It was a turbulent 12 months, from conflicts across the Middle East to America’s toll from an epic hurricane and heartbreaking gun violence. A look at the photos that captured 2012.
The cruise liner Costa Concordia, aground near Italy's Isola del Giglio on Jan. 23, after hitting rocks underwater on Jan. 13.
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney visits a Romney for President Headquarters on Jan. 21 in Greenville, S.C.
Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and his wife, Callista, hold a campaign rally at The Villages, a retirement community in Florida's Sumter County on Jan. 29, 2012.
Charles Ommanney for Newsweek
A child stands with his father as they wait to receive blankets and winter jackets from Welthungerhilfe, a German NGO, during a snowfall at a camp for internally displaced Afghans in Kabul on Feb. 20.
Musadeq Sadeq/AP
Mirrors for sale outside a Pakistani accessory shop for cars in Rawalpindi, on Feb. 22.
Ethiopian soldiers on deployment in Baidoa, Somalia. At the end of February, a large-scale Ethiopian military offensive wrested the city from Al Shabaab, a radical Islamic militia with ties to al Qaeda. Baidoa had been Al Shabab's stronghold since 2009, when it drove out forces of the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government. Ethiopia's push against Al Shabaab in Baidoa coincides with a Kenyan offensive against the group in southern Somalia as well as increased pressure from the African Union Mission in Somalia.
Tibetan exile Jamphel Yeshi screams as he runs engulfed in flames, after setting himself on fire at a protest in New Delhi on March 26. Yeshi died two days later. In the past two years, about 50 Tibetan dissidents have set themselves on fire. Only nine have survived.
Manish Swarup/AP
Israeli border police use pepper spray to help detain an injured Palestinian protester during clashes on Land Day, after Friday prayers outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City on March 30.
A young man stands on a street corner next to posters of presidential candidates in Cairo.
Egyptian riot police eat ice cream while securing the courthouse where former President Hosni Mubarak received a verdict in his trial for charges related to the death of protesters in Cairo, on May 2.
Located near the Gabriel Tucker Bridge, at the entrance of Monrovia city center, the True Wig Party's building was at the center of the fighting during Liberia's civil war. Today, the building is abandonned.
Michael Zumstein / Agence VU for Newsweek
Paul Issa, 33 years old, Monrovia, Liberia. May 7, 2012.
Anti-NATO demonstrations in Chicago May 2012.
Jon Lowenstein/NOOR
A man shouts for water as a shanty town is engulfed in flames in New Delhi on June 22. The fire swept through the neighborhood, destroying hundreds of shelters where residents had collected scrap plastic and rubber for resale. No one was reported injured or killed, fire officials said.
Kevin Frayer/AP
Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak sits inside a cage in a courtroom in Cairo on June 2. A judge sentenced Mubarak to life in prison after convicting him of involvement in the murder of protesters during the uprising that ousted him last year.
Brides speak to their grooms during a mass wedding ceremony in Amman on July 6. An Islamic charity organized the event for 46 Jordanian and Syrian couples who were unable to afford expensive celebrations.
Ali Jarekji/Reuters, via Landov
A self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity rover was taken by its navigation cameras on its upright mast. The camera can snap pictures for 360-degrees around the rover.
NASA/AP
Dust rises from a home destroyed by a bomb dropped from a Syrian fighter jet that was targeting the neighboring Free Syrian Army command center in Aleppo on Aug. 6. Eleven civilians from two families died, including at least four children.
Adam Dean/Panos Pictures
A Free Syrian Army fighter fires his sniper rifle from a house in Aleppo on Aug. 14.
Syrians watch the impact of an airstrike in a residential part of the Shaar neighborhood in Aleppo, on Aug. 23. The attack happened early in the morning with no visible non-civilian target.
Daniel Etter/Redux
Spain's Xabi Torres jumps next to his prosthesis as he leaves the swimming pool after training ahead of the competition at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London on Aug. 31.
A policeman chases a supporter of the female punk band Pussy Riot onto a fence enclosing the Turkish embassy near a court building in Moscow, on Aug. 17.
A group of riot policemen is engulfed in flames after protesters threw petrol bombs in Athens' Syntagma Square during a 24-hour labor strike Sept. 26.
Yannis Behrakis/Reuters, via Landov
President Barack Obama is picked up and lifted off the ground by Scott Van Duzer, owner of Big Apple Pizza and Pasta Italian Restaurant, during an unannounced stop in Ft. Pierce, Fla., on Sept. 9.
The U.S. consulate in Benghazi in flames. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed, along with three other Americans, in the assault on the compound on the 11th anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
Esam Al-Fetori/Reuters, via Landov
U.S. Marines circle a casket at Andrews Air Force Base during the transfer of remains ceremony for four Americans killed in an attack in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 14.
Spectators gather to watch the space shuttle Endeavour make its way down Manchester Boulevard in Los Angeles on Oct. 12. Endeavour's 12-mile road trip kicked off as it moved from its Los Angeles International Airport hangar en route to the California Science Center, its ultimate destination.
Relatives comfort a wounded woman at the site of an explosion in Beirut, on Oct. 19. A car bomb exploded in a central city street during rush hour, killing at least two people and wounding 46.
Reuters, via Landov
Areas of New York City remained without power days after Hurricane Sandy made landfall on the evening of Oct. 29, creating an eerie atmosphere in lower Manhattan.
Ben Baker / Redux
A waterfront home destroyed by Hurricane Sandy's surge in Union Beach, N.J., on Nov. 16. The hurrricane caused billions of dollars of damage.
The roller coaster in Seaside Heights, N.J., used to be on the boardwalk. After Hurricane Sandy, it's now in the Atlantic Ocean.
Julie Dermansky/Corbis
Damage caused by a fire in the Breezy Point section of Queens. New York's fire department sent more than 190 firefighters to the blaze that was caused by Hurricane Sandy.
Protesters gather at Tahrir Square during a demonstration against President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo, on Nov. 30.
Amru Salahuddien/Xinhu, via Redux
Thousands took to the streets in Cairo, and across Egypt, on Nov. 27 to protest a decision by President Mohamed Morsi to grant himself sweeping powers over the nation.
Jihad Masharawi weeps while he holds the body of his 11-month-old son, Ahmad, at Shifa Hospital following an Israeli airstrike on their family house, in Gaza City on Nov. 14. The Israeli military said its assassination of the Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari marked the beginning of an operation against Gaza militants.
Palestinians celebrated after a cease-fire was announced, bringing an end to eight days of violence in the Gaza Strip.
Annibale Greco/Corbis
Famillies meet at dusk on the beach of the Red Sea in Hodeidah City, Yemen, in November.
Abbie Trayler-Smith/Panos
Carlee Soto, the sister of slain Newtown massacre hero Vicki Soto, waits to hear whether or not her sister is among the survivors at Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Connecticut, on Dec. 14.
Municipal workers rallied against layoffs demanded by Greece's international lenders, in front of the parliament in Athens on Dec. 12.
Yorgos Karahalis/Reuters, via Landov
Congolese citizens flooded this displaced-persons camp after fighting broke out recently between the rebel M23 militia and the FARDC, the country’s military.
Michael Christopher Brown
