A boy takes a break from shoveling mud as he cleans his house swamped with mud from flash floods triggered by Typhoon Washi in Iligan city, southern Philippines. (Reuters)

Residents shelter in an evacuation center following Friday's flash flooding brought about by Tropical storm Washi in Iligan city, southern Philippines. (AP)

The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with a Soyuz TMA-03M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off from the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. (AP)

A photo provided by the National Forensic Science Institute shows a giant metallic ball of 1,1 metre in diameter weighing some 6 kilograms that fell out of the sky on a remote grassland in Namibia, prompting baffled authorities to contact NASA and the European space agency. (AFP)

A beggar is wrapped in a blanket in Milan, Italy. (AP)

Romanian honor guard soldiers are reflected in a puddle during a religious service at the Hero's Cemetery in Bucharest. (AP)

Filipino cadets dance during the 76th anniversary of the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Camp Aguinaldo military headquarters in suburban Quezon city, Metro Manila. (AP)

A general view of the Aspire Zone hall during the men's final handball game between Qatar and Egypt at the Arab Games 2011 in Doha. (Reuters)

A seven month old female baby koala, as yet unnamed, holds onto a toy koala as she is weighed at Duisburg Zoo, Germany. (AP)

A day-old white lion cub lies next to his mother Sumba in their enclosure at Belgrade's Zoo. (Reuters)

U.S. Tech Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo (C) kisses his wife Lalaine upon his arrival at Baltimore Washington International Airport in Maryland. (AFP)

People place candles next to St. Wenceslas statue in the center of Prague to pay tribute to former Czech President Vaclav Havel. (AP)

North Korean TV still shows Kim Jong-Un (L), son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il as he walks next to his father's glass coffin (R) in Pyongyang. (AFP)

A Pakistani child looks towards a flag next to her mother, while taking part in an anti-NATO rally called by Pakistani religious group Jamaat-e-Islami in Karachi. (AP)

An Egyptian woman is reflected in a puddle full of stones used in recent clashes at Tahrir Square, Cairo. (AP)

An armed Yemeni tribesman loyal to Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, the head of the powerful Hashid tribe, jumps out of a hole in a building damaged during recent clashes with security forces in Sanaa. (AP)

Marlies Schild of Austria competes during the women's night slalom in FIS Alpine skiing World cup in Flachau. (AFP)

A statue on top of the Gendarmenmarkt concerthall is seen through Christmas lights in Berlin, Germany. (AFP)

A visitor looks at an ice sculpture showing a contortionist at an exhibition of ice sculptures in Roevershagen, eastern Germany. (AP)

Snow has fallen on a red rose in a garden in Frankfurt, Germany. (AP)

An elderly South Korean man from a conservative, right-wing and anti-North Korean civic group, holds an extra edition of a local newspaper reporting the death of North Korean leader Kim jong-il at a rally in Seoul. (Reuters)

North Koreans cry and scream in a display of mourning for their leader Kim Jong Il at the foot of a giant statue of his father Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, after Kim Jong Il's death was announced. (AP)

A woman holds flowers as she arrives to pay her respects to late former Czech President Vaclav Havel in Prague. (Reuters)

Anti-communist fighters, who took part in events that led to the toppling of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, protest in Bucharest, Romania, outside the natural history museum, near the government headquarters. (AP)

Ancient burnt and damaged books saved from a research center  set up during the three-year occupation of Egypt by France in the late 18th century are seen at a restoration book center in Cairo. (AP)

An aerial photo shows damage caused by devastating floods over Iligan city in southern Philippines after tropical storm Washi blew away Sunday. (AP)

An elderly woman negotiates a pedestrian crossing during heavy rainfall in central Athens, Greece. (AP)

Qatar's Femi Seun Ogunode falls during the Men's 200m final during the 2011 Arab Games in Doha. (Reuters)

A worker puts on ornaments from inside a Christmas tree in Sidon, southern Lebanon. (Reuters)

A keeper at the zoo in Magdeburg, eastern Germany, holds a mona (Cercopithecus Mona) monkey baby. (AP)

Shadows of Syrians are reflected on a giant poster showing President Bashar Assad, during a supporting rally in Damascus. Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters after Friday prayers at several locations around the country, while the army sent reinforcements into a southern area where military defectors recently launched deadly attacks on regime troops. (AP)

In this image made available by France's Marine Nationale, the cargo ship TK Bremen is seen stranded on a beach near Erdeven, France. High winds beached the ship on France's jagged Atlantic coast and some of the 220 tons of fuel on board are leaking and threatening a local beach. (AP/Mael Prigent, Marine Nationale)

Participants of a flash mob burn fake foreign bank notes during a protest against plans to join the European Union in Kiev, Ukraine. Kiev will host a EU-Ukraine summit next week. (Reuters)

India Gate is reflected as a soldier plays music during a ceremony to pay respect to those who died during the 1971 India-Pakistan war for the liberation of East Pakistan, now called Bangladesh, during Victory Day celebrations in New Delhi. (AP)

