Photos of the Week
A hostage runs towards police from a cafe in the central business district of Sydney, Dec. 15, 2014. Five people ran out of a Sydney cafe where a gunman had taken hostages and displayed an Islamic flag against the window.
China
A crowd watches as a car rests on the edge of a hole at Yunlianghe Road in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China, Dec. 12, 2014.
France
Two young women look at Taiko, a polar bear playing in its pond, from their lodge in the zoo of the French city of La Fleche, December 12, 2014.
Every night, polar bears share their zoological park with visitors who wait for their appearances from their cosy lodge.
Great Britain
Prince George sits for his official Christmas picture in a courtyard at Kensington Palace in London, England.
Great Britain
A man dressed as a viking, center, joins other participants in the Outdoor Swimming Society's annual "December Dip" at Parliament Hill Lido in north London, Dec. 13, 2014.
New York
A man wrapped in chain marches in the National March Against Police Violence, which was organized by National Action Network, through the streets of Manhattan, Dec. 13, 2014.
China
A Chinese laborer shovels plastic after it is chopped into small pieces before being recycled in the Dong Xiao Kou village near Beijing, China, Dec. 15, 2014.
The village, is made up mostly of families of poor migrant workers that have come from surrounding provinces and are some of the tens of thousands of scrap peddlers surviving on recycling goods collected in China's capital.
China
Two Siberian Tigers play in the snow at Nanshan Zoo in Yantai, Shandong province, China, Dec. 16, 2014.
Washington, D.C.
Students from The School Without Walls lie down on Pennsylvania Ave. during a protest in front of the White House, Dec. 17, 2014.
The students were protesting recent grand jury decisions not to indict police officers in the killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri and Staten Island, New York.
California
California Academy of Sciences assistant dive safety officer Mark Lane wears a Santa Claus costume as he dives in the Academy's Philippine Coral Reef tank in San Francisco, Calif., Dec. 17, 2014.
The California Academy of Sciences Coral Reef Dive program featured a special appearance by Scuba Santa as part of a holiday program.
Sydney
A view from the roof of the Commercial Travellers Club building in Martin Place of the thousands of floral tributes for deceased hostages Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 18, 2014.
Sydney siege gunman Man Haron Monis, was shot dead by police in the early hours of Tuesday morning after taking hostages at the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Martin Place. Two other people died, 33-year-old cafe manager Tori Johnson and 38-year-old Sydney barrister Katrina Dawson.
Cuba
Alan Gross cheers onboard a government plane headed back to the US with his wife, Judy Gross, Dec. 17, 2014.
Gross was released from a Cuban prison on Wednesday shortly before the U.S. and the Caribbean island nation announced plans to normalize relations for the first time in 50 years.
Washington
The best man in a wedding party, who declined to be identified, holds an AR-10 rifle he was handed while the party was having their pre-wedding portraits taken on the steps of the state capitol in Olympia, Wash. before a nearby gun-rights rally protested a new expanded gun background check law in Washington state, Dec. 13, 2014.
The wedding party was not part of the protest, but posed for pictures with it after being handed the gun by activist Brandon Lyons, who said "we've all just broken the law," by handing the gun over.
Mexico
Pictures of 43 missing students from a rural teachers college hang on a Christmas tree, in central Mexico City, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014.
An association of church groups erected the tree to remind people not to forget the students over the holiday season. The students have been missing for more than two months after being detained by police in a southern city, and are now presumed dead.
Pakistan
A mother mourns her son Mohammed Ali Khan, 15, a student who was killed during an attack by Taliban gunmen on the Army Public School, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Dec. 16, 2014.
Taliban gunmen in Pakistan took hundreds of students and teachers hostage on Tuesday in a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar, military officials said.
Pakistan
People attend the funeral of a student killed in Tuesday's Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014.
Pakistan is mourning as the nation prepares for mass funerals for 141 people, most of them children, killed in a Taliban attack on a military-run school in the country's northwest. A three-day official mourning period started Wednesday, a day after seven Taliban gunmen, explosives strapped to their bodies, stormed the army public school in the city of Peshawar.
Pennsylvania
Police SWAT officers search for Bradley William Stone, 35, an Iraq war veteran suspected of fatally shooting and stabbing six family members, in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, Dec. 16, 2014. The search for Stone was focused around his hometown of Pennsburg, about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia, where residents were advised to stay inside with their doors locked.
California
A TV news crew files a report behind damaged homes after a mud slide overtook at least 18 homes during heavy rains in Camarillo Springs, Calif., Dec. 12, 2014.
