• Hot air balloons launch in Bristol to start four-day festival

    Matt Cardy / Getty Images

    More than 60 balloons launched at the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta at the Ashton Court estate on August 12 in Bristol, England. More than 500,000 people are expected to attend the international four-day hot-air ballooning event which should see hundreds of balloons take to the skies. The event, which started in 1978, now attracts balloon teams from as far as the United States, Dubai, France and Switzerland and runs until Sunday.

    Matt Cardy / Getty Images

    Hot-air balloons fly over the city center during the early morning mass assent on August 12.

    By Chris A Wilson

     England has seen a lot of news lately, and not good news. I thought it was time for some pretty pictures of hot air balloons this Friday afternoon.

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  • Matt Cardy/Getty Images

    A one-month-old baby Siamang Gibbon.

    Matt Cardy / Getty Images

    A one-month-old baby Siamang Gibbon sits with its mother Salome as they shelter from the wind and the rain in their enclosure at Noahs Ark Zoo Farm on February 1, 2011 in Bristol, England. The little ape, yet to be named, is a Siamang Gibbon, which are facing worrying population declines, with zoos playing an important role in maintaining healthy populations in captive environments. His parents, Samson and Salome are part of a European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) for managed breeding and have a 1-year-old sibling called Sultana who was also born in captivity.

    Baby Gibbon and mom in Bristol, England.