A Khasi man enjoys a Bidi or ‘country cigarette’ as a butterfly settles on his hand after fishing in the Umsiang River in Meghalaya state about 50 miles from Guwahati city, India. From picture desk live: the best news images of the day

Photograph: EPA

A Hindu devotee, face smeared with coloured powder, leaves the Banke Bihari temple during Holi celebrations in Vrindavan, India. Holi, the Hindu festival of colours and also marks the advent of spring. From Picture dek live: the best news pictures of the day

Photograph: Altaf Qadri/AP

Hindu priests spray coloured water on devotees in Banke Bihari temple during Holi festival celebrations in Vrindavan, India

Photograph: Altaf Qadri/AP

Hindus throw coloured powder at the Radha Rani temple during the Lathmar Holi festival in Barsana, India.
Photograph: Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images

The Holy See-side: Indian sand artist Sudersan Pattnaik works on a sand sculpture of Pope Francis in Puri, some 65 kms from the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneswar. With around 17 million practising Catholics, India is home to the Church’s second largest community in Asia after the Philippines.

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picture desk: live.

Photograph: Asit Kumar/AFP/Getty Images

1995, India: by setting off a camera trap, a female tiger captures her own image in Bandhavgarh national park.

National Geographic is celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2013. Here is a selection of photographs published by the magazine and the stories behind them.

Photograph: Michael Nicholls/National Geographic Stock

A man jumps up and down in the water at Sangam during the Kumbh Mela. Millions of Hindu pilgrims are expected to take part in the religious congregation on the banks of Sangam in Allahbad. Four times every 12 years pilgrims travel to wash themselves in sacred rivers, believing that it will cleanse them of sin and liberate them from the cycle of life, death and rebirth.

Full photo gallery of the festival here.

Photograph: Kevin Frayer/AP