1. A man swims after breaking the ice on a frozen lake at a park in Shenyang, China on Dec. 9, 2016.
SHENG LI / Reuters
2. Steam rises from Wyoming's Youhanna Ghaifan during an NCAA college football game against San Diego State on Dec. 3 in Laramie, Wyo.
Michael Smith / AP
3. Pakistani villagers gather near a plane crash site in the village of Saddha Batolni in the Abbottabad district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Dec. 8. A Pakistani aircraft carrying 47 people issued a Mayday call before losing radar contact and crashing into a mountain, killing everyone on board, authorities said, as they began collecting DNA to identify victims.
AAMIR QURESHI / AFP - Getty Images
4. The Eiffel Tower is shrouded in haze as the sun rises in Paris on Dec. 8. A toxic, throat-tickling broth of tiny particles -- far smaller than the width of a human hair -- blanketed France's capital as in the city's worst episode of winter pollution in a decade. It has prompted vehicle bans and other extraordinary but only moderately effective anti-pollution measures.
IAN LANGSDON / EPA
5. Firefighters battle a fire at a converted Oakland warehouse on Dec. 3. The fire tore through building during a late-night electronic music party, killing 36 people and making the charred structure unsafe for emergency crews to enter.
David Butow / Redux Pictures
6. Surfers participate in the Nautic SUP Paris Crossing stand up paddle competition on the Seine river in Paris on Dec. 4.
LIONEL BONAVENTURE / AFP - Getty Images
7. Members of the public enjoy a Christmas tree maze in Edinburgh, Scotland on Dec. 7. The Christmas Market hosts a number of stalls and attractions including an ice rink, carousel, and Big Wheel, and runs through the first week of January.
Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images
8. People wait to see the caravan carrying Fidel Castro's ashes in Bayamo, Cuba on Dec. 2.
TOMAS MUNITA / The New York Times via Redux
9. Cubans react as the funeral cortege with the ashes of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro arrives in the city of Bayamo, Cuba on Dec. 2. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro died at the age of 90, in Cuba, on Nov. 25.
ORLANDO BARRIA / EPA
10. Fireworks explode next to riot police during clashes following an anniversary rally marking the 2008 police shooting of 15-year-old student, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, in Athens on Dec. 6.
ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS / Reuters
11. An African migrant reacts on a road after crossing the border fence between Morocco and Spain's north African enclave of Ceuta on Dec. 9.
M. Martin / Reuters
12. An Iraqi boy holds the hand of his sister as they wait to receive aid outside a distribution point run by United Nations agencies at Zahra district, east of Mosul, Iraq on Dec. 8.
AHMED JADALLAH / Reuters
13. Residents gather at the front of a small house that holds fifteen people in the Mangueira 'favela' community on Dec. 7 in Rio de Janeiro. Much of the Mangueira 'favela' community sits about a kilometer away from Maracana stadium, the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The stadium received hundreds of millions of dollars in renovations ahead of the World Cup and Olympics but residents of the community say they received few if any tangible benefits from the mega-events.
Mario Tama / Getty Images
14. Military veterans march to a closed bridge outside the Oceti Sakowin camp where people gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D., on Dec. 5. The U.S. Army said Sunday that it won't grant an easement for the Dakota Access oil pipeline in southern North Dakota, handing a victory to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and its supporters, who argued the project would threaten the tribe's water source and cultural sites.
David Goldman / AP
15. Fireworks fill the night sky above Oceti Sakowin camp as activists celebrate after learning an easement had been denied for the Dakota Access Pipeline near the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on Dec. 4, outside Cannon Ball, North Dakota.
Scott Olson / Getty Images |