2008 in Pictures

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Storyline:

1. A policeman carries a child away during a gun battle in Tijuana, in Mexico's state of Baja California, January 17, 2008. A shootout, after police agents moved in on a drug cartel group, left four people injured and forced the emergency evacuation of a school in Tijuana.

2. A Palestinian waving a flag near a destroyed section of the wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on January 29, 2008. Egypt had said that it would prefer that the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, take control of the breached border.

3.?Twenty-four firefighters battle a blaze at the Namdaemun gate, one of South Korea's most historic sites, in central Seoul, February 11, 2008. An arsonist started the fire, destroying the gate - the oldest wooden structure in Seoul, first constructed in 1398 and rebuilt in 1447.

4. Kosovo declares its independence on February 17, 2008, becoming the seventh country to emerge from the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia.

5. A US Marine, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, has a close call after Taliban fighters opened fire near Garmser in Helmand Province of Afghanistan May 18, 2008. The Marine was not injured.

6. Tear gas cannisters fired by Israeli soldiers fall from the sky on Palestinian and Israeli peace activists during a protest agaisnt the construction of Israel's controversial security barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah, June 6, 2008.

7. A Georgian man crys as he held the body of his relative after a bombing near?South Ossetia on August 9, 2008. Russia sent troops rolling into the region after Georgian troops had entered the capital of South Ossetia.

8. Pervez Musharraf, who stepped down as President of Pakistan, saluted as he left his home in Islamabad on August 18, 2008.

9. Lehman Brothers, America's fourth largest investment bank, files for bankruptcy protection as Wall Street goes into melt down September 15, 2008.

10. Barack Obama took the stage with his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Sasha and Malia, at a victory rally in Chicago on November 4, 2008. Barack Hussein Obama was elected as the 44th president of the United States.

11. Negotiators finalise deal for complete withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by 2011.

12. The Sirius Star, a 330-metre tanker, is by far the largest ship to?have been hijacked by pirates off Somalia waters so far,?November 15, 2008.

13. An Iraqi journalist in Prime Minister Nouri-al Maliki's palace threw two shoes at US President Bush during a joint press conference with Maliki in December.

14. An Indian soldier taking cover as the Taj Mahal hotel burned and gun battles erupted between Indian soldiers and militants inside the hotel in Mumbai on November 29, 2008. The 60-hour rampage through the country's financial capital revealed India's inability to respond adequately to such attacks and pushed tensions between India and Pakistan, where the gunmen are said to have been trained, to their highest level in years.

15. On December 9,?hundreds of Greek rioters took to the streets to protest the killing of a teenager by police. The unrest gripping Greece spilled over into the rest of Europe, raising concerns that the clashes could be a trigger for opponents of globalization, disaffected youth and others outraged by the continent's economic turmoil and soaring unemployment.

16. Israeli airstrikes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip starting from December 27 killed more?than 300 Palestinian.

17. Swiss pilot Yves Rossy, the world's first man to fly with a jet-powered fixed-wing apparatus strapped to his back, flies during his first official demonstration, May 14, 2008, above Bex, Switzerland.

18.?A man and his camel walk past as the sun is blocked by the moon during a solar eclipse in Gaotai, Gansu province, August.

19. A truck driver peers through a hole in his ice-covered windshield while waiting for help on?a road in Shaoguan, south China's Guangdong province, February 2.

20. Lightning bolts appear above and around the Chaiten volcano as seen from Chana, some 30 kms (19 miles) north of the volcano, as it began its first eruption in thousands of years, in southern Chile May 2, 2008. Cases of electrical storms breaking out directly above erupting volcanoes are well documented, although scientists differ on what causes them.

21. An aerial view of floods caused by Tropical Storm Hanna is seen in Gonaives, Haiti on September 3, 2008.

22. Residents search for survivors in a school that collapsed on the outskirts of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince on November 7.

23. Firefighters battle flames next to the remains of a military jet that crashed into homes in San Diego, California.

24. Fish remain stuck in a fence on September 15 as flood waters caused by Hurricane Ike recede, in West Orange, Texas.

25. Flames from a wreckage of a passenger plane are seen after crash in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo on April 15, 2008. Some 40 people were killed. Most of them were on the ground in the marketplace where the plane crashed.

26. The hand of a dead body lies on the ground amongst the rubble of?an earthquake ravaged town May 12, 2008 in Beichuan County, Sichuan province, China.

27. Buildings and debris are seen floating in the Cedar River against a railroad bridge, June 14, 2008, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Days after it rose out of its banks on its way to record flooding in Cedar Rapids, the Cedar River has forced at least 24,000 people from their homes.

28.?Staff members from the local quality-supervision bureau emptying milk powder packets at a garbage dump site in Shenzhen on September 19, 2008.

29. Fireworks light up the night sky during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, held at the National Stadium in Beijing, China.

30.?America swimmer Michael Phelps won a record eight golds at the Beijing Olympics.

31. Usain Bolt let those long legs loose at the Bird's Nest, and he left Beijing with three Olympic gold medals, three world records and hundreds of millions of new fans around the world.

32. The Long-March II-F carrier rocket carrying the Shenzhou-VII spaceship blasts off from the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province, on 21:10 pm, September 25, 2008.