Photographer Andy Hall joins the thousands of fans from west Africa who have gathered for Baaba Maal's annual Blues du Fleuve festival in Senegal. Here: Dancers wait to perform on stage. (Photo by Andy Hall/The Observer)

The legendary US photographer’s favourite shots of creatures and how they interact with humans feature in “Animals”, his latest book. Here: A boy rests against a cow, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2013. “Cows have been designated the national animal in Nepal. They roam freely, and are considered sacred by the 80% of Nepalis who are Hindu”. (Photo by Steve McCurry/The Guardian)

The Last Bell (we mean the bell that informs the pupils about the beginning or the ending of the lessons) is the traditional feast of the Russian pupils who leave the school. The Last School Bell feast occurs in the end of May, when the school year has already finished, but the final examinations have not begun yet. (Read more...)

Eight-year-old Niu Dongfang trains at the No. 2 Beijing Shuangqiao School January 13, 2005 in Beijing, China. Most of students in the gymnastics school have to study more than five years from as young as age six before they become athletes. (Photo by Guang Niu/Getty Images)

Clouds float over an open field January 3, 2007 in Shirley Heights, Antigua. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Father Christmas waiting for a bus in the London West End with his reindeer and a sack of presents. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images). 12th August 1970

A participant in costume eats a sandwich after a Halloween parade in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo, October 26, 2014. More than 100,000 spectators turned up to watch the parade, where 2,500 participants dressed up in costumes, according to the organiser. (Photo by Yuya Shino/Reuters)

In an observance of Epiphany, Russian Orthodox believers swim in an icy pond outside Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. (Photo by Olga “Zwezdochka”)