Global Picture from July 22 - July 28

After an historically dry summer last year, Britain has been soaked this summer with one of its wettest on record. In the wake of flooding that began last week, hundreds of thousands of people by midweek lacked clean water, and many were forced to evacuate. These residents of Otney Island near Oxford navigated their way through flooded streets Wednesday, but Oxford was spared the worst of the flooding. Oxford University was undamaged, as most of its buildings are on higher ground. Drier weather was expected for Friday and Saturday across much of England.  (Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images)

For almost 8 1/2 years, six health care workers--five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor--languished in a Libyan prison, convicted of deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS and condemned to death by military firing squad. And then, on Tuesday, their ordeal came to a dramatic end. Whisked out of their prison before dawn, the six were bundled onto a French presidential jet and flown to the Bulgarian capital. Here, Valia Cherveniashka is greeted by a relative as her fellow nurses Valentina Siropulo, far left, and Nasya Nenova look on. “I feel like I’ve been in a coma for eight years,” said one nurse, “and only now am I waking,”  (Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP Photo)

Emilie Heymans of Canada finishes a dive Wednesday during the Women’s 10m Platform Preliminary at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Although Heymans didn’t make it to the medal stand in the individual event, on Thursday she and her teammate Marie-Eve Maleau won the women’s synchronized platform diving competition. Paola Espinosa and Tatiana Ortiz of Mexico took the silver medal, and Haley Ishimatsu and Mary Beth Dunnichay of the U.S. took the bronze.  (Donald Miralle / Getty Images)

Soldiers of the African Union Mission in Sudan stand guard during a visit by their new commander, Gen. Martin Luther Agwai, to the Kor Abeche mission group site Sunday in southern Darfur. Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has accused President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown of exaggerating Darfur’s problems in order to hide what al-Beshir describes as their “failure” in Iraq.  (Stuart Price / Getty Images)

From the heights of victory in stage 16 of the Tour de France Wednesday, race leader Michael Rasmussen fell to the depths of sport that night. The Danish athlete was kicked out of cycling’s premier event by his own Rabobank team for being less than forthcoming about his whereabouts twice last month. Rasmussen seemingly had weathered the storm of missing random drug tests in May and June to become the all-but-crowned winner of the race. In a sport riven with controversy and corruption, Rasmussen became only the most recent exemplar of its disgrace.  (Bryn Lennon / Getty Images)

Residents of the southern Macedonian town of Bitola are seen Tuesday in silhouette against a backdrop of wildfires. Among the more explosive effects of the Balkans’ searing summer heat, authorities said, is igniting World War I shells. Southern Macedonia was the scene of heavy fighting in World War I, and, “A lot of this ordnance could be set off by the high temperatures and there is a risk for large explosions,” said Kostadin Popovski, head of an army mine division said. “We have already had several explosions.”  (Boris Grdanoski / AP Photo)

Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, shares his happy birthday during a celebration Tuesday at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund in Johannesburg. Mandela turned 89 on July 18.  (Denis Farrell / AP Photo)