On September 1, 2004, Chechen militants stormed an elementary school in the town of Beslan in the Russian republic of North Ossetia. They took 1,100 teachers, children, and their relatives hostage, demanding the withdrawal of federal forces from Chechnya as a condition for their release. On September 3, 2004, Russian security forces stormed the building, resulting in a battle in which more than 330 hostages died, including 186 children. Here: A man assists two young hostages who managed to escape from the school building after special forces entered the school in Beslan, North Ossetia, Friday 03 September 2004. (Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA)

Riot police hold their weapons during a protest by supporters of Kenyan opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition, along a street in Nairobi, Kenya on October 11, 2017. Opposition leader Raila Odinga, has called for protests this week, reiterated that he would not take part in a re- run of the presidential election on October 26, 2017 if his demands are not met, as Kenya' s Supreme Court last month overturned the August election of President Uhuru Kenyatta citing “irregularities” in the counting of results. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

Grand banqueting halls, opulent lobbies and vast ballrooms; you could easily be forgiven for thinking this was a collection of photographs was documenting some of Europe’s grandest hotels. However, a closer look will reveal the majestic rooms to be engulfed in swathes of dust and moss; hotels that once hosted royals and high society abandoned to the elements. This is the latest result of urban exploration photography, going beyond “no entry” signs to capture images of dilapidated buildings across Europe. IT worker Thomas Windisch, from Graz in Austria, indulged his passion for photography by traveling across the continent, visiting over 100 abandoned hotels along the way. Here: inside a hotel in Austria. (Photo by Thomas Windisch/Caters News)

Globe-trotting photographer couple Peter Sedlacik and Zuzu Galova have found a fun way to document their travels around the world. Wherever they are, they face each other, frame up a great composition, and take a picture of each other… taking a picture of each other. Thus was born the photo series/project “Lens Between Us”, which is quickly scooping up followers on Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram alike. The resulting diptychs are creative, well-composed, and whimsical in the best way. A tribute to how their focus is always on each other, the images are part travel photography, part portraiture, and challenging to boot since each shot requires that they figure out not one, but two compositions. (Photo by Peter Sedlacik/Zuzu Galova)

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.

(Excuse me for the clumsy electronic translator) Today in Moscow presidential elections are spent. Abundantly clear that without dependence from their results the winner will be declared Vladimir Putin. It can lead to the mass protest. Therefore the authorities have deduced on streets of thousand soldiers and policemen. For example, personally I (Avax) see from the window: four buses and two trucks with RIOT police. In photos more low – Moscow on March 04, 2012. A Garden Ring, The Tverskaya street, The Mayoralty, The State Duma, and The Bolshoi theater. (Photos by: Vladimir Maltsev; Source: LiveJournal; Rustem Adagamov; Source: LiveJournal).