Women protest in Cairo, payroll tax cut extension fails, Ron Paul in N.H. and more in the day in photos

News and feature images from around the world.

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Dec. 21, 2011

Pilgrims from Mexico play instruments during Pope Benedict XVI's general audience at the Vatican.

Tony Gentile / Reuters

Dec. 21, 2011

Christian pilgrims light candles at the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus.

Menahem Kahana / AFP/Getty Images

Dec. 21, 2011

A nun stands with Christmas trees that were distributed by the municipality near the Jaffa gate in Jerusalem's Old City.

Ammar Awad / Reuters

Dec. 19, 2011

A man passes a wall in the Shiite village of Karzakan, Bahrain, that is sprayed with images of people who have died in anti-government unrest. The writing says: "Revive the memory of the martyrs."

Hasan Jamali / AP

Dec. 20, 2011

An Egyptian woman holds a copy of Al Tahrir newspaper, which shows a picture of a half-naked female protester being beaten by army soldiers, as hundreds of Egyptian women march in Cairo streets. Egypt's ruling generals are coming under mounting criticism at home and abroad for the military's use of excessive force against unarmed protesters, including women, as they try to crush the pro-democracy movement calling for their ouster.

Amr Nabil / AP

Dec. 21, 2011

A woman walks by a defaced mural depicting former war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic in downtown Belgrade. A Serbian court called for questioning of the former Bosnian Serb general in February in a retrial of 10 people accused of helping him to evade justice.

Andrej Isakovic / AFP/Getty Images

Dec. 21, 2011

In this photo released by the Korean Central News Agency and distributed in Tokyo by the Korea News Service, senior North Korean officials cry as they visit the Kumsusan Memorial Palace to pay their respects to leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea. Kim died Dec. 17.

/ AP

Dec. 21, 2011

A former North Korean defector prepares to release balloons bearing leaflets condemning North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and his son Kim Jong Eun during an anti-North Korea demonstration at the Imjingak Pavilion, near the border village of Panmunjom, in Paju, South Korea. Former North Korean defectors flew the 100,000 propaganda leaflets across the border to denounce the family's rule of the North.

Wally Santana / AP

Dec. 21, 2011

Balloons carrying anti-North Korea leaflets released by North Korean defectors who live in South Korea fly in the sky at the Imjinkak pavilion, near the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas in Paju, about 32 miles north of Seoul. The slogans on the balloons read "Liberate North Korean compatriot," "Terminated three generation hereditary power transfer," "Go to hell, Kim Jong Il," "No condolence call to devil" and "North Koreans, uprising."

Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters

Dec. 21, 2011

In this picture taken from the Chinese border city of Dandong, in northeastern Liaoning province, a squad of North Korean soldiers marches along the bank of the Yalu River in the North Korean town of Sinuiji. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and other senior leaders visited the North Korean embassy in Beijing to offer their condolences on the death of Kim Jong Il, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Liu Jin / AFP/Getty Images

Dec. 21, 2011

People gather to mourn as the coffin of late former Czech president Vaclav Havel is transported on a gun carriage to Prague Castle for a funeral ceremony in Prague. Havel, the playwright-turned-president whose "Velvet Revolution" toppled Communist rule, died Dec. 18 at his country home in Hradecek, northeast of Prague, after a long respiratory illness.

Petr Josek / Reuters

Dec. 12, 2011

Golfer Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland on the helipad at the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

David Cannon / Getty Images

Dec. 12, 2011

Golfer Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland on the helipad at the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

David Cannon / Getty Images

Dec. 21, 2011

A group of asylum seekers who survived a boat accident leave a hospital accompanied by police in Lumajang, Indonesia. Indonesian rescuers have found the bodies of dozens of asylum seekers from an overloaded boat that capsized en route to Australia, an official said. At least 47 survivors were rescued after the vessel, which had a capacity of 100 but was carrying about 250 mostly Afghan and Iranian migrants, sank 40 nautical miles off East Java early province.

