A herder stops for reindeers to have a rest while riding along the tundra area in Nenets Autonomous District, Russia, November 27, 2016. In Russia's remote Arctic regions reindeer herding has been a way of life for centuries. Each winter herders in Russia's sparsely populated Nenets Autonomous District corral their reindeers into open-air pens before selecting weak animals to be culled... (Photo by Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

A selection of work by four photojournalists who have won grants of $10,000 and editorial support from the agency. Here: “Chasing Winter” by Katie Orlinksy. In late summer and early autumn polar bears flock to the native village of Kaktovik in the Alaskan Arctic to eat at “the boneyard” – the remains of whales annually hunted by the community. (Photo by Katie Orlinsky/Getty Images)

A man wearing a native costume named “Woman Carrying Husband” poses ahead of the Carnival in Sostanj January 15, 2015. Slovenians and members of various ethnological groups celebrate the annual carnival, also known locally as Pust, by wearing traditional masks and costumes to symbolically “chase away” the winter. Prust runs from February 7 to 17 this year. (Photo by Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters)

Located in Siberia, Laka Baikal is the largest freshwater lake on the planet that contains approximately 20 percent of the Earth’s freshwater. Apart from being the oldest lake in the world at over 25 million years old, Lake Baikal is also home to over two thousand varieties of flora and fauna, of which almost 1,600 are endemic to the lake. The water of Lake Baikal is renowned for being some of the clearest in the world. When the lake freezes during the winter, an amazing phenomena takes place: large shards of transparent ice form on the surface of the lake, giving the amazing appearance of turquoise ice.

George R.R. Martin, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner, and other cast and crew of Game of Thrones have faced the winds of winter – or anyway, a bucket of ice water – with the popular charity challenge. HBO’s Game of Thrones gives fans chills in every episode. But as the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS research has exploded across the internet, the cast and crew of the shocking show gave themselves goosebumps as they stepped up to get soaked.

“Actor and director Mel Gibson has pleaded no contest to a “misdemeanour” battery charge after a fight with then-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva in 2010. Gibson, 55, was placed on probation for 36 months and ordered to attend a year of domestic violence counselling. The complaint accuses Gibson of “wilfully and unlawfully” using force and violence against Ms Grigorieva. A misdemeanour charge is generally considered a lesser criminal act than a felony charge in the US”. – BBC News

Photo: Oksana Grigorieva arrives at the premiere Of Warner Bros. “The Edge Of Darkness” held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on January 26, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Participants in the Grelka Fest at the Sheregesh resort in Tashtagolsky District of Kemerovo Oblast, Russia on April 22, 2017. Russian girls marked the end of the ski season with a record-breaking bikini ski festival at Siberia’s top winter resort, Sheregesh. Some 1,498 skiers and snowboarders undressed to impress in the annual event as they took to the pistes under blues skies and sunshine in a bracing temperature of just 5°C. (Photo by Grelka Fest/The Siberian Times)

With the humpback calving season drawing to a close, here’s a look at some of Rita Kluge’s distinctive marine photos from the south Pacific. The Sydney-based photographer fell in love with whales after witnessing southern rights from the New South Wales coastline as they travelled to and from their feeding grounds in the Antarctic. She has since been to Tonga, where humpbacks breed and calf in winter months, to photograph them in the water. (Photo by Rita Kluge/The Guardian)