Vultures gather to eat waste in Bica beach, on the banks of the Guanabara Bay, with the Sugar Loaf mountain in background, 500 days ahead the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro March 24, 2015. As part of its Olympic bid, Rio promised to clean up 80 percent of the bay for the games. But local government officials have already admitted that a cleanup by 2016 is not achievable. Despite millions of dollars of investment over the years, the bay still stinks of sewage. Sailors who visited the city for test events complained of a floating sofa and a dead dog in the water. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

Todd Bretl specializes in underwater photography, and is able to capture striking photos of aquatic life big and small. His photos of sharks are particularly striking; though he rarely faces hostility from the animals, he tries not to spend too much time looking through his viewfinder and many shots are framed by educated guesses and impeccable timing. What follows are photographs taken over the past several years on trips to the Bahamas and Isla Guadalupe, an island off the coast of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. (Photo by Todd Bretl)

A man grimaces walking by the “Lettuce Ladies”, a group of PETA activists, during an event promoting a vegan lifestyle, downtown Bucharest, Romania, Monday, August 14, 2017. Two PETA vegan ambassadors distributed vegan food to passers by in the Romanian capital, the latest stop in a tour including the United States, Russia and Turkey aimed at promoting a vegan lifestyle. The sign reads in Romanian “start fresh: become vegan”. (Photo by Andreea Alexandru/AP Photo)

Born in Hanoi, 1979, a member of the Young Painter Association of Vietnam, Trang is an emerging young artist whose mind has been engraved with images of the city and the Northern villages. She brings these vivid memories of the villagers and their life to her paintings. She paints scenes of landscapes in thick textural impasto with bright colours of red, orange, yellow, and blue, making the genre of landscape her own. Her paintings depict her passion to showcase the radiance and freshness of the landscapes in Vietnam. For every stroke of brush reflects her burning desire to bring out a world of complications to simple living and a deep appreciation of nature’s blessing and beauty.

An Afghan child practices walking with his new prosthesis at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), orthopedic center on September 10, 2011 in Kabul, Afghanistan. After more than 30 years of war and a decade since the 9/11 attacks in the United States, thousands of Afghans, both military and civilian, continue to pay a heavy price from the conflict. The ICRC center makes prosthetics for amputees and helps them, as well as Afghans with spinal injuries and children with congenital birth defects, to learn to walk. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Dr. P.A. Smithe was sent by the American Red Cross as a doctor and surgeon to work at a hospital in Vienna. He sailed to Europe in December 1915 and returned home in August 1916, according to his daughter, who donated his images to the National World War I Museum. Photo: Turkish army, including cavalry, infantry and artillery. (Photo by Dr. P.A. Smithe/National World War I Museum, Kansas City, Mo.)