brazil, as part of the events marking the Year of France in the South American country.  (Eraldo Peres / Associated Press)

Burned-out cars sit amid a desolate landscape in an Athens suburb after wildfires devastated the outskirts of the Greek capital.  (Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese tourists visit Tiananmen Square in Beijing, where preparations are underway for National Day on Oct. 1, which will mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.  (Feng Li / Getty Images)

A flock of geese graze on a hillside in Shrewsbury, England, where they are raised for the Christmas market.  (Christopher Furlong / Getty Images)

The Radio City Rockettes perform outside Radio City Music Hall in New York City to kick off the sales campaign for the annual Radio City Christmas Spectacular.  (Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images)

Couples wait backstage to compete at the Tango Dance World Championship in Buenos Aires.  (Natacha Pisarenko / Associated Press)

Christian Orthodox nuns walk in a procession paying homage to the Virgin Mary in Jerusalem.  (Gali Tibbon / AFP/Getty Images)

Members of a Chinese paramilitary police honor guard stand in formation outside their quarters near the Forbidden City in Beijing.  (Ng Han Guan / Associated Press)

A boy walks at a camp near Kabul, Afghanistan, for displaced residents from Helmand province.  (Dima Gavrysh / Associated Press)

A police officer holds a package of seized marijuana during a news conference at police headquarters in Cali, Colombia. Police said 2.8 tons of marijuana were seized in a raid north of Cali.  (Christian Escobar Mora / Associated Press)

Boys sell fish door-to-door in Jannusan, Bahrain, shortly before the day’s fasting ends with the evening meal for Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan.  (Hasan Jamali / Associated Press)

An old Soviet airplane is on display at the Omar Mine Museum in Kabul, Afghanistan.  (Dima Gavrysh / Associated Press)

Gardener Joerg Petrowsky picks water lilies from a pond at his water nursery, where every summer the flowers open for about six hours a day, turning the pond into a sea of blooms.  (Joerg Sarbach / Associated Press)

Police officers arrest members of the ethnic Albanian activist group Vetevendosja who vandalized dozens of vehicles belonging to the European Union’s mission in Kosovo’s capital. Vetevendosja (or Self-Determination) opposes what it considers international interference in Kosovo.  (Visar Kryeziu / Associated Press)

South African runner Caster Semenya acknowledges adoring crowds upon her return to her homeland after winning a gold medal in the women’s 800-meter race at the world track championships in Berlin last week. The stunning victory was clouded when some opponents accused Semenya of being a man, and the sport’s governing body ordered the athlete to undergo a battery of gender tests. Results may not be known for several months.  (Karel Prinsloo / Associated Press)

Children play in the Goddess of Rome fountain as temperatures in the Italian capital climbed into the 90s.  (Gregorio Borgia / Associated Press)

A rocket carrying South Korea’s first home-launched satellite rises from the launch pad, right, at Naro space center. The launch of the scientific satellite had been postponed twice by technical problems. Seoul says the mission is part of a peaceful civilian space program, rejecting any comparison with North Korea’s missile launch earlier this year.  (Kim Yang-Bae / Getty Images)

South Korean women wait to see the Space Launch Vehicle-1, South Korea’s first space rocket, at a beach in Goheung, south of Seoul, on Tuesday.  (Lee Jin-man / Associated Press)

Members of the Costa Rican Red Cross team searching for U.S. citizen David Gimelfarb check their searching patterns in the Rincon de la Vieja National Park on Monday. Gimelfarb, a 28-year-old doctoral student, disappeared Aug. 11 while hiking alone in the mountainous park in northern Costa Rica.  (Kent Gilbert / Associated Press)

A boatman rows on the River Ganges in Allahabad, India.  (Rajesh Kumar Singh / Associated Press)