Wednesday: The day in photos

A “turong,” a puppet representing a mythical tree spirit, is placed above the head of an Aboriginal dancer during a performance on Clark Island in Sydney Harbour during a preview of Crave Sydney. The new festival will be held from Oct. 1 to 31, with food, outdoor art displays and Sydney Harbour island-hopping excursions.  (Greg Wood / AFP / Getty Images)

Donkeys loaded with election supplies head to a rural polling station in Sighawar in Afghanistan’s mountainous Panjshir Province, about 70 miles north of Kabul. Afghans will head to the polls on Aug. 20 to elect a new president for the second time in the country’s history.   (Dima Gavrysh / Associated Press)

A warm, sunny day brings Londoners out to Hyde Park.  (Sang Tan / Associated Press)

Zookeeper Nadja Radovic kisses a 6-day-old lion cub in the lions’ enclosure at Belgrade Zoo. Three cubs were born Aug. 13 to Kiara and Wambo, a male white lion who is a top attraction at the zoo.  (Srdjan Ilic / Associated Press)

Members of an international religious movement called the White Brotherhood perform their ritual dances on Bulgaria’s highest mountain.  (Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP / Getty Images)

Russian Orthodox priest Father Vassily blesses congregants during a service at a circa-1764 church that is being rebuilt after its destruction during the Soviet period.  (Sergei Chirikov / EPA)

Italian Air Force group Frecce Tricolori performs during the MAKS-2009 International Air Show in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow.  (Yuri Kochetkov / EPA)

A man takes snapshots of a new monument entitled “Breakthrough,” by Hungarian sculptor Miklos Melocco, during celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the Pan-European Picnic, a peace demonstration on the Austrian-Hungarian border held Aug. 19, 1989.  (Tamas Kovacs / EPA)

Children leap into the teeth-chattering water of the Vierwaldstaettersee.  (Urs Flueeler / Associated Press)