Photos of the Week, Dec. 27, 2014 - Jan. 2, 2015
A man rides a stand up paddle board as fireworks explode above him during New Year's festivities on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jan. 1, 2015.
Up to 2 million revelers were expected on Copacabana Beach to watch the annual New Year's fireworks display which this year coincided with the start of the city's 450th anniversary celebrations.
China
Mourners light candles in the shape of a heart at a makeshift memorial at the site of a stampede on the Bund in Shanghai, China, Jan. 1, 2015.
More than 35 people died and dozens injured during a stampede at a New Years eve celebration late December 31, 2014.
Afghanistan
A mortar flies out of a tube during a mortar exercise for U.S. soldiers in Dragon Company of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment near Forward Operating Base Gamberi in Laghman province, Afghanistan, Dec. 26, 2014.
Gaza Strip
Palestinians standing atop a hill watch a local motorcycle race in Gaza City, Dec. 26, 2014.
West Bank
A Palestinian protester, dressed as Santa Claus, uses a slingshot to return a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops during clashes following a demonstration against Jewish settlements in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah, West Bank, Dec. 26, 2014.
Great Britain
Joe Schofield, right, and Malcolm Brown from Tullibody, Clackmannanshire are married in the Trades House in Glasgow, Scotland shortly after midnight in front of friends and family in one of the first same-sex weddings in Scotland, Dec. 31, 2014.
Same-sex couples have been able to enter into "civil partnerships" since 2005, however following a change in the law in March 2014 same sex couples are now eligible to marry in Scotland. Parliament's decision to grant same-sex couples an equal right to marriage has been met with opposition from religious groups. Gay marriage is already legal in England and Wales, however the Northern Ireland administration has no plans to make it law.
New York
A hearse carrying the casket containing the body of slain New York Police Department (NYPD) officer Rafael Ramos departs the Christ Tabernacle Church to it's final resting place in Queens, New York, Dec. 27, 2014.
Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were slain last Saturday afternoon while sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn in what is only the seventh instance of police partners being killed together in the city in more than 40 years. Thousands of police officers from departments around the country joined Vice President Joe Biden and other officials for the funeral service at the church on Saturday.
New York
New York Police Department officers embrace at the funeral for slain NYPD officer Rafael Ramos at Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens, New York, Dec. 27, 2014.
New York
NYPD officers hold hands during a moment of silence as another law enforcement officer bows his head during the funeral for slain New York Police Department (NYPD) officer Rafael Ramos near the Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens, New York, Dec. 27, 2014.
West Bank
A protester holds a placard as she stands next to Israeli soldiers during a protest against Israeli settlements in Beit Fajjar, south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Dec. 27, 2014.
Indonesia
Family members of passengers onboard AirAsia flight QZ8501 react at a waiting area in Juanda International Airport, Surabaya, Indonesia, Dec. 28, 2014. Indonesia called off until first light a search for an AirAsia plane with 162 people on board that went missing on Sunday after pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather during a flight from Indonesia's Surabaya city to Singapore. Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, an Airbus 320-200 carrying 155 passengers and seven crew, lost contact with Jakarta air traffic control at 6:17 a.m. local time. No distress signal was sent, said Joko Muryo Atmodjo, an Indonesian transport ministry official.
California
A camper rides a bicycle through a snow-coverd campground following a winter storm in Joshua Tree National Park, Calif., Dec. 31, 2014.
Two people, including a harbor patrolman, died on a wind-beaten Southern California coastal island and emergency crews rescued more than 100 drivers trapped in the snow-covered mountains outside Los Angeles in the wake of the storm.
Syria
An overturned tank is seen in a damaged Khan Wazir street, which faces Aleppo's historic citadel controlled by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, in Old Aleppo, Dec. 26, 2014.
Syria
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, center, talks to soldiers during a visit to Jobar, northeast of Damascus, in this handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA, Jan. 1, 2015.
Al-Assad visited a district on the outskirts of Damascus and thanked soldiers fighting "in the face of terrorism", his office said on its Twitter account on Wednesday, posting pictures of the rare trip. The account said the visit took place in Jobar, northeast of Damascus, on the occasion of the New Year. The district came under heavy Syrian air force strikes on Wednesday according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the nearly four-year conflict.
Syria
Rebel fighters of al-Jabha al-Islamiya (the Islamic Front) prepare an improvised explosive to fire towards forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, at the frontline near Nairab military airport in Aleppo, Dec. 30, 2014.
Russia
Members of the "Cryophil" winter swimming club walk along the Yenisei River ahead of New Year and Christmas celebrations, with the air temperature at about minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 degrees Fahrenheit), outside Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Dec. 28, 2014.
Great Britain
Visitors enjoy the naturally warmed spa water as they relax in the rooftop pool of the Thermae Bath Spa, Britain's only natural thermal, Dec. 30, 2014.
Cold weather gripped the UK for much of the week.
Greece
A person is lifted on an Italian Navy helicopter as the car ferry Norman Atlantic burns in waters off Greece, Dec. 28, 2014.
Italian and Greek helicopter crews worked through the night to airlift passengers in pairs off a burning ferry adrift in the Adriatic Sea, battling darkness and bad weather that hampered rescue efforts by other ships throughout Sunday.
New York
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks from the podium to the New York City Police Academy Graduating class in New York, Dec. 29, 2014. Hundreds of officers took part in the ceremony at Madison Square Garden.
Egypt
Sheikh Abdulla, a blind man, uses his stick to climb to a mosque inside the old city, Shali, where he works as an Imam, Nov. 25, 2014.
Residents of Siwa have been hurt by declining tourism in Egypt, which received 9.5 million tourists last year, down from over 14.7 million tourists in 2010, before the uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Nationwide, the situation is gradually improving and the government says tourism could recover to pre-crisis levels next year if regional turmoil spares Egypt. But Siwa, located just 30 miles from war-torn Libya, still sees only a fraction of the tourists that once visited the desert oasis, the head of Siwa's tourism authority says.
Great Britain
Prime Minister David Cameron competes in the Great Brook Run, a mile long course through water and mud, at Chadlington in southern England, Dec. 29, 2014.
Italy
Survivors from the car ferry Norman Atlantic leave the Italian Navy San Giorgio amphibious transport ship in Brindisi harbor after Norman Atlantic caught fire in waters off Greece Dec. 30, 2014. As salvage operations continued, there was confusion over the number of passengers on the ship, with dozens of names on the passenger manifest unaccounted for and no clarity over whether they had drowned or had not actually been aboard in the first place.
Italy
Marco Fois, of Italy, performs a 18-meter dive (59 feet) into the river Tiber from the Cavour Bridge in Rome, Jan. 1, 2015, to celebrate the New Year.
Hong Kong
A health worker culls chicken at a wholesale poultry market in Hong Kong, Dec. 31, 2014.
Hong Kong began culling 15,000 chickens on Wednesday and suspended imports of live poultry from mainland China for 21 days after the H7 bird flu strain was discovered in a batch of live chickens that came from the southern province of Guangdong.
New York
Taylor Swift performs in Times Square on New Year's Eve in New York, Dec. 31, 2014.
Germany
Severin Freund from Germany soars through the air during the trial jump for the second jumping of the 63rd four-hills tournament in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, Jan. 1, 2015.
The prestigious four-hills tournament will end in Bischofshofen on January 6.