Flame for Rio Olympics is lit at birthplace of ancient Games

The Olympic flame has been kindled at the birthplace of the ancient games in Greece, heralding the start of a 15-week journey leading to the Aug. 5 opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro.

IOC and Rio organizing committee leaders attended Thursday's flame-lighting at Ancient Olympia, where antiquity's greatest sporting event was held for over 1,000 years.

AP PHOTOS: Thousands brave the cold to cross sea to Greece

The seas are rough and cold. The wind is bitter. The overcrowded smugglers' boats are far from seaworthy, with many unable even to make it across a few miles of water — and the bodies of those who drown as the boats sink are fished out of the churning seas day by day.

Yet tens of thousands of men, women and children fleeing violence and poverty in their homelands continue to risk their lives this winter to make the relatively short but dangerous journey from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands, seeking a better future in Europe.

AP PHOTOS: Objects left on the beach by migrants on Lesbos

In this Monday, Oct. 5, 2015 photo, a children's toy is portrayed on a beach next to the town of Molyvos, on the northeastern Greek island of Lesbos. The migrants arrive by the hundreds on the beaches of the Greek island of Lesbos. And in their eagerness to move on, they leave behind belongings they carried with them.