Throughout the course of the long war in Afghanistan, Coalition troops have relied on thousands of military working dogs to help keep them safe, and make their jobs easier. The dogs are trained to detect explosives, to find illegal drugs, to search for missing comrades, or target enemy combatants. Not only are they active on the front lines, but behind the lines they serve as therapy dogs, service dogs, and loyal companions. They also share the same risks as the ground troops, suffering injuries and sometimes death on the battlefields. Gathered here are images of these dogs and their handlers in Afghanistan and back home, from over the past several years, part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan.

Many laws still in existence throughout the united states are wildly outdated, rendering them completely ridiculous, useless and bizarre. The absurdity is illustrated by new York-based photographer Olivia Locher, who catalogs the crazy rules and regulations of each state in a playful photographic series ‘I fought the law’. Readers might be surprised to learn that in Rhode island, it is illegal to wear transparent clothing, nobody is allowed to ride a bicycle in a swimming pool in California and Arizona residents may not have more than two dildos in a house. Take a look at the ongoing series below to find out more about the peculiar oddities present in the American legal system.

Iain Blake is an amateur photographer that has gained his popularity on the Internet thanks to his photoset of “Stone Footprints”. By finding the right stones and perfectly arranging them, Iain was able to make a number of very appealing pictures. For some reason, these “footprints” look adorable. It could have something to do with the cartoony appearance that they have. In our opinion, the finest photo out of this whole set is the one with a large footprint and a smaller one on top of it, as if a child has stepped into the footprint left by his or her parent. (Photo by Iain Blake)

An armed man herds his cattle close to the village of Nimini in northern South Sudan, February 8, 2017. In the chaos of South Sudan's civil war, it took three years for Nyagonga Machul to find her lost children. Machul had traveled from her village to the capital when President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, fired his deputy Riek Machar, a Nuer, in 2013. (Photo by Siegfried Modola/Reuters)

An Afghan girl carries water on her back as she climbs a hill in Kabul, Afghanistan February 20, 2017. A growing population is straining water supplies in Afghanistan's capital, forcing those who can afford it to dig unregulated wells ever deeper to tap a falling water table. Finding water in arid Afghanistan is virtually always a challenge, but a drop in the groundwater level in Kabul caused by overuse and drought is making it even more difficult for residents, especially the poor. (Photo by Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

This photo taken on May 17, 2019 shows rough rubies displayed at the gems market in Mogok town, north of Mandalay. Burrowing deep underground, thousands of informal miners risk their lives to find gleaming red gems as a law change spurs opportunity in Myanmar's “land of rubies”. (Photo by Ye Aung Thu/AFP Photo)