Images from around the world

Take a look at some of the week’s best photographs from around the globe.

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Jan. 5, 2013

With temperatures around 46 degrees, a man plays in the surf with some thousands celebrating the new year by jumping into the North Sea in Ostend, Belgium.

Geert Vanden Wijngaert / AP

Jan. 5, 2013

Palestinian protestors throw stones at Israeli soldiers in Qusra on the Israeli occupied West Bank. Earlier, Jewish settlers from the nearby Esh Kodesh outpost used the cover of fog to approach Qusra with the aim of uprooting dozens of olive saplings. They were confronted by Palestinian farmers who threw stones at them.

Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 5, 2013

Several hundred protesting merchants hold a demonstration calling for peace as negotiators prepare for talks with rebels from the north in downtown Bangui, Central African Republic. The U.N. Security Council urged rebels in the Central African Republic on Friday to halt their military offensive, withdraw from cities they have seized and take part in negotiations.

Ben Curtis / AP

Jan. 5, 2013

Yuki Takagi uses a large brush for her New Year's calligraphy at the Budokan martial arts hall in Tokyo. About 3,000 people participated in the annual calligraphy contest.

Koji Sasahara / AP

Jan. 5, 2013

Winning bidder Kiyoshi Kimura, president of Kiyomura Co., cuts a bluefin tuna at his Sushi Zanmai restaurant near Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. In the year's first auction at Tokyo's sprawling Tsukiji fish market, the 489-pound tuna caught off northeastern Japan sold for $1.8 million, said Ryoji Yagi, a market official.

Koji Sasahara / AP

Jan. 4, 2013

Palestinians climb an electric pole during a rally marking the 48th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah movement in Gaza City. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians joined a rare rally staged by President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group in Gaza on Friday, as tensions ease with rival Hamas Islamists ruling the enclave since 2007.

Mohammed Salem / Reuters

Jan. 4, 2013

An Indian mahout and his elephant cross a street on a cold and foggy morning in Allahabad, India. More than 100 people have died of exposure as northern India deals with historically cold temperatures.

Rajesh Kumar Singh / AP

Jan. 4, 2013

Malala Yousafzai says goodbye as she is discharged from Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham in Birmingham, England. She will continue her rehabilitation at her family’s temporary home in the area. The teenage Pakistani girl, who had been shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting women’s education, was released from the hospital after impressing doctors with her strength. Hospital officials said Friday that Malala, 15, will be treated as an outpatient before being readmitted for further cranial reconstructive surgery at the end of the month or in early February.

/ AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 3, 2013

Musicians play John Lennon's "Imagine" in a memorial tribute to a 23-year-old Indian gang-rape victim during a mass guitar ensemble played by some 600 guitarists in Darjeeling. Protesters have massed in Indian cities daily since the Dec. 16 assault, demanding the government and police take sex crimes more seriously.

Diptendu Dutta / AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 3, 2013

Indian revellers enjoy an amusement park ride during an annual fair in Mumbai. The 10-day-long fair is being held in honor of the Sufi saint Makhdoom Ali Mahimi on the Mahim beach, which is full of people on giant wheels and toy trains and enjoying gravity-defying stunts in the “Valley of Death.”

Punit Paranjpe / AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 3, 2013

High waves hit the Le Port coastline on the western part of the French island of La Reunion as Cyclone Dumile approaches. Authorities declared a red alert Thursday that forbade people from leaving their homes.

Richard Bouhet / AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 2, 2013

Passengers travel in a wooden carriage car on the historic subway system in Buenos Aires. The city government announced that the almost 100-year-old La Brugeoise wooden carriages will be replaced in a short time by modern Chinese units.

Natacha Pisarenko / AP

Jan. 2, 2013

A car windshield frames a mural of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez in Caracas. Venezuela's Vice President Nicolas Maduro returned Wednesday from a visit with Chavez in Cuba and said that the ailing president's condition remains "delicate" three weeks after his cancer surgery.

Ariana Cubillos / AP

Jan. 2, 2013

Indian women hold placards during the “Women Dignity March” in New Delhi. Several hundred people took part in the solidarity march that ended at Rajghat, the memorial for slain independence hero Mahatma Gandhi. A gang of rapists who savagely assaulted a woman on a bus in New Delhi tried to run her over after the fatal attack, according to Jan. 2 reports that cited a police account of the incident.

