Dec. 20, 2012. US House Speaker John Boehner arrives at a weekly news conference. Later that day, he withdrew “Plan B” legislation that would have averted going over the fiscal cliff.
Dec. 21, 2012. Security leads away a protester as National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre gave a statement in response to the Connecticut school shooting.
Dec. 20, 2012. A police officer dressed in a Santa Claus costume—the blue color representing police—walks in Macacos slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Dec. 19, 2012. Firefighters salute a passing hearse from the funeral procession of 7-year-old Daniel Gerard Barden, a victim of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Dec. 17, 2012. Hungarian President János Áder, right, with Afghan President Hamid Karzai after his arrival at the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Dec. 17, 2012. A truck campaigning for South African and African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma is parked in Bloemfontein, South Africa, where he easily won reelection.
Dec. 20, 2012. Indians participate in a candlelight vigil outside the hospital where a rape victim is being treated in New Delhi, India. The hours-long gang-rape and near-fatal beating of a 23-year-old student triggered outrage and anger across the country.
Dec. 20, 2012. A Syrian refugee illegally crosses a border fence into Cilvegozu, Turkey.
Dec. 19, 2012. Nearly 900 newly trained recruits of the Jammu and Kashmir Police parade in Sheeri, a part of Indian-Administered Kashmir. They will join Indian soldiers to fight militants in Kashmir.
Dec. 19, 2012. Officials from the South Korean Central Election Management Committee count votes at Yuido High School in Seoul, South Korea. Conservative candidate Park Geun-hye’s victory makes her South Korea’s first woman president.
Released Dec. 18, 2012. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft view of Saturn.
Dec. 19, 2012. Health workers demonstrate in Madrid agains cuts in public health care and the privatization of medical centers and hospitals.
Dec. 19, 2012. The number 13 arrives at Times Square for the 2013 New Years Eve Countdown.