Football fans from around the world are flocking to Russia's bars, beer gardens and craft beer pubs to quench their thirst as the World Cup heats up.

Sitting humbly on the floor in his orange robes, the spiritual head of the biggest ashram in Rishikesh rejoices at how yoga has spread across the globe in the 50 years since The Beatles first visited the holy city.

The Indian discipline of yoga, involving spiritual and physical practices, is followed in myriad forms today by millions of people worldwide, with an entry in UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list.

At a casino school in Tokyo, croupier-in-training Takuto Saito settles behind a green table and reaches for the roulette wheel, addressing a group of imaginary punters: "Spin up. Place your bets."

The easing of China's one-child policy was a godsend to Zhang Yinzhe and his wife Xu Mengsha, who had decided they wanted to use in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) to freeze an embryo in the hope of one day having a second child.

Image of a "thousand-hand Bodhisattva" created using different varieties of rice in a paddy field in Shenyang in China's northeastern Liaoning province.

Crocodiles may be one of the deadliest hunters in the animal kingdom, but in a small village in Burkina Faso it is not unusual to see someone sitting atop one of the fearsome reptiles.

Contestants rowing a dragon boat during the Dragon Boat Festival in Guilin in China's southern Guangxi province.

Every night, 69-year-old Edinson chooses one of his 11 pairs of dance shoes, slips into a smart suit and heads out to dance tango in the clubs of Montevideo, a city that is looking to breathe new life into an old tradition, one that has long been eclipsed by its more famous neighbor, Buenos Aires.

It may look like they're just planting and weeding, but for the women tending the public gardens of Jalalabad, the tasks represent far more: the rare chance to work outside the home in one of Afghanistan's most conservative and unstable provinces.