Elvis Presley impersonator Michael Conti sings as he officiates a wedding for Phoebe Kim and Colton Sorensen of California as they dance at the Little White Wedding Chapel on December 31, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. In what could be a record-breaking date for weddings in the city, thousands of couples are expected to get married on the specialty date with the repeating 1-2-3 1-2-3 pattern that also coincides with the New Year's Eve holiday and a weekend. The most popular date for Las Vegas weddings was in 2007, when 4,492 couples exchanged vows on July 7, or 7/7/07. Since 1953, more than five million weddings have been held in the city, when the Daily Herald in London published an article referring to Las Vegas as the “Wedding Capital of the World”. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

It’s a tradition that dates back hundreds of years, where two stallions fight over a female to ring the Chinese new year. And when it’s the Year of the Horse, the fights are considered to be even more significant. They’re held in small villages across southern China and have been condemned by animal rights groups, including Hong-Kong based Animals Asia. But those who participate in the events defend the fights and insist they take care of the animals.

A series of beautiful shots of divers swimming near sunken ships have emerged. Alex Voyer, 39, was sailing around the Caribbean on a 60-foot boat when he stopped for a dive. The images show amazing shipwrecks as free divers explore the seabed. Here: A diver swims in the shallow water under a pier. (Photo by Alex Voyer/Caters News Agency)

A Tenggerese shaman praying for worshippers at Widodaren cave during the Tenggerese Hindu Yadnya Kasada festival on July 31, 2015 in Probolinggo, East Java, Indonesia. The festival is the main festival of the Tenggerese people and lasts about a month. On the fourteenth day, the Tenggerese make the journey to Mount Bromo to make offerings of rice, fruits, vegetables, flowers and livestock to the mountain gods by throwing them into the volcano's caldera. The origin of the festival lies in the 15th century when a princess named Roro Anteng started the principality of Tengger with her husband Joko Seger, and the childless couple asked the mountain Gods for help in bearing children. The legend says the Gods granted them 24 children but on the provision that the 25th must be tossed into the volcano in sacrifice. The 25th child, Kesuma, was finally sacrificed in this way after initial refusal, and the tradition of throwing sacrifices into the caldera to appease the mountain Gods continues today. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)

“G.I. Joe is a line of action figures produced by the toy company Hasbro. The term G.I. stands, in popular usage, for Government Issued and after the First World War became a generic term for U.S. soldiers. The origin of the term dates to World War I, when much of the equipment issued to U.S. soldiers was stamped “G.I.”, meaning that it was made from galvanized iron. The development of G.I. Joe led to the coining of the term “action figure”. G.I. Joe's appeal to children has made it an American icon among toys”. – Wikipedia. Photo: Vintage G.I. Joe figurers are on display at the 2003 Hasbro International G.I. Joe Collectors' Convention June 27, 2003 in Burlingame, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)

Layers of breathtaking colour streak the rolling hills of this vast desert, making the landscape appear as though it has been tie-dyed. The natural phenomenon, nicknamed the “Painted Desert”, was formed when the area was once a river floodplain. Each colour corresponds to a different underground geological feature – rocks which have seemingly dyed the layers of earth above. Formed from volcanic activity, the hills at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in East Central Oregon, USA, are almost bursting with colour. Pictured: The colourful hills at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in East Central Oregon, USA. (Photo by Mark Brodkin/Solent News/SIPA Press)