US News & World Report

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Snow accumulates on the driver's seat of a stranded Chicago Transit bus after the door was left open during a severe winter storm on Lake Shore Drive on Feb. 2, in Chicago. A winter blizzard of historic proportions wobbled an otherwise snow-tough Chicago, stranding hundreds of drivers overnight on the city's showcase lakeshore thoroughfare and giving many city schoolchildren their first ever snow day.

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Murray and Kelly James look at their destroyed house in central Christchurch, New Zealand, on Feb. 23. Christchurch was struck by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake which collapsed buildings, caused extensive damage and killed dozens of people in the city.

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A rebel fighter celebrates as his comrades fire a rocket barrage toward the positions of troops loyal to Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi on April 14, west of Ajdabiyah, Libya.

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Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, drive from Buckingham Palace in a decorated sports car on April 29, in London, England. The marriage of the second in line to the British throne was led by the Archbishop of Canterbury and attended by 1900 guests, including foreign royal family members and heads of state. Thousands of well-wishers from around the world also flocked to London to witness the spectacle and pageantry of the Royal Wedding.

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International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn appears for his arraignment in federal court on May 16, in New York City. Strauss-Kahn was arraigned and held without bail on charges of sexually attacking a maid at a Manhattan hotel.

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A demonstrator shows his hands covered with blood of a fellow demonstrator as police officers try to remove them during clashes in Barcelona on May 27. Police have clashed with protesters at a makeshift camp that is one of dozens erected in Spain to protest high unemployment and other woes.

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Lightning strikes over the Puyehue volcano 500 miles south of Santiago, Chile, on June 6.

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Riot police arrest demonstrators as they clash with police during a protest against plans for new austerity measures on June 28, in Athens, Greece.

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South Sudanese people living in Kenya sing and dance on July 9, as they wave their country's flag during independence day celebrations along the streets of Nairobi. South Sudan's parliament speaker proclaimed the fledgling state's independence, marking its birth as the world's newest nation and splitting Africa's largest country in two.

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Relatives gather to observe a moment of silence opposite Utoya Island, Norway, following the twin extremist attacks on July 25. Anders Behring Breivik has been arrested and is appearing in court as the primary suspect following a bomb blast at a government building in Oslo and a shooting massacre on nearby Utoya Island that killed a total of 92.

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Fire crews attempt to extinguish a burning 140 year old furniture store in Croydon, South London, on August 8. After several nights of sporadic outbreaks of looting and clashes, numerous buildings were set on fire as hundreds of looters plundered high street shops of their goods.

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Robert Peraza, who lost his son Robert David in the World Trade Center collapse, pauses at his son's name at the North Pool of the 9/11 Memorial during the 10th anniversary ceremonies September 11, in New York.

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A memorial for Steve Jobs is seen outside of an Apple store in Palo Alto, Calif., on Oct. 11. Jobs, the Apple founder and former CEO who invented and masterfully marketed ever-sleeker gadgets that transformed everyday technology, from the personal computer to the iPod and iPhone, died at age 56.

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An aerial view of a flooded district just outside Bangkok, Thailand on Nov. 7. Thailand experienced the worst flooding in more than 50 years, which has affected more than nine million people.

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An Occupy Los Angeles protester is arrested and carried out of the camp by police officers at the Los Angeles City Hall on Nov. 30. Police in Los Angeles and Philadelphia stormed Occupy Wall Street encampments in both cities, demanding protestors leave demonstration sites.

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Pakistani Islamists burn an effigy of President Barack Obama during a protest in Lahore on December 2 against a NATO air strike on Pakistani troops that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

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Opposition activists protest against the alleging mass fraud in the December 4 parliamentary polls in central Moscow. The poster depicts Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and reads: "No!" Up to 20,000 people gathered on a Moscow square to hold a protest contesting the victory of Vladimir Putin's ruling party in parliamentary elections.

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Zenobia Bechtol, 18, and her seven-month-old baby Cassandra play in her mother's apartment on Dec. 14 in Austin, Texas. Bechtol and her boyfriend were evicted from their apartment after he lost his job. Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans have now fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low-income.