Racegoers react as they leave after the second day of the Grand National meeting at Aintree, northern England April 5, 2013. (Photo by Nigel Roddis/Reuters)

ATTENTION: VISUAL COVERAGE OF SCENES OF INJURY AND DEATH

P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and these striking images of 2017 are no exception. The photo highlights include incredible snapshots of the natural world as well as some awesome animal and human encounters. The vibrant gallery also shows thrill-seekers pushing themselves to the limit with breathtaking stunts captured in perfect clarity. The pictures have been taken by a host of photographers from around the world. Here: The two lion cubs singing their hearts out at Antelope park in Zimbabwe. (Photo by David Jenkins/Caters News Agency)

These kaleidoscopic images showcase the sheer beauty of the mammoth firework displays held across Japan every summer. The Japanese word for fireworks, hanabi, means fire flower, and each year, local governments in Japan throw around 7,000 festivals, or hanabi taikai. Here: Tsuchiura National Fireworks Competition, Tsuchiura City, Ibaraki Prefecture. (Photo by Makoto Igari/Caters News Agency)

Women walk next to soldiers in Surcubamba, Peru, Thursday, May 21, 2015. The Joint Command of the Peruvian Armed Forces organized a humanitarian mission to Surcubamba, where health care was provided to families from nearby villages in this region called VRAEM, the acronym for Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro rivers, where sixty percent of Peru's cocaine originates. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A baby Jack Russell and Chihuahua mix has defied the odds by surviving despite its tiny size and being abandoned by its mother. The owners of named the puppy “Miracle” and have taken over the feeding and care of the baby after its four siblings passed away shortly after being born. Owner Kayley-May Coles, age 10, said, “Everyone thinks she is absolutely beautiful. My friends absolutely love her. My teacher thought she might be the smallest dog ever to be born. She is just perfect”.

A woman looks at traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs “Pysanka”, installed as part of the upcoming celebrations of Easter, in central Kiev, Ukraine, April 29, 2016. A pysanka is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated with traditional Ukrainian folk designs using a wax-resist (batik) method. The word pysanka comes from the verb pysaty, “to write”, as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax. Many other eastern European ethnic groups decorate eggs using wax resist for Easter. These include the Belarusians, Bulgarians, Croats, Czechs, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Poles, Romanians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes and Sorbs. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

The brutalist war memorials found throughout the former Yugoslavia were weird enough when they were built in the 1960s and 70s. Today, separated by the end of an architectural movement and the disintegration of the country, they seem almost alien. Belgian photographer Jan Kempenaers treats them purely as artistic objects in his book, “Spomenik”, named for the Serb-Croat word for monument. Known for photographing geographical oddities, Kempenaers was captivated by the spomenik after seeing them in an art encyclopedia. After hearing that many had been destroyed or abandoned, he set out to record what was left. (Photo by Jan Kempenaers)

Children pour cold water on themselves under the control of fitness coach Margarita Filimonova (R) at local kindergarten number 317, with the air temperature at about minus 23 degrees Celsius (minus 9.4 degrees Fahrenheit), in Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, February 5, 2013. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews).