Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton laughs after receiving a Los Angeles Lakers basketball jersey as a gift from global cultural ambassador and former NBA basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, at the State Department in Washington. (AP)

Bahraini anti-government protesters kneel in the street and gesture toward riot police in Manama. (AP)

A protester from Occupy London outside the High Court following news that the City of London Corporation has won its legal bid to evict anti-capitalist protesters from outside St Paul's Cathedral, in London. (AP)

A tribal militant loyal to the powerful al-Ahmar family looks on as barricades they have erected during recent fighting with security forces are being removed in Sana'a, Yemen. (Reuters)

Members of the Azerbaijan team compete in the International Group Rhythmic Gymnastics event in east London. (Reuters)

A model wears a creation by Nicola Formichetti, and Sebastien Teigne for Thierry Mugler fashion house's Men's fall-winter 2012-2013 collection, presented in Paris, France. (AP)

A giant statue of a Buddhist deity with a tiger stands on a decorated floating platform to mark the upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations in Singapore. (AFP)

Penguins wear traditional Korean hanbok costumes as part of a Lunar New Year event at an aquarium in Seoul, South Korea. (Reuters)

Italian navy divers approach the cruise ship Costa Concordia after it ran aground on the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio. Naval divers used explosives to create holes in the hull of the cruise ship to speed the search for 29 missing passengers and crew while the seas remain relatively calm. (AP)

Indian soldiers from the Border Security Forces atop camels stand in front of the Presidential Palace during a ceremony in preparation for the annual Beating Retreat in New Delhi. (AP)

A rainbow appears over the Mediterranean city of Netanya, north of Tel Aviv, Israel. (AFP)

Tibetan exiles shout slogans after being detained by police during a protest outside the venue of a meeting between Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo, who is on a two-day visit for the 15th round of boundary talks, and India's National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon in New Delhi. (Reuters)

Turkish soldiers carry the coffin of former Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash during his funeral procession in the Turkish -occupied northern part of the divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus. (AP)

A women carries a musical instrument case in London. (Reuters)

A man rides a horse through a bonfire in San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain, January 16, 2012, in honor of Saint Anthony, the patron saint of animals. (AP)

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman waves to reporters inside the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in Myrtly Beach, South Carolina, as he leaves after announcing the suspension of his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. (AFP)

A sadhu or Hindu holy man uses headphones to listen to a toy robot fortune teller at Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganges, Yamuna, and mythical Saraswati during the annual month long Hindu religious fair of Magh Mela in Allahabad, India. (AP)

Demonstrators hold up placards in front of a line of anti-riot policemen outside the Philippine Senate during the impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona in Manila. (AP)

Lebanese Red Cross members carry a dead body as a rescue team, background, search for residents and dead bodies among the debris of a collapsed building, in Beirut. Security officials say the death toll from the collapse of a five-story residential building has risen to 18, most of them foreigners. (AP)

David Roth, president of the youth organization JUSO of the Swiss Social Democrats (SP), stands inside of the first igloo of the Occupy WEF movement at their camp site in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos, Switzerland. The Occupy WEF members will stay in a camp of several igloos to protest during the World Economic Forum which takes place from January 25 to 29. (Reuters)

Pedestrians walk through a dragon-shaped arch lantern, which is set up for the upcoming Spring Festival, at a local park in Chengdu, Sichuan province. The Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, begins on January 23 and marks the start of the Year of the Dragon, according to the Chinese zodiac. (Reuters)

A woman falls off her board as she surfs in the Mediterranean sea off Tel Aviv during a windy winter, Israel. (Reuters)

Ukraine's team competes in the International Group Rhythmic Gymnastics event in east London, Britain. (Reuters)

A dancer performs on a watery stage suspended above the audience during the Fuerza Bruta (Brute Force) dress rehearsal at the upcoming Bread and Butter fashion trade show in Berlin, Germany. (Reuters)

Mushers and their dogs compete after the mass start of the eighth stage of the La Grande Odyssee sled dogs race in Bessans. The race crosses the Alps in France, covering over 1000 km (621 miles) over 11 days. (Reuters)

Wild fowl fly at sunrise in Quorn, central England. (Reuters)

Taiwan's President and Nationalist Party presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou attends a news conference in Taipei. (Reuters)