Dewantara / AFP/Getty Images

Dec. 20, 2011

People climb onto the wreckage of a sunken boat at Puger beach in Jember, Indonesia's east Java province. The crew and captain of the Indonesian boat packed with illegal immigrants grabbed life vests and swam away as it sank during a heavy storm, leaving more than 200 passengers missing, Australian media reported. The boat was heading for Australia as it broke apart in stormy seas about 55 miles off the coast of Java.

/ Reuters

Dec. 20, 2011

Indonesian fishermen haul their nest full of fish on the coastal village of Prigi while rescuers continue their search for survivors off the coast in East Java province after an overloaded boat carrying about 250 asylum seekers capsized.

Juni Kriswanto / AFP/Getty Images

Dec. 21, 2011

Health workers pack chicken at a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong. Workers began culling 17,000 chickens at a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong after a dead chicken there tested positive for the deadly H5N1 avian virus, a government spokesman said.

Tyrone Siu / Reuters

Dec. 21, 2011

Wearing their space suits, U.S. astronaut Donald Pettit, left, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, right, and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers, center, wave from a bus during a sending-off ceremony in the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome. The crew will head to the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP/Getty Images

Dec. 20, 2011

Gavin Poririer, 2, of Cadiz, Ky., is held by his father, Sgt. Gary Poririer, after the Kentucky National Guard's Company A, 149th Brigade Support Battalion returned from duty in Iraq to its home town of Benton, Ky. The two are shown behind the family's car, with its back windshield reading "Move It! We Are Picking Up Daddy!" in the parking lot of Benton Church of Christ.

John Wright / AP

Dec. 21, 2011

Police officers guard an area outside a detention center in Moscow where prominent anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny was being held. Navalny, who was arrested at an opposition protest in Moscow, was released from a detention center Dec. 21. A Navalny supporter's truck is pictured.

Denis Sinyakov / Reuters

Dec. 21, 2011

Anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny leaves a police station on the day of his discharge in Moscow.

Denis Sinyakov / Reuters

Dec. 21, 2011

Villagers listen to a speech by village leader Lin Zulian at a rally after he met with a senior government official and reached an agreement over illegal land grabs and the death in custody of a local leader in Wukan, Guangdong province, China. Chinese authorities have agreed to release three villagers detained for leading September protests against land grabs, a community spokesman said.

Mark Ralston / AFP/Getty Images

Dec. 21, 2011

Police officers check confiscated illegal guns during a campaign to destroy illegal weapons in Dongyang, in eastern China's Zhejiang province.

/ AP

Dec. 21, 2011

A man sorts fox skins at a fur market in Chongfu township of Tongxiang, in eastern China's Zhejiang province.

/ AP

Dec. 21, 2011

A day-old white lion cub lies next to his mother, Sumba, in their enclosure at Belgrade's zoo. The four white lion cubs, an extremely rare subspecies of the African lion, have become the Serbian zoo's greatest attraction. Another four white lion cubs were born in April.

Ivan Milutinovic / Reuters

Dec. 20, 2011

Emergency crews work to remove a sport utility vehicle that crashed into the boyhood home of Johnny Carson in Norfolk, Neb.. The vehicle caused extensive damage to the porch, which collapsed, and ended up in the entryway.

Jake Wragge / AP

Dec. 20, 2011

Flanked by House GOP members, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) talks to the media on Capitol Hill in Washington. The House rejected the version of the bipartisan two-month payroll tax cut extension that was approved by a majority of the Senate on Dec. 17.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Dec. 20, 2011

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks to the media next to House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-M.) after the House vote on the Senate version of the payroll tax cut extension on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Yuri Gripas / Reuters

Dec. 20, 2011

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, center, a Republican presidential candidate, walks with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindall, right, during a campaign stop in De Witt, Iowa.

Chris Carlson / AP

Dec. 20, 2011

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), a Republican presidential candidate, shakes hands with Helen Taylor, of Durham, N.H., while campaigning at a hair salon in Exeter, N.H.

Charles Krupa / AP

Dec. 20, 2011

Ephraim Kaufman as Dreidel Man entertains dozens of people and children attending the annual lighting ceremony of the National Menorah in Washington.

