Dec 26, 2012

2012: Pictures of the Year

Jerry Jackson 0 Comment Nation, World Afghanistan, art, Baltimore, Brazil, Britain, China, England, France, Germany, Greece, India, London, Pakistan, Philippines, protest, Russia, Spain, Syria, United States

228 photos

The best images from around the world that shaped the news of 2012.

: First Lady Michelle Obama (L) and US President Barack Obama (R) hug after delivering remarks during a campaign event at the Alliant Energy Amphitheater in Dubuque, Iowa, August 15, 2012, during his three-day campaign bus tour across the state. The image also became the most retweeted photo ever with over 818,933 retweets and 303,515 favorites. (Jim Watson/Getty Images)

: US President Barack Obama (R) and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney (L) participate in the second presidential debate, the only held in a townhall format, at the David Mack Center at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, October 16, 2012, moderated by CNN’s Candy Crowley. (SaulLoeb/Getty Images)

: A crowd watches an F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft of the Swiss Air Force on October 11, 2012 doing a flight demonstration of the Swiss Air Force over Axalp in the Bernese Oberland. (Fabrice Coffrini/Getty Images)

: Police try to help remove a car surrounded by water after its owner parked it on the bank to watch waves brought on by Typhoon Bolaven in Qingdao, in northeast China’s Shandong province. Typhoon Bolaven — the strongest storm to hit South Korea for almost a decade — left a trail of death and damage in southwestern and south-central regions of the Korean peninsula on August 28, and crossed into China early on August 29. (Getty Images)

: A Syrian boy who was injured when a shell, released by regime forces, hit his house on August 24, 2012, waits to be treated at a hospital in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo. Syrian forces blitzed areas in and around the Aleppo , activists said, as Western powers sought to tighten the screws on embattled President Bashar al-Assad. (Aris Messinis/Getty Images)

: US Army soldiers attached to 2nd platoon, C troop, 1st Squadron (Airborne), 91st U.S Cavalry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team operating under NATO sponsored International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) protect a wounded comrade from dust and smoke flares after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast during a patrol near Baraki Barak base in Logar Province on October 13, 2012. The soldier, 21 year-old Private Ryan Thomas from Oklahoma suffered soft tissue damage and after surgery in Afghanistan was scheduled to be evacuated to Germany. After 11 years of war, 2,135 US soldiers dead, their Afghan colleagues turning on them, and widespread predictions the conflict will end in failure, coalition forces could be forgiven for suffering a dip in morale. But commanders and soldiers on the ground insist the challenges are bringing them closer together, even if the outcome of the war is uncertain and the perception of what constitutes success has changed. (Munir uz Zaman/Getty Images)

: Swirls of green and red appear in an aurora over Whitehorse, Yukon on the night of September 3, 2012 in this NASA handout image. The aurora was due to the interaction of a coronal mass ejection (CME) from the sun with Earth’s magnetosphere. The CME left the Sun on August 31 and arrived on September 3. (David Cartier, Sr./NASA via Reuters)

: A man walks past an ice covered car on the frozen waterside promenade at Lake Geneva in the city Versoix, near Geneva on early February 5, 2012. The death toll from the vicious cold snap across Europe has risen to more than 260, with the winter misery set to hit thousands of those seeking to escape it as air traffic was hit. (Fabrice Coffrini/Getty Images)

: A foreign tourist sits next to a large art display of a shark displayed at a shopping mall in Bangkok on July 9, 2012. Thailand is a tourist magnet but its image as the “Land of Smiles” has been tested in recent years by deadly political unrest, devastating floods and more recently a bungled bomb plot involving Iranian suspects. (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/Getty Images)

: A Free Syrian Army fighter fires his sniper rifle from a house in Aleppo August 14, 2012. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

: People gather on a hill in Marikana on August 23, 2012 after attending a memorial service for the 44 people killed in a wildcat strike at Lonmin’s Marikana mine. Lonmin and nearby Impala Platinum closed for the day as workers prepared for memorials, including the main national service at Marikana where police gunned down 34 miners a week ago after deadly clashes had already claimed 10 people. The service at Lonmin will be the focal point during a day of mourning that will stretch across the country, as many of the victims were migrant workers whose bodies have already returned to their home villages. (Getty Images)

: A French soldier stands on a rooftop of an Afghan National Police (ANP) combat post on September 24, 2012, in a village on the road to Naghlu the French army base. Beds are used by the policemen to sleep outside due to the heat. France is the fifth largest contributor to NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is due to pull out the vast majority of its 130,000 troops by the end of 2014. (Jeff Pachoud/Getty Images)

: Free Syrian Army fighters take cover as they exchange fire with regime forces in the Salaheddin neighborhood of Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on August 22, 2012. At least 12 people were killed in a raid on a district of Damascus, while fighter jets and artillery pummeled the city of Aleppo and rebels claimed seizing parts of a town on the Iraqi border, a watchdog said. (James Lawler Duggan/Getty Images)

: A demonstrator clashes with riot police during a 24-hour strike in Athens on October 18, 2012. Greek riot police fired tear gas to disperse protesters at an anti-austerity rally in Athens held during a national general strike as EU leaders were to tackle the eurozone crisis at a summit. The protesters had broken through a police line outside luxury hotels on central Syntagma Square and scattered groups of youths later attacked police with stones and firebombs, an AFP reporter said. (Aris Messinis/Getty Images)

: Rohingya Muslims, trying to cross the Naf river into Bangladesh to escape sectarian violence in Myanmar, look on from an intercepted boat in Teknaf on June 13, 2012. Bangladesh on Wednesday refused three more boatloads of Rohingya Muslims fleeing sectarian violence in Myanmar, officials said, despite growing calls for the border to be opened. Bangladeshi guards have turned back 16 boats carrying more than 660 Rohingya people, most of them women and children, since June 11 as they tried to enter from neighboring Myanmar across the river Naf. (Munir uz Zaman/Getty Images)

: A fully grown male wild leopard climbs a net after it fell into a water reservoir tank at a tea estate in Haskhowa, some 45 kms from Siliguri, on June 20, 2012. The animal was rescued by the Sukna Forest rescue team from the Mahananda Wildlife sanctuary by lowering a ladder and a net into the tank. (Diptendu Dutta/Getty Images)

: Workers wear panda costumes as they carry a box to transport Giant Pandas back to the wild, at the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Wolong, southwest China’s Sichaun province on May 3, 2012. The bears will be left to fend for themselves to learn crucial survival skills, and scientists plan to gradually reduce human interactions until they can live in the wild without any assistance, and while there have already been 10 attempts at setting pandas free over the past 30 years, and only two are thought to have been successful as the bears find it very hard to survive on their own. (Getty Images)

: Motorists cross a damaged road destroyed at the height of the powerful earthquake in Guihulngan town, Negros Oriental province, central Philippines on February 9, 2012. Survivors of a deadly quake in the Philippines begged rescuers February 8 to keep searching for dozens of people buried in landslides, but officials said hopes of finding them alive were dim. (Ted Aljibe/Getty Images)

: Residents look over the remains of burned homes in the Rockaway section of New York, October 30, 2012. Hurricane Sandy battered the U.S. East Coast on Monday with fierce winds and driving rain, as the monster storm shut down transportation, shuttered businesses and left hundreds of thousands without power. (Keith Bedford/Reuters)

: New taxi cabs are seen in a lot as flood waters recede on October 31, 2012 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy which made landfall along the New Jersey shore, has left parts of the state and the surrounding area flooded and without power. (Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

: Members of the Al-Baraa bin Malek batalion, part of the Free Syria Army’s Al-Fatah brigade, duck to the ground as they pull a man (R) who was shot by a sniper twice in the Bustan al-Basha district of the northern city of Aleppo on October 20, 2012. Due to the risk of being shot by the sniper, no one was able to rescue the man who eventually ran towards rebels, only to be shot by the sniper a second time. Rebels then pulled him and rushed him to a hospital, though it is not known if he survived. Three civilians were shot on this main road in the space of three hours by the same sniper. (Javier Manzano/Getty Images)

: Two women kiss in front of people taking part in a demonstration called by the “Alliance VITA” association against gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples on October 23, 2012 in Marseille, southeastern France. France on October 10 named October 31 as the date when a draft law authorizing gay marriage will be approved by government ministers, amid mounting opposition to the proposed legislation. (Gerard Julien/Getty Images)

: US President Barack Obama winks as he tells a joke about his place of birth during the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington, DC, April 28, 2012. The annual event, which brings together US President Barack Obama, Hollywood celebrities, news media personalities and Washington correspondents, features comedian Jimmy Kimmel as the host. (Saul Loeb/Getty Images )

: Britain’s Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, (C) Prince William (R) and Prince Harry (L) wave as they pass the Houses of Parliament aboard the Royal barge, ‘Spirit of Chartwell’ in central London, on June 3, 2012, during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. Hundreds of rowing boats, barges and steamers filled the River Thames with a blaze of color on Sunday as Queen Elizabeth II sailed through London as part of her spectacular diamond jubilee pageant. (Glyn Kirk/Getty Images)

: A Syrian man carries his wounded daughter outside a hospital in the northern city of Aleppo on September 18, 2012. Syrian troops shelled several districts in Aleppo and clashed with rebels, as Damascus ally Iran proposed a simultaneous halt to the violence and a peaceful solution to the conflict. (Marco Longari/Getty Images)

: Supporters listen to US Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney during a rally at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Marion, Ohio, October 28, 2012. (Emmanuel Dunand/Getty Images)

