Ground personnel work next to the Soyuz TMA-13M capsule of the International Space Station (ISS) crew of Alexander Gerst of Germany, Maxim Suraev of Russia and Reid Wiseman of the U.S. after its landing near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan November 10, 2014. A veteran Russian cosmonaut and two International Space Station crewmates, one from the United States and one from Germany, returned safely to Earth on Sunday with a parachute landing of their Soyuz capsule in Kazakhstan, ending 5-1/2 months in orbit. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

The Dragon Bridge (Vietnamese: Cầu Rồng) is a bridge over the River Hàn at Da Nang, Vietnam. Construction of the bridge began on 19 July 2009 (the same day as the inauguration of the nearby Thuận Phước Bridge) when the Prime Minister of Vietnam Nguyen Tan Dung and many high-ranking government officials attended the groundbreaking ceremony. Dragon Bridge is 666m long, 37.5m wide and has six lanes for traffic. It opened to traffic on March 29, 2013, at a cost os nearly VND 1.5 trillion dong (US$88m). The bridge was designed by the US-based Ammann & Whitney Consulting Engineers with Louis Berger Group. Construction was undertaken by Company No. 508, an affiliate of Civil Construction Engineering Corporation No.5, and Bridge Company No. 75.

A hand of a labourer pushes bricks at a traditional brick factory in Arab Mesad district of Helwan, northeast of Cairo, May 14, 2015. About 45 labourers are employed at the brick factory and most work 10 hours a day. Adult workers earn a daily wage of 70 Egyptian pounds ($9) and child workers earn 40 Egyptian pounds ($5). The labourers, who are usually temporary or seasonally employed in Egypt's brick-making industry, experience unsafe work conditions, according to local media. (Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)

From house breaking in Johannesburg to hippos on the loose in Tbilisi to rioters attacking a policewoman in Burundi, Reuters photographers tell the story behind some of the most iconic pictures of the year. Here: Protesters drag a female police officer accused of shooting a protester in the Buterere neighbourhood of Bujumbura, Burundi, May 12, 2015. Goran Tomasevic: Protesters started throwing stones at a group of police, who then started to run away. The policewoman in the photo, Medikintos Inabeza, 33, got left behind and then some protesters started to push her, saying that she had shot a female protestor in the stomach with an AK47 rifle. I didn't see anything of that. There were 5 or 10 protesters pushing the policewoman at first, then others came and joined in. Up to 20 or 30 protesters were surrounding her at one point. The protesters kicked and beat her very badly; I also saw a couple of knives. I thought they were going to kill her... (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

In this photo taken on March 16, 2019, 13-year-old Reymark Cavesirano collects left over herring onboard a fishing boat anchored at the mouth of Manila Bay off Navotas City in suburban Manila. Cavesirano, a grade five student, paddles to the anchored fishing boats and helps crew clean their nets, and in exchange collects leftover herring still tangled in the nets. Across the Philippines, there are 5 million child labourers, aged between five and 17, many of them working in dangerous conditions. About 22 million people – a fifth of the population – live below the national poverty line. (Photo by Ted Aljibe/AFP Photo)

Once upon a time a myth was born that insects, unlike animals, are just a machines that not capable of learning and survive only based on their instincts. That myth has become the widespread opinion. Of course, this opinion is indeed erroneous, like many other widespread opinions. Let us try to find out which part is a myth and which part is true.

Yueyaquan is a crescent-shaped lake in an oasis, 6 km south of the city of Dunhuang in Gansu Province, China. It was named Yueyaquan in the Qing Dynasty. According to measurements made in 1960, the average depth of the lake was 4 to 5 meters, with a maximum depth of 7.5 metres In the following 40 years, the depth of the lake continually declined. In the early 1990s, its area had shrunk to only 5,500 m2 with an average depth of 0.9 meter (maximum 1.3 meter). In 2006, the local government with help of the central government started to fill the lake and restore its depth; its depth and size have been growing yearly since then. The lake and the surrounding deserts are very popular with tourists, who are offered camel and 4x4 rides.

Two Teddy Bears from the 1920's sit on display in the museum section of the Merrythought Teddy Bear shop on April 5, 2011 in Ironbridge, England. Established in 1930, Merrythought has been hand-making Teddy Bears for over 80 years in Shropshire. The family-run company is the last remaining British teddy bear factory and is launching its latest limited edition bear to mark the royal wedding. The Commemorative Royal Wedding bear is limited to 75 and comes after its popular Prince William and Catherine Middleton bears completely sold out. Merrythought has also been selected by the London Olympic Games organisers to produce the official teddy bears of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)