A woman leaves a voting cabin with her ballot at a polling station in Bucharest as Romanians head to the polls to elect a new parliament. (AFP)

A typhoon victim waits for relief supplies in Osmena town, Compostela Valley in southern Philippines, five days after the year’s strongest typhoon -Typhoon Bopha – killed 540 people. (Reuters)

Lebanese clergymen pay their respects before the coffin of the Patriarch of Antioch and the all East, Ignatius Hazim IV (C) during his funeral procession at Saint Nicolas Church in Beirut. (AP)

A protester jumps as Egyptian army soldiers stand guard in front of the presidential palace in Cairo. (AP)

Followers of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gather to express their support and pray for his health at Plaza Bolivar in Caracas. Chavez is returning to Cuba for more surgery after a recurrence of cancer led him to name a successor for the first time. (Reuters)

Activists gather in central Oslo to protest against the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s award of the 2012 Peace Prize to the EU, Norway. (AFP)

Hundreds of Santa Clauses start to run at the annual St. Nicholas Run in Michendorf, west of Berlin, Germany. (AP)

A woman wearing a niqab passes people dressed as Father Christmas on a Santa-themed pub crawl in London, England. (Reuters)

A man walks in the track as power supply is interrupted before the start of the men’s 1000 meters division A event at the Essent ISU speed skating World Cup in Nagano, Japan. (Reuters)

St. Pauli’s Christopher Buchtmann slides into a heap of snow during the 2nd division Bundesliga match between FC St. Pauli and Erzgebirge Aue at Millerntor-Stadion in Hamburg, Germany. (AFP)