Kurdish pesh merga troops fire at Islamic State positions as they move toward the Iraqi town of Badana Pichwk on Monday morning, October 17, 2016. Kurdish forces began Monday advancing on a string of villages east of Mosul, the start of a long-awaited campaign to reclaim Iraq's second-largest city from the Islamic State, which seized it more than two years ago, officials said. (Photo by Bryan Denton/The New York Times)

Storm erupts over Pacific Ocean as plane zooms past at 37,000 ft. The amazing picture shows a massive cloud erupting against a starry night sky as the off-duty airman Santiago Borja flew over the Pacific near Panama City. He had just moments to take the breathtaking snap as the Boeing 767 zoomed by at 37,000 ft on its way from North America to Ecuador. He also had take the picture perfectly in time with the flash of lightning to capture the storm in all its glory. (Photo by Santiago Borja/Solent News)

A man salvages his belongings after a raging fire engulfed around 2,000 houses in Quezon city, metro Manila January 1, 2015. At least eight people, including a seven year-old child, died and thousands were displaced after a fire broke out in different locations in metro Manila as the New Year kicked off, local media reported. (Photo by Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)

Chinese artist Kong Ning poses in a costume symbolizing a butterfly, which is decorated with 365 masks on its wings to represent the number of days in a year, during her performance art at the Badaling section of the Great Wall on the outskirts of Beijing January 1, 2015. Kong, whose works include themes related to China's air pollution problem, named her new performance art “Hua Die” (transforming into a butterfly) and performed it on the first day of the new year as she hopes that China has clean air for this year. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

The President of the sushi restaurant chain Sushi Zanmai, Kiyoshi Kimura, cuts a blue fin tuna outside his main restaurant at the outer Tsukiji market in Tokyo January 5, 2015. The 180 kg blue fin tuna traded at a price of 4.5 million yen (37,500 USD) and was the most expensive fish at this year's New Year auction at the Tsukiji market, local media reported. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A woman buys bread at a bakery in Cairo, January 8, 2015. The successful roll-out so far of a new “smart card” system to distribute subsidised bread has been a major achievement for Egypt's government, saving money while earning praise from families who no longer have to wake early to fight for loaves. (Photo by Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)

Eighty one-year-old Sakon Haba (L) wearing loin cloth walks past a police station after he bathed in ice-cold water at the Teppozu Inari shrine in Tokyo January 11, 2015. According to organizers, about 100 participants took part in the Shinto ceremony to purify their souls and wish for good health in the new year. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)

A brave photographer managed to get within metres of an active volcano despite it spewing out lava waves over 140 metres high. Silhouetted against a fiery fountain of red, Icelandic photographer, Tómas Freyr Kristjánsson, 37, braved blistering temperatures to get as close the volcano as possible. Although very few were brave enough to get so close, Tómas managed to photograph nearby tourists to give some scale to the spraying molten rock, including that of a nearby motorcyclist. (Photo by Tómas Freyr Kristjánsson/Caters News)