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Lunar New Year 2012: Year of the Dragon

Two weeks of celebrations are under way as communities around the world mark the arrival of Chinese/Lunar New Year. The 15-day event, which runs until February 6, marks the onset of the Year of the Dragon.

23 January 2012 / All photos: © ANP

The Australian Open 2012

The 100th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam Tennis event of the year. “The Aussie Open” or “The Grand Slam of Asia/Pacific” as the Australian Open is also known, is held at Melbourne Park in Richmond on True Blue Plexicushion Prestige medium-paced hard courts.

19 January 2012 / All photos: © ANP

Costa Concordia cruise disaster

The cruise ship 'Costa Concordia' ran aground and keeled over off the Isola del Giglio after hitting underwater rocks on January 13. The owner of the luxury liner that ran aground off the coast of Italy, killing at least six people, said its captain had made "errors of judgment" as the search continued for the missing. The ship was on a cruise in the Mediterranean, leaving from Savona with planned stops in Civitavecchia, Palermo, Cagliari, Palma, Barcelona and Marseille," the company said.

16 January 2012 / All photos: © ANP

Body Worlds & The Story of the Heart

Body Worlds is a traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts that are prepared using a technique called plastination to reveal inner anatomical structures. The exhibition's developer and promoter is German anatomist Gunther von Hagens, who invented the plastination technique in the late 1970s at the University of Heidelberg.

12 January 2012 / All photos: © ANP

The Dakar 2012

The 2012 Dakar kicked off in Argentina's coastal dunes. The rally, open to amateur and professional drivers, covers over 3,000 miles off road in Argentina, Chile and this year, for the first time, Peru.

10 January 2012 / All photos: © ANP

Bye bye 2011.

Over one and a half million Sydneysiders were expected to line harbour vantage points to watch the spectacular pyrotechnic display ushering in 2012.

31 December 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Kuipers and crew blasted into space

Russia's Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft with three astronauts on board blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, according to Russia's Federal Space Agency Roscosmos.
The new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) consists of Oleg Kononenko from Russia, Andre Kuipers from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Donald Pettit from NASA.

20 December 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Wild weather grounds ship on French coast

High winds have beached a cargo ship on France's jagged Atlantic coast and some of the 220 tons of fuel on board are leaking and threatening a local beach.
The 19-member crew of the "TK Bremen" was evacuated by helicopter early Friday as the vessel ran aground off Erdeven beach in southern Brittany, on the northwest coat of France.

16 December 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Rampage in the Belgian city of Liege

A gunman shot dead three people at a busy central square during a Christmas market in the Belgian city of Liege and then killed himself.

13 December 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Occubye Amsterdam.

After failing to reduce the occupy-camp with 75 percent before 10 AM Thursday-morning, The Dutch mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan ordered for the police to come and clean up the 'camp'. Amsterdam, 8 november 2011.

08 December 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Madness on Black Friday 2011

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States. On this day, most major retailers open extremely early, often at 4 a.m., or earlier, and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season.

26 November 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Three killed in 52-vehicle pile-up on A31

Wrecked vehicles piled into each other on Autobahn A31 after a multiple collision caused by thick fog near Heek, northern Germany, 19 November 2011. Three people lost their lives and 35 others were injured, some seriously. A total of 52 vehicles were involved in the accident.

19 November 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2011

Models walks the runway during the 2011 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at the Lexington Avenue Armory in New York City.

11 November 2011 / All photos: © ANP

World's Weirdest Sports

A range of unusual or just plain different sports from around the world.

04 November 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Spaceport America

Spaceport America, the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport in southern New Mexico, where the Spaceport America Terminal Hangar Facility will serve as the operating hub for Virgin Galactic and is expected to house two WhiteKnightTwos and five SpaceShipTwos, in addition to all of Virgin's astronaut preparation facilities and mission control. Spaceport America has a 10,000-foot (3,000 m) long runway.

02 November 2011 / All photos: © ANP & Spaceport America

Fashion week in Beijing

The 10-day fashion extravaganza will highlight some 44 fashion shows and six contests hosting over 200 designers.

27 October 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Libya celebrates Gaddafi's killing

Tens of thousands of people poured on to the streets in towns and cities across Libya yesterday to celebrate the death of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who was captured and killed by revolutionary fighters in the last major bastion of resistance two months after his regime fell.

20 October 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Fatal Indycar crash

Dan Wheldon, the 2011 Indianapolis 500 winner and one of the most popular drivers in open-wheel racing, died Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a horrific multi-car crash on Lap 11 of the IndyCar Series season finale.

Officials decided to call the race, but the drivers, many sobbing openly, did a five-lap tribute to Wheldon.

17 October 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Modest Celebration In Grozny

The Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, has held a star-studded party in his capital Grozny - but denied it was anything to do with his 35th birthday.
Oscar-winning actor Hilary Swank and action star Jean-Claude van Damme have been criticised for attending the lavish party. Kadyrov is linked to a grim record of abuse. When stars get paid to turn up to party with him, it trivializes the suffering of countless victims of human rights abuses.

12 October 2011 / All photos: © ANP

World Rally Championship 2011

The World Rally Championship (WRC) is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13 three-day events driven on surfaces ranging from gravel and tarmac to snow and ice.

01 October 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Operation Falcon Autumn

The Dutch army is in the middle of Operation Falcon Autumn. Nothing serious, only the biggest military training operation in fifteen years. So far, the army liberated the TT Circuit in Assen from no one in particular. The operation will last all through the weekend, with simulations all over the Netherlands.

29 September 2011 / All photos: © ANP & Ijszenga Fotografie

Pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the Space shuttle Discovery during STS-31 on April 25, 1990. Since then, there have been 5 servicing missions that continued to upgrade the telescope's scientific instruments and operational systems. Hubble reached a major milestone, its 20th anniversary in orbit, on April 24, 2010.
Hubble imagery has both delighted and amazed people around the world and has rewritten astronomy textbooks with its discoveries.

21 September 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Putin, Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin, the 58-year-old former president and current prime minister of Russia, has cultivated a distinct public image over the past several years. The politician has piloted firefighting planes, darted whales, driven race cars, and even taken a submersible 1,400 meters (4,600 ft) below the surface of Lake Baikal.

15 September 2011 / All photos: © ANP

Miss Universe 2011

The contestants will spend the next 2 weeks appearing at events and preparing to compete in the 2011 Miss Universe Competition on 12 September 2011 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

06 September 2011 / All photos: © ANP

PARTY! Eid ul-Fitr to celebrate the end of Ramadan.

It's the beginning of a three-day festival, which begins after the sighting of a new crescent moon. It marks the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, during which devout Muslims abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex from dawn to dusk.

01 September 2011 / All photos: © ANP

US east coast girds for Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene began lashing the North Carolina shore on Saturday, foreshadowing with brutal authority what is to come as this vast storm, its most forceful winds stretching outward for 90 miles, churned north toward New York.

28 August 2011 / All photos: © ANP