A girl smiles as she plays with fake snow during the Christmas holiday season at a shopping mall in Jakarta, Indonesia. (Reuters)

People listen to a speech by Egyptian Cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, during Friday prayers before a protest against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at Al Azhar mosque in old Cairo, Egypt. (Reuters)

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks were heading lower Friday, for a fifth day, on concern that Washington lawmakers will fail to reach a budget deal before a year-end deadline. (AP)

A woman holding an umbrella stands near a Japan flag in front of an illuminated display at a shopping district in Tokyo. (Reuters)

Motorists ride motorcycles through a flooded street in Rantau Panjang, northeast of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Reuters)

Russia’s players celebrate defeating Team USA in their preliminary round game during the 2013 IIHF U20 World Junior Hockey Championship in Ufa, Russia. (Reuters)

A man is wrapped with pythons, some which include the Albino Burmese Python, as part of a show celebrating the coming Year of the Snake in the Chinese calendar in Malabon city, north of Manila, the Philippines. (Reuters)

A Newar community girl dressed as a deity participates in a parade marking the Yomari Puni festival in Katmandu, Nepal. The festival is observed annually by the community on a full moon day where Yomari, a confection of rice flour, is prepared and eaten. (AP)

Workers raise a lantern to hang it up as a 2013 New Year’s decoration at an entrance of a shopping street in Beijing, China. (AP)

Revelers take part in the festival of Els Enfarinats, in the town of Ibi near Alicante, Spain. (AP)

A Palestinian rides a horse during sunset on a Gaza City beach. (Reuters)

A Chinese security guard rides on a specially constructed ice-chair on the frozen Houhai Lake during winter in central Beijing. (Reuters)

Giant panda Qin Chuan plays in the snow at Jinbao Park in Weifang, Shandong province, China. (CDIC/Reuters)