Russian Communists Party supporters holding party flags gather to protest against official results of parliamentary elections in Moscow. (AP)

Italian Premier Mario Monti prepares to speak at Rome's Foreign Press Club. (AP)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (L) leaves the High Court in London where he attended a ruling in his long-running fight against extradition to Sweden. (AFP)

Shi'ite Muslim men touch a symbolic sacred horse for good luck as they take part in a religious procession ahead of the Ashura festival in Lahore, Pakistan. (Reuters)

A Yemeni woman displays her hand with a chain and lock during a demonstration to demand trial of Yemen's outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the southern city of Taiz. (Reuters)

Sri Lanka's cricketer Kumar Sangakkara (R) speaks with a Buddhist monk during a blessing ceremony at the Sri Lankan cricket headquarters in Colombo ahead of his team's departure for their South African tour. (Reuters)

A couple peers through cables on the Brooklyn Bridge toward the Manhattan skyline on a foggy morning in New York. (AP)

People sunbathe at a public beach in this aerial view of the Dead Sea. (Reuters)

A German balloon vendor dressed as a Santa Claus searches in his balloons as he waits for customers at a Christmas market in Berlin. (AP)

A pair of Western and Victorian crown pigeons eat from a feeding plate at the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, Malaysia. (AP)