Workers spray water and clean sand sculptures featuring famous figures and landmarks during the Sand Sculptures Festival at a cultural park in Sentul, outside of Jakarta, Indonesia.  International artists from 11 countries created 40 large sculptures for the festival. (AFP)

A boy in a school uniform waits for a rickshaw driver to make an adjustment on a cool morning in New Delhi, India. The rickshaw is a common mode of transport in many Indian cities. (AP)

Competitors approach a mark during racing in the Women's 470 two-person dinghy at the ISAF World Sailing Championships on Fremantle Harbour near Perth, Australia. (AFP)

Lights decorate a church as thousands of people attend an early morning mass which signals the beginning of the celebrations for Christmas in suburban Las Pinas, south of Manila, Philippines.  As part of a religious tradition Filipinos attend mass for nine consecutive days until Christmas. (AP)

A Nepali Buddhist offers prayers under a large bell at Boudhanath Stupa. The stupa, which is one of the largest in the world, is a UNESCO heritage site. (AP)

A photographer waits for the arrival of a big wave to break on the Basque Monument ''El Peine de los Vientos'' during high winds in San Sebastian northern Spain. Authorities has announced gales for this weekend in the north of Spain with winds around 120 kph. (AP)

U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Adam Schuessler, from Michigan, waits to board an Air Force C-130 transport plane to leave Iraq at the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center. U.S. forces formally ended their nine-year war in Iraq Thursday with a low-key flag ceremony in Baghdad, while to the north flickering violence highlighted ethnic and sectarian strains threatening the country in years ahead. (Reuters)

A guest takes a photo of terracotta warriors, made of chocolate, displayed at a new chocolate theme park in Shanghai, China. (AP)

Nooses hang in the gallows at the Pretoria Central Prison, South Africa. The government opened the gallows Thursday as a monument to those who were executed before the practice was stopped in 1989 and abolished in 1995. In background are plaques to those political prisoners who were executed. (AP)

An engineer tests the new electronic trading system at the Khartoum Stock Exchange.  Sudan, struggling to restore its economy after years of war and the break-away of newly formed South Sudan, aims to expand its tiny stock market to trade gold and commodities. (Reuters)

Sri Lankan fire dancers perform outside the new Chinese-gifted performing arts theatre, named the Lotus Pond, in Colombo. The 3.08 billion rupee (USD 27 million) theatre, officiated by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, was built with aid from China. (AFP)

Marco Sulllivan, of the United States, is airborne during a training session for the first European downhill race of the World Cup season in Val Gardena, Italy. (AP)

A four-month-old lion cub, which was originally from Africa, is seen inside its cage at Jordan's zoo in Yaduda. (Reuters)

A student attaches her glasses to a Peking Opera facial mask during an event promoting the opera at a university in Liaocheng, Shandong province, China. The event aims at promoting the traditional Chinese art of Peking opera on the university campus. Students taking part in the event designed their own masks. (Reuters)

A large Christmas tree decorates the central ground floor at Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris. (AFP)

School children perform rituals during a prayer ceremony in Jammu for victims of a Kolkata, India hospital fire. (Reuters)

People stand next to an image of 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman at the peace garden at an exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center on the eve of the prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway. (AFP)

Employees of French daily newspaper France-Soir déploient display a giant banner on top of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Workers are protesting the end of the newspaper’s print edition, scheduled for Dec. 15, which will result in loss of 89 jobs. (AFP)

Surviving widows and relatives of men killed in a notorious massacre gather for a commemoration in Rawagede, West Java, Indonesia. After six decades of waiting, relatives of the men killed during Indonesia's bitter struggle for independence finally got what they wanted:  an official apology from the Dutch state. (AP)

Nepal's Raju Tamang takes a corner shot in a fog-enveloped stadium during their semi-final soccer match against Afghanistan at the SAFF Championship 2011 in New Delhi, India. (AP)

A Sudanese refugee participates in a demonstration for human rights in Tel Aviv. Thousands of activists participated in the rally marking the International Day of Human Rights, which is Saturday. (AP)

A man shovels snow in a parking lot in Pyongyang after overnight snow fell on the North Korean capital. (AP)

Bahraini Shi’ite Muslims participate in a religious procession in the Musalla neighborhood of Manama. Afterward, hundreds of participants headed toward an area that had been the hub of Bahrain's spring uprising and is now a heavily-militarized zone that protesters seek to reclaim. (AP)

Hunters with tame golden eagles get ready for an annual hunting competition outside Almaty, Kazakhstan. (Reuters)

Painters sit in front of the Forth Bridge in North Queensferry near Edinburgh, Scotland. Network Rail announced the end of the 10-year refurbishment and repainting of the bridge, on which over 240,000 liters of paint was used. (Reuters)

An employee works at a factory producing New Year and Christmas decorations in Lviv, Ukraine. (Reuters)

Dancers perform during the opening ceremony for the Arab Games at Khalifa stadium in Doha, Qatar. (Reuters)