2006 in Review

Israeli soldiers stand behind a mobile artillery piece firing from the Zaura area across the Lebanese frontier July 13, 2006. Gil Cohen Magen



A Congolese soldier rests in a cemetery near the office of Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba in Kinshasa November 12, 2006. Goran Tomasevic



Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (front row C) sits with commanders from the Basij Militia in Tehran May 7, 2006. Stringer



A would-be immigrant crawls after his arrival on a makeshift boat on the Gran Tarajal beach in Spain's Canary Island, May 5, 2006. The scene on Gran Tarajal beach was a stark, unforgiving reminder of the desperation that drives people to leave their homes and loved ones and cross dangerous seas for unknown shores. Nearly 10,000 illegal immigrants from Africa have arrived this year in the Canary Islands -- a palm-fringed sunseekers' haven and outpost of Europe off Africa's coast. That's already twice as many as last year. Around 1,000 have died on the way. Picture taken May 5, 2006. To match feature IMMIGRATION SPAIN CANARIES REUTERS/Juan Medina



Cuban President Fidel Castro addresses the audience during an event with his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez on Havana's Revolution Square February 3, 2006. Chavez arrived in Cuba on Friday for a 24-hour visit to accept an international award from UNESCO and open the Havana international book fair honoring Venezuela. Picture taken February 3, 2006 REUTERS/Stringer



A Maasai man passes near a zebra carcass near Isinya in Kenya, March 7, 2006. Hundreds of people and tens of thousands of livestock have died from hunger and thirst across a vast region in east Africa, encompassing some of Africa's poorest and most arid zones. REUTERS/Radu Sigheti



A man throws a trash bag holder as cars burn at the end of a student demonstration in Paris March 23, 2006. Rampaging French youths set fire to cars and looted shops in Paris on Thursday, marring protests against a youth jobs law, also known as the CPE, that Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, in a conciliatory move, agreed to discuss with unions. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier



A worker at a printing house prepares a photo of former Kosovo president Ibrahim Rugova for the front page of a special edition of a daily publication being printed in tribute to him in Pristina January 22, 2006. Kosovo Albanians began the search on Sunday for a new president to lead the disputed Serbian province into independence negotiations after Rugova died aged 61, leaving no clear successor. PICTURES OF THE MONTH JANUARY 2006 REUTERS/Hazir Reka



A burning Danish flag held by a Palestinian a in front of the Church of Nativity in the West Bank city of Bethlehem February 6, 2006. Fresh protests erupted across Asia and the Middle East over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad on Monday, despite calls by world leaders for calm after Danish diplomatic missions were set ablaze in Lebanon and Syria. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj




A dead swan is recovered from the river Mur at a hydroelectric power plant in Mellach in Austria's southern province of Styria February 15, 2006. Two swans found dead on this very spot on February 12 were infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, an official at the government Agency for Health and Food Safety said. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader


Andriy Zubenko, an eleven-year-old Ukrainian boy suffering from cancer, wears a mask in a children's hospital in Kiev April 4, 2006. Ukraine prepares to mark the 20th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear disaster, when the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl plant exploded, spreading a radioactive cloud across Europe and the Soviet Union. Thousands of people died from the effects of the radiation and millions more in the region and across Europe have suffered health problems, many of them children. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj



Nepali riot policemen beat pro-democracy activists after they were fired upon with tear gas for defying a curfew in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, April 22, 2006. Riot police clubbed and threw tear gas at tens of thousands of protesters as they shouted anti-monarch slogans while attempting to march towards the royal palace in protest of King Gyanendra. REUTERS/Adrees Latif



A Chilean student is detained by riot police during a protest in Santiago May 10, 2006. Hundreds of students took to the streets to protest against the fare of their annual bus passes. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado



U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair leave the East Room of the White House after speaking to reporters about Iraq in Washington May 25, 2006. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday it was the duty of the entire international community, as well as Britain and the United States, to support the new Iraqi government. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque



U.S. President George W. Bush hands back a crying baby that was handed to him from the crowd as he arrived for an outdoor dinner with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Trinwillershagen, Germany, July 13, 2006. REUTERS/Jim Bourg (GERMANY)




Nuns talk to Spanish assistant bullfighters before the start of a bullfight at Pamplona's bullring on the last day of the San Fermin festival July 14, 2006. REUTERS/Susana Vera (SPAIN)



A Greek soldier stands guard as Greek nationals board the Greek frigate Psara? during a massive evacuation operation in Beirut port July 18, 2006. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis (LEBANON)



Women dressed in ethnic costumes perform in an outdoor production called Impression Lijiang, held on a manmade stage on the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, 3,100m (10,170 feet) above sea level, near Lijiang city in southwestern China's Yunnan province July 23, 2006. About 500 amateur performers from 10 ethnic minority groups took part in the $31-million production by acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou. REUTERS/Jason Lee (CHINA)




Lebanese displaced by the conflict between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah cross a damaged bridge by bus on their way to south Lebanon August 15, 2006. Thousands of Lebanese refugees headed home to south Lebanon on Tuesday as a U.N. truce between Israel and Hizbollah held on into a second day and planning got under way for a beefed up U.N. force to deploy in the area. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir (LEBANON)



The 'Tribute in Lights' shines on the skyline of lower Manhattan in New York, September 11, 2006, as the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center is observed. REUTERS/Gary Hershorn (UNITED STATES)



An unexploded grenade lies next to the body of a suspected militant during a shootout in Srinagar October 5, 2006. Police on Thursday shot dead two Islamic militants holed up in a hotel in the heart of Kashmir's main city after a 20-hour gunbattle, police and witnesses said. REUTERS/Danish Ismail (INDIAN-ADMINISTERED KASHMIR)



A North Korean soldier guards an army installation on the banks of the Yalu River at the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite the Chinese border city of Dandong, October 10, 2006. With world leaders roundly condemning North Korea's announcement it had carried out a nuclear test, U.N. Security Council members weighed an arms embargo and financial sanctions on Pyongyang. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause (NORTH KOREA)



Palestinians climb up a ladder placed on the controversial Israeli barrier, as they try to bypass the Aram checkpoint, on the edge of Jerusalem, October 20, 2006. REUTERS/Eliana Aponte (JERUSALEM)


(Courtsey Reuters)