Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) soldiers and firefighters make rescue works among mountain lodges, covered with volcanic ash near the peak of Mt. Ontake, which straddles Nagano and Gifu prefectures in this September 28, 2014 photo taken and released by Kyodo. More than 30 people were feared dead on Sunday near the peak of the Japanese volcano that erupted a day earlier, sending a huge cloud of ash and rock tumbling down its slopes, while packed with hikers. (Photo by Reuters/Kyodo News)

Kieron Connolly’s new book of photographs of more than 100 once-busy and often elegant buildings gives an idea of how the world might look if humankind disappeared. Here: Bodie, Mono County, California. Gold was discovered at Bodie in 1859 (just after the initial California gold rush) and it went from mining camp to boomtown. Its decline began in 1880, when word spread of new boomtowns elsewhere. The Standard Consolidated Mine closed in 1913, and four years later the Bodie Railway was abandoned. By 1940 the population was down to 40. Today, Bodie is maintained in a state of arrested decay as a visitor attraction. (Photo by Alamy Stock Photo)

A man helps another make his way through deep mud at the site of a landslide at the Koslanda tea plantation near Haldummulla October 30, 2014. Hopes of finding survivors under the mud and rubble of a landslide in south-central Sri Lanka had run out by first light on Thursday, though a government minister cut the estimated death toll to more than 100 from 300 the previous night. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)

Indian devotees carry their luggage and wade through the flooded water in Varanasi, India, Friday, August 26, 2016. (Photo by Tsering Topgyal/AP Photo)

A woman crosses a road outside the EU Parliament ahead of the EU elections in Brussels, Belgium, May 22, 2019. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

A model prepares backstage during the bridal fashion show as a part of Yes Wedding Expo at Convention Hall Tunjungan Plaza on June 13, 2021 in Surabaya, Indonesia. (Photo by Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images)

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)

Vegetables, wood and charcoal are loaded onto the roof of a battered Peugeot on November 7, 2018 in Matadi, Democratic Republic of the Congo. From the port of Matadi to the capital Kinshasa, a 350 km road crosses the south-west of the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Photo by Junior D. Kannah/AFP Photo)