A string is used to ensure that the skirts of female members of the honour guard are in the same height from the ground as they prepare for a welcoming ceremony for Congo Republic President Denis Sassou Nguesso outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, July 5, 2016. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

The Rio de Janeiro Olympics kick off on August 5 for some two weeks of competitive games drawing athletes as well as audiences from around the world. As they prepare to cover the event, Reuters photographers look back on their favourite pictures from past Olympics where they captured the action on the ground as well as the participants' tears and joy that followed. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Veteran racehorse Morestead models the world's first authentic Harris Tweed suit designed for a racing horse, which has been specially commissioned by William Hill to celebrate the opening of this year's Cheltenham Festival on March 15, 2016 in the U.K. (Photo by Joe Pepler/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

An Iraqi soldier stands guard as a pipeline burns in the background after an explosion 30 kilometers (20 miles) northeast of Tikrit, Iraq, Monday, February 11, 2008. (Photo by Bassem Daham/AP Photo)

The feet of a Filipino penitent is nailed to a wooden cross during Good Friday rituals on April 3, 2015 at Cutud, Pampanga province, northern Philippines. Several Filipino devotees had themselves nailed to crosses Friday to remember Jesus Christ's suffering and death, an annual rite frowned upon by church leaders in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

A sculptural artwork depicting former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and headless presidents shot by a hooded high school student (not pictured) is seen at the Contemporary Art Museum in Santiago, December 2, 2014. The artwork, part of the “El ladrillo angular” (The angular brick) exhibition, portrays a student fighting against the ongoing continuity of dictatorship because of a political and economic system which has been impossible to destroy, according to “Papas Fritas” the artwork's creator. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

A girl carries a picture of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was executed along with others in Saudi Arabia, during a protest against the execution in front of the United Nation's building in Beirut, Lebanon January 3, 2016. Sign reads, “The martyr scholar Nimr al-Nimr”. (Photo by Hasan Shaaban/Reuters)