Space Shuttle Endeavour rolls to launch pad 39-a at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Endeavour is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station in early February.
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Children sledge down a hill in Bramhall Park in Bramhall, Cheshire in the United Kingdom.
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Snow covers the fields around the village of Great Budworth in Northwich, United Kingdom. The Christmas period has been the coldest for 25 years with temperatures as low as -17C being recorded in the area.
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Five-year-old Florrie-Anne Forster plays football in the snow on the Begwyns Hills in Hay-On-Wye, United Kingdom.
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Workers remove passengers’ luggage from the scene of an Amtrak passenger train derailment in Higginson, about 45 miles northeast of Little Rock, Ark.
AP
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A passenger trudges through the snow toward the terminal of the international airport in Brno, roughly 180 km east of Prague.
AP
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France’s Jean Claude Mazet falls off his KTM bike during the second stage of the Argentina-Chile 2010 Dakar rally between Cordoba and La Rioja in Argentina.
AP
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Religious statues, some damaged by floods, are seen in the city of Sao Luis do Paraitinga in Brazil. Flooding caused by heavy rains damaged a church and dozens of houses that dated back to the 18th and 19th centuries.
AP
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Staff members are seen demonstrating a new, full-body security scanner at Manchester Airport in England. Airline passengers bound for the United States faced a hodgepodge of security measures across Europe and airports did not appear to be following a U.S. request for increased screening of passengers from 14 countries.
AP
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This image provided by NASA shows snow covering the entire island of Great Britain on Thursday. Britain is experiencing its longest cold snap since 1981, and forecasters say the Arctic weather system will remain through next week.
AP
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Bulgarians sing and dance as a boy holds the holy cross in the river of Tundzha, as they celebrate Epiphany day in the town of Kalofer. The Eastern Orthodox priests throw a cross in the river and the men take it out. It is believed that those who dance in the river will be healthy throughout the year.
AP
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A couple uses an umbrella to shield themselves from falling snow while walking in Beijing.
AP
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73-year-old man Xiao Ying stands on his head before plunging into icy water in Harbin in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province.
AP
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Indian Paramilitary soldiers practice in dense fog near the India Gate monument ahead of the Republic Day parade in New Delhi, India.
AP
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A man works in a snowy vineyard in Stuttgart, Germany. The weather forecast predicts heavy snowfall for southern Germany in the upcoming days.
AP
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Young Indian street performer Mehdi, 9, performs with a rabbit outside the Mahabodhi Buddhist temple where Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama has been teaching in Bodh Gaya, south of Patna, India.
AP
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People skate on frozen canals in Kinderdijk’s Mill Area near Rotterdam, Netherlands.
AP
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Fog rolls over a frozen lake as the sun sets in Hamar, Norway.
AP
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A bus is encrusted in ice and snow in the back lot of a bowling alley in the Omaha, Neb., suburb of Elkhorn. A winter storm with bitter cold temperatures and blowing winds is moving through the region.
AP
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A Bosnian man walks through flooded water near Sarajevo. Heavy rain and melting snow from mountains caused flooding of the river Bosnia in a suburban part of Sarajevo leaving more than 30 houses flooded.
AP
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The remains of a bridge over the Jacui River in the RSC-287 road, next to the city of Agudo, are seen during flooding in southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. Thirty people have fallen into the river and at least 76 people have died in flooding and mudslides in Brazil’s three largest states.
REUTERS
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A woman jogs past snow-covered beach huts in Brighton in southern England.
REUTERS
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Fallen snow rests on Stonehenge in Salisbury, England.
REUTERS
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Bulgarian men perform the traditional Bulgarian “Horo” dance in the icy waters of the river Tundzha in the town of Kalofer, some 200 kms east of the capital Sofia, during Bulgaria’s Epiphany Day celebrations.
AFP/Getty Images
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Rescuers search for survivors in debris of a collapsed overpass at the new Kunming Airport in Kunming city, southwest China’s Yunnan Province. An unfinished overpass of the under-construction Kunming Airport collapsed killing seven people and injuring 34 more.
EPA
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A swimmer shivers next to the icy waters of the Songgua River in Harbin, Heilongjiang province in China.
REUTERS
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A young ballerina smiles at her reflection as she runs during class at a sports center in Shanghai.
REUTERS
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A young Chinese girl walks off a boat as the annual dry winter season caused the water level along the Yangtze river to fall, preventing fishermen from going out in their boats, in Wanxian, southwest China’s Chongqing municipality.
