Sneha Mindani, 14, one of the survivors of the April 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attack, wipes her tears as her father delivers a speech during a protest to demand justice for this attack, on the third anniversary of the event, near the Presidential Secretariat, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April 17, 2022. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Last Friday, in Afghanistan's mountainous northeastern province of Badakhshan, an enormous landslide took place, burying much of a small village, and killing hundreds. Officials say that at least 300 residents of Abi Barik village were killed, but are uncertain about exact numbers, cautioning that the final number could be 500 or more. Rescue teams gave up hope on Saturday of finding any survivors, focusing energy on helping the hundreds suddenly made homeless. Many of the surviving families have struggled to get aid. Some have gone to nearby villages to stay with relatives or friends, while others have slept in tents provided by aid groups.

Young Lebanese women wearing protective masks and gloves against the coronavirus pandemic, stand on August 5, 2020 amid the rubble in Beirut's Gimmayzeh commercial district which was heavily damaged by the previous day's powerful explosion that tore through Lebanon's capital, resulting from the ignition of a huge depot of ammonium nitrate at the city's main port. Rescuers searched for survivors in Beirut after a cataclysmic explosion at the port sowed devastation across entire neighbourhoods, killing more than 100 people, wounding thousands and plunging Lebanon deeper into crisis. The blast, which appeared to have been caused by a fire igniting 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate left unsecured in a warehouse, was felt as far away as Cyprus, some 150 miles (240 kilometres) to the northwest. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

Cole Yeoman steps over a large crack along River Road, Avonside on February 25, 2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand. The death toll has risen to 113 and the hope for finding survivors is fading as rescuers search through debris for over 200 still missing following a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Christchurch on Tuesday. The quake, which was an aftershock of a 7.1 magnitude quake that struck the South Island city on September 4, 2010, has seen damage and fatalities far exceeding those of the original. (Photo by Martin Hunter/Getty Images). CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND – FEBRUARY 25

Sea lions wait on the deck of the boat before being released in front of Palomino island, in Callao, Peru September 12, 2015. Four young sea lions returned to the wild after being rescued by marine biologists and treated for various illnesses. The sea lions are survivors of various illnesses which they contracted off the coast of Peru caused by the elevated temperatures in the water because of the El Nino phenomenon, according to Carlos Yaipen, Director of Animal Science and Well-being Organization (ORCA). (Photo by Mariana Bazo/Reuters)

A Colombian air force helicopter retrieves the bodies of victims from the wreckage of a plane that crashed into the Colombian jungle with Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense onboard near Medellin, Colombia, November 29, 2016. The chartered plane was carrying a Brazilian soccer team to the biggest match of its history when it crashed into a Colombian hillside and broke into pieces, killing 75 people and leaving six survivors, Colombian officials said Tuesday. (Photo by Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters)

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

It would seem to be something you'd see only in a cartoon or at a Phish concert, but according to park rangers in New South Wales, Australia, dozens of giant, fluorescent pink slugs have been popping up on a mountaintop there. The eight-inch creatures have been spotted only on Mount Kaputar, a 5,000-foot peak in the Nandewar Range in northern New South Wales. Scientists believe the eye-catching organisms are survivors from an era when Australia was home to rainforests. A series of volcanoes, millions of years of erosion and other geological changes “have carved a dramatic landscape at Mount Kaputar”, the park service wrote on its Facebook page, and unique arid conditions spared the slugs from extinction. (Photo by Michael Murphy/AFP Photo/NSW Environment Office)