Prakash Singh / AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 2, 2013

Surrounded by Israeli border police, Jewish settlers from the Esh Kodesh settlement outpost sit in a field in an attempt to prevent Palestinians from farming land in the northern West Bank. Both the settlers and Palestinians living in the area claim ownership of the disputed land.

Majdi Mohammed / AP

Jan. 2, 2013

A man sits in a tent while ice fishing at sunrise on Lake Vileika near Kasun, Belarus.

Viktor Drachev / AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 1, 2013

A Ghader missile is launched during an Iranian navy drill from the area near the Iranian port of Jask on the shore of the Gulf of Oman. Iran says it tested advanced anti-ship missiles in the final day of a naval drill near the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for one-fifth of the world's oil supply. State TV says Ghader, a missile with a range of 120 miles that can destroy warships, was used Tuesday.

Azin Haghighi / AP

Jan. 1, 2013

Marco Fois of Italy dives into Rome's river Tiber as part of traditional New Year's Day celebrations. Divers jump from the Cavour Bridge in an annual tradition that dates back to 1946.

Gabriel Bouys / AFP/Getty Images

Jan. 1, 2013

A troop member stands next to the belongings of people who were involved in a stampede that killed at least 61 people early Tuesday following a New Year’s fireworks display in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's commercial center, officials said. The death toll is expected to rise, according to rescue workers.

Emanuel Ekra / AP

Jan. 1, 2013

Egyptian children play on the street in the affluent neighborhood of Zamalek in Cairo on New Year's Day.

Amr Nabil / AP

Jan. 1, 2013

People release balloons in front of the Tokyo Tower to celebrate the new year at a countdown event in Japan.

Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters

Jan. 1, 2013

Fireworks illuminate Sydney Harbor as Australia rings in 2013.

Damian Shaw / European Pressphoto Agency

Dec. 31, 2012

Schoolgirls form numbers representing the year 2013 during a prayer ceremony in Ahmadabad, India. The gang rape and killing of a New Delhi student has set off a debate about what India needs to do to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. The country remained in mourning Monday, two days after the 23-year-old student died from her internal wounds in a Singapore hospital. The floral writing reads "Condolence to Damini," a symbolic name given to the victim.

Ajit Solanki / AP

Dec. 31, 2012

A protester holds placards during a rally in New Delhi. Family members of an Indian gang-rape victim said they will not rest until her killers are hanged as they spoke of their pain over the crime, which has united India in grief.

Sajjad Hussain / AFP/Getty Images

Dec. 31, 2012

Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), left, walks into the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Lawmakers were hurtling toward a midnight deadline to avert hundreds of billions of dollars in tax increases and spending cuts, known as the “fiscal cliff.”

Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg News

Dec. 31, 2012

A Free Syrian Army fighter pulls a boy off the street as a sniper fires during fighting with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo, Syria. Government forces control Aleppo’s downtown and the wealthier neighborhoods to the west, while the rebels hold sway in the traditionally poorer northern, eastern and southern areas.

Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

Dec. 30, 2012

An emergency personnel worker searches for human remains at the site of a car bomb explosion that targeted buses carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims in Quetta, Pakistan. The explosion killed 20 people and wounded 24, officials said.

Naseer Ahmed / Reuters

Dec. 30, 2012

Tribal policeman Amanullah Khan receives treatment at a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan. Twenty-one tribal policemen were found dead by officials shortly after midnight Sunday in the Jabai area after being notified by one officer who escaped, said a top political official in the area. Another was found seriously wounded.

Mohammad Sajjad / AP

Dec, 30, 2012

Mourners arrive at a cremation ground to attend the New Delhi funeral of a woman who was gang-raped and beaten on a bus in the Indian capital nearly two weeks ago. The woman, who suffered severe internal injuries, died Saturday at a hospital in Singapore, where she had been taken for treatment.

Adnan Abidi / Reuters

Dec. 30, 2012

“Galejadors” chop down a pine tree during La Festa del Pi (the Festival of the Pine) in the village of Centelles in Barcelona. Early in the morning, men and women born in Centelles, who are called Galejadors, carry muskets as they walk into the forest to chop down a pine tree. They then load it onto an ox cart and take it to the church in the village. There, the tree is decorated with five bouquets of apples and wafers and hung inside a church until Jan. 6.