: Supporters of Leader of the Greek conservative party New Democracy Antonis Samaras wave flags during a pre-election speech in Athens on May 3, 2012. Crunch elections in Greece on May 6 may not produce a government with a strong enough mandate to push through yet more austerity cuts to satisfy Athens’ international creditors. Sunday’s election is expected to see Greek voters, many of them fed up with grinding austerity drives, vote for parties that say they would scrap deals with the EU and IMF. (Aris Messinis/Getty Images)

: Egyptian Coptic priests gather around the body of Pope Shenuda III, the spiritual leader of the Middle East’s largest Christian minority, sitting dressed in formal robes on a wooden throne at the Saint Mark’s Coptic Cathedral in Cairo’s al-Abbassiya district on March 19, 2012. Pope Shenuda died at the age of 88, after a long battle with illness and based on his wishes he will be buried on March 20, at St. Bishoy monastery in Wadi Natrun in the Nile Delta where he spent his time in exile after a dispute with late president Anwar Sadat. (Gianluigi Guercia/Getty Images)

: Tibetan exile Jamphel Yeshi, 27, runs as he is engulfed in flames after he set himself on fire during a protest in New Delhi on March 26, 2012. A Tibetan exile set himself on fire on Monday during a rally in New Delhi to protest against an upcoming visit to India by Chinese President Hu Jintao, police said. (Getty Images)

: US President Barack Obama is picked up by Scott Van Duzer, owner of Big Apple Pizza and Pasta Italian Restaurant during a visit to the restaurant in Fort Pierce, Florida, September 9, 2012, during the second day of a 2-day bus tour across Florida. (Saul Loeb/Getty Images)

: Catholic priest Fabio Colindres (L) speaks with a member of Mara Salvatrucha gang during a mass at the prison of Ciudad Barrios, 160 km east of San Salvador, El Salvador on June 19, 2012. Inmates participated in a mass to celebrate 100 days after a truce was declared between gangs and the Salvadorean goverment. (Jose Cabezas/Getty Images)

: A supporter of France’s Socialist Party (PS) newly elected president Francois Hollande holds a rose as he celebrates at the Bastille Square in Paris on May 7, 2012 after the announcement of the results of the French presidential final round. Hollande was elected France’s first Socialist president in nearly two decades on May 6, 2012 dealing a humiliating defeat to incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy and shaking up European politics. (Eric Feferberg/Getty Images)

: A former Taliban fighter looks on after joining Afghan government forces during a ceremony in Herat province on March 26, 2012. Twelve fighters left the Taliban to join government forces in western Afghanistan. The Taliban, ousted from power by a US-led invasion in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, announced earlier this month that they planned to set up a political office in Qatar ahead of talks with Washington. (Aref Karimi/Getty Images)

: Young Slovaks dressed in traditional costumes throw a bucket of water at a girl as part of Easter celebrations in the village of Trencianska Tepla, 145 km north of Bratislava on April 9, 2012. Slovakia’s men splash women with water and hit them with a willow to symbolize youth, strength and beauty for the upcoming spring season. (Samuel Kubani/Getty Images)

: A voter casts his vote at Marie’s Golden Cue pool hall during the U.S. presidential election in Chicago, Illinois, November 6, 2012. (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)

: North Koreans watch fireworks during an unveiling ceremony of two statues of former leaders Kim Jong-Il (R) and Kim Il-Sung (L) in Pyongyang on April 13, 2012. North Korea’s new leader Kim Jong-Un on April 13 led a mass rally for his late father and grandfather following the country’s failed rocket launch. (Pedro Ugarte/Getty Images)

: A woman looks at an installation made of recycled plastic bottles representing fishes, in Botafogo beach, in Rio de Janeiro, on June 19, 2012, in the sidelines of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20. The UN conference, which marks the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit — a landmark 1992 gathering that opened the debate on the future of the planet and its resources — is the largest ever organized, with 50,000 delegates. (Christophe Simon/Getty Images)

: Former France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy (L) and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy leave the Elysee presidential Palace after the formal investiture ceremony between France’s president Francois Hollande and his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, on May 15, 2012 in Paris. (Patrick Kovarik/Getty Images)

: Firemen look at the emerged side of the cruise liner Costa Concordia on January 17, 2012. The Costa Concordia grounded in front of the harbour of Isola del Giglio after hitting underwater rocks on January 13. Rescuers searched for 29 people still unaccounted for from the wreck of a luxury liner off the coast as the arrested captain faced a hearing with investigators. (Filippo Monteforte/Getty Images)

: The luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia is shown run aground off the coast of Giglio in this January 17, 2012 DigitalGlobe handout satellite photo obtained by Reuters January 18, 2012. Eleven people are confirmed dead and at least 23 are still missing from more than 4,200 passengers and crew after the Concordia ran aground two hours into a week-long cruise of the western Mediterranean. (DigitalGlobe/Reuters)

: A Palestinian youth readies to sling a stone at Israeli soldiers as they patrol along the controversial Israeli built separation barrier during clashes close to the village of Bilin, just west of the city Ramallah, in the occupied Israeli West Bank, on April 13, 2012. (Abbas Momani/Getty Images)

: Visitors watch giant gushes of water released from the Xiaolangdi dam to clear up the sediment-laden Yellow river and to prevent localized flooding, in Jiyuan, central China’s Henan province. China is hit by big downpours every summer often causing fatalities as seen in 2010, which saw the nation’s worst flooding in a decade leaving more than 4,300 people dead or missing. (Getty Images)

: A boy swims amongst the debris as he tries to salvage belongings from destroyed homes hit after two barges smashed into an informal settler area in Manila on July 30, 2012, when strong winds and rains due to Tropical Storm Saola hit the capital. At least one person was killed and millions were left without power on July 30, as Tropical Storm Saola brought heavy rains to large parts of the Philippines, the government said. (Ted Aljibe/Getty Images)

: A man with a Guy Fawkes mask takes part in a protest against the Spanish government’s latest austerity measures in Madrid, on July 19, 2012. Several hundreds government workers joined the protest after conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced, on July 13, the latest measures to lower Spain’s deficit, a 65-billion-euro (80 billion USD) austerity package involving among other things an increase in the VAT (TVA) tax and cuts in unemployment benefits. (Pedro Armestre/Getty Images)

: Royal supporters sit on chairs with Union Jack decorations on the Mall outside Buckingham Palace in London, on June 4, 2012, in preparation for the Queen’s Jubilee concert. A chain of more than 4,200 beacons began to flare across the globe on June 4 to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee, with the last to be lit by the monarch at a star-studded concert at Buckingham Palace. (Ben Stansall/Getty Images)

: The carcass of the world’s most well-preserved baby mammoth, named Lyuba, is displayed in Hong Kong on April 10, 2012. Lyuba, whose carcass is 42 thousand years old was found by a reindeer herder in Yamal Peninsula in Russia on 2007. She will be exhibited at IFC Mall in Hong Kong on April 12, 2012. (Aaron Tam/Getty Images)

: Syrian rebels hunt for snipers after attacking the municipality building in the city center of Selehattin, near Aleppo, on July 23, 2012, during fights between rebels and Syrian troops. Syrian rebels “liberated” several districts of the northern city of Aleppo on Monday, a Free Syrian Army spokesman in the country’s commercial hub said. (Bulent Kilic/Getty Images)

: Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, kisses the hand of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II on stage as British singers Paul McCartney (3R) and Elton John (R) and other performers look on after the Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace in London on June 4, 2012. A chain of more than 4,200 beacons began to flare across the globe Monday to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee, with the last to be lit by the monarch at a star-studded concert at Buckingham Palace. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

: US President Barack Obama does pushups during basketball shooting drills during the annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House April 9, 2012 in Washington, DC. The First Family participated in the yearly event where the South Lawn is opened up to guests to participate in various egg rolls and other activities. (Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

: US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle celebrate on stage after Obama delivered his acceptance speech on November 7, 2012 in Chicago. Obama swept to re-election, forging history again by transcending a slow economic recovery and the high unemployment which haunted his first term to beat Republican Mitt Romney. (Robyn Beck/Getty Images)

: Audience members listen as Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa October 24, 2012. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

: US President Barack Obama accompanied by (from L-R ) First Lady Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia appears on stage on election night November 6, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. President Barack Obama swept to re-election Tuesday, forging history again by transcending a slow economic recovery and the high unemployment which haunted his first term to beat Republican Mitt Romney. (Jewel Samad/Getty Images)

: A Russian flag featuring Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flies above his supporters as they celebrate Putin’s victory as they rally at the central Manezhnaya Square just outside the Kremlin in Moscow, March 5, 2012. Police said that some 15,000 people were taking part in a rally in support of the Russian strongman outside the Kremlin walls. (Alexander Nemenov/Getty Images)

: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (C) enters Andreyevsky (St.Andrew’s ) Hall at the Great Kremlin Palace in Moscowâs Kremlin, on May 7, 2012, during his inauguration ceremony. Putin took his oath of office today to become Russia’s president for a historic third mandate at a glittering ceremony inside the Kremlin. (AlexeyDruzhinin/Getty Images)

: North Koreans pay their respects in front of two portraits, one of founding leader Kim Il-Sung (L) and the other of his son Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang on April 9, 2012. North Korea is counting down to the 100th anniversary of its founder’s birth on April 15 with top-level meetings and a controversial rocket launch scheduled in coming days to bolster his grandson’s credentials. (Pedro Ugarte/Getty Images)

