Angela Ponce, 24, (R) gets help from a fellow contestant getting dressed to compete in the "Miss World Spain" pageant in Estepona, southern Spain, October 25, 2015. Ponce, the first openly transsexual woman to compete to represent Spain at the Miss World pageant, was eliminated in the first knockout round. But Ponce already feels like a winner, she said, because her participation has brought visibility for the transgender community. "We need to educate society for diversity", Ponce said. (Photo by Susana Vera/Reuters)

“Microscope images forge an extraordinary bond between science and art, said Hidenao Tsuchiya, Olympus America's Vice President and General Manager for the Scientific Equipment Group. We founded this competition to focus on the fascinating stories coming out of today's life science research laboratories. The thousands of images that people have shared with the competition over the years reflect some of the most exciting work going on in research today – work that can help shed light on the living universe and ultimately save lives. We look at BioScapes and these beautiful images as sources of education and inspiration to us and the world”. – OlympusBioScapes

Photo: Pretarsus of the third leg of a female drone fly (Eristalis tenax), ventral view, by Dr. Jan Michels, Institute of Zoology, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany. (Photo by Olympus BioScapes)

Just a week before Rio de Janeiro hosts South America's first Olympics, city residents expressed mixed feelings about the cost and security of the Games, while holding out hope they will bring joy to a nation facing economic and political crises. The conflicted thoughts mirror a recent survey by the Datafolha polling group showing that half of Brazilians were opposed to holding the Games, while 63 percent think the costs of hosting the event will outweigh benefits. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

Children, wearing red neckerchiefs, a symbol of the Pioneer Organization, salute during a ceremony for the inauguration of 18 new members at a local school in the southern settlement of Kazminskoye in Stavropol region, Russia, November 19, 2015. Early pro-communist youth movements, which appeared in Russia after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, were reformed into the Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union. While the organization lost its dominance among students in post-Soviet Russia, some educational institutions and families still carry on this tradition. (Photo by Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters)

Photo taken on September 19, 2015 shows a baby Brazilian opossum at the “Parque Estoril” zoo in Sao Bernardo do Campo of Sao Paulo, Brazil. According to local press, the “Parque Estoril” zoo houses currently 23 orphan cubs of wild animals rescued in the south region of Sao Paulo, victims of illegal wildlife trade or problems caused by urban growth. According to the zoo, all the animals arrived in the last three months, and many of them, not being able to be reintroduced to their natural habitat, will be used as examples in environmental education classes. (Photo by Rahel Patrasso/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire)

Organizers of an exhibition of ancient instruments of torture in Huai'an, Jiangsu province, have suggested that children, heart disease patients and people with high blood pressure stay away because of the vivid depictions of shocking cruelty. The exhibition has more than 200 instruments of torture on display in the 50,000-square-meter exhibition halls of a restored ancient building. Wax figures, along with sound and light techniques, are incorporated for scary effect. The local government said the exhibition is for tourists and historians to research ancient torture practices. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress)

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.

A young boy scoops water from a hand-dug well in the dry riverbed near Matinyani, in the semi-arid Kitui County in southeastern Kenya, 22 March 2015, the World Water Day. Residents of Kitui County and other arid and semi-arid areas of the country have been hard-hit by extremely poor rainfall this year while the government said in previous month that some 1.6 million people countrywide are facing acute starvation due to the drought and will need relief food over the next six months. Residents of Matinyani say they haven't seen a drop of rain in nearly four months. Thousands of Kenyans in rural areas walk tens of kilometers just to fetch water to drink and to be used in their homes. According to an estimate by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), 17 million people lack access to safe water in Kenya, where the drought is a perennial problem. (Photo by Dai Kurokawa/EPA)