Photos: The beautiful and the bizarre come together in the world’s greatest photographs: Competition shortlist features everything from gorgeous skylines to cheeky monkeys

Hunger: Guidi Oumarou, 19, a refugee from Central African Republic, site on a bed at Gore hospital in eastern Chad, where her two-year-old son is being treated for acute malnutrition. Lack of funding has forced the World Food Programme has cut aid to refugees here by 60 per cent

First Sight: Blind girls Sonia and Anita Singh, 12 and five respectively, with their mother after they underwent an operation to treat their congenital cataract blindness, which is an easily cured problem that leaves millions of people without sight who can't afford treatment

Death of a river: Every year, during the dry season, the Ganges waters on the Bangladesh Border drys up due to the Farakka Dam being closed on the Indian border. Getty photographer took the photo as part of a series documenting the changes the Ganges is going through

Fiery: Simon Norfolk's photo showing lines of fire around a few wooden buildings atop the snow-capped Mount Kenya is in the Pro Landscape category. The fire lines indicate where the front of the rapidly disappearing Lewis Glacier was at various times in the recent past

Competition: A triathlete leaps over the finish line of a race in this photo submitted by Cesar March of Spain to the Split Second category

Joy amid hardship: Ata Mohammad Adnan, of Bangladesh, said his photo shows 'two of my young neighbours from the slum nearby enjoying themselves in the rain.' His image is entered

Ivan Turukhano from Russia said of his entry: 'Unfortunately many cities and towns now may lose their authenticity because of spread of ugly modern industrial architecture. I would like to draw world's attention to this problem. People shouldn't live in inharmonious environment'

Vivid: This shot of Yellowstone's Grand Prismatic Spring, by Janssen Todorov, is in the Open, Nature and Wildlife category of the contest

Camel train: Italian photographer Enrico Madini entered this sumptuous photograph of a salt caravan travelling through the Danakil Depression in Ethiopia, near the border with Eritrea and Djibouti, in the Travel category of the Open competition

Development: Once a dirt road, this now paved, lit road leads from Kangkar Baru to the main road to Yong Peng town, Johor, Malaysia.

Poverty: A little beggar girl with her monkey on the Chennai beach is an entrant into the Open Travel category of the Sony World Photography Awards by French photographer Loulia Chvetsova. The contest singles out the best photos taken around the world over the past year