A Somali police officer arrests a suspected rebel member of the al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab among beach goers in Mogadishu. Al Shabaab claimed responsibility for today's pre-dawn attack on a Kenyan university campus near the Somali border. The following gallery examines who is al Shabaab. Here: Somali police officer (R) arrests a suspected rebel member (L) of the Al Qaeda-affiliated al Shabaab among beach goers at the Lido beach north of Somalia's capital Mogadishu March 23, 2012. (Photo by Feisal Omar/Reuters)

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)

Children react as a carnivorous theropod known as the Australovenator dinosaur walks through crowds along the Southbank, in London, Monday, February 18, 2013. The dinosaur is one of many that can be visited at the Erth's Dinosaur Petting Zoo, visiting from Australia, the creatures can be touched and fed at the Southbank Centre. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)

“I was born in Zimbabwe, Africa in 1981 and grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I graduated with a degree in Acting, and after college, worked as an actor and musician for the Santa Fe Shakespeare Festival, the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, and the California Shakespeare Theater. I have had a lifelong passion for drawing, painting, and sculpture since I first saw Michelangelo's “Head of Leda” in a book in the library”.

A guard stands at Dityatki checkpoint, marking a 30 km (18-mile) zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant April 23, 2013. Ukraine will mark the 27th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst civil nuclear accident, on April 26. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

In this Tuesday, June 18, 2013 photo, Zita, a liger – half-lioness, half-tiger – carries her one month-old liliger cub in the Novosibirsk Zoo. The cub's father is a lion, Sam. (Photo by Ilnar Salakhiev/AP Photo)

Patrick Hausding and Stephan Feck of Germany compete in the men's 3-meter synchro springboard preliminary competition at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, July 23, 2013. (Photo by David J. Phillip/AP Photo)