Revelers dressed as Santa Claus drink outside at a bar during the annual SantaCon event December 10, 2011 in New York City. SantaCon is a mass gathering of revelers dressed as Santa Claus who take to the streets in cities across the country before Christmas. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

A Burmese worker sets up Christmas lights inside a woman's clothing store inside a shopping mall December 6, 2011 in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

Starlings come home to roost on Brighton's Old Pier as the sun sets on December 21, 2011 in Brighton, England. December 21 marks the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

(L-R) Actors Oscar Sinela, Luis Fernandez, Ursula Corbero, Amaia Salamanca, Maxi Iglesias and Alba Ribas attend “XP3D” premiere at the Callao cinema on December 27, 2011 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images)

Hundreds of green bicycles are prepared as 960 of them await riders for the new year gala at the Temple of Heaven Park on December 29, 2011 in Beijing, China. Annual New Year countdown ceremony will be held at the park on December 31. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images)

Ukrainians jump over a bonfire in Kiev, Ukraine, 06 July 2019, as they celebrate the traditional pagan holiday of Ivana Kupala. Ivana Kupala is celebrated, during the summer solstice, on the shortest night of the year, marking the beginning of summer and is celebrated in Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Russia. People sing and dance around bonfires, play games and perform traditional rituals. Young people jump over bonfires in order to test their bravery. Couples holding hands jump over the flames to test their love. If the couple does not succeed it is predicted to split up. Traditionally, children and young unmarried women wear wreaths of wild flowers on their heads to symbolize purity. (Photo by Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA/EFE)

The Rio de Janeiro Olympics kick off on August 5 for some two weeks of competitive games drawing athletes as well as audiences from around the world. As they prepare to cover the event, Reuters photographers look back on their favourite pictures from past Olympics where they captured the action on the ground as well as the participants' tears and joy that followed. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

A four-day old African spurred tortoise, Geochelone sulcata, one of eight babies, was place on the head of its mother in their enclosure in Nyiregyhaza Animal Park in Nyiregyhaza, 226 km east of Budapest, Hungary, 27 September 2011. This was the first time that offspring of an African spurred tortoise were born in this zoo. The eight babies hatched after 115 days, they are 5.5 cms long and weigh 25 grams. Spurred tortoise is the largest species of land tortoises in Africa, the weight of an adult animal may reach 80 kgs. (Photo by Attila Balazs/EPA)