Indian soldiers train on stunt motorcycles in preparation for an upcoming Republic Day parade in New Delhi. (AP)

An Afghan artist and his students display an oversized page from the Quran at the Naser Khusro Balkhi Library during an opening ceremony in Kabul. (AFP)

Anti-government protesters run through tear gas during clashes between protesters and riot police in the village of Diraz, west of Manama, Bahrain. Hundreds of anti-government protesters took to streets of Diraz demanding the downfall of the ruling family. (Reuters)

American volunteer Torrey Utne feeds a seal at the Pieterburen seal creche, north of the town of Groningen, northern Netherlands. Storms that have lashed the Dutch coast this year have created a wave of orphaned baby seals, some so young their umbilical cords are still attached, wrenched from their mothers and washed up on beaches and dikes. (AP)

Victoria Azarenka from Belarus returns the ball during her semi-final win over Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland at the Sydney International tennis event, Australia. (AFP)

Delegates attend the opening session of the 5th Plenary Session of the 13th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress in Shanghai, China. (AP)

A mother protects her son as riot police search for stone-throwing residents during a violent demolition in suburban San Juan, east of Manila, Philippines. (AP)

South Korean Special Warfare Forces members during a winter exercise in an ice water in Pyeongchang (AP)

An Indian child eats mid-day meals organized by Government of Andhra Pradesh at a shanty area of Hyderabad. (AP)

Thousands of padlocks are fixed by lovers onto a fence on a train bridge over the Rhine in Cologne Germany. A German custom says that lovers who fix a lock to the fence and throw the key into the river Rhine will have their love forever locked. (AP)

Skiers compete during the men's ski cross World Cup event at Alpe d'Huez, French Alps. (AP)

The Milky Way illuminates the sky above the dome of the Danish 1.54-meter telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. (AFP/Handout/European Southern Observatory/Z. Bardon)

Two policemen on horses keep an eye on Republican presidential hopefuls' supporters outside a polling station at Webster School in Manchester, New Hampshire, USA. (AFP)

Indian workers cover elephant statues at Ambedkar Memorial Park in Lucknow. Workmen using truckloads of cloth raced to comply with election officials who ordered the statues of Chief Minister of Utter Pradesh state Mayawati, who is a hero to India's lowest castes, along with nearly 200 statues of elephants, her party's symbol, be covered. (AP)

Migrant workers have an annual meal at a local construction site in Chengdu, Sichuan province, January 9, 2012. More than 1,400 migrant workers took part in the annual meal to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year. (Reuters)

A keeper looks inside the mouth of a South American sea lion at 'Tiergarten Schoenbrunn' Zoo in Vienna, Austria. (Reuters)

A full moon rises behind the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building over the skyline of Manhattan in New York, January 9, 2012. (Reuters)

Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (front row, 2nd R) and National League for Democracy (NLD) party leader Tin Oo (front row, L) clap after cutting a ribbon during the opening ceremony of their party's new signboard at the head office in Rangoon. The NLD will be standing for the upcoming by-election on April 1. (Reuters)

Judges attend a ceremony to mark the beginning of the new legal year in Hong Kong. (Reuters)

Female supporters of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh rides a donkey during a rally demanding basic services from the new government in Sana'a. (AP)

A man carries a placard during a demonstration against soaring petrol prices following government's decision to abolish decades-old fuel subsidies in Lagos, Nigeria. (AFP)

Chefs, including Belgian chef Pierre Wynants (L), throw their hats in the air in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people throwing chefs hats, at the Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium. There were 617 participants who successfully broke the record, organizers said. (Reuters)

18-year-old Thang, believed to be an Agent Orange victim according to locals who know his mother, waits for customers at a market in Hanoi. Thang, who comes from Vietnam's central province of Thanh Hoa, cannot remember his full name. (Reuters)

A devotee climbs and kisses the wooden cross of the Black Nazarene during a procession in Manila, Philippines. (Reuters)

Gulls swarm around a car in the parking lot at Edgewater Park in Cleveland, Ohio.(AP)

Visitors with their pets after worship at Ichigaya Kamegaoka Hachimangu in Tokyo, Japan. The shrine specially arranges the dates for pet-owners and their pets to offer the New Year's prayers together. (AP)