: Mohamed, 22, from Algeria, sits inside an abandoned wagon at the train station of Orestiada after crossing the border line from Turkey to Greece on April 9, 2012. Human rights groups have heavily criticized Greece over the fence, and for plans to intern illegal immigrants in former military bases pending deportation. The debt-crippled country is the European Union’s main entry point for illegal immigrants, mostly from Asia and Africa. (Aris Messinis/Getty Images)

: A fire ball rises as the Israeli air force carries out a raid over Gaza City on November 17, 2012, for the fourth consecutive day. Medics said 40 Gazans have been killed and more than 350 wounded since Israel launched an aerial campaign on the enclave on November 14, afternoon, with at least five militants among the 10 people killed in today’s raids. (Majdi Fathi/Getty Images ORG XMIT:

: Palestinians extinguish fire from the car of Ahmed Jaabari, head of the military wing of the Hamas movement, the Ezzedin Qassam Brigades, after it was hit by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on November 14, 2012. The top Hamas commander Ahmed al-Jaabari was killed in an Israeli air strike, medics and a Hamas source told . (Mahmud Hams/Getty Images)

: Palestinian men gather around a crater caused by an Israeli air strike on the al-Dallu family’s home in Gaza City on November 18, 2012. Israeli air strikes killed at least 18 Palestinians in the bloodiest day so far of its massive air campaign on the Gaza Strip, as diplomatic efforts to broker a truce intensified. (Marco Longari/Getty Images)

: The mother of 10-month-old Palestinian girl, Hanen Tafesh, killed the day before in an Israeli air strike, is comforted by her husband and relatives as she mourns before her funeral in Gaza City, on November 16, 2012. Israeli warplanes carried out multiple new air strikes on the Palestinian territory, including several hits on Gaza City, the third day of an intensive campaign which the military has said is aimed at stamping out rocket fire on southern Israel. (Marco Longari/Getty Images)

: Firefighters of Alcoy and Elda try to extinguish a fire in Torre de Macanes near Alicante, on August 13, 2012. One person was killed and three injured Sunday as firefighters battled wildfires across Spain, authorities said, the latest victims in a sweltering summer of forest blazes. (Pedro Armestre/Getty Images)

: A fire breather performs in Chinatown in Manila a day before the Chinese New Year on January 22, 2012. The Lunar New Year falls on January 23 and is the beginning of the Spring Festival holiday. (Noel Celis/Getty Images)

: Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak sits inside a cage in a courtroom during his verdict hearing in Cairo on June 2, 2012. A judge sentenced Mubarak to life in prison after convicting him of involvement in the murder of protesters during the uprising that ousted him last year. (Getty Images)

: Egyptian protesters carry an obelisk with the names of those killed during last year’s uprising, at a huge rally in Tahrir Square on January 25, 2012, marking the first anniversary of the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak as a debate raged over whether the rally was a celebration or a second push for change. (Mahmud Hams/Getty Images)

: A supporter of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak (portrait) waits for news from his trial outside the court in Cairo on February 22, 2012, as the landmark murder and corruption trial of the former leader entered its final day of hearings, with the judge expected to announce the date of the verdict. Cameras are not allowed inside the courtroom and state television did not show Mubarak or the defendants arriving in court. (Marco Longari/Getty Images)

: Devotees of the Chinese Jui Tui Shrine take part in a street procession marking the annual Vegetarian Festival in the southern town of Phuket on October 21, 2012. During the festival, which begins on the first evening of the ninth lunar month and lasts nine days, religious devotees slash themselves with swords, pierce their cheeks with sharp objects and commit other painful acts to purify themselves, taking on the sins of the community. (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/Getty Images)

: A Dutch local resident, standing in his house, looks to high waters level through his window, in Dordrecht on January 5, 2012. Gale force winds reaching up to 110 kilometres (about 70 miles) an hour as well as heavy rains are expected along the Dutch coast. About a quarter of the country sits below sea level. (Robin Utrecht/Getty Images)

: A Pakistani worker pulls on a wire he will connect to a thick chain that will in turn be used to peel away a slab of the outer structure of a beached vessel in one of the 127 ship-breaking plots in Geddani, some 40Kms west of Karachi. Geddani’s ship-breaking yards employ some 10,000 workers including welders, cleaners, crane operators and worker supervisors. The yards are one of the largest ship-breaking operations in the world rivaling in size those located in India and Bangladesh. It takes 50 workers about three months to break down a midsize average transport sea vessel of about 40,000 tons. The multimillion-dollar ship-breaking industry contributes significantly to the national supply of steel to Pakistani industries. For a six-day working week of hard and often dangerous work handling asbestos, heavy metals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), employees get paid about 300 USD a month of which half is spent on food and rent for run-down rickety shacks near the yards, a labour representative told AFP. (Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images)

: France’s opposition Socialist Party (PS) candidate for the 2012 French presidential election Francois Hollande (C) receives flour, thrown by a woman (R) while he was signing a pact on French housing crisis with representatives of the Abb’Pierre Foundation on February 1, 2012 in Paris. (Fred Dufour/Getty Images)

: Thousands of Congolese flee the town of Sake, 26km west of Goma, following fresh fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo town on November 22, 2012. Fighting broke out this afternoon causing people to flee the town and head east, towards Goma, to the camps for the internally displaced in the village of Mugunga. (Phil Moore/Getty Images)

: An M23 rebel marches towards the town of Sake, 26km west of Goma, as thousands of residents flee fresh fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo town on November 22, 2012. Fighting broke out this afternoon causing people to flee the town and head east, towards Goma, to the camps for the internally displaced in the village of Mugunga. (Phil Moore/Getty Images)

: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (C) waves as she crosses a crowd of supporters while arriving for a political rally as part of her electoral campaign at a stadium in Pathein, some 200 kms west of Yangon on February 7, 2012. Supporters turned out to greet the Nobel Peace Prize winner on the campaign trip ahead of April 1 by-elections. (Christophe Archambault/Getty Images)

: People throw talcum powder at one another as they take part in the carnival “Los Indianos” (the Indians) in Santa Cruz de la Palma, on the Spanish Canary island of Las Palma on February 20, 2012. (Desireee Martin/Getty Images)

: A man walks inside of the crumbling oval skeleton of the House of the Bulgarian Communist Party on mount Buzludzha in central Bulgaria on March 14, 2012. Over two decades after the toppling of the regime they glorified, the megalomaniac monuments of the communist era are still standing, setting a quandary for Bulgarian authorities, who can neither maintain nor dismantle them. (Dimitar Kilkoff/Getty Images)

: Chandra Bahadur Dangi, a 72-year-old Nepali who claims to be the world’s shortest man at 56 centimetres (22 inches) in height, walk near his home in Reemkholi village in Dang district, some 540 kilometres southwest of Kathmandu on February 21, 2012. Dangi will embark to the capital city as Guinness World Records experts are due to arrive in Nepal to measure a 72-year-old claiming to be the world’s shortest man. (Prakash Mathema/Getty Images)

: Afghan youth throw stones toward US soldiers standing at the gate of Bagram airbase during a protest against Koran desecration at Bagram, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Kabul, on February 21, 2012. Afghan protestors firing slingshots and petrol bombs besieged one of the largest US-run military bases in Afghanistan, furious over reports that NATO had set fire to copies of the Koran. Guards at Bagram airbase responded by firing rubber bullets from a watchtower, an AFP photographer said as the crowd shouted “Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar” (God is greater). (Massoud Hossaini/Getty Images)

: Britain’s Prince William (L) and his wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, wave to the local Solomon Islanders as they leave the airport aboard a truck decorated as canoe in Honiara on September 16, 2012. The royal couple are on a nine-day tour marking Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, and have already visited Singapore and Malaysia before arriving in the Solomon Islands. (William West/Getty Images)

: Britain’s Prince William’s wife Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge adjusts her scarf outside a mosque at KLCC in Kuala Lumpur on September 14, 2012, on the second leg of a nine-day Southeast Asian and Pacific tour marking Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. (Saeed Khan/Getty Images)

: The Space Shuttle Endeavour is escorted by two F18 jets as it passes the Hollywood sign on the back of a 747 on its arrival in Los Angeles September 21, 2012. The Endeavour will be put on display at its new permanent home the California Science Center in October. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

: Space Shuttle Endeavour is transported on Manchester Avenue while being moved from Los Angeles International Airport to its retirement home at the California Science Center in Exposition Park in Los Angeles, California October 12, 2012. (Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters)

: South Korean pop sensation Psy, whose real name is Park Jae-Sang, performs for fans at a promotion by the Sunrise breakfast television show in central Sydney on October 17, 2012. The 34-year-old Psy has rocketed to international fame with his song “Gangnam Style” and its much-imitated dance moves which has gone viral on YouTube. (Greg Wood/Getty Images)

: A man walks by the destroyed St. Joseph’s Catholic Church which was damaged by a tornado in Ridgway, Illinois, March 1, 2012. Powerful storms that spawned tornadoes ripped through the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, including six in Illinois who were crushed when a house was lifted up and fell on them, authorities said. (Jim Young/Reuters)

: Jeff Bitting (R), from St Augustine, Florida, speaks back stage with fellow full-body tattoo contestants before judging at the National Tattoo Association Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio April 13, 2012. In his 33 years of getting tattoos, Bitting says he has had about 500 hours of work and will complete his other leg in his bid to win more full-body contests. Picture taken April 13, 2012. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

: The Tribute in Light illuminates the sky over Lower Manhattan in remembrance of the 9/11 attacks on the 11-year anniversary as One World Trade is seen lit up in red, white and blue in New York September 11, 2012. (Eric Thayer/Reuters)

