Transgender Kendra Ferrari, 21, performs during Miss Night Queen beauty contest in Guatemala City, Friday, June 15, 2012. Ferrari won the pageant and will represent the transgender community for one year. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

These are the stomach-churning pictures of the swing at the end of the world – a rickety wooden swing hanging over a precipice 2,660 metres above sea level – and not a seatbelt in sight. (Photo by Caters News)

Throughout the course of the long war in Afghanistan, Coalition troops have relied on thousands of military working dogs to help keep them safe, and make their jobs easier. The dogs are trained to detect explosives, to find illegal drugs, to search for missing comrades, or target enemy combatants. Not only are they active on the front lines, but behind the lines they serve as therapy dogs, service dogs, and loyal companions. They also share the same risks as the ground troops, suffering injuries and sometimes death on the battlefields. Gathered here are images of these dogs and their handlers in Afghanistan and back home, from over the past several years, part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan.

The 100-metre (300-foot), sword-wielding statue of “The Motherland” is seen in the National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War in Kiev March 17, 2014. On a blustery day on the banks of the Dnieper, the statue of “The Motherland”, a Soviet hammer and sickle on her shield, towered overhead, a reminder of the common cause Ukrainians and Russians died for side by side in their millions in World War Two and which Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks Ukraine has betrayed by turning to “fascism” and the West. (Photo by Konstantin Grishin/Reuters)

Simone Genziuk is one of the star’s of Sydney's Royal Easter Show – not surprising when you see her lift a 75kg washing machine with her hair. The 43-year-old known as Simi is one of the star’s of this year’s Royal Easter Show and it’s all thanks to her hair. Ms Genziuk is no newcomer to the art of circus performing having been an aerial acrobat for 13 years. (Photo by Nathan Edwards/Newspix/SIPA Press)

A Tibetan mastiff dog is displayed for sale at a mastiff show in Baoding, Hebei province, south of Beijing on March 9, 2013. Fetching prices up to around 750,000 USD, mastiffs have become a prized status-symbol amongst China's wealthy, with rich buyers across the country sending prices skyrocketing. Owners say the mastiffs, descendents of dogs used for hunting by nomadic tribes in central Asia and Tibet are fiercely loyal and protective. Breeders still travel to the Himalayan plateau to collect young puppies, although many are unable to adjust to the low altitudes and die during the journey. (Photo by Ed Jones/AFP Photo)

Israeli soldiers detain a protester during a demonstration by Palestinians protesting against the Israeli-built West Bank separation barrier and calling for the right of return for Palestinian refugees, in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, on May 31, 2014. (AP Photo/Nasser Ishtayeh)

Jill Olsen (R) has her picture taken inside a giant cocoon, from the “Falling Skies” TV series, during the 2014 Comic-Con International Convention in San Diego, California July 24, 2014. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Reuters)