Year in World News: 2009

A Palestinian man reacts as he carries a girl who, according to Palestinian medical sources, was killed in an Israeli strike, into Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Jan. 5, 2009.

Australian Wildfires

Local CFA firefighter David Tree shares his water with an injured Australian Koala at Mirboo North after wildfires swept through the region, Feb. 9, 2009.

Throw Away the Key

Defendant Josef Fritzl, center, is escorted to the fourth day of his trial in the provincial courthouse in St. Poelten, Austria, March 19, 2009. An Austrian prosecutor is urging a jury to hand down a life sentence to Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter in a windowless cell for 24 years and fathered her seven children.

G20 Protests

Riot police confront protestors near the Bank of England in the City of London, April 1, 2009, as thousands of demonstrators converged on the centre of the city to protest against the G20 scheduled for April 2.

Italy Earthquake

Giulio Colangeli is carried away by rescuers as his father Antonello, center, grey hair, reacts, in the city of L'Aquila, after a strong earthquake rocked central Italy, April 6, 2009.

Maersk Alabama

Unidentified crew members of the Maersk Alabama react to reporters, during a press briefing at the Mombassa port in Kenya, April 13, 2009. In a daring high-seas rescue, U.S. Navy snipers killed three Somali pirates and freed the American sea captain being held at gunpoint. The operation was a victory for the world's most powerful military but one that is unlikely to quell the scourge of piracy off the African coast.

Guantanamo Bay Detainees

Guantanamo detainees pray before dawn near a fence of razor-wire inside the exercise yard at Camp 4 detention facility, at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, Cuba, May 14, 2009.

Indonesian Military Plane Crash

Indonesian air force officials gather around the wreckage of a crashed C-130 military cargo plane in Magetan, East Java, Indonesia, Thursday, May 21, 2009. The air force plane carrying more than 100 people crashed into a row of houses and ended up bursting into flames on a rice field, killing at least 93, the latest in a string of accidents plaguing the country's beleaguered air force.

Afghanistan

Soldiers from the U.S. Army First Battalion, 26th Infantry take defensive positions at firebase Restrepo after receiving fire from Taliban positions in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar Province, May 11, 2009. Spc. Zachery Boyd of Fort Worth, Texas, far left was wearing "I love NY" boxer shorts after rushing from his sleeping quarters to join his fellow platoon members.

H1N1 Outbreak

Passengers wearing protective masks wait for transit to Tokyo as a bus departs with passengers arriving on a flight from Chengdu at the Beijing airport, May 13, 2009.

Air France Crash

In this photo released by Brazil's Air Force, Brazil's Navy sailors recover debris from the missing Air France jet at the Atlantic Ocean, June 8, 2009. The jet, carrying 228 people between Rio De Janiero and Paris, lost contact with air traffic controllers after running into severe lightning and thunderstorms over the Atlantic Ocean.

Journalists Released

Euna Lee, left, and Laura Ling, two American journalists who were arrested in March after allegedly crossing into North Korea from China, are greeted by Michael Saldate, the husband of Euna Lee, second from right, Ian Clayton, the husband of Laura Ling, right, and Lee's daughter, Hana, after the two arrive at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif., Aug. 5, 2009.

Turkey Floods

Passengers of a bus on a flooded highway wait to be rescued in Ikitelli, Istanbul, Turkey, Sept. 9, 2009. Flash floods gushed across an Istanbul arterial road, killing 20 people and stranding dozens in their vehicles.

Philippines Floods

A family wades through chest-deep floodwaters in suburban Pasig, east of Manila, Philippines, Sept. 29, 2009. Many Filipinos tried to rebuild their lives after saving little more than the clothes they wore in a tropical storm that prompted the capital's worst flooding in more than four decades.

Rio 2016

People celebrate after Rio de Janeiro won the nomination to host the 2016 Olympic Games at the Copacabana beach, in Rio de Janeiro, Friday, Oct. 2, 2009. Nearly 50,000 people erupted in celebration when Rio was announced host, jumping and cheering in a Carnival-like party on Copacabana beach.

Tsunami Hits Samoa

A tsunami wave embedded a car into a wall in the town of Pago Pago in American Samoa, Oct. 2, 2009. A powerful quake in the South Pacific hurled massive tsunami waves at the shores of Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga flattening villages and sweeping cars and people back out to sea while leaving scores dead and dozens missing.

Landslides in El Salvador

A man stands in a street covered with rocks from a landslide in Verapaz, El Salvador, Nov. 9, 2009. Mud and rock slides caused by rain-fueled floods killed at least 124 people across El Salvador.

Carrying The Torch

Torchbearer Brenda Eckalook carries the Olympic Flame across the frozen bay in Resolute Bay, Nunavut Canada, Nov. 9, 2009. The Olympic Flame is on a 106-day cross-country relay which will end in Vancouver on Feb. 12, 2010, to mark the start of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Indonesia Earthquake

A man clears the rubble from a market flattened by an earthquake in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Friday, Oct. 2, 2009. Across this coastal provincial capital, hardest hit by the latest earthquake to devastate Indonesia, mourners, survivors and rescue workers alike clawed through heaps of concrete in searches for thousands still missing.

Bombings Rocks Baghdad

Iraqi security forces gather at the site of a bomb attack near the Labor Ministry building in Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 8, 2009. An official at Iraq's Interior Ministry says at least 121 people were killed in a series of coordinated blasts around Baghdad.