The Mayon volcano continues to erupt as the sun sets behind Legazpi city, Thursday, January 25, 2018 in Albay province, roughly 340 kilometers, (200 miles) southeast of Manila, Philippines. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP Photo)

As the world marks the International Day of the Girl Child, women's rights activists point to progress on a wide array of issues but say more needs to be done to protect girls from child marriage, sexual assault and other forms of exploitation. Here is a selection of pictures showing the daily lives of girls across the globe, all taken by female Associated Press photojournalists. Here: In this December 14, 2015, file photo, a young clown rides in the back of a car following a procession to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Hundreds belonging to various clown associations made their annual pilgrimage to the Basilica to pay their respects to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

Gorgeous galaxies and stunning stars make up this selection of pictures from the shortlisted entries for this year’s Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year award. The winners will be announced on 15 September, and an exhibition of the winning images will be will be displayed in a free exhibition at the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Centre from 17 September. Here: “Seven Magic Points”. The rusty red swirls of the circular, iron sculpture Seven Magic Points in Brattebergan, Norway mirror the rippling aurora above. (Photo by Rune Engebø/Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016/National Maritime Museum)

Boxers Deontay Wilder, left, and Tyson Fury exchange words as they face each other at a news conference in Los Angeles, Wednesday, November 28, 2018. The pair are slated to fight Saturday night for Wilder's WBC heavyweight title. (Photo by Andrew Couldridge/Action Images via Reuters)

CANADA: Stanley Ferdinand filets large trout he caught in Great Bear Lake in Deline, Northwest Territories, Canada September 8, 2016. (Photo by Pat Kane/Reuters)

“Centuries ago, Inuit hunted the bowhead whale. At that time, whale hunting undoubtedly was part of a complex and very important ritual, if only because of the size of the catch. The position that the ancestors of today's Inuit occupied in the living world involved a relationship with the spirit that inhabited each animal but also their species”. (Photo by Robert Frechette/2014 Sony World Photography Awards)

In this photo taken in October 1917, provided by Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive, a machine gunner looks through a window at his position near the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution was long before the digital revolution allowed anyone to instantly document events. But the clumsy cameras of the time still caught some images that capture the period's drama. (Photo by Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive via AP Photo)

The Tianzi Hotel with the shape of Chinese deities Fu, Lu and Shou is pictured on November 20, 2017 in Langfang, Hebei Province of China. The 41.6-meter-tall Tianzi Hotel has an exterior of Chinese Sanxing, whose names are Fu, Lu and Shou with the qualities of prosperity, status and longevity in traditional Chinese culture, in Langfang city. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)