Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, is locked under the rule of extremists from the Islamic State group trying to purge it of everything they see as contradicting their stark vision of Islam. A trove of photographs now housed at the Library of Congress offers a glimpse of a different Mosul – before wars, insurgency, sectarian strife and now radicals' rule. The scenes were taken in the autumn of 1932 by staff from the American Colony Photo Department during a visit to Iraq at the end of the British mandate. (Photo by AP Photo)

A gannet grabs a fish by its beak, 2014, in Shetland, Scotland. Hundreds of gannets crash into the sea in search of food – leaving a trail of air bubbles in their wake. Richard Shucksmith, 41, on the Shetland Isles, Scotland captured the remarkable scene as he took a boat to feed the large colony of seabirds that nested on the cliffs. The photographer has taken images of the gannets every summer for the last three years as the birds gather on the cliffs to breed. (Photo by Richard Shucksmith/Barcroft media)

Britain's BASE jumper Sam Hardy lives up to his name after throwing himself off the top of the 335m-high Kuala Lumpur Tower during the KL Tower International Jump in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Saturday, September 27, 2014. BASE stands for the places such jumpers usually jump from: buildings, antennas, spans (bridges) and earth (cliffs). (Photo by Lai Seng Sin/AP Photo)

Harry Potter collectible busts are displayed in the home of Menahem Asher Silva Vargas, after he was presented with a Guinness World Record title certificate for the largest collection of Harry Potter memorabilia, in Mexico City, Monday, September 29, 2014. Silva's collection consists of more than 3000 individual items, including trading cards, wands, and books in multiple languages. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

A box of 36 coloured pencils as photographed in a studio with an illustrative price tag of $115 (US dollars), equivalent to the Bs. 725 (bolivars) that it costs on average to purchase in Caracas at the official exchange rate of 6.3 bolivars per dollar, in Caracas September 29, 2014. Venezuela's economic crisis has led to some shocking and surreal price distortions that hit people's buying power dramatically. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

Artist Pyotr Pavlensky sits on the wall enclosing the Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry after he cut off a part of his earlobe during his protest action titled “Segregation” in Moscow October 19, 2014. Pavlensky protested against the usage of forensic psychiatry for politically motivated purposes. He cut off his earlobe to demonstrate how authorities could “cut off” an unwanted individual from society by using psychiatric and medical diagnosis to forcefully send a person to a penitentiary hospital, according to Pavlensky. (Photo by Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters)

The moon illuminates the snow-covered Concordia, the confluence of the Baltoro and Godwin-Austen glaciers, near the world's second highest mountain the K2 (8,000 meters) in the Karakoram mountain range in Pakistan September 6, 2014. While other parts of Pakistan and northern India were flooded, Concordia in the Karakoram mountain range was covered with a seasonally unusual amount of snow. Geographically, Pakistan is a climbers paradise. It rivals Nepal for the number of peaks over 7,000 meters and is home to the world's second tallest mountain, K2, as well as four of the world's 14 summits higher than 8,000 meters. (Photo by Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

The annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition in Sydney features dozens of sculptures on Bondi and Tamarama beaches and along the coastal path between them. The free outdoor exhibition, now in its 18th year, stretches for 2km along the coastline and includes work by artists from 16 countries. It runs from 23 October to 9 November 2014. Here: “Breaching” by Michael Greve is displayed during the 2014 Sculptures by the Sea exhibition at Marks Park on October 23, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)