: Cyrus Fakroddin and his pet goat Cocoa take a taxi ride in New York, April 7, 2012. Cocoa is a 3-year-old Alpine Pygmy mixed goat who lives with its owner Fakroddin in Summit, New Jersey. They frequently take trips into Manhattan to enjoy the city. Fakroddin raised Cocoa since she was 2 months old and treats her like a human. “She doesn’t like goats, she doesn’t like farms, she likes the people and the city.” Fakroddin said. (Allison Joyce/Reuters)

: Space shuttle Enterprise, mounted atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), flys near the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on April 27, 2012, in New York. Enterprise was the first shuttle orbiter built for NASA performing test flights in the atmosphere and was incapable of spaceflight. Originally housed at the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Enterprise will be demated from the SCA and placed on a barge that will eventually be moved by tugboat up the Hudson River to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in June. (Robert Markowitz/NASA/Getty Images)

: The Space Shuttle Enterprise, passes the Statue of Liberty as it rides on a barge in New York harbor, June 6, 2012. The Space Shuttle Enterprise was being moved up the Hudson River to be placed at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. (Mike Segar/Reuters)

: A Hindu woman reacts as she is smeared with “sindhur”, or vermillion powder, as part of a ritual on the last day of the Durga Puja festival in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh October 24, 2012. In Hindu mythology, Durga symbolises power and the triumph of good over evil. The Durga Puja is the biggest religious festival of Bengali Hindus. (Ajay Verma/Reuters)

: Unidentified women console the wife of Subhash Tomar, a policeman, during his funeral in New Delhi. Tomar on Tuesday died in a hospital after he was injured during a protest over a gang rape in New Delhi, local media reported. Indian authorities throttled movement in the heart of the capital on Monday, shutting roads and railway stations in a bid to restore law and order after police fought pitched battles with protesters enraged by the gang rape of a young woman. (Mansi Thapliyal/Reuters)

: U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks outside K’s Hamburger Shop while standing on a flatbed truck parked next to a 1961 Rambler classic car in Troy, Ohio, June 17, 2012. Romney had been on a campaign bus tour since Friday for a five-day road trip through six battleground states. Joining him are (L-R): Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), Speaker of the House John Boehner and Romney’s wife, Ann. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

: U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at a fundraiser in Los Angeles, California June 6, 2012. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

: U.S. President Barack Obama wipes perspiration from his face as he speaks in a sweltering gym during a campaign stop at Windham High School in Windham, New Hampshire, August 18, 2012. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

: Sailors line the mast of the tall ship ARC Gloria, training ship and official flagship of the Colombian Navy, as it passes the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor while arriving for the 25th annual Fleet Week celebration in New York, May 23, 2012. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

: The moon passes between the sun and the earth behind a windmill near Albuquerque, New Mexico May 20, 2012. The sun and moon aligned over the earth in a rare astronomical event – an annular eclipse that dimmed the skies over parts of Asia and North America, briefly turning the sun into a blazing ring of fire. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

: A full moon as seen from West Orange, New Jersey, rises over the skyline of Lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center (L) in New York, May 6, 2012. (Gary Hershorn/Reuters)

: A woman reacts as she holds her daughter during an air strike by Syrian air force near her house in the Ahad neighborhood of Aleppo on September 13, 2012. Syrian fighter jets and tanks pounded the northern city of Aleppo, an AFP journalist said, as witnesses reported rebels advancing into the key contested central Midan district. (Sam Tarling/Getty Images)

: Audience members watch a model during the J. Mendel Spring/Summer 2013 show at New York Fashion Week, September 12, 2012. (Andrew Burton/Reuters)

: A woman takes photographs of models as they present creations from the Katie Gallagher Spring/Summer 2013 collection during New York Fashion Week September 6, 2012. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

: A 26-foot tall statue of Marilyn Monroe is separated for disassembly in Chicago, May 7, 2012. The sculpture “Forever Marilyn” by artist Seward Johnson, is based on a scene from the movie “Seven Year Itch” was taken down after being on display since last July. (Jim Young/Reuters)

: A supporter made up as a zombie attends a rally for A. Zombie as he announces his candidacy for President of the United States and kicks off his cross country bus tour in San Diego, California August 20, 2012. The “Zombie for President” campaign is organized by AMC Networks after satellite provider Dish Network dropped AMC channels earlier this year. Zombie’s mission is to “find an alternative television provider” ahead of the October 14 third season premiere of AMC’s highest-rated show “The Walking Dead”. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

: Zombies wait to chase runners at the “Run for Your Lives” 5K obstacle course race in Amesbury, Massachusetts May 5, 2012. Runners face man-made and natural obstacles on the course, while being chased by zombies, who try to take “health” flags off the runners belts. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

: Paul Firminger holds an elver in his hand at South Shore Trading Co., an elver buying station, in Portland, Maine, May 11, 2012. May 31 marks the end of what has become a Gold Rush for a small group of Maine fishermen – the 10-week season for catching juvenile eels known as elvers, whose price has increased nearly a hundred-fold over the past decade. Photo taken May 11, 2012. (Joel Page/Reuters)

: A man, who identified himself as Mohawk Gaz, sports an image of black teenager Trayvon Martin on his hair during a rally to protest his killing in Miami, Florida April 1, 2012. Thousands of protesters gathered in a downtown bayfront park on Sunday demanding the arrest of the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in central Florida a month ago. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

: U.S. President Barack Obama celebrates on stage as confetti falls after his victory speech during his election rally in Chicago, November 6, 2012. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

: A man rubs his eyes as he waits in a line of jobseekers, to attend the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. career fair held by the New York State department of Labor in New York April 12, 2012. A report on Friday showed the economy created only 120,000 jobs last month, the fewest since October. The unemployment rate fell to a three-year low of 8.2 percent, but largely as people gave up the search for work. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

: Mustafa Bey gets his haircut from barber Habib Ahad at “A Whole Nu Look” barbershop near Whitney Houston’s funeral at Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey February 18, 2012. Houston, 48, died in a Beverly Hills hotel room on February 11, the eve of the industry’s Grammy Awards. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

: Musician Adele poses with her six trophies at the 54th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, February 12, 2012. (Frederic J. Brown/Getty Images)

: Meryl Streep, Best Actress winner for “The Iron Lady,” and French actor Jean Dujardin, Best Actor winner for “The Artist,” pose backstage at the 84th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, February 26, 2012. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

: Actors Felicity Huffman and her husband William H. Macy pose for photographers at the Hollywood Walk of Fame March 7, 2012. Huffman and Macy have been awarded joint stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles. (Gus Ruelas/Reuters)

: A protester, with blood on his face after a strike to the head with a police baton, screams during an anti-NATO protest march in Chicago May 20, 2012. Baton-swinging police officers clashed with anti-war protesters at the start of the NATO summit on Sunday, beating some and dragging others away. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

: Flo Watson, 61, (R) and her daughter Nina Watson, 34, (C) view Flo’s late postal service co-worker Robert Sanders, 58, at the Robert L. Adams drive-through funeral parlor in Compton, Los Angeles, February 8, 2012. The funeral parlor has been in business since 1974, and is thought to be the only drive-through funeral home in southern California, according to office manager Denise Knowles-Bragg. Knowles-Bragg said the parlor offers a convenient alternative to older people who find it hard to walk, those who want to make a quick stop during the lunch hour, and the families of well-known deceased people who expect many visitors. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

: A house is surrounded by a burnt landscape, as a helicopter flies above after dropping water on the Quail Fire in Alpine, Utah, July 3, 2012. The fire started on Tuesday afternoon and spread quickly through the eastern end of Alpine and then up the mountain side. It is still out of control. (George Frey/Reuters)

: Libyan civilians help an unconscious man, identified by eyewitnesses as US ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, at the US consulate compound in Benghazi in the early hours of September 12, 2012, following an overnight attack on the building. Stevens and three of his colleagues were killed in an attack on the US consulate in the eastern Libyan city by Islamists outraged over an amateur American-made Internet video mocking Islam, less than six months after being appointed to his post. (Getty Images)

: Police surround fallen miners after they opened fire during clashes near a platinum mine in Marikana on August 16, 2012. Hundreds of workers armed with machetes, sticks and metal rods had gathered on a hillside near the mine, defying police orders to disperse. Several people were lying on the ground, some bleeding from wounds, after the crowd fled, according to an AFP reporter. (Getty Images)

: Protesters stand behind barman Alberto Casillas as police surround the bar during a demonstration organized by Spain’s “indignant” protesters to decry an economic crisis they say has “kidnapped” democracy, on September 25, 2012 in Madrid. Spanish riot police fired rubber bullets and baton-charged protesters as thousands rallied near parliament in Madrid in anger at the government’s handling of the economic crisis. (Getty Images)

: Boats are seen in a yard, where they washed onto shore during Hurricane Sandy, near Monmouth Beach, New Jersey October 31, 2012. The U.S. Northeast began an arduous slog back to normal on Wednesday after historic storm Sandy crippled transportation, knocked out power for millions and killed at least 64 people with a massive storm surge that caused epic flooding. (Steve Nesius/Reuters)

: A woman weeps after learning that a neighbor presumed missing is okay while cleaning out her home in a neighborhood heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy in the New Dorp Beach neighborhood of the Staten Island borough of New York, November 1, 2012. Deaths in the United States and Canada from Sandy, the massive storm that hit the U.S. East Coast this week, rose to at least 95 on Thursday after the number of victims reported by authorities in New York City jumped and deaths in New Jersey and elsewhere also rose. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

