Travel pictures

Former Swiss Army strongholds have been transformed into data centres, hotels and mushroom farms.

The Haxey Hood and the Leominster Morris Wassail date back hundreds of years.

Workers give the final touches to ice buildings and giant snow sculptures at the Harbin Ice Festival.

Heavy snow has fallen in Istanbul, causing flight cancellations, road chaos and closure of schools – and beautiful photos.

Followers of the Afro-Brazilian Candomble and Umbanda religions gather on Rio's Copacabana Beach to pay tribute to Iemanja, the queen of the sea.

Kevin Frayer photographs Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns at the Utmost Bliss Dharma Assembly.

Renowned aerial photographer Jason Hawkes shows a changing London as winter approaches.

Thousands of people including British ex-pats and tourists parade through the streets in costumes.

Longleat has been transformed into an illuminated winter wonderland.

Reuters photographer Maxim Zmeyev records the lives of the few people who remain in remote snow-covered villages.

Water from the flood in 10 November 1985 has receded revealing a lost Argentinian spa town.

Facial tattoos were once common among Berber women, but now it is considered a sin in Islam.

Indigenous peoples from Brazil, as well as native people from Asia and North America, are competing in the first World Indigenous Games.

In their book Africa On Safari, Kym and Tonya Illman reveal how they captured their wildlife photos.

Devotees pierce both cheeks and thread skewers through the holes. Some go a bit further.

Reuters photographer Denis Balibouse photographs the Aletsch Glacier in the Swiss Alps.

Photographs of the ghost town of Pripyat abandoned after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

Smartphones, traffic jams, restaurants and taxis – North Korea's capital is showing signs of prosperity.

Activists protesting against redundancies at Air France stormed the HQ and attacked two managers.

More than 500 hot air balloons took to the skies for the annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in New Mexico.

A 300-metre long glass bridge suspended over a canyon that is 180 metres deep in places.

Hazardous smog has blanketed parts of northern Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.

People have made their homes in decommissioned planes abandoned in a field in Bangkok.

In the former Soviet Union, bus stops were often an excuse for designers to try out their most outlandish ideas.

The dirtiest of all the Spanish festivals is Cascamorras, in Baza, near Granada.

Photos of this year's Burning Man, a huge alternative festival in Nevada's Black Rock desert.

Steampunks show off their creative costumes at the Asylum Steampunk Festival in Lincoln.

The streets of Bunol run red as 20,000 people pelt each other with tomatoes in the 70th La Tomatina festival.

A photographer manages to capture photos showing the harsh realities of life in poverty-stricken North Korea.

Events include carrot tossing, ginger speed dating, freckle counting, and the coronation of the King and Queen of the Redheads.