Kenyan children learn ballet at Kibera slumClassical music, colourful clothes and teachers’ voices mix to turn the grey cold room into a real ballet studio. Nairobi, Kenya – With more than 2.5 million people in some 200 settlements, the slum dwellers in Nairobi represent more than half of the city’s population and occupy merely 6 percent of the land, according to a report [PDF] released in 2014 by

Syria civil war: New beginnings in KobaneThousands of people who fled from Kobane into neighbouring Turkey have since returned home. Kobane, a city in northern Syria with a Kurdish majority, was devastated during heavy fighting between Kurdish fighters and ISIL, combined with coalition air strikes. [Mauricio Morales/Al Jazeera] For Syrian Kurds, the battle for Kobane has been a pivotal part of the

Day of the DeadDay of the Dead celebrations in Mexico are revealing what many believe to be a unique understanding of death. Pan De Muerto, one of the traditional Day of the Dead foodstuffs that is made throughout Mexico. In Oaxaca, these breads are made with marzipan heads and used as an offering at alters. In the weeks leading up to the Day of the Dead, bakeries throughout Oaxaca work through th

Relics of Romania’s communist industrial pastDespite collapse of communism, Romanians still live in derelict colonies built to support the now-ruined industries. Children play in front of an unfinished apartment building in Anina Noua, a former mining colony. The town of Anina was developed around the exploitation of a coal pit. The mining industry collapsed in 1996 and all the mines in Anina were

A young migrant girl holds up a sign during a protest in front of a train at Bicske railway station, Hungary, September 4, 2015. Hundreds of migrants, many of them refugees from the Syrian war, woke after a night spent on a packed train stranded at a...more A young migrant girl holds up a sign during a protest in front of a train at Bicske railway station, Hungary, September 4, 2015. Hundreds of m

Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-FitrThree-day Eid al-Fitr festival marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Women attend Eid al-Fitr prayers at Parangkusumo beach in Yogyakarta. [Slamet Riyadi/AP Photo] Muslims around the world are celebrating the three-day Eid al-Fitr festival, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. The beginning and end of Islamic months are determi

Living with creaturesPhotographers have documented the relationships between humans and animals in countless ways. Some photos depict how animals depend on us and others show how we rely on animals. The ways in which we share this world and interact with other living things is endless and sometimes very unique. CaptionSaxophonist and composer Xavier Rosselle (L) and dancers (from L) Gilles Noel, Y

A young couple on a date in a cafe in Tokyo.John Dominis—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Boy meets girl. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy and girl get married, buy a house and have (on average) 2.2 children. This may have been a common story for heterosexual couples in America in the 1950s, but when LIFE dispatched John Dominis to capture love and marriage in post-war Japan, he found a land

The conflict in the Mideast has intensified in the last month with turbulent fighting in Gaza strip. Over 800 Palestinians have been killed and over 5,000 injured, according to Palestinan health officials. World leaders have been working on a truce between Hamas and Israel to end the bloodshed. --Leanne Burden Seidel (36 photos total) Smoke and flames are seen following what police said was an Isr

June 20 is World Refugee Day, an opportunity to draw attention to those who have been displaced around the globe. This is a collection of photos documenting a small percentage of the people who have been driven from their home. --Leanne Burden Seidel (21 photos total) A women and a girl wash at a tap at a temporary displacement camp set up next to a Kurdish checkpoint on June 13 in Kalak, Iraq. Th

Around the world, animals new to this earth experience life. In zoos and in nature, photographers captured a variety of species during these moments. --Leanne Burden Seidel (31 photos total) Twin polar bear cubs Nela and Nobby play outside their enclosure at Tierpark Hellabrunn zoo in Munich, April 7. (Michael Dalder/Reuters) A newly hatched blackbird chick opens his beak alongside three other egg

Spring was welcomed in the northern hemisphere this week after a long, cold winter for many. The temperatures and visual cues of spring are not omnipresent for all regions, but for some around the world, beauty abounds. --Leanne Burden Seidel (26 photos total) A Palestinian man and his daughter pick wild mustard flowers which grow in untilled fields across the Gaza Strip, on March 20, as the offic