: The skyline of lower Manhattan, as seen from Exchange Place, is mostly in darkness except for the Goldman Sachs building after a preventive power outage caused by giant storm Sandy, in New York October 30, 2012. Millions of people in the eastern United States awoke on Tuesday to flooded homes, fallen trees and widespread power outages caused by Sandy, which swamped New York City’s subway system and submerged streets in Manhattan’s financial district. More than two-thirds of the U.S. East Coast’s refining capacity was shut down and fuel pipelines idled due to Hurricane Sandy. Early assessments show the region’s biggest plants may have escaped without major damage. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

: Phillip Roser struggles to pedal his bike in downtown Live Oak, Florida, June 26, 2012. Tropical Storm Debby drifted slowly eastward over Florida’s Gulf Coast on Tuesday, threatening to dump more rain on areas already beset by flooding. After stalling in the Gulf of Mexico, the storm was finally moving but was expected to take two more days to finish its wet slog across Florida. (Phil Sears/Reuters)

: A man walks under the wreckage of a fair ride after a tornado ripped through a funfair in Gandia, near Valencia on September 29, 2012. Ten people, including a young girl and an elderly woman, have died in Spain as a result of floods brought on by downpours, regional officials said. (Pedro Armestre/Getty Images)

: New Orleans resident Diana Whipple watches waves crash on the shore of Lake Pontchatrain as Tropical Storm Isaac approaches New Orleans, Louisiana, August 28, 2012. Tropical Storm Isaac was near hurricane force as it bore down on the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday and was expected to make landfall in the New Orleans area seven years after it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. (Jonathan Bachman/Reuters)

: A rebel fighter is brought to the Dar al-Shifa hospital in the northern city of Aleppo to be treated for his wounds on October 1, 2012, as fighting in Syria’s second largest city between rebel forces and government troops continues. (Zac Baillie/Getty Images)

: A double rainbow appears after a heavy monsoon storms over Nipton Road in Searchlight, Nevada, July 13, 2012. The National Weather Service has extended a flash flood watch through Saturday night, as rain and thunderstorms have rumbled into Southern Nevada. Picture taken July 13. 2012. (Gene Blevins/Reuters)

: Lightning strikes over a pier during a storm in Atlit, near the northern Israeli city of Haifa October 25, 2012. (Baz Ratner/Reuters)

: Jordan Youssef salvages a dresser drawer from the remains of her grandmother’s house which was destroyed by a tornado in Harrisburg, Illinois March 1, 2012. Powerful storms that spawned tornadoes ripped through the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, including six in Illinois who were crushed when a house was lifted up and fell on them, authorities said. (Jim Young/Reuters)

: A helicopter drops water on the Waldo Canyon fire burning behind the U.S. Air Force Academy, west of Colorado Springs, Colorado June 27, 2012. Firefighters struggled on Wednesday to beat back a wildfire raging at the edge of Colorado Springs that doubled in size overnight, forced more than 32,000 people from their homes and was nipping at the edges of the U.S. Air Force Academy. (Rick Wilking/Reuters)

: U.S. National Park Service police move protesters out of the way to erect barricades as they clear the Occupy DC encampment in McPherson Square in Washington, February 4, 2012. Police officers wearing helmets and carrying shields arrived at the site where protesters with the “Occupy” movement have been staging a demonstration since October, but it was not immediately clear whether they would evict the protesters. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

: Federal policemen escort a group of prisoners toward a plane bound for an undisclosed location at the Morelia International Airport August 21, 2012. Some 200 inmates serving federal sentences were transferred to federal prisons during an operation by the Secretary of Public Security (SSP), local media reported. (Leovigildo Gonzalez/Reuters)

: A non-government school teacher shouts slogans during a protest in Dhaka May 15, 2012. Bangladeshi police on Tuesday used water cannon and batons to disperse hundreds of non-government school teachers who were taking part in the protest while detaining at least fifteen. The protesters were demanding for the nationalization of their jobs and a pay rise in line with government primary school teachers, according to the Non-Government Primary Teachers’ Association. (Andrew Biraj/Reuters)

: Artist Pyotr Pavlensky, a supporter of jailed members of female punk band “Pussy Riot”, looks on with his mouth sewed up as he protests outside the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg, July 23, 2012. A court on Monday rejected a request to call President Vladimir Putin and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church to testify in the trial of three female punk rockers who derided Putin in a protest in the country’s main cathedral, their lawyer said. (Trend Photo Agency/Reuters)

: The shadow of a woman is cast on the wall of a monastery as she looks on toward the Swayambhunath Stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal August 23, 2012. The Swayambhunath Stupa is a collection of shrines and temples. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

: A wounded woman is carried at the site of an explosion in Ashrafieh, central Beirut, October 19, 2012. At least two people were killed and 15 wounded by a huge bomb that exploded in a street in central Beirut on Friday, witnesses and a security source said. (Hasan Shaaban/Reuters)

: A riot police officer is dragged by protesters after being knocked down off his horse with rocks thrown by workers of ‘La Parada’ wholesale market in Lima, October 25, 2012. Clashes between the wholesale market workers and police officers yesterday left two people dead and more than 100 injured when concrete blocks were attempted to be placed at the entrances by local authorities to prevent market supply, according to local media. Picture taken October 25, 2012. (Alessandro Currarino/Diario El Comercio/Reuters)

: Cast member Daniel Craig (C) takes a photograph of himself with fans as he arrives for the German premiere for the film ‘Skyfall’ in Berlin October 30, 2012. The new James Bond 007 movie opens in German cinemas on November 1. (Tobias Schwarz/Reuters)

: Burned houses are seen next to those which survived in Breezy Point, a neighborhood located in the New York City borough of Queens, after they were devastated by Hurricane Sandy October 31, 2012. Sandy, the massive storm that tore through the U.S. East Coast is being blamed, so far, for the deaths of 64 people, many of whom were killed by falling trees or branches. The storm, at one point extending 1,000 miles in diameter, is making its way north over inland New York, Pennsylvania and into Canada. It knocked out power for millions and crippled transportation systems along the densely populated coastal region. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)

: A view of Nueva Esperanza cemetery during the Day of the Dead celebrations in Villa Maria, Lima November 1, 2012. Each year people visit the cemetery, one of Latin America’s largest, to honour the dead. (Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters)

: Ayesha Ishaque, sister of Mohammad Saud Ishaque who was killed in a Boeing 737 airliner crash, cries over his casket at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital (PIMS) in Islamabad April 21, 2012. The Pakistani airliner with 127 people on board crashed in bad weather as it came in to land in Islamabad on Friday, scattering wreckage and leaving no sign of survivors. The Boeing 737, operated by local airline Bhoja Air, was flying to the capital from Pakistan’s biggest city and business hub Karachi. (Rebecca Conway/Reuters)

: A SPLA soldier looks at warplanes as he lies on the ground to take cover beside a road during an air strike by the Sudanese air force in Rubkona near Bentiu April 23, 2012. Sudanese warplanes carried out air strikes on South Sudan on Monday, killing three people near the southern oil town of Bentiu, residents and military officials said, three days after South Sudan pulled out of a disputed oil field. (Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

: Recruits of the newly formed Congolese Revolutionary Army march during military training in Rumangabo military camp, Democratic Republic of Congo, October 23, 2012. The M23 Movement, the newly formed political wing of former M23 rebels, has formed a semi autonomous administration structure in areas under their control in north Kivu province in the DRC. (James Akena/Reuters)

: A Yawalapiti boy dips his head into the Xingu River in the Xingu National Park, Mato Grosso State, May 9, 2012. In August the Yawalapiti tribe will hold the Quarup, which is a ritual held over several days to honour in death a person of great importance to them. This year the Quarup will be honoring two people – a Yawalapiti Indian who they consider a great leader, and Darcy Ribeiro, a well-known author, anthropologist and politician known for focusing on the relationship between native peoples and education in Brazil. (Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

: U.S. President Barack Obama wipes water off his face during a rain shower at a campaign rally in Glen Allen, Virginia, July 14, 2012. Obama travelled to Virginia on Saturday for campaign events. Rain drops on the lens created the highlights in the image. (Jason Reed/Reuters)

: A Kashmiri government teacher shouts anti-government slogans from inside a police van after he was detained during a protest in Srinagar July 16, 2012. Indian police on Monday used water cannon and batons to disperse hundreds of government teachers while detaining dozens as they attempted to reach the civil secretariat, which houses the offices of Kashmir’s chief minister and his colleagues, to demand their pending arrears and regularization of contractual teachers, protesters said. (Fayaz Kabli/Reuters)

: Police and wildlife rangers stand next to a dead humpback whale lying in a rock pool at Newport beach in Sydney August 1, 2012. Residents of Newport, a popular surfing beach in Sydney, woke to find the corpse of a 30-ton humpback whale washed up in an ocean swimming pool on Wednesday, according to local media. (Daniel Munoz/Reuters)

: A laborer has his dinner under his shed at a construction site of a residential complex in Hefei, Anhui province, August 1, 2012. The average home price in China’s 100 major cities edged up in July for the second straight month, reinforcing signs of a recovery in the property market even as the government seeks to spur broader economic growth, a private sector survey showed on Wednesday. (Reuters)

: Devotees try to form a human pyramid to break a clay pot containing curd during the celebrations to mark the Hindu festival of Janmashtami in Mumbai August 10, 2012. Janmashtami, which marks the birthday of Hindu god Krishna, is being celebrated across the country today. (Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

