With a presence in nearly every city and town across Iran, the paramilitary Basij volunteer corps has an ever-increasing influence on life in the Islamic Republic. Authorities created the Basij, which means mobilization in Persian, just after the country's 1979 Islamic Republic. It is part of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard. Photo: In this Thursday, August 22, 2013 photo, a female member of the Basij paramilitary militia aims a rifle as a trainer looks over her shoulder in Tehran, Iran. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

The Moonlight Rainbow Fountain is the world's longest bridge fountain that set a Guinness World Record with nearly 10,000 LED nozzles that run along both sides that is 1,140m long, shooting out 190 tons of water per minute. Installed in September 2009 on the Banpo Bridge, former mayor of Seoul Oh Se-hoon declared that the bridge will further beautify the city and showcase Seoul's eco-friendliness, as the water is pumped directly from the river itself and continuously recycled. The bridge has 38 water pumps and 380 nozzles on either side, which draw 190 tons of water per minute from the river 20 meters below the deck, and shoots as far as 43 meters horizontally.

A man rides a horse through a bonfire as part of a ritual in honor of Saint Anthony, the patron saint of animals, in San Bartolome de Pinares, about 100 km west of Madrid, Spain on Thursday, January 16, 2014. On the eve of Saint Anthony's Day, hundreds ride their horses through the narrow cobblestone streets of the small village of San Bartolome during the “Luminarias”, a tradition that dates back 500 years and is meant to purify the animals with the smoke of the bonfires and protect them for the year to come. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

This diver almost got sucked into the mouth of a massive whale shark as it feeds on plankton. But far from staring into the jaws of death – the shark, which are the sea's largest fish, is actually vegetarian. The relieved diver escaped from the encounter unscathed and continued to enjoy the presence of the incredibly docile animals. The stunning photograph, by Mauricio Handler, was taken during a feeding session where more than 600 of the huge creatures gathered to feed on tuna spawn. (Photo by Mauricio Handler/Daily Mail/Solent)

A boy pushes a donkey cart loaded with bundles of cotton blooms that were collected by women cotton pickers in Meeran Pur village, north of Karachi September 25, 2014. Women make up the bulk of Pakistan's half a million cotton producers, but labour rights activists say they are often exploited by overseers, who often withhold their wages and may subject some of them to sexual harassment. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)

Members of the Bolivian combined forces of army and police rest at their headquarters at the end of their ceremony for the task of fighting against drugs and the eradication of coca leaves in Chimore, east of La Paz, December 10, 2014. The government of Bolivia's President Evo Morales eradicated some 11,000 hectares of illegal coca plants and confiscated nearly 192 tons of drugs in 2014, according to the local media. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)

Family of passengers onboard AirAsia flight QZ8501 react at a waiting area in Juanda International Airport, Surabaya December 28, 2014. Indonesia's air force was searching for the AirAsia plane carrying 162 people that went missing on Sunday after the pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather during a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore. The Airbus 320-200 lost contact with Jakarta air traffic control at 6:17 a.m. (23:17 GMT), officials said. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)

A shop assistant creates a window display in a Next store in central London December 30, 2014. British clothing retailer Next's sales rose 2.9 percent in the run up to Christmas mostly due to online and catalogue purchases, hitting the upper end of its predictions and it said full-year profit would rise by about 11.5 percent. (Photo by Neil Hall/Reuters)