David Ramos / Getty Images

Dec. 30, 2012

Galejadors chop down their selected pine tree during La Festa del Pi (the Festival of the Pine) in the village of Centelles in Barcelona. The tradition has been documented since 1751.

David Ramos / Getty Images

Dec. 30, 2012

Galejadors load the selected pine tree onto an ox cart during La Festa del Pi (the Festival of the Pine) in the village of Centelles in Barcelona. They wear a traditional costume that includes a red Catalan hat known as a barretina.

David Ramos / Getty Images

Dec. 30, 2012

Galejadors carry the pine tree into the church during La Festa del Pi (the Festival of the Pine) in the village of Centelles in Barcelona. It is believed that the festival's origins are related to the winter solstice and pagan worship of fertilization.

David Ramos / Getty Images

Dec. 30, 2012

Galejadors dance under the pine tree inside the church during La Festa del Pi (the Festival of the Pine) in the village of Centelles in Barcelona.

David Ramos / Getty Images

Dec. 30, 2012

Street artists perform in Sydney’s Darling Harbor. The area was a bustling port and goods terminus about 50 years ago. It was redeveloped and now attracts locals and tourists to its cafes, bars and museums.

Manan Vatsyayana / AFP/Getty Images

FEATURED PHOTO GALLERIES

A protestor in a Guy Fawkes mask walks past razor wire outside a security perimeter of the G-8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland on Monday, June 17, 2013. The summit is taking place under heavy security, with some 7,000 police lining roads and checking vehicles. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Photos of the day

G-8 summit, massive protests rock Brazil, Britain’s Royal Ascot and more.

Two-year old male rat named Dyatlik wears a costume during a rodent exhibition in Minsk, Belarus, Saturday, June 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Animal views

Rodent exhibition, swimming with elephants, Mexico’s feline mayoral candidate and more.

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 14: Johnathon Carrington, valedictorian at Dunbar High School, laughs with family and friends after his school's graduation ceremony at Howard University on Friday, June 14, 2013, in Washington, DC. Carrington, who grew up in Tyler House public-housing apartments and is graduating from one of DC's low-performing high schoolsy, where academic expectations are high. (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Johnathon’s journey

Johnathon Carrington graduated Friday as the valedictorian of his neighborhood school, Dunbar High, and is headed to Georgetown University. But Carrington, 17, is nervous, and so are...

U.S. actress Sandra Bullock poses for the media during a photocall to promote her latest move 'The Heat' in Berlin June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (GERMANY - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)

Eye on entertainment

Sandra Bullock, Jessica Sanchez, Snooki, Billy Porter, Billy Crystal, Sean Hayes, Gwen Stefani and other celebrities.

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 16: Reenactors dressed as knights stage a medieval jousting competition at Eltham Palace on June 16, 2013 in Eltham, England. The 'Grand Medieval Joust' event at Eltham Palace, an English Heritage property which was the childhood home of King Henry VIII, aims to give a great insight into life at the palace during the medieval period. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

The Grand Medieval Joust

The Grand Medieval Joust at Eltham Palace, an English Heritage property that was the childhood home of King Henry VIII, aims to lend insight through reenactment into life at the palace...

In this June 8, 2013 photo, youth compete in the Sao Carlos slum local soccer tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The pitch is just dirt and the incandescent lights aren't so bright. But when the boys' feet strike the football in the Sao Carlos slum as night falls every Saturday, big league dreams glow, inflated by the hope of escaping the shantytown with sporting skills. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Brazil’s other soccer fields

With the Confederations Cup opening this week and the World Cup one year away, all eyes are on Brazil, where soccer is arguably played with more passion and art than anywhere else....

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 16: John F. Tatum Sr. hugs his grandson John F. Tatum III during his annual Father's Day block party on Sunday, June 16, 2013 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)

Father’s Day picnic in Northeast D.C.

A decades-old backyard barbecue in Northeast Washington draws hundreds in honor of dads everywhere. “It’s off-the-chain fun,” says Butch McNair, who has worked one...

LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 16: Miss Connecticut USA Erin Brady reacts after being crowned Miss USA during the 2013 Miss USA pageant at PH Live at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on June 16, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Miss USA 2013

Miss Connecticut USA Erin Brady is crowned Miss USA 2013 in Las Vegas.

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