Gallery: The best photos from around the world
14 ImagesThe best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors.
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Opera singer Marianne Cornetti, dressed as Mrs. Santa Claus, stands on the top level of a parking garage and delivers presents and a song to children at nearby UMPC Western Psychiatric Hospital in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh,USA. Cornetti, an internationally recognized opera singer and artistic director of the Pittsburgh Festival Opera, organized a toy donation for child and adolescent inpatients at the hospital. Her goal, she said, was to "bring a bit of light and Christmas spirit to the kids.Credit:AP
2/14
A Maasai man keeps watch over his cattle in the Mara North Conservancy, Kenya. Conservation efforts here have long derived funding from international visitors who go on safari and stay in high-priced lodges in the reserve. The covid-19 pandemic has dramatically reduced the number of foreign tourists, forcing hotels and lodges to close and for the Kenyan government to set aside a recovery fund for area businesses and conservation.Credit:Getty Images
3/14
Farmworkers throw rocks at police trying to remove them from the Pan-American South Highway as they protest the Agricultural Promotion Law in the Barrio Chino neighborhood of Peru's Ica province. Farmworkers are demanding better pay and protesting clauses in a law that exempts them from benefits given to other workers, including annual bonuses and paid vacation.Credit:AP
4/14
A ball bearing a ticket number falls from a giant drum at Madrid's Teatro Real opera house during Spain's bumper Christmas lottery draw known as El Gordo, or The Fat One, in Madrid, Spain.Credit:AP
5/14
Relatives touch each other's hand through a plastic film screen and a glass to avoid contracting COVID-19 at the San Raffaele center in Rome. Italians are easing into a holiday season full of restrictions, and already are barred from traveling to other regions except for valid reasons like work or health. Starting Christmas eve, travel beyond city or town borders also will be blocked.Credit:AP
6/14
A person walks in front of pi'atas that are in the process of being manufactured at Estrella family studio in Mexico City, Mexico. The traditional and decorated containers, known as pi'atas, are made of papier-mache, pottery or cloth, different figures are created by the artisans for the enjoy of the families in Mexico.Credit:Getty Images
7/14
Israeli police shoot a water cannon towards ultra-Orthodox Jewish men blocking the road during a demonstration in Jerusalem.Credit:AP
8/14
A Buddhist monk wearing a face covering to help prevent the spread of coronavirus waits for a bus along Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok. Thailand has kept the coronavirus largely in check for most of the year but is facing a challenge from a large outbreak of the virus among migrant workers in a province close to the Thai capital.Credit:AP
9/14
A member of the 'Conservative Movement' wears a face mask that reads "VaccChina No!" during a protest against mandatory cornavirus (COVID-19) vaccination at Avenida Paulista in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The governor of Sao Paulo, Joao Doria, said that after the approval by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), the vaccine against Covid-19 will be mandatory throughout the state.Credit:Getty Images
10/14
Participants take part in a ceremony at the closed Stonehenge in Amesbury, United Kingdom. English Heritage, which manages the site, said owing to the pandemic, and in the interests of public health, there will be no Winter Solstice gathering at Stonehenge this year.Credit:Getty Images
11/14
President-elect Joe Biden arrives to speak at The Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.Credit:AP
12/14
Two women wearing Santa Claus hats chat in front of the annual Christmas tree at the Brandenburg Gate during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Berlin, Germany. Germany is going into a Christmas like no other as a hard lockdown remains in place and authorities struggle to bring down stubbornly-high daily rates of Covid-19 infections and deaths.Credit:Getty Images
13/14
A police officer checks a truck driver's information as it rains in Dover, United Kingdom. Over 1500 trucks remained stacked up around Kent as drivers waited for a resumption of travel from the port of Dover to France. On Sunday, France abruptly halted freight and passenger travel from the UK over concerns about the UK's surging covid-19 cases and a new variant of the virus.Credit:Getty Images
14/14
Linebacker Lawson Hall #30 of the University of Nevada Wolf Pack attempts to intercept a tipped pass during first half action against the University of Tulane Green Wave at the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl at Albertsons Stadium in Boise, Idaho., USA. Credit:Getty Images