: A latecomer climbs into the prayer hall of a crowded mosque for Eid al-Fitr mass prayers at Kashmiri Takiya Jame mosque in Kathmandu August 20, 2012. Nepali Muslims celebrate the festival of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

: A horse, a boxer dog and a podenco dog (Andalusian hound) (L-R) are silhouetted in Marinaleda, southern Spain, August 15, 2012. (Jon Nazca/Reuters)

: A demonstrator struggles with Spanish National Police riot officers outside the the Spanish parliament in Madrid September 25, 2012. Protesters clashed with police in Spain’s capital on Tuesday as the government prepares a new round of unpopular austerity measures for the 2013 budget that will be announced on Thursday. (Sergio Perez/Reuters)

: A photographer jumps over a smoke canister during a demonstration by firefighters, security and military personnel against cuts in their salaries imposed by Spanish Government, in the Andalusian capital of Seville September 29, 2012. Spain’s debt will reach 90.5 percent of gross domestic product by end 2013 after hitting 85.3 percent of GDP by the end of this year, the government’s budget document showed on Saturday. (Marcelo del Pozo/Reuters)

: Bavarian farmers transport their cows on a boat over the picturesque Lake Koenigssee at dusk October 3, 2012. Before the winter season approaches the farmers have to drive their cattle down from their Alpine meadows to a narrow valley that can only be reached by boat. (Michael Dalder/Reuters)

: A child jumps on the waste products that are used to make poultry feed as she plays in a tannery at Hazaribagh in Dhaka October 9, 2012. Luxury leather goods sold across the world are produced in a slum area of Bangladesh’s capital where workers, including children, are exposed to hazardous chemicals and often injured in horrific accidents, according to a study released on Tuesday. None of the tanneries packed cheek by jowl into Dhaka’s Hazaribagh neighborhood treat their waste water, which contains animal flesh, sulphuric acid, chromium and lead, leaving it to spew into open gutters and eventually the city’s main river. (Andrew Biraj/Reuters)

: Riot policemen arrest a student protester during a protest against the government to demand changes in the public state education in Santiago, September 27, 2012. Chilean students have been protesting against what they say is profiteering in the state education system. (Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

: Afghan boys play on a destroyed car at a hilltop in Kabul October 18, 2012. (Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

: An indigenous man stands in a subway train as he makes his way to the People’s Summit at Rio+20 for Social and Environmental Justice in Rio de Janeiro June 20, 2012. The People’s Summit at Rio+20 for Social and Environmental Justice is a parallel event of the Rio+20 United Nations sustainable development summit. (Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

: A military service member salutes during a transfer of remains ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, September 14, 2012. President Barack Obama arrived at Andrews Air Force Base on Friday to lead a ceremony honoring the return of the remains of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans killed in an attack in Libya this week. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the other Americans died after gunmen attacked the lightly fortified U.S. consulate and a safe house refuge in Benghazi on Tuesday night. (Jason Reed/Reuters)

: Cars are seen on a street flooded at Hoboken in New Jersey, October 30, 2012. Millions of people across the eastern United States awoke on Tuesday to scenes of destruction wrought by monster storm Sandy, which knocked out power to huge swathes of the nation’s most densely populated region, swamped New York’s subway system and submerged streets in Manhattan’s financial district. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

: A crane removes the carcass of a 40-year-old elephant called Chanchal after it was hit by a truck and killed at the Noida expressway on the outskirts of New Delhi June 29, 2012. Chanchal was a pet kept by a resident. (Parivartan Sharma/Reuters)

: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of female punk band, “Pussy Riot”, stands behind bars during a court hearing in Moscow July 4, 2012. Three members of the all-woman punk band “Pussy Riot” were detained on February 21, 2012, after they stormed into Moscow’s main cathedral to sing a protest song against Vladimir Putin and criticized the Russian Orthodox Church’s support for Putin. (Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

: Women, wearing nylon masks, rest on the shore during their visit to a beach in Qingdao, Shandong province July 6, 2012. The mask, which was invented by a woman about seven years ago, is used to block the sun’s rays. The mask is under mass production and is on sale at local swimwear stores. (Aly Song/Reuters)

: A reveler tries to hold on to a wild horse during the “Rapa Das Bestas” traditional event in the Spanish northwestern village of Sabucedo July 7, 2012. On the first weekend of the month of July, hundreds of wild horses are rounded up, trimmed and groomed in different villages in the Spanish northwestern region of Galicia. (Miguel Vidal/Reuters)

: A runner grabs the horn of a Victoriano del Rio fighting bull as they sprint at the entrance to the bullring during the sixth running of the bulls of the San Fermin festival in Pamplona July 12, 2012. Several runners suffered light injuries in the fastest run (two minutes and twenty seconds) so far in this festival, according to local media. (Susana Vera/Reuters)

: Jake Beaudoin, a U.S. Army Private of 508 BSTB, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, takes cover during a controlled detonation to clear an area for setting up a check point in Zahri district of Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan May 31, 2012. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

: A woman prepares to swallow a live fish that has been dipped in homemade medicine during a camp in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad June 8, 2012. Every year in June, the Bathini Goud brothers from Hyderabad draw thousands to their camp to take part in the administering of the fish medicine, which they believe cures them of asthma and respiratory problems. (Krishnendu Halder/Reuters)

: A stray dog stands on a rubbish dump at the seafront in Sidon, southern Lebanon, June 9, 2012. The dump, located near schools, hospitals and apartment blocks in Lebanon’s third biggest city, has partially collapsed into the Mediterranean sea several times. (Ali Hashisho/Reuters)

: A woman leaves her house through a decorated doorway during Corpus Christi day in Zahara de la Sierra, southern Spain June 10, 2012. The village of Zahara de la Sierra celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi (or Body of Christ in Latin) by covering the streets and facades of houses with the branches of trees and grass. (Jon Nazca/Reuters)

: Workers, a firefighter and doctors work together to cut steel bars which were pierced through a worker’s body at a hospital in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, June 12, 2012. The worker was pierced by seven steel bars during his duty at a bridge construction site on Monday afternoon, local media reported. (Reuters)

: Indigenous people point their bows and arrows at a police helicopter flying over the occupied barrier of the Belo Monte Dam’s construction site in Vitoria do Xingu, near Altamira in northern Brazil June 15, 2012. The area was occupied by around 300 activists, indigenous people, fishermen and coastal community members affected by the project as they protested against the construction of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric power plant, according to the activists. (Lunae Parracho/Reuters)

: Tightrope walker Nik Wallenda walks the high wire from the U.S. side to the Canadian side over the Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario, June 15, 2012. (Mark Blinch/Reuters)

: A boy who is waiting to greet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the National Museum makes a face while holding the U.S. and Chinese flags in Beijing May 4, 2012. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

: A boy tries to cross a damaged suspension bridge, after a flash flood caused by an avalanche in the Annapurna mountain range on Saturday, in Kaski district May 6, 2012. At least 17 people, including three foreigners, are confirmed to have died during the flood in Pokhara and adjoining villages in Kaski district, according to Police inspector Ravindra Nath Poudel of Kaski District. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

: Cori Walters, 32, (R) hugs her daughter Hannah Walters, 6, at California Institute for Women state prison in Chino, California May 5, 2012. An annual Mother’s Day event, Get On The Bus, brings children in California to visit their mothers in prison. Sixty percent of parents in state prison report being held over 100 miles (161 km) from their children. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

: Cast member Sarah Gadon (R) and Caleb Landry Jones pose during a photocall for the film “The Sapphires”, by director Brandon Cronenberg, at the 65th Cannes Film Festival, May 20, 2012. (Vincent Kessler/Reuters)

: Britain’s Prince Charles (R) speaks with Camilla (2nd R), Duchess of Cornwall during an event at the First Nations University in Regina, Saskatchewan May 23, 2012. Prince Charles and his wife Camilla are on a three-day royal tour of Canada as part of events that mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. (Fred Greenslade/Reuters)

: A woman escapes from a cloud of tear gas thrown by the police during the second day of skirmishes in the Eastleigh neighborhood of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, November 19, 2012. Police fired tear gas to disperse Kenyans who threw stones and broke into the homes and shops of ethnic Somalis in Nairobi’s Somali-dominated Eastleigh neighborhood on Monday to protest against a bomb attack in the district on Sunday. (Noor Khamis/Reuters)

: Israelis react and run for cover as a siren sounds warning of incoming rockets in the southern town of Kiryat Malachi November 15, 2012. Hamas rocket killed three Israelis north of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, drawing first blood from Israel as the Palestinian death toll rose to 13 and the military showdown lurched closer to all-out war. (Nir Elias/Reuters)

: Police dogs attack a man found stealing from ethnic Somali homes during the second day of skirmishes in the Eastleigh neighborhood of Kenya’s capital Nairobi, November 19, 2012. Police fired tear gas to disperse Kenyans who threw stones and broke into the homes and shops of ethnic Somalis in Nairobi’s Somali-dominated Eastleigh neighborhood on Monday to protest against a bomb attack in the district on Sunday. (Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)

: Palestinian gunmen ride motorcycles as they drag the body of a man, who was suspected of working for Israel, in Gaza City November 20, 2012. Palestinian gunmen shot dead six alleged collaborators in the Gaza Strip who “were caught red-handed”, according to a security source quoted by the Hamas Aqsa radio on Tuesday. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

