The Year in Pictures

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Riot police fire tear gas to disperse the crowd during a demonstration near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey. Istanbul has seen protests rage on for days, with two protesters and one police officer killed.

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Andy Murray of Great Britain kisses the Gentlemen's Singles Trophy following his victory in the Gentlemen's Singles Final match against Novak Djokovic of Serbia on day thirteen of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London, England.

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Lightning strikes the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) in downtown in Chicago, Illinois. A massive storm system with heavy rain, high winds, hail and possible tornadoes is expected to move into Illinois and much of the central part of the Midwest today.

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Leaders (L-R) President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta and European Council President Herman Van Rumpuy, stand for the family group shot at the G8 venue of Lough Erne .

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Students prepare to sleep on mats laid out on the floor inside a gymnasium at Huazhong Normal University in Wuhan, Hubei province of China. About 600 students slept inside the gymnasium to keep cool in Wuhan which reached 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday. The university turned on the air conditioner in the gymnasium and provided more than 450 mats for the students.

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Recording artists Jay-Z and Beyonce arrive at the presidential inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. Barack Obama was re-elected for a second term as President of the United States.

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U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama sing together as they dance during the Inaugural Ball at the Walter Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. Obama was sworn-in for his second term of office earlier in the day.

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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Lawmakers questioned Clinton about the security failures during the September 11 attacks against the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, that led to the death of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

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A truck is covered in ice as firefighters help to extinguish a massive blaze at a vacant warehouse in Chicago, Illinois. More than 200 firefighters battled a five-alarm fire as temperatures were in the single digits.

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This combination of photos shows (bottom) the Tiananmen Square during severe pollution on January 23, 2013, and the same view (top) taken during clear weather on January 24, 2013 in Beijing, China. The air quality in Beijing on Wednesday hit serious levels again, as smog blanketed the city.