Revellers take part in an annual block party before Carnival in downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, January 16, 2016. The Rio de Janeiro Carnival will be held from February 5 to February 9. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

Claudionor Jose de Deus, wearing a Santa Claus costume, arrives at Santa Rosa community to distribute presents to children, on the shores of the Amazon River in rural Manaus, Brazil, December 19, 2015. Jose de Deus is part of a volunteer group that distributes toys to children from poor neighborhoods and riverside communities that are distant from the city. (Photo by Bruno Kelly/Reuters)

Without mincing words we would like to present a feature: Self-Publishing, let's call it Samizdat. :-) Sure we aren't Flickr, StumbleUpon or add_whatever_you_like, we're really small in comparison with these giants but we have constant, very attentive and grateful audience. All we can offer you is a place on the main page and attention of all our visitors to your posts, the things that are hard to achieve on numerous social services. Who knows, maybe tiny and humble indie project like AvaxNews will be much more helpful in searching of your audience than facebook for example. %-)

Frontier soldiers run as a storm surge hits the coastline under the influence of Typhoon Fitow in Wenling, Zhejiang province, October 6, 2013. China issued a red alert ahead of Typhoon Fitow, which is expected to lash east of the country on Sunday evening. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

This outrageous display of facial hair configurations made an appearance at the 4th Annual National Beard and Mustache Championships in New Orleans. Luckily Las Vegas-based photographer Greg Anderson was on-hand to give us a front-row seat as the bizarre spectacle of facial hair paraded in front of his camera lens. The championships involved some 150 contestants from the U.S., U.K., and Canada who competed in 17 different categories.

“The Nine Emperor Gods Festival is a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is observed primarily in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and also the Riau Islands. In Thailand, this festival is called Tesagan Gin Je, the Vegetarian Festival. It is celebrated throughout the entire country, but the festivities are at their height in Phuket, where about 35% of the population is Chinese. It attracts crowds of spectators because of many of the unusual religious rituals that are performed”. – Wikipedia. Photo: A devotee gest pierced at the Bang Neow shrine in Phuket. (Photo by Paula Bronstein)

Magnetic Woodlands Wallpaper by Sian Zeng. This magnetic wallpaper will bring fairy tales to life in a child's room. Magical woodlands wallpaper in toile style printed in England with eco friendly inks on paper from sustainable forests. Roll dimensions : 52cm X 10 M Length. Repeat size: 53cm half drop. Magnet receptive liner: 61cm width (no pattern repeat) 2x5m roll a total of 10m. The magnet receptive liner is pasted onto the wall first with pre-mixed wallpaper paste. Once it has dried the Woodlands Wallpaper is pasted on top to create this magnetic woodlands wall.

French actress Pom Klementieff (L), Israeli-American actress Natalie Portman (C) and US actress Tessa Thompson pose on the red carpet on arrival to attend the UK Gala Screening of the film “Thor: Love and Thunder”, at the Odeon Luxe in London on July 5, 2022. (Photo by Daniel Leal/AFP Photo)