: Israeli border police officers use pepper spray as they detain an injured Palestinian protester during clashes on Land Day after Friday prayers outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City March 30, 2012. Israeli security forces fired rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades to break up groups of Palestinian stone-throwers on Friday as annual Land Day rallies turned violent. Police said they had made five arrests at Damascus Gate. Land Day commemorates the killing by security forces of six Arabs in 1976 during protests against government plans to confiscate land in northern Israel’s Galilee region. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

: Penitents light their candles as they take part in the Calvario brotherhood procession during Holy Week in Malaga, southern Spain, April 6, 2012. Hundreds of processions take place around the clock in Spain during Holy Week, drawing thousands of visitors. Picture taken April 6, 2012. (Jon Nazca/Reuters)

: A defected army soldier pushes a disabled person across a street as barricades erected by defected army forces are dismantled in Sanaa April 7, 2012. (Mohamed al-Sayaghi/Reuters)

: A soldier stands guard in front of the Unha-3 (Milky Way 3) rocket sitting on a launch pad at the West Sea Satellite Launch Site, during a guided media tour by North Korean authorities in the northwest of Pyongyang April 8, 2012. (Bobby Yip/Reuters)

: Police examine the car of James Eagen Holmes behind the theater where a gunman opened fire on moviegoers in Aurora, Colorado July 20, 2012. A total of 71 people were shot in Friday’s rampage at the Denver-area movie theater that has left 12 people dead, the local police chief said. The suspect, identified by police as James Eagan Holmes, 24, also booby-trapped his Aurora apartment with sophisticated explosives, creating a hazard for law-enforcement and bomb squad officers who swarmed to the scene. (John Wark/Reuters)

: Russian servicemen, dressed in historical uniform, take part in a military parade rehearsal in Red Square, with St. Basil’s Cathedral seen in the background, in Moscow November 5, 2012. The parade will be held on November 7 to mark the anniversary of a historical parade in 1941 when Soviet soldiers marched through Red Square towards the front lines at World War Two. (Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters)

: Denise Paba, who lost her 6-year-old niece Veronica Moser, cries during a memorial for victims behind the theatre where a gunman opened fire last Friday on moviegoers in Aurora, Colorado July 22, 2012. Residents of a Denver suburb mourned their dead on Sunday from a shooting rampage by a “demonic” gunman who killed 12 people and wounded 58 after opening fire at a cinema showing the new Batman movie. President Barack Obama headed to Aurora, on Sunday to meet families grieving their losses Friday’s mass shooting that has stunned the nation and rekindled debate about guns and violence in America. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) waves during the Fourth Conference of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang April 11, 2012, and released on April 12, 2012. WPK named Kim as “first secretary,” on Wednesday, the official KCNA news agency said. (Reuters)

: Men use ropes to try and right a supply truck overloaded with wheat straw, used as animal feed, along a road in Dargai, in the Malakand district, about 165 km (100 miles) northwest of Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, April 13, 2012. (Mian Khursheed/Reuters)

: Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky leaves the Centre County Courthouse in handcuffs after his conviction in his child sex abuse trial in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, June 22, 2012. A jury on Friday found Sandusky guilty on 45 of 48 counts in his child sex abuse trial. (Pat Little/Reuters)

: Tim Crom picks up debris from a damaged home in Thurman, Iowa April 15, 2012. Rescue and clean-up efforts were underway across the Midwest on Sunday after dozens of tornados tore through the region, killing at least five people in Oklahoma, leaving thousands without power in Kansas and damaging up to 90 percent of the homes and buildings in one small Iowa town. (Lane Hickenbottom/Reuters)

: A man drinks coffee in front of a mural near the coastal town of Kalamatta in the Messinia area of Greece March 23, 2012. (Cathal McNaughton/Reuters)

: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he has drawn on the graphic of a bomb as he addresses the 67th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. Headquarters in New York, September 27, 2012. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

: Hindu devotees pray while standing in the waters of the Arabian Sea as they worship the Sun god during the Hindu religious festival “Chhat Puja” in Mumbai, November 19, 2012. Hindu devotees worship the Sun god and fast all day for the betterment of their family and society during the festival. (Vivek Prakash/Reuters)

: Children carry the coffin of Dilver Dinervi Vasquez Gomez on their way to the cemetery after ten members of the Vasquez Gomez family died from the earthquake that struck on Wednesday, in the cemetery of San Cristobal Cucho, about 250 km (155 miles) from Guatemala City, November 9, 2012. Rescue workers on Thursday carted out dead bodies found under rubble in the aftermath of Guatemala’s most powerful earthquake in decades, while others cleared wrecked cars and collapsed buildings as they searched for survivors. (Jorge Dan Lopez/Reuters)

: A puppy stands by remains of a dog local residents said was its mother, days after it was killed in an area burnt in violence at East Pikesake ward in Kyaukphyu November 6, 2012. (Reuters)

: A home that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy, is seen in Union Beach, New Jersey November 12, 2012. At least 121 people perished in the storm, which caused an estimated $50 billion in property damage and economic losses and ranks as one of the most destructive natural disasters to hit the U.S. Northeast. (Eric Thayer/Reuters)

: A protester reacts as the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is seen in flames during a protest by an armed group said to have been protesting a film being produced in the United States September 11, 2012. An American staff member of the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi has died following fierce clashes at the compound, Libyan security sources said on Wednesday. Armed gunmen attacked the compound on Tuesday evening, clashing with Libyan security forces before the latter withdrew as they came under heavy fire. (Esam Al-Fetori/Reuters)

: Saleh Mohammed Hamid, 18, from West Darfur’s Gocker, is treated at Teaching Hospital after getting infected with yellow fever in El Geneina .According to UNAMID, the hospital, which has already treated 106 cases of yellow fever among of which 38 people have died, is expecting to receive thousands more vaccines. A yellow fever outbreak has killed nearly 100 people over the last seven weeks in Sudan’s Darfur, the World Health Organization said, a region where fighting has undermined access to healthcare. The statement said 329 suspected yellow fever cases and 97 deaths had been reported since the last week of September. (Albert Gonzalez Farran/Reuters)

: Egypt’s Islamist President-elect Mohamed Mursi waves to his supporters while surrounded by his members of the presidential guard in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, June 29, 2012. Mursi took an informal oath of office on Friday before tens of thousands of supporters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, in a slap at the generals trying to limit his power. (Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)

: Madonna and Matthew Badger (L) cry as one of their daughters’ casket arrives for their funeral service at Saint Thomas Church in New York January 5, 2012. A raging Christmas-morning house fire that killed Madonna Badger’s elderly parents and her three young daughters, Lily, Grace, and Sarah, in Stamford, Connecticut, appears to have been caused by embers from a fireplace and was accidental, city officials said on Tuesday. (Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

: People travel on an outdoor public escalator at Commune 13 in Medellin January 12, 2012. A huge 384 metres (1,260 ft) long outdoor escalator, divided into six sections, has been erected in one of the poorest districts of Colombia’s second largest city to help the 12,000 residents there get around. (Fredy Builes/Reuters)

: Internally displaced people are seen in Pibor January 12, 2012. The World Food Program (WFP) started distributing food to 60,000 internally displaced people in South Sudan, according to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). (Isaac Billy/Reuters)

: Protesters chant slogans as they march through Ikorodu road during a protest against a fuel subsidy removal in Lagos January 9, 2012. Thousands of Nigerians took to the streets across Africa’s top oil producing nation on Monday, launching an indefinite nationwide strike to protest against the axing of fuel subsidies. (Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

: An instructor from the Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant Ltd. Co, smashes a bottle over a female recruit’s head during a training session for China’s first female bodyguards in Beijing January 13, 2012. According to the company, the training session consists of 20 women, mostly college graduates, who will undergo 8-10 months of training to develop sufficient skills to become security guards. The company will then offer the best trainee a chance to attend the International Security Academy in Israel. (David Gray/Reuters)

: Yemeni protesters try to break through the US embassy in Sanaa during a protest over a film mocking Islam on September 13, 2012. Yemeni forces managed to drive out angry protesters who stormed the embassy in the Yemeni capital with police firing warning shots to disperse thousands of people as they approached the main gate of the mission. (Mohammed Huwais/Getty Images)

: Palestinians look through a hospital window at the body of a man (not pictured) killed by an Israeli strike in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip January 18, 2012. An Israeli aircraft and tank strike killed at least one Palestinian close to the border fence in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Wednesday, medics said. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

: A Palestinian man reacts upon the arrival of the body of a man, killed by an Israeli strike, at a hospital in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip January 18, 2012. An Israeli aircraft and tank strike killed at least one Palestinian close to the border fence in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Wednesday, medics said. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

: The ancient Colosseum is seen during an heavy snowfall late in the night in Rome February 4, 2012. (Gabriele Forzano/Reuters)

: A child, with eyelashes covered with hoarfrost, is seen along a street in the eastern Siberian city of Yakutsk in Sakha (Yakutia) Republic February 10, 2012. The air temperature in Yakutsk is about minus 35 degrees Celsius (minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit). (Viktor Everstov/Reuters)

: Commuters dodge high wind and heavy rain during a thunderstorm in midtown Manhattan, in New York July 18, 2012. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)

: Security cameras are seen in front of the giant portrait of former Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, August 28, 2012. (Petar Kujundzic/Reuters)

: A police officer stands in a mock gallows outside the Finance Ministry during a protest against budget cuts in Athens, on September 6, 2012. Nearly 2,000 policemen, coast guards and firefighters continued their protests against planned salary cuts, as security forces summoned from around the country attended an evening demonstration on Thursday in Athens.The measures reportedly include a 3.5-billion-euro slash to pensions, health cuts worth 1.47 billion euros and a 517-million-euro cut to defense. (Kostas Tsironis/Getty Images)

