December 22, 2013

A layer of ice coats the leaves of a Japanese maple tree after an ice storm in Toronto, Canada.

A vehicle tries to drive over a sidewalk to avoid an ice-covered tree branch that came down after freezing rain in Toronto, Canada. Thousands of households are without power in the Greater Toronto area following an overnight ice storm.

People hold a Central African flag as they protest against the French "Sangaris" intervention in the Galabadia neighborhood close to President Michel Djotodia's private house in the eigth district of Bangui.

Freed Russian former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky (C) arrives for his news conference in the Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, Germany. Khodorkovsky, pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin after 10 years in jail, said in remarks that he would not go into politics or seek to regain assets of his former oil company, Yukos.

A Shinto priest walks across embers during a fire walking ceremony to pray for a safe and good healthy life at Kabasan Saenazumi Jinja shrine in Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.

People sing as they show a poster of the winning number to the first prize of Spain's Christmas Lottery "El Gordo" (The Fat One) outside a lottery shop where the lottery number was sold in Sanlucar la Mayor, southern Spain.

Nora Yara, a victim of Super Typhoon Haiyan, decorates a Christmas tree along a devastated area of Sagkahan town, Tacloban city, central Philippines.

A pro-European integration protester wearing a mask depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin tries to kiss a woman during a rally in Independence square in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Sweden's Maria Pietilae-Holmner skis during the Women's World Cup Giant Slalom skiing race in Val d'Isere, French Alps.

Anti-government protesters clash with riot police during a mass rally outside the house of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in Bangkok in a bid to topple her before an uncertain February election the main opposition party will boycott.

Washerwomen, who earn close to 2,000 Ar (less than $1) a day, wash laundry along the banks of the Ikopa River in Madagascar's capital Antananarivo.

Camels walk along sand dunes in the Liwa desert, 220 km west of Abu Dhabi, United Arabs Emirates, as the Mazayin Dhafra Camel Festival takes place.