World News in Pictures

[Mr Lick]

France's Tessa Worley crashes into the advertisement banners as she falls after missing a door in the FIS Women's World Cup Slalom in Courchevel, France



That's how he gets around so quickly! Santa Claus leaves a helicopter at the Romanian Airforce Base outside Bucharest. Santa arrived on a Puma helicopter and distributed gifts to the children of the Romanian air force personnel

[Mr Lick]

A young boy, injured while fleeing from clashes in Juba, South Sudan, rests at a medical clinic inside the United Nations compound



A woman offers hot tea at a barricades set by Ukrainian Pro-European opposition activists at Kiev's Independence Square



Someone's happy with santa: a Chimpanzee opens its Christmas presents at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, England

[Mr Lick]

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg pulls Christmas crackers with pupils at the St Clements Danes Primary School, London



Firefighters battle a fire in the warehouse district near the St. Louis riverfront



Handout picture released by Brazil's Receita Federal (Customs) of a box with human hair seized at the Guarulhos international airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A ton of human hair, with provenance from India, worth roughly £246,000 was seized by customs

[Mr Lick]

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (2nd R) speaks to the media following a Senate cloture vote on budget bill on Capitol Hill in Washington.



A general view of Independence Square in central Kiev, as protesters gather for an opposition rally. Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to buy $15 billion of Ukrainian bonds and slash its gas bill by a third to prop up the embattled Kiev government as it battles mass protests over the rejection of a historic EU pact. Tens of thousands of pro-EU protesters flocked to Independence Square in the heart of Kiev after the talks between Putin and President Viktor Yanukovych to denounce what they saw as surrender of Ukrainian sovereignty to Russia



Cecil Williams pets his guide dog Orlando in his hospital bed following a fall onto subway tracks from the platform in New York. The blind 61-year-old Williams says he fainted while holding onto his black labrador who tried to save him from falling. Both escaped without serious injury



Syrians search for survivors amidst the rubble following an airstrike in the Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo. Two children were among at least 13 people killed in new air strikes on a rebel-held district of Syria's main northern city of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said



A supporter of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) shouts slogans during a demonstration in Phnom Penh. Thousands of Cambodian opposition supporters held further demonstrations against Prime Minister Hun Sen's hotly disputed July election win, calling for a new poll to settle allegations of vote rigging



Sunderland's Korean Ki Sung Yueng celebrates scoring Sunderland's second goal during Sunderland v Chelsea, Capital One Cup Quarter Final football match at The Stadium of Light in Sunderland

[Mr Lick]

South Sudan unrest



Up to 13,000 people have sought shelter from the violence in the South Sudanese capital Juba.



in return

[Mr Lick]

Ronnie Biggs, train robber dies at 84

[Mr Lick]

Savannah, the one-and-a-half-year-old cheetah and Max the labrador, who is just a few weeks younger, were put together when Savanah was just 10-weeks-old. Ever since, their friendship has amazed visitors at Cincinatti Zoo, who are delighted but confused as to why the spotted beast hasn't eaten the dashing hound. So, when it snowed, Savanah and Max just like young children were very excitable and wasted no time playing in the snow



A fan in the crowd during day five of The Ladbrokes World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace, London

[Mr Lick]

Lhouraii Li stands out from residents while walking through Keighley high street, near Bradford, West Yorkshire. The real-life doll who spends up to 4 hours every day perfecting her look. Blonde Lhouraii Li says her extraordinary appearance is a combination of Japanese Anime and pink princess Barbie. Using special contact lenses and fake eyelashes, she has made her eyes more doll like and with clever make-up she has learnt how to contour her face without surgery



Members of the China National Pole-Dancing Team perform in public beside a frozen lake at Tianjin Water Park in China



Visitors look at penguins wearing Santa Claus and Christmas tree costumes during a promotional event for Christmas in Yongin, Korea

[Mr Lick]

Tens of thousands of sardines surround a diver off Mactan Island in the Philippines



Firefighters battle a major fire in an apartment building that was under construction in downtown Kingston, Ontario, Canada



A rescue worker is lowered from a Canadian military helicopter as they retrieve a crane operator who was stranded atop a crane when fire broke out in an apartment building under construction in downtown Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The crane operator was taken to a waiting ambulance, and police say he was believed to have only minor injuries

[Mr Lick]

A Palestinian man paddles a boat through a flooded area of Gaza city



Pakistani police cadets perform during the passing out parade ceremony in northwest Pakistan



