A couple lights a lantern during a celebration, known as “Chaharshanbe Souri”, or Wednesday Feast, marking the eve of the last Wednesday of the solar Persian year, Tuesday, March 19, 2019, in Tehran, Iran. Iran's many woes briefly went up in smoke on Tuesday as Iranians observed a nearly 4,000-year-old Persian tradition known as the Festival of Fire. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

A fireball erupts from a 16-inch gun on the battleship USS Wisconsin during a live fire exercise in the Persian Gulf, October 13, 1990. The ship is in the Gulf as part of Operation Desert Shield. (Photo by John Gaps III/AP Photo)

Kyrgyz girls pose in traditional costumes during the Nowruz celebration in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 20 March 2024. Nowruz is the Persian New Year celebrated by various ethnic groups worldwide and it traditionally marks the first day of spring. (Photo by Igor Kovalenko/EPA/EFE)

Afghan children have ice cream during the Afghan New Year (Newroz) celebration in Kabul March 21, 2014. Afghanistan uses the Persian calendar which runs from the vernal equinox. The calendar takes as its start date the time when the Prophet Mohammad moved from Mecca to Medina in 621 AD. The current Persian year is 1393. (Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

A man distributes bread to Burka-wearing Afghan women outside a bakery in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, December 2, 2021. According to U.N. figures from early November, almost 24 million people in Afghanistan, around 60% percent of the population, suffer from acute hunger, including 8.7 million living in near famine. Increasing numbers of malnourished children have filled hospital wards. (Photo by Petros Giannakouris/AP Photo)

An Iranian man lights a firework during the Wednesday Fire celebration (Chaharshanbeh Suri in Persian) at a park in Tehran, Iran on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Majid Asgaripour/WANA vie Reuters)

Memebon is an Exotic Shorthair kitten, a breed that comes from the Persian cat but with shorter hair. It is a new breed , that is known for affectionate and loyal cats.

Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)