A tourist poses for a picture with the Sphinx at the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo, Egypt, on October 19, 2011. (Reuters/Jamal Saidi)

A wounded member of the Afghan police reaction force waits for treatment in Alingar, Laghman province, on April 30, 2012. A bomb exploded next to opium poppy fields during a poppy eradication campaign in, wounding two Afghan policemen, police officials said. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

China has sent its first woman into space on a mission to dock with an orbiting station, the latest step in an ambitious programme to go to the moon and on to Mars.

Photo: China's first female astronaut Liu Yang, waves during a sending off ceremony before she departs for the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft rocket launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, China, Saturday, June 16, 2012. China will send its first woman and two other astronauts into space Saturday to work on a temporary space station for about a week, in a key step toward becoming only the third nation to set up a permanent base in orbit. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Sally Fitzgibbons of Australia competes in the Women's Final of the 2012 Australian Surfing Open on February 19, 2012 in Manly, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

“I think as mothers we are all just trying our best”. – Gisele Bundchen. (Photo by Mads Nissen/AFP Photo)

Participants costumed as zombies try to catch hobby runners during the so-called Zombie-Run at the harness racing track Karlshorst in Berlin, Germany, 18 May 2014. The runners carry small flags in their belts which they have to get safely across the finishing line while the zombies try to steal them. The sporting event is based on the US television series “The Walking Dead”. (Photo by Soeren Stache/DPA)

Two men standing on a high catwalk, surveying the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, with Manhattan in the background, New York City, 1877. (Photo by Museum of the City of New York/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Women perform a pole dancing routine during the national day celebration of “Urban Pole” dance along a street in Monterrey, Mexico, on June 9, 2013. (Photo by Daniel Becerril/Reuters)