The Orchestra of Paris, conducted by French Alain Altinoglu, performs during a free concert under the Louvre Pyramid in Paris, France. The orchestra performed Berlioz Roman Carnival and Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony, also known as Pathetique

[Mr Lick]

Maria Carbo, walks on her knees helped by her daughters as a self-imposed penance during her pilgrimage to the shrine in El Rincon, near Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba. Every year, tens of thousands of Cubans flock to the shrine to pay homage on the feast of Saint Lazarus, seeking favors from the religious icon, fused with Catholic and Afro-Cuban figures. He is known on the island as the 'miraculous saint'



A helicopter flies over flames near Pfeiffer Ridge in Big Sur, California. The wildfire fuelled by draught conditions has burned over 550 acres of land in the Los Padres National Forest



Residents carry an injured man who survived shelling after an air strike in Takeek Al-Bab area of Aleppo, Syria

[Mr Lick]

'We're going to need a bigger boat'. A southern right whale is seen under a whale-watching boat in Peninsula Valdez, Argentina. A group of whale watchers got more than they bargained for when a 50-tonne whale emerged beneath their boat



Police outside All Saints' Church in Didcot, Oxfordshire as Thames Valley Police announced that they are to focus their investigation into the disappearance of 17-year-old Jayden Parkinson on a specific grave in the Great Western Cemetery next to All Saint's Church



Extreme pole dancing as a dancer practices in the snow in Tianjin during a promotional event by members of China's national pole dancing team and students of the sport. China set up its first pole dancing team in 2012 in order to compete in the World Pole Dancing Championships



One of the Crossrail tunnels under construction 35m below the streets of Whitechapel, east London, which has proved to be one of the most challenging and impressive sites in the whole Crossrail project. It will be part of the 38 station route from Maidenhead Royal Berkshire in the west to Shenfield in Essex in the east

[Mr Lick]

An Indian Dalit, or lower caste man, from the Indian state of Bihar listens to a speaker during a protest near the Indian parliament in New Delhi, India. Hundreds of Dalit villagers from Bihar gathered to protest against a recent Bihar High Court acquittal of 26 members of Ranvir Sena an upper caste militia. A lower court had earlier found the Ranvir Sena members guilty of a 1997 massacre of 58 Dalits including women and children in Lakshmanpur Bathe



King Arthur Pendragon, a senior Druid, leads a protest march to the new Stonehenge visitor centre in protest at English Heritage's display of ancient human remains excavated from the environs of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, UK



Pro-EU demonstrators bang on empty oil barrels at a barricade in Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine

[Mr Lick]

Workers clad in snake and horse costumes, to represent the outgoing Year of the Snake and incoming Year of the Horse, clean the windows of a hotel in Tokyo, Japan.



A militiamen, who was a former member of the Central African Armed Forces (FACA), takes part in a training session on the outskirts of Bangui. French troops in the country are expanding their operations, in an effort to restore order following sectarian fighting.



A member of the Skipper yacht club dressed as Father Christmas takes off rigging from his trimaran after sailing to mark the ending of the sailboat season on Russia's Yenisei River, outside the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.

[Mr Lick]

A typhoon survivor decorates a Christmas tree amidst the rubble of destroyed houses in Tacloban city in central Philippines, December 17, 2013



A woman pulls a cart loaded with plastic bottles through falling snow in lower Manhattan in New York City, December 17, 2013



Mourners cry as they hold onto the coffin of their relative, who was killed in an attack in the town of Yusfiya, during a funeral in Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, December 17, 2013. Two parked cars laden with explosives and a roadside bomb went off near a funeral tent killing at least 24 Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims on Monday near Baghdad

[Mr Lick]

A priest sick of mixed Christmas messages has declared war on Santa's elves by hanging one from a noose from the front of his church. Jon Knudsen, 45, from Denmark, believes elves are historically minions of Satan and they should not be associated with the Christian festival. Jon claims there is a Trojan horse effect associating previously bad cultural creatures like elves with the birth of Jesus. In Scandinavia elves were historically thought of as evil spirits in the home which had to be banished by priests



Climbers take on the Totem Pole, located at Cape Hauy in Tasmania, Australia



Climber Hans Hornberger slacklining between the Totem Pole and the mainland. The Totem Pole is a natural rock formation, known as a sea or coastal stack, located at Cape Hauy in Tasmania, Australia, where it attracts adventurers from across the world. A sea stack is a steep and often vertical column of rock, found in the sea or near the coast and formed by erosion