Marvin Joseph / The Washington Post

Dec. 20, 2011

From left, John Price, Rabbi Benny Zippel and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert participate in a ceremonial menorah lighting at the Governor's Mansion in Salt Lake City to mark the start of Hanukkah.

Chris Detrick / AP

Crowd members celebrate Hanukkah in Trafalgar Square in London.

Luke MacGregor / Reuters

Dec. 20, 2011

Harris County inmate Brandi Vela cries as she hugs her daughter, Jazmine Vela, 10, during a Christmas event for 15 female inmates in the Harris County Sheriff's Office Reentry Services Program in Houston. The inmates had presents donated by Navidad en el Barrio to give their children. The women are minimum-risk inmates who have had good relationships with their children.

Melissa Phillip / AP

Dec. 20, 2011

An excavator is seen in a destroyed forest at a peatland area in Kuala Tripa district in Nagan Raya, Indonesia's Aceh province. The governor of the province has breached a ban on clearing forests that is at the heart of a $1 billion climate deal with Norway, earning a rebuke by a senior government official. The two-year moratorium on issuing permits to log and convert forests, effective from May 2011, is meant to protect primary forests and peatlands in the Asian country in a bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

/ Reuters

Dec. 21, 2011

Indian villagers chase a wild elephant through Dhimalbasty village. A wild elephant created panic as it destroyed homes after it wandered into the village. Asian elephants are listed as endangered — as the human population increases, the elephants' natural habitat is destroyed and they are forced to live in farming areas, where they cause damage to crops.

Diptendu Dutta / AFP/Getty Images

Featured Photo Galleries

Pranav Sivakumar, 12, of Tower Lakes, Ill., spells his word during the National Spelling Bee in Oxon Hill, Md.

National Spelling Bee, Buckingham Palace garden party, the ‘Soup Nazi’ and more in the day in photos

National Spelling Bee, Buckingham Palace garden party, the “Soup Nazi” and more.

U.S. actress and director Angelina Jolie speaks ahead of a screening of her new film 'In the Land of Blood and Honey' at the Foreign Commonwealth Office in central London, May 29, 2012. Angelina Jolie spoke on the Foreign Secretary's initiative on preventing sexual violence in conflict, ahead of the screening. REUTERS/Pool/Dan Kitwood

Eye on entertainment

Angelina Jolie, will.i.am, Larry Thomas, Nick Jonas, Adam Lambert, Bob Dylan and other celebrities.

Editor’s choice: Reader-submitted photos

Some of the Post’s top picks of snapshots taken and submitted by readers.

Novelist Toni Morrison laughs with U.S. President Barack Obama before being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, May 29, 2012. The Medal of Freedom is the nation's highest civilian honor. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Toni Morrison; Barack Obama

Obama Honors Medal of Freedom Recipients

President Obama honored a diverse group of political and cultural icons.

Switzerland's Roger Federer returns the ball to Romania's Adrian Ungur during their second round match in the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Wednesday, May 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

French Open 2012: Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Victoria Azarenka advance to third round

The American tennis star lost in the first round of a Grand Slam event.

Camels rest at a watering hole outside the town of Aleg May 25, 2012. REUTERS/Joe Penney (MAURITANIA - Tags: ANIMALS SOCIETY)

Camels, tigers, turtles, a giant stag beetle and more in animal views

Camels, tigers, turtles, a giant stag beetle and more.

Henry, a calf, sustained a head wound and required stitches after being slashed over the weekend.

Farm animals attacked in Fairfax

A calf, two goats and a chicken were slashed over the weekend at Frying Pan Farm Park in Herndon.

ANNAPOLIS, MD- MAY 29: Graduates cheer as the Blue Angels fly over during the 100th anniversary of the United States Naval Academy Graduation and Commissioning Ceremonies in Annapolis, Maryland, on Tuesday, May 29, 2012. U.S Sec. of Defense Leon Edward Panetta gave the graduation address. (Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post)

U.S. Naval Academy graduation

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta gave the commencement address at the ceremony.

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