Parents leave with their children after a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, was attacked on Tuesday, December 16. Several members of the Pakistani Taliban stormed the school, killing more than 140 people, mostly children. More than 100 people were injured.
A Majeed/AFP/Getty Images
The week in 32 photos —
A poster for the movie "The Interview" is taken down from a theater in Atlanta on Wednesday, December 17. Sony Pictures canceled its plans to release the comedy -- which depicts an assassination plot against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un -- following a threat from a group that hacked the movie studio. FBI investigators tracked the hackers back to the North Korean regime, U.S. law enforcement officials said.
Britain's Prince George sits in a Kensington Palace courtyard in this official Christmas photograph released by his parents, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, on Saturday, December 13. See more photos of the young prince
PA Wire/Getty Images
The week in 32 photos —
The best man in a wedding party holds an AR-10 rifle while the party was having its pre-wedding portraits taken on the steps of the state capitol in Olympia, Washington, on Saturday, December 13. The man was handed the gun by activist Brandon Lyons, who was participating in a protest against the state's new law that requires background checks on all gun sales and transfers, including private transactions. The wedding party, which declined to be identified, was not part of the protest.
Elaine Thompson/AP
The week in 32 photos —
U.S. contractor Alan Gross is welcomed with a hug after he arrived at an Air Force base in Maryland on Wednesday, December 17. Gross, held in Cuban custody since 2009, was freed as part of a landmark deal with Cuba that paves the way for a major overhaul in U.S. policy toward the island. "It's time for a new approach," said President Barack Obama, who said he's instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to begin discussions with Cuba to re-establish diplomatic relations.
Lawrence Jackson/Xinhua Press/Corbis
The week in 32 photos —
A surfer makes his way out of the water Monday, December 15, at Zurriola Beach in San Sebastian, Spain.
JAVIER ETXEZARRETA/EPA
The week in 32 photos —
Pope Francis blows out candles as he celebrated his 78th birthday at the Vatican on Wednesday, December 17.
TONY GENTILE/Reuters/Landov
The week in 32 photos —
Plain-clothed police officers in Adana, Turkey, detain a man who was trying to set up a tent Monday, December 15, to mourn those killed in Kobani, Syria. Kobani, near the Turkish border, has been devastated by heavy fighting between Kurdish forces and ISIS militants.
Hurriyet/AP
The week in 32 photos —
Lazaro Iglesias, left, debates Peter Bell outside a restaurant in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood Wednesday, December 17, after U.S. President Barack Obama announced a change in approach toward Cuba. Iglesias, left, is against the policy shift, while Bell supports it.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The week in 32 photos —
A rebel fighter in Aleppo, Syria, keeps an eye on government troops on Wednesday, December 17. The United Nations estimates nearly 200,000 people have been killed in Syria since an uprising in March 2011 spiraled into civil war.
Karam Almasri/NurPhoto/ZUMA Wire
The week in 32 photos —
From left, Jack Harris, Jada Harris and Olivia Bernhardy sit at the grave of a close family friend Saturday, December 13, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
The week in 32 photos —
Smoke from the Mount Sinabung volcano is seen from a village on Indonesia's Sumatra island on Sunday, December 14. See other recently active volcanoes
Tibt Nangin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The week in 32 photos —
A crane fell on the roof of a house in Ijesselstein, Netherlands, on Saturday, December 13. No one was hurt in the incident, which happened when a man tried to surprise his girlfriend by proposing from the top of the crane, according to Dutch affiliate RTL News.
MICHIEL VAN BEERS/EPA
The week in 32 photos —
Visitors at Mather Point, on the South Rim of Arizona's Grand Canyon National Park, view a rare weather phenomenon on Thursday, December 11: a sea of thick clouds filling the canyon just below the rim.
Michael Quinn/National Park Service/AP
The week in 32 photos —
People gather around a downed aircraft in Athurugiriya, Sri Lanka, as firefighters try to extinguish flames amid the debris on Friday, December 12. The Sri Lanka Air Force plane crashed into a rubber plantation, killing all four people on board, police said.
STR/EPA/Landov
The week in 32 photos —
A Chinese soldier's eyelashes are covered with frost as he trains in Heihe, China, on Tuesday, December 16. The temperature was minus-30 degrees Celsius (minus-22 degrees Fahrenheit).
AP
The week in 32 photos —
Trees are decorated with Christmas lights on Friday, December 12, as snow covers St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow's Red Square.
Marina Lystseva/TASS Photo/Newscom
The week in 32 photos —
A museum staff member checks the lighting near the "Earlier Mona Lisa" before the painting went on exhibition at The Arts House in Singapore. A private Swiss art foundation says the painting was done by Leonardo da Vinci years before his "Mona Lisa" masterpiece.
EDGAR SU/Reuters/Landov
The week in 32 photos —
People in Zhenjiang, China, watch a car dangle on the edge of a giant sinkhole on Friday, December 12.
Stringer/Reuters/Landov
The week in 32 photos —
A woman walks past mannequins that were locked to a gas pipe in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, December 15.
BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images
The week in 32 photos —
Villagers rescue a wild elephant calf Monday, December 15, at a rice paddy field in India's northeastern Assam state. The elephant had been separated from its herd.
STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images
The week in 32 photos —
A man passes an upside-down house in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, on Sunday, December 14. The house was constructed as an attraction for local residents and tourists.
ILYA NAYMUSHIN/Reuters/Landov
The week in 32 photos —
Britain's Prince Harry shows children a photograph he took during a visit to Mokhotlong, Lesotho, on Thursday, December 18. The prince co-founded a charity, Sentebale, that built a school in the town.
PA PHOTOS/Landov
The week in 32 photos —
Whirling Dervishes perform a traditional "sema" ritual during a ceremony in Istanbul on Saturday, December 13. The ceremony marked the death of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, the father of the Mevlevi sect the Dervishes belong to.
MURAD SEZER/Reuters/Landov
The week in 32 photos —
A civilian informant at Camp Aguinaldo, east of Manila, Philippines, holds a reward of 5.3 million Philippine pesos (nearly $120,000 U.S.) for the arrest of suspected Abu Sayyaf militants on Tuesday, December 16. The bounty was part of anti-terrorism efforts in the Philippines.
DENNIS M. SABANGAN/EPA/Landov
The week in 32 photos —
A man dressed as Santa Claus slides down a rope of the cable car transporting visitors up Rio de Janeiro's Sugarloaf Mountain on Thursday, December 18.
ANTONIO LACERDA/EPA
The week in 32 photos —
A man places flowers to pay his respects to the victims of the cafe siege in Sydney on Tuesday, December 16.
Daniel Munoz/Getty Images
The week in 32 photos —
Debris and rocks fill the backyards of homes in Camarillo Springs, California, on Friday, December 12. Ten homes were damaged and ruled uninhabitable after a mudslide crashed into the subdivision and piled rocks almost as high as roof lines, authorities said.
Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP
The week in 32 photos —
Buddhist monks take pictures at a courthouse in Yangon, Myanmar, as they wait to see Philip Blackwood after a court hearing on Thursday, December 18. Blackwood, general manager of the V Gastro Bar, and two business partners were arrested last week after an online advertisement for the bar showed a psychedelic image of Buddha wearing headphones.
Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP
The week in 32 photos —
Afghan schoolchildren study at an open-air classroom in eastern Nangarhar province on Thursday, December 18.
Noorullah Shirzada/AFP/Getty Images
The week in 32 photos —
A man dressed as a devil performs during a Krampus show Saturday, December 13, in Kaplice, Czech Republic. Each year, people in costumes and masks parade through the streets to disperse the ghosts of winter. See last week in 33 photos