[PHOTOS] Valentine's Day around the world

from msnbc.com

A diver holds a sign as Shen Linni surprises girlfriend Shen Ming with a proposal at the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium on Valentine's Day, which falls on the first day of the Chinese new year. According to the lunar calendar, this is the Year of the Tiger.

A man walks away from a Valentine's Day message he wrote in the sand at a beach at South Africa's Cape of Good Hope.

Love is in the air: A couple kisses on Valentine's Day in the central park of Zenica, northeast of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on Sunday, Feb. 14.

Palestinian girls wait to buy flowers in a shop in Gaza City.

Six Chinese couples kiss as they celebrate both Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year after climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge overlooking the Opera House at dawn.

Couples take a Valentine cruise on the Nile in Cairo, Egypt.

Couples re-enact the kiss scene of French film director Claude Lelouch's 1966 movie, "Une Homme et Une Femme" ("A Man and a Woman") on Deauville's beach in western France.

A gay couple toasts next to their wedding cake during a symbolic group wedding in Lima. The wedding was organized by the local gay community to prompt a discussion about the illegality of gay marriages in Peru.

Iraqi Kurds decorate apples with cloves to offer to their partners at a restaurant in the Kurdish city of Arbil in northern Iraq. The preservation of a red apple with cloves is a Kurdish tradition symbolising love and prosperity.

A South African couple waits to wed in the chapel of the former prison of Robben Island, off Cape Town. The world heritage site is where anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela was held for 18 years. It once epitomized the brutality of the apartheid state, but Robben Island is now a lovers' rendezvous. The first weddings took place there in 2000, and about 20 couples per year make the 25-minute boat ride to the island to seal their vows.

Zero Yau, Rain Siu, Ken Cheng and Gigi Hui in traditional Chinese and Western-style wedding costume take part in a wedding in Hong Kong on Valentine's Day, also the first day of the lunar new year.

A heart-shaped balloon lands in a puddle during a flashmob action "Kiss me Berlin" in front of the Brandenburg Gate. The event was aimed at bringing singles together on Valentine's Day.

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