Extraordinary tales of everyday heroism have been illustrated beautifully by renowned US photographer Steve McCurry in the new 2015 Lavazza Calendar. The calendar which has been created in collaboration with the Slow Food movement, features twelve breathtaking pictures, capturing the spirit, strength and humanity of the Earth Defenders – women and men who protect their land and projects in Africa with passion and bravery. The proceeds from sales of the calendar and all donations will be contributed entirely to create 10,000 food gardens in African schools and villages by the end of 2016. (Photo by Steve McCurry/2015 Lavazza Calendar)

Ebiowei, 48, carries an empty oil container on his head to a place where it would be filled with refined fuel at an illegal refinery site near river Nun in Nigeria's oil state of Bayelsa November 27, 2012. Locals in the industry say workers can earn $50 to $60 a day. Thousands of people in Nigeria engage in a practice known locally as “oil bunkering” – hacking into pipelines to steal crude then refining it or selling it abroad. The practice, which leaves oil spewing from pipelines for miles around, managed to lift around a fifth of Nigeria's two million barrel a day production last year according to the finance ministry. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

“Osama bin Laden has been killed in an American operation in Pakistan, President Obama announced from the White House on Sunday, calling his death “the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al-Qaida”. In a statement delivered from the East Room, Obama said a small team of U.S. personnel attacked a compound in Pakistan's Abbottabad Valley, where bin Laden had been hiding since late last summer. The U.S. team killed the 54-year-old al-Qaida leader after a firefight and “took custody of his body”, Obama said.” – Nwsource.com

Photo: Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden in an undated photo. October 10, 2001. Afghanistan's ruling Taliban lifted restrictions on Bin Laden, giving him permission to conduct “Jihad”, or holy war, against Afghanistan's enemies. (Photo by Getty Images)

South African Sangomas are wizards and witches who are supposedly chosen by their ancestors to follow a traditional training and go through a rite of passage after which they become Sangomas and can cure and help people. They are so respected and trusted that western medical authorities have actually advised the government of South Africa to develop its cooperation with Sangomas in order to improve hygiene and health among the population. (Photo by Patrick Durand/Sygma via Getty Images)

A woman wearing a Red Army uniform dances at the Bund at midnight on June 1, 2022 in Shanghai, China. Shanghai will fully restore the normal order of production and living starting from Wednesday. (Photo by Zheng Xianzhang/VCG via Getty Images)

Over the past three years, Los Angeles-based photographer Dotan Saguy has spent hundreds of hours documenting the diverse culture, people and pageantry of the iconic Venice Beach boardwalk. He was irresistibly drawn to the free-spirited, anti-materialistic and inclusive nature of the world-famous location, which he found to be a breath of fresh air in contrast to Los Angeles’s sometimes homogenized, celebrity-obsessed culture. (Photo by Dotan Saguy)

Commended. In late May, about a quarter of a million snow geese arrive from North America to nest on Wrangel Island, in northeastern Russia. They form the world's largest breeding colony of snow geese. Photographer Sergey Gorshkov spent two months on the remote island photographing the unfolding dramas. Arctic foxes take advantage of the abundance of eggs, caching surplus eggs for leaner times. But a goose (here the gander) is easily a match for a fox, which must rely on speed and guile to steal eggs. “The battles were fairly equal”, notes Sergey, “and I only saw a fox succeed in grabbing an egg on a couple of occasions, despite many attempts”. Surprisingly, “the geese lacked any sense of community spirit”, he adds, “and never reacted when a fox harassed a neighboring pair nesting close by”. (Photo by Sergey Gorshkov/Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer)

Only 156 people remained in the tribe when Jan visited in Accham District, Nepal, January 2016. Hidden deep in the Himalayan forest is one of the world’s last enduring nomadic tribes who are resisting attempts to move them into permanent settlements. (Photo by Jan Moller Hansen/Barcroft Images)