Iraqis are painting the security walls in Sadr City:

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I have to admit, the Bird's Nest looks pretty cool all lit up at night:

China Photos/Getty Images

Guang Niu/Getty Images

Chinese policemen try to save a boy from being crushed by the crowd near a ticket booth at the Olympic Green on July 25 in Beijing, China. Starting today, the remaining 820,000 Olympic tickets, of which 250,000 are for competitions held in the capital city, became available for purchase by individuals at the Olympic venues.

Be sure to check out the National Aquatics Center and more of China's Olympic architecture rendered in Lego at the Hong Kong Lego blog.

(Hat tip: Gizmodo)

DAVID FURST/AFP/Getty Images

U.S. Army soldiers carry shotguns as they walk along a corridor separating what they deem to be the most extreme and dangerous detainees held inside the Camp Bucca detention center located near the Kuwait-Iraq border on May 19, 2008.

Here's a photograph from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's recent trip to Iraq. What do you think was on his mind? Who do you think he wants to see on the receiving end?

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UPDATE: And the winner is... nycbrian, with "do you think i can mow my backbenchers into submission w/ this?"

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Scrap metal is piled up at a metal recycling facility on July 17 in Chicago, Illinois. With scrap metal prices near historic highs, many communities are experiencing an increase in thefts of metal including cemetery ornaments, plumbing pipe, gutters, and even manhole covers.

These two photos seem to say an awful lot about the difference between Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev:

DMITRY ASTAKHOV/AFP/Getty Images

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I'm not much of a fisherman, but I'm guessing that bringing military personnel along to scoop up your catch isn't typical.

SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty

Crew of US Navy destroyer Mcfaul 'extinguishes a fire' on the board during of USA-Ukrainian Navy exercises 'Sea Breeze-2008' in Odessa on July 15, 2008. Some seventeen countries joined to take a part in the peacemaking exercises on the Black Sea coast of Ukraine.

AFP PHOTO/DIEGO TUSON

A bull charges a woman off the port during the traditional bulls celebration on the seafront in Denia Alicante, Spain, on July 7.

Denis Doyle/Getty Images

A fighting bull leaps over two fallen runners at the Mercaderes curve during the third San Fermin running of the bulls on July 9 in Pamplona, Spain. Fighting bulls are run through the historic heart of Pamplona for eight days in this fiesta made famous by The Sun Also Rises, the 1926 novel by U.S. writer Ernest Hemmingway.

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A Fuente Ymbro fighting bull gores French matador Sebastian Castella during the third corrida of the San Fermin festivities on July 9 in Pamplona, Spain.

Passport has the day off tomorrow for the July 4th holiday here in the United States, so here's an early Friday photo to contemplate. Enjoy your weekend!

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WASHINGTON - JULY 02: Eight-year-old Peter Wajda of Mount Laurel, New Jersey, poses for photographs on top of 10,512 sneakers tied by their laces and laid heel-to-toe in the courtyard at National Geographic Society headquarters July 2, 2008 in Washington, DC. Assembled by National Geographic Kids magazine, the string of shoes was certified Wednesday by Guinness World Records as the longest chain of shoes, measuring 8,700 feet or nearly 1.65 miles. Wajda, a third-grader at Moorestown Friends School, organized a shoe drive and collected 509 of the shoes used to set the record. The shoes will be shipped to Nike's Reuse-a-Shoe program and recycled into basketball courts and other play surfaces.

Guang Niu/Getty Images

More than 10,000 people have been mobilized to clean up green algae that has invaded the Olympic sailing venue in Qingdao, Shandong, China. The Qingdao Olympic Sailing Committee estimates that the area will be cleared before July 15.

Preeti Aroon for FP

At the Claude Taylor Photography Gallery, just a short stroll from FP's office at Dupont Circle in Washington, you don't need dollars if you want to buy a print. Just hand over your euros -- each gets you $1.50, according to this sign in the window. The studio began accepting euros in March, owner Claude Taylor told the Washington Post, citing his perception of increased numbers of European tourists due to the weak dollar. The phenomenon isn't limited to Washington. Some stores in New York have also been accepting euros.

Meanwhile, also in the Washington area, guess who's buying SUVs in this era of record-high oil prices? Europeans. With the weak dollar, they can import jumbo vehicles at teeny prices.

Here are some wild scenes from the ongoing beef protests in South Korea:

Photos by KIM JAE-HWAN/AFP/Getty Images

Apparently, the South Korean riot police have been working in shifts, as some of the most violent protests have happened overnight. The protesters failed to convince South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who moved Thursday to lift the ban on American beef. Read the backstory here.

KHALID MOHAMMED/AFP/Getty Images

Iraqi soldiers stand guard over rows of rifles seized by Iraqi security forces during recent operations in the Shiite enclave of Sadr City, June 18, 2008.

Guang Niu/Getty Images

A labourer plants flowers in a greenhouse for the Beijing Olympic Games on June 5, 2008 in Beijing, China. These flowers will be placed in Tiananmen Square, the road towards Capital Airport, the Olympic Central Zone, other key areas and it is estimated that more than 40 million plants will be used during the games.

Matt Cardy/Getty Images

BROCKWORTH, UNITED KINGDOM - MAY 26: Contestants in the men's race chase a Double Gloucester Cheese down the steep gradient of Cooper's Hill in pouring rain during the annual Bank Holiday tradition of cheese-rolling on May 26, 2008 in Brockworth in Gloucestershire, England. Thousands of spectators gather to watch contestants from around the world tumbling down the 200m slope - which has a 1:1 gradient in parts - in a series of races, said to date back hundreds of years, with the winner of each receiving a cheese. Injuries are commonplace, even forcing cancellation of the event in the past.

MARIO LAPORTA/AFP/Getty Images

Burnt uncollected rubbish in a street of Fuorigrotta, a district of Naples on May, 20, 2008. Tens of thousands of tons of waste have piled up since late last year as a 14-year problem over a lack of incinerators reaches a new peak. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi held a cabinet meeting for the first time in Naples yesterday, calling the rubbish Italy's "gravest and most urgent" issue and vowing to resolve the crisis.

David Silverman/Getty Images

KIBBUTZ BE'ERI, ISRAEL - APRIL 30: Seen from the cab of a combine harvester, an Israeli army armored personnel carrier (APC) secures the border with the Gaza Strip as Israeli farmers bring in the wheat crop near Kibbutz Be'eri in southern Israel. As grain prices reach record levels, Israeli farmers are expanding the area under wheat cultivation, right up to the border fence with the Hamas-controlled territory.