AFP/Getty Images
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People walk in front of the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest tower, in Dubai. Started at the height of the economic boom and built by some 12,000 workers, the world’s tallest building will open on Monday in Dubai as the glitzy emirate seeks to rekindle optimism after its financial crisis.
REUTERS
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Emergency services work at the scene after a train crashed into a hotel inside the main railway station in Helsinki, Finland.
AP
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An aircraft belonging to German airline Air Berlin is seen after coming off the runway at the airport in Dortmund, western Germany.
AP
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Children row a boat through the Brahmaputra River amid dense fog in Gauhati, India. Dozens of people have died in a cold wave sweeping through northern India.
AP
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People walk on the frozen Lake Reschen reservoir beside the former church tower of the Village of Graun in South Tyrol in Northern Italy. The village was destroyed and the valley flooded in 1950, due to damming up the Etsch river to produce electricity.
REUTERS
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Lee Kwan-hee, 8, takes part in a winter military camp with other students in Ansan, South Korea, during snowy weather. The camp, ranging from three to 14 days, is conducted for civilians by retired Korean marines corps. About 300 students from primary- to university-level schools will participate in the camp until the middle of January to strengthen their mental and physical endurance.
REUTERS
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Members of the special warfare command take part in an annual severe winter season drill in Pyeongchang, east of Seoul. The special forces carry out the training course every year to improve their combat abilities in cold weather against possible attacks from North Korea.
REUTERS
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A Filipino pupil from a family evacuated from the danger zone of the restive Mayon Volcano run to get to school during a rain shower in Legazpi city, Albay province.
EPA
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Battersea power station is seen reflected in water in west London. As debt-laden developers face the ruins of recent extravagance, the power station — Europe’s largest brick building — is a decrepit symbol of the past profligacy and present pain in Britain’s real estate market.
REUTERS
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Visitors admire ice sculptures at the Poklonnaya Gora war memorial park during the Art Ice Sculpture Festival in Moscow.
EPA
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Kayakers paddle on the Unica River in Rakov Skocjan, Slovenia.
REUTERS
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The above photo shows the flooded spa of Marmolejo near Jaen, southwestern Spain. Heavy rain and snowfall forced the closure of about 30 roads in Spain, mainly in the country’s southwest, where fields and homes have been flooded in recent days.
AFP/Getty Images
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The Sea Shepherd’s ship Ady Gil (L-front), a wave-piercing boat formerly known as “Earthrace,” is rammed by Japanese whaling vessel Shonan Maru No. 2 (R) in Antarctic waters. The space-age powerboat sent to harass Japanese whalers was rammed and sliced in two in its very first clash, activists said, dramatically escalating hostilities in icy Antarctic seas. All six crew members on the Ady Gil trimaran, which holds the round-the-world record, were rescued unharmed, the Sea Shepherd animal rights group said in a statement.
AFP/Getty Images
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Brazil’s “Bale de Rua” make their Australian debut by performing as part of the Sydney Festival in front of the Sydney Opera House. The “Bale de Rua” (Street Ballet) show traces the country’s history from its African roots to contemporary Brazil through a mix of African dance, hip-hop, samba and capoeira.
AFP/Getty Images
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Lava flow out of Le Dolomieu crater of The Piton de la Fournaise volcano, one of the world’s most active volcanoes. The volcano is located in the French Indian Island of La Reunion.
AFP/Getty Images
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Young Buddhist monks attend the second day teaching session of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at Kalachakra Ground near the historical Mahabodhi Temple premises where Lord Buddha attained enlightenment in Bodhgaya, Bihar state.
AFP/Getty Images
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Ice sculptures are displayed at the annual Ice and Snow festival in Harbin, northeast China’s Heilongjiang province. Fairy tale palaces, towering pagodas, and even an Egyptian Sphynx — all carved from ice — are among the sights at this year’s Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, as the annual event, now in its 26th year, attracts crowds from across China.
AFP/Getty Images
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Children wait to get off of a school bus to take in the Three Kings’ Day Parade in East Harlem, New York. The Three Kings’ Day Parade is an annual celebration in New York City that commemorates the most festive day of the winter season in Latin American culture.
AFP/Getty Images
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A member of the Croatian Police bomb squad checks a car full of liquid explosives in front of the German embassy in the centre of the capital Zagreb.
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An Indian cyclist rides past the presidential palace on a foggy morning in New Delhi.
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Pakistani women work outside their homes on the outskirts of Islamabad. Human rights groups say Pakistani women suffer severe discrimination, domestic violence and “honor” killings and are increasingly isolated by spreading Islamist fundamentalism.
AFP/Getty Images