[Mr Lick]

Artwork by an artist who intricately carves his works into sand - only to see them washed away just a few hours later. Andres Amador, 42, carved his first beach doodle in 2004 and since then has gone on to create more than 200 seaside masterpieces - some spanning as large as 300 by 500ft. He uses Google Earth to pick out beaches he thinks will be most suited for his designs, ( in this case Fort Bragg, USA), - working when the tide is low which gives him around two hours to complete each design. First Andres, from Grass Valley in California, USA, carefully sketches every design on a sketchpad before calculating the most effective way to apply his work to the shoreline. Then he gets to work with nothing but a garden rake, carving spectacular patterns into his canvas created by Mother Nature



A sulfur miner carries a goat's head in a white bag as he climbs to bury the head in the crater as part of an annual offering ceremony on the Ijen volcano in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The ritual is performed by the sulfur miners of Mount Ijen who slaughter a goat and then bury the head in the crater. The sacrifice is performed to ward off potential disasters for the next year. The Ijen crater rises to 7,800 feet with a depth of over 570 feet, making it one of the world's largest craters. Sulphur mining is a major industry in the region, made possible by an active vent at the edge of a lake, but the work is not without risks as the acidity of the water in the crater is high enough to dissolve clothing and cause breathing problems

[Mr Lick]

A firefighter keeps watch over a burn out operation in Big Sur, California. Firefighters battling a blaze that has destroyed 22 homes along California's scenic Big Sur coastline were counting on lower temperatures and more favourable wind conditions to help them suppress the flames



Tokyo Governor Naoki Inose bows during a news conference at Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office in Tokyo, Japan. Inose resigned on Thursday after being caught up in a financial scandal just three months after he helped his city win a bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games

[Mr Lick]

Wax figures of The Queen, Princess Catherine and Prince William in a Christmas-themed display at Maddam Tussaud in Sydney, Australia



People pedal to produce enough energy to light up the eco-friendly Christmas tree set up at the Basilica de San Francisco explanade in La Paz, Bolivia. The 45 foot tree was made with roughly 50,000 plastic bottles

[Mr Lick]

Window cleaners dressed as Santa Claus and a reindeer pose for photographers during an event to celebrate Christmas in Tokyo



Anti-government protesters march during a rally at a major business district in Bangkok, Thailand



Students holding replica 95 semi-automatic rifles practice protecting their employers at a shooting training field managed by the military during the Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant training on the outskirts of Beijing, China

[Mr Lick]

Students hold each other for warmth as they sleep during a break in between high intensity training at Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant camp



Instructors at Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant camp kick a trainee because he wants to give up during high intensity training

[Mr Lick]

Royal Mail's Swan Valley mail centre in Northampton. The last posting day for first class mail this Christmas is Friday 20 December



Activists wearing Edward Snowden masks take part in a demonstration asking Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to grant Snowden political asylum in Sao Paulo, Brazil



The Soyouz rocket is primed and ready for the launch earlier today from Kourou's space base in the French overseas department of Guiana. It's carrying the European satellite Gaia. Gaia will provide very precise measurements of about one billion stars in our Galaxy

[Mr Lick]

Singer-songwriter Adele Adkins aka Adele holds her OBE medal presented to her by the Prince Charles, Prince of Wales during an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London



In Flanders' Fields: PM David Cameron visits Tyne Cot War Cemetery near Paschendelle, Belgium, this morning where he and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny visited the graves of both Irish and British soldiers who died in the First World War



Not much evidence of energy bill worries at the home of the Duszenko family in Polkowice, southwestern Poland. Since 1999, the Duszenkos have decorated their house and garden before Christmas. This year, they used about 52,000 lightbulbs

[Mr Lick]

Lyn Rigby, mother of the British soldier Lee Rigby who was killed, arrives at the Old Bailey court in London



Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale were found guilty at the Old Bailey today for the murder of Lee Rigby

[Mr Lick]

Cyclists hold a 'Die-In' protest in Vauxhall, London calling for greater awareness of cyclists at busy road junctions after a number of deaths in the capital this year



Former NBA basketball player Dennis Rodman travelling on his way to Pyongyang, North Korea to help train the national team and renew his friendship with Kim Jong-un



A baby elephant keeps cool in high temperatures with a shower at Melbourne Zoo, Australia



A bride and a groom arrive for their wedding ceremony as anti-government protesters march during a rally in Bangkok, Thailand