A major storm pummeled California and the Pacific Northwest with heavy rain and high winds on Thursday, killing one man, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes, disrupting flights and prompting schools to close.
Iraq
Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims reach out to touch the tomb of Imam al-Abbas located inside the Imam al-Abbas shrine to mark Arbain in the holy city of Kerbala, southwest of Baghdad, Dec. 13, 2014.
Iraqi officials say millions of Shi'ite pilgrims from across Iraq and neighboring countries are expected in Kerbala for Saturday's Arbain ritual, which marks the end of 40 days of mourning for the death of Imam Hussein 1,300 years ago.
West Bank
Palestinian protesters use slingshots to throw stones at Israeli troops during clashes near Israel's Ofer Prison, near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Dec. 13, 2014.
California
A masked protester checks for police movements over a fence, during an evening demonstration against police violence, in Oakland, Calif., Dec. 13, 2014.
Decisions by grand juries to return no indictments against the officers involved in the deaths of Michael Brown in Missouri and Eric Garner in New York have put police treatment of minorities back on the national agenda. Police in Oakland, California, ordered hundreds of demonstrators to disperse on Saturday night after a grocery store was looted.
Gaza Strip
Palestinian members of al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, rappel from a building upside down during a military parade marking the 27th anniversary of Hamas' founding, in Gaza City, Dec. 14, 2014.
China
Workers remove a logo left by pro-democracy protesters in the shape of an umbrella, a symbol of the Occupy Central civil disobedience movement, during a clearance at the last "Occupy" protest site blocking a main road in the Causeway Bay shopping district of Hong Kong, Dec. 15, 2014.
France
People stand in the mist as they look at a replica of the casino along the Promenade jetty as part of the Christmas holiday illuminations in Nice, France, Dec. 16, 2014.
California
Waves crash against a sea wall beneath the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Calif., Dec. 16, 2014.
A gale warning for offshore winds has been issued through Friday as another round of storms is expected to hit the Bay Area.
Vatican City
Pope Francis, celebrates his 78th birthday by blowing out candles on a cake as he arrives to lead his general audience at the Vatican, Dec. 17, 2014.
Kenya
Rescuers search for survivors in the rubble of a collapsed residential building in Nairobi, Kenya, Dec. 17, 2014. One person died and several injured when a five-story residential building collapsed at the extended development outside Makongeni estate. Over 30 families are believed to have been living in the building.
Turkey
Security officers, left, scuffle with students during a protest outside the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, Dec. 17, 2014.
Opposition groups held anti-government protests in Ankara and across Turkey on the first anniversary of the corruption probe which became public with police raids on December 17 last year and led to the resignation of three ministers and prompted Erdogan to purge the state apparatus, reassigning thousands of police and hundreds of judges and prosecutors.
Great Britain
Dan Gosling, right, of Bournemouth and his teammates react after his shot was saved by Liverpool's Brad Jones during their English League Cup quarter-final soccer match at Goldsands Stadium in Bournemouth, England, Dec. 17, 2014.
Australia
Women in angel costumes marching around the site of the Sydney cafe siege line up to receive an embrace from a man giving out 'free hugs' to those mourning the victims of the incident in Sydney's Martin Place, Dec. 18, 2014.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday ordered a sweeping investigation into a deadly hostage siege after tough new security laws and the courts failed to stop a convicted felon from walking into a Sydney cafe with a concealed shotgun.
Massachusetts
Coast Guard members conduct flare training on Plum Island, Massachusetts, Dec. 15, 2014.
Sierra Leone
Bystanders stand around the body of a suspected Ebola victim lying in a street in the town of Koidu, Kono district in Eastern Sierra Leone, Dec. 18, 2014.
Sierra Leone, neighboring Guinea and Liberia are at the heart of the world's worst recorded outbreak of Ebola. Rates of infection are rising fastest in Sierra Leone, which now accounts for more than half of the 18,603 confirmed cases of the virus.
Thailand
Locals watch from the beach as waves hit an Indonesian tanker that ran aground near Narathiwat in southern Thailand, Dec. 19, 2014.
The tanker loaded with palm oil was hijacked by its crew then seized by Thai authorities. It was anchored some 400 meters from the beach but strong wind and waves broke it free, according to local media.
Florida
A anti-Castro Cuban exile reacts after the announcement of restoring diplomatic ties between Cuba and United States, at an area knows as 'Little Havana' in downtown Miami, Fla., Dec. 17, 2014.
The U.S. and Cuba agreed on Wednesday to restore diplomatic ties that Washington severed more than 50 years ago, and President Barack Obama called for an end to the long economic embargo against its old Cold War enemy.