JAN. 16: A man rides a horse through the flames during the "Luminarias" annual religious celebration on the eve of Saint Anthony's day, Spain's patron saint of animals, in the village of San Bartolome de Pinares, northwest of Madrid. According to tradition that dates back 500 years, people ride their horses through the narrow cobblestone streets of this small village to purify the animals with the smoke of the bonfires.
JAN. 16: Komodo dragons eat meat inside their enclosure at Prague Zoo, Czech Republic.
JAN. 16: Johann Andre Forfang of Norway falls at the finish line after competing in the third round of the Ski Flying World Championships at Kulm hill in Bad Mitterndorf, Austria.
JAN. 16: Children in costumes play before a performance of "Shehuo" festival, ahead of Chinese Lunar New Year, in Hancheng, Shaanxi Province, China.
JAN. 17: A girl pushes her dog in a pram after it was blessed by a priest in Benalmadena, near Malaga, Spain. Hundreds of pet owners bring their animals to be blessed every year on the day of San Anton, Spain's patron saint of animals.
JAN. 17: A climber ascends a silo covered in ice in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The owners connect hoses to the top of the silo and spray it with water in winter months to freeze the exterior for climbing.
JAN. 18: People take pictures in front of a shoe-shaped church in Chiayi, southern Taiwan. The church, which is about 55 feet tall and 36 feet wide, took three months and about $685,000 to build. It is expected to open in February 2016, before the Lunar New Year, according to the Chiayi county government official.
JAN. 18: A man flops into the icy waters of a lake as part of celebrations for Orthodox Epiphany on the outskirts of Minsk. Orthodox believers marked Epiphany on Jan. 19 by immersing themselves in icy waters regardless of the weather.
JAN. 19: First Lt. Jimmy Gillie embraces his wife, Krystie, after arriving in the States after a four-month deployment to Southwest Asia. Gillie was among about 150 reservists in the 908th Airlift Wing Reserve Unit who returned in two C-130 aircraft to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala.
JAN. 19: Contestants lie on snow during an endurance competition at an indoor ski resort in Changsha, Hunan province.
JAN. 19: The Dalai Lama points to his swollen right eye as he talks to journalists before boarding a chartered flight in Dharmsala, India. The 80-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader said he was heading to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for a medical checkup.
JAN. 19: A vulture waits its turn to be equipped for the "Vultures Detect" program at Huachipa Zoo in Lima, Peru. Vultures were being equipped with GPS tracking devices and GoPro cameras to help environment officials crack down on illegal waste dumps surrounding the Peruvian capital.
JAN. 19: Spain's Rafael Nadal reacts during his first-round match against Spain's Fernando Verdasco at the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park, Australia. Verdasco beat 14-time major winner Nadal in 4 hours, 41 minutes on Tuesday, then lost to Dudi Sela in four sets on Thursday.
JAN. 20: Faithful jump into the waters of the Fasilides Bath as part of a ceremony in which the waters are blessed by the priest of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church during the second day of Timket in Gondar, Ethiopia. Timket, the greatest Ethiopian festival of the year, is to commemorate Jesus Christ's baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist.
JAN. 20: Revelers throw turnips at the Jarramplas, a character who wears a devil-like mask and a colorful costume, as he makes his way through the streets while beating his drum during the Jarramplas traditional festival in Piornal, southwestern Spain. The exact origins of the festival are not known, but various theories link it to the mythological punishment of Caco by Hercules; to ceremonies celebrated by the American Indians that were seen by the first conquerors; or to a cattle thief being ridiculed and expelled by his village neighbors. The Jarramplas festival takes place annually to mark Saint Sebastian's Day.
JAN. 21: U.S. Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush gets some Second Amendment cred as he holds a gun presented to him at Sturm, Ruger & Co. in Newport, New Hampshire.
JAN. 21: A Kashmiri Muslim demonstrator prepares to hurl a stone toward Indian police during a protest in Srinagar. Clashes between police and demonstrators broke out on Thursday during a protest organized by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), a Kashmiri separatist party, to mark the anniversary of the killings of around 50 people allegedly by Indian security forces on Jan. 21, 1990.
JAN. 21: A man smokes near a board showing currency exchange rates of the U.S. dollar and euro against the ruble in Moscow. Russia's ruble set a new record low of over 81 rubles per dollar as a bearish mood gripped Russian financial markets.
JAN. 21: Monkeys huddle under a rock during a snowstorm at a zoo in Hangzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province. An unusually strong winter cold front was bringing snow and the lowest temperatures in decades to parts of China.
JAN. 22: Gorilla Sindy feeds her newborn baby at the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The baby was born Thursday after an 8½-month pregnancy – Sindy's fifth. The baby has no name yet as the gender is not yet determined.
JAN. 22: Switzerland's Roger Federer hits a shot during his third-round match against Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov at the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park, Australia. The 34-year-old Federer became the first man to win 300 Grand Slam singles matches when he beat Dimitrov. Federer already tops many “most of” lists in men’s tennis – from the number of major titles won (17) to the number of consecutive Grand Slam tournaments contested (65).
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