A girl looks at Christmas decorations in a store window, in Paris, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010.
Captain Kim Alfastsen guides the M/S Tennessee through ice about 9 inches thick in Horsens Fjord, Denmark, Thursday Dec. 23, 2010. Tennessee is a combined tug and icebreaker of 100 tons, with a 550 BHP engine and a reinforced hull. It has three tons of lead at the aft of the boat, which helps lift the front end up on the ice. A night storm dumped up to 6 inches of snows across Denmark, hampering road, rail, and air traffic. Worst hit was the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm, where police urged people to stay indoors. In the south, the Danish army mobilized armored personnel carriers to help ambulances and other emergency vehicles get through the snow.
Shoppers out in London's Oxford street looking for bargains as sales start early Thursday, Dec., 23, 2010. Britain is battered by economic woes, and the shopping season was shortened by bad weather, so the final hopes of rescuing the retail season rest on last minute shoppers, predominantly men who are desperate to find a credible gift before it's finally, utterly, too late. This pressure is expected to bring record number of nervous, credit-card-ready consumers into Britain's malls and shops Thursday night as retailers predict the most intense shopping binge of the year.
A horse drawn cart makes its way toward the center of the city on a cold morning in Srinagar, India, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010.
Adrian Sobaru, an electrician at the national television station throws himself from a balcony in Romania's Parliament, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010, just as the prime minister began to speak ahead of a no-confidence vote. Sobaru suffered fractures to the face, and other non life-threatening injuries, according to a hospital official.
A South Korea's K-1 tank fires live rounds during the largest joint air and ground military exercises on the Seungjin Fire Training Field in mountainous Pocheon, 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the Koreas' heavily fortified border, South Korea Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010. South Korean fighter jets dropped bombs and tanks fired artillery Thursday as the military staged its largest air and ground firing drills of the year in a show of force a month after North Korea's deadly shelling of a front-line island.
A driver frowns while waiting in a queue to get his newly-bought second hand car checked as part of the vehicle registration procedure before being issued a car plate at a used car market in Beijing, China, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010. China's capital announced Thursday that it will sharply limit new vehicle registrations to try to ease massive traffic jams that are rapidly turning Beijing's streets into parking lots.
Demonstrators are sprayed by a police water cannon during clashes outside the University of Venezuela in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Dec. 23. 2010. Police and soldiers fired water cannons and plastic bullets as thousands of students protested against a law passed by Venezuela's congress that increases government powers over the country's universities.
Catholic pilgrims hold candles as they take part in a Catholic mass inside the Grotto in the Church of the Nativity, where many Christians believe Jesus Christ was born, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010. So far this year, 1.4 million tourists have visited the traditional birthplace of Jesus and 90,000 are expected during the Christmas season, a significant increase over last year, according to Israeli government figures. The numbers of visitors have been rising steadily in recent years.