: Severely malnourished two-year-old girl Rajni is weighed by health workers at the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre of Shivpuri district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh February 1, 2012. India has failed to reduce its high prevalence of child malnutrition despite its economy doubling between 1990 and 2005 to become Asia’s third largest. A government-supported survey last month said 42 percent of children under five are underweight – almost double that of sub-Saharan Africa – compared to 43 percent five years ago. The statistic – which means 3,000 children dying daily due to illnesses related to poor diets – forced Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to admit last month that malnutrition was “a national shame” and was putting the health of the nation in jeopardy. (Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

: Actress Angelina Jolie poses at the 84th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, February 26, 2012. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

: First-grader Henry Terifay and his sister, fourth-grader Kelly Terifay, wait outside Sandy Hook Elementary School after a shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, December 14, 2012. A shooter opened fire at the elementary school. (Michelle McLoughlin/Reuters)

: Morning commuters are silhouetted as they walk through the main concourse of the Grand Central Terminal, also known as Grand Central Station, in New York March 5, 2012. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)

: U.S. actress Meryl Streep attends a news conference for her film “The Iron Lady” in Tokyo March 7, 2012. The film, for which Streep won the best actress Oscar at the 84th Academy Awards, opens in Japan from March 16, 2012. (Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)

: Buddhist monks offer prayers for victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami at Kitaizumi beach in Minamisoma, Fukushima prefecture, some 25 km (15 miles) from the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant March 10, 2012, a day before the disaster’s one-year anniversary. The magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11 last year unleashed a tsunami that killed about 16,000 and triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. About 326,000 people are still homeless and nearly 3,300 remain unaccounted for. (Yuriko Nakao/Reuters)

: Eddie Liu uses a broom to clean up mud and water from extensive flooding in a laundromat due to superstorm Sandy in the Coney Island neighborhood of New York November 2, 2012. Four days after superstorm Sandy smashed into the U.S. Northeast, rescuers on Friday were still discovering the extent of the death and devastation in New York and the New Jersey shore, and anger mounted over gasoline shortages, power outages and waits for relief supplies. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

: A Muslim woman, displaced by recent violence in Kyukphyu township, cries after arriving at the Thaechaung refugee camp outside of Sittwe October 28, 2012. (Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

: The brother of Palestinian boy Walid al-Abadlah, who according to hospital officials was killed in an Israeli air strike, kisses his body during his funeral in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip November 15, 2012. A Hamas rocket killed three Israelis north of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, drawing the first blood from Israel as the Palestinian death toll rose to 15 including Walid al-Abadlah in a military showdown lurching closer to all-out war and an invasion of the enclave. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

: An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man is seen through a damaged car window after a rocket fired from Gaza landed in the southern city of Ashdod November 16, 2012. Israel has started drafting 16,000 reserve troops, the military said on Friday, in a sign that violence could escalate further with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)

: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) calls a time-out during a multiple question from an Indian journalist, as India’s Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna smiles during their news conference at the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue in Washington June 13, 2012. (Gary Cameron/Reuters)

: The Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft is seen shortly after it landed with the International Space Station (ISS) crew of Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan November 19, 2012. (Sergei Remezov/Reuters)

: U.S. President Barack Obama (R) hugs Aung San Suu Kyi at the end of their remarks to the media at her residence in Yangon. President Obama became the first serving U.S. president to visit Myanmar on Monday, trying during a whirlwind six-hour trip to strike a balance between praising the government’s progress in shaking off military rule and pressing for more reform. (Jason Reed/Reuters)

: The families of victims grieve near Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a gunman opened fire on school children and staff in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012. A heavily armed gunman opened fire on school children and staff at a Connecticut elementary school on Friday, killing at least 26 people, including 20 children, in the latest in a series of shooting rampages that have tormented the United States this year. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)

: Brad and Jay McCanta kiss to a cheering crowd on the steps of City Hall after getting married at Seattle City Hall in Seattle, Washington December 9, 2012. Washington made history last month as one of three U.S. states where marriage rights were extended to same-sex couples by popular vote, joining Maryland and Maine in passing ballot initiatives recognizing gay nuptials. (Cliff Despeaux/Reuters)

: A woman looks at a roller coaster sitting in the ocean, when the boardwalk it was built upon collapsed during Hurricane Sandy, in Seaside Heights, New Jersey November 28, 2012. The storm made landfall along the New Jersey coastline on October 29, 2012. (Andrew Burton/Reuters)

: A house burns after a man set fire and then shot and killed a responding police officer and a firefighter while injuring two other firefighters in Webster, New York, December 24, 2012. A gunman shot dead two volunteer firefighters and injured two others when he ambushed them at the scene of an early morning house fire in a suburb of Rochester, New York, authorities said on Monday. (Jamie Germano/Democrat and Chronicle/Reuters)

: An image of six-year-old Jesse McCord Lewis, one of 20 schoolchildren killed in the December 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, sits on a snow-covered teddy bear on Christmas morning in Newtown, Connecticut December 25, 2012. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)

Factbox: Biggest U.S. news events of 2012
Reuters | 2:30 p.m. EST, December 26, 2012

The following were some of the top news stories in the United States during 2012.

FEBRUARY

Trayvon Martin shooting. Martin, an unarmed black teenager was shot dead in Florida by neighborhood watch patrol volunteer George Zimmerman. Zimmerman said he shot Martin in self defense during a struggle, but will stand trial next June for murder.

Whitney Houston, among the top singers of the 1980s and 1990s, died at age 48.

MARCH

Deadly Midwest tornadoes. A spate of tornadoes and thunderstorms tore across the South and Midwest, killing dozens of people and injuring hundreds of others.

The killer storms were followed by devastating spring and summer wildfires in the West that claimed several lives, torched hundreds of homes and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents.

APRIL

Dick Clark, whose long-running television dance show “American Bandstand” helped rock ‘n’ roll win acceptance in mainstream America, died at age 82.

MAY

Gay marriage. President Barack Obama became the first sitting president to say same-sex couples should be allowed to wed. In the November election, Maine, Maryland and Washington approved same-sex marriage by popular vote. In December, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review two key same-sex marriage cases.

Facebook IPO. The historic initial public offering of Facebook Inc did not go as planned, due to an overly optimistic valuation and trading glitches. The stock fell to less than half of its IPO value in three months, and the offering became the subject of numerous lawsuits.

JUNE

Penn State. Jerry Sandusky, 68, Penn State University’s former defensive coordinator, was convicted of 45 counts of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years. He was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. The scandal sparked a national debate over child sex abuse, embarrassed the university and implicated a number of its top officials including legendary football head coach, the late Joe Paterno.

Supreme Court Healthcare law ruling. A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court upheld the centerpiece of President Obama’s signature healthcare overhaul law that requires that most Americans get insurance by 2014 or pay a financial penalty. The vote was 5-4.

Niagara Falls crossing. Aerialist Nik Wallenda made a historic tightrope crossing over Niagara Falls, stepping onto safe ground in Canada to wild cheers after completing his journey through wind and mist on a 2-inch (5-cm) diameter cable.

Rodney King, whose videotaped beating made him a symbol of police brutality and led to racially charged riots in Los Angeles, died at the age of 47.

JULY

Mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado. A gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises” in suburban Denver, killing 12 people and wounding 58 others. Police identified former neuroscience graduate student James Holmes as the suspect in a crime that renewed debate about the sale of powerful semi-automatic rifles and extended capacity magazines.

August

Shooting at Wisconsin Sikh temple. A gunman killed six people and critically wounded three others at a Sikh temple before police shot him dead.

Empire State Building shooting. An out-of-work fashion designer fatally shot a former co-worker near the Empire State Building and was then killed in a blaze of gunshots by police, stunning tourists and commuters outside of one of New York’s most popular landmarks.

U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, who took a giant leap for mankind when he became the first person to walk on the moon, died at the age of 82.

SEPTEMBER

Benghazi attack. Militants stormed the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, killing U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

The attack – the first to kill a U.S. ambassador in the line of duty since 1979 – sparked criticism of the Obama administration. An official inquiry found widespread failures in both security planning and internal management.

OCTOBER

Superstorm Sandy. More than 130 people were killed when Hurricane Sandy pummeled the east coast of the United States. Thousands more were left homeless as the storm tore through areas of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, causing an estimated $50 billion in damage.

Lance Armstrong. Disgraced cycling champion Armstrong had his seven Tour de France victories scratched from the records and was banned from cycling for life after the International Cycling Union (UCI) ratified the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s (USADA) sanctions against him. A USADA report said Armstrong had been involved in the “most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program that sport has ever seen.”

Record-setting skydiver. Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner leapt into the stratosphere from a balloon near the edge of space 24 miles above Earth and safely landed, setting a record for the highest skydive and breaking the sound barrier in the process.

NOVEMBER

U.S. general election. Democratic U.S. President Obama beat Republican rival Mitt Romney to win a second term in the White House. Obama’s reelection was clinched with the votes of minority Hispanic and black voters, marking a shift in electoral demographics.

Resignation of CIA Director. David Petraeus, the head of the spy agency and warrior-scholer who played a key role in the Iraq war, led the U.S. Central Command and commanded U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, stepped down after admitting he had engaged in an extramarital affair.

DECEMBER

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Adam Lanza shot dead 20 children and six staff members at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, before killing himself. He also killed his mother. The mass shooting once again prompted vigorous debate on gun laws.

(Sources: Reuters; Pew Research Center for the People & the Press)

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